World Cardmaking Day tutorial...

It's a rainy, blustery autumn day here in the Ozarks, but inside SG, we're getting ready to make three free cards with our local customers, in celebration of World Cardmaking Day. For our online customers, here's a tutorial by Debbie Sanders for one of the cards we'll be making today.

Begin with a 5 x 10" piece of cardstock which will be folded in half to make a 5x5 card. You'll also need a 3 x 4" piece of cardstock of any color (it will be totally covered when finished). Mark a dot at 1-1/2" on the top edge (the center point) then extend that mark to both edges to form the tree shape. (You can also just cut this shape with your trimmer without drawing the lines.) Cut a 5 x 3/4" strip of striped paper. Last, cut a variety of 4 x 1/2" pieces of patterned paper, the heavier the better.

Completely cover the tree shape with your favorite adhesive.

Use scissors (or any other tool that works for you) to bend and rough up one long edge of the 1/2" strips. It the paper breaks a bit, that's fine, too. The more curves and indentations, the better the end product will look. (It isn't necessary to ink the edges -- with this technique the inking gets lost in the distressing.)

Add a 5 x 3/4" strip of striped paper about 1" from the bottom of the card. I lightly inked the edges.

Starting at the bottom, adhere one strip aligned with the bottom edge of the tree shape.

Continue adding strips, overlapping them slightly.

Cover the entire shape with strips. (Leaving the very top clear is fine with this shape, because you'll be adding an "ornament.")

Turn the tree to the reverse side.

Trim off the overhanging strips on both sides.

Lightly ink the sides of the tree. At this point, you can gently rough up the edges of the strips even more, to emphasize the distressing.

Use a scrap of paper for the tree trunk, then adhere the tree to the card.

Add a punched star to the tree (or a jewel or button). Stamp a message, or use stickers.

I used this same technique, on a larger scale, on a layout of my grandmother I made for my sketch book One on One. I started with a shape I cut with a template. This technique works well on other simple shapes like stars, hearts, and circles. It can be both tedious and time-consuming, but the end result is worth it.

To check out the One on One sketch book, with 24 sketches (and color examples) of one-page, one-photo layouts by Debbie Sanders, click here. The book is available in hardcopy and e-book form.