Christina Crawford: Hi! I am Christina Crawford and I have been stamping for ten years, and what I love about it when I first started, was that I found that I can make a card faster than it took for me to get my children in the mini-van, and go to a store, and then to even leave that store without spending over $30 would be a miracle.

When I found out that I can make a card in a short amount of time, and it costs me so much less, I was hooked, and I thought, Wow! I am just so creative, and I was a math person first so, I am the poster trial that if I can do this, you can do this too. A lot of my inspiration comes from books, idea books and other stampers. The cards I receive in the mail, I love them so much, I need a card, I am pretty much going to start there, and take a look at that. So, you dont have to be an original artist, you can copy. So, recently I received this card and I am going to demonstrate it, because I love it so much and I think I am going to make a bunch of them for the Spring time. The colors are just so vibrant. There is two ways that you can start of by making a card, using an eight-and-a-half by eleven piece of paper, but you need more than that, so, heres a list of the supplies for this project.

Card stock and designer paper is great, stamps, inkpads, and this time we are going to be using brush markers, some ribbons, glitter and glue, a sponge, a paper cutter, tape, and as an option, if you want to, we have dimensional, that will just pop up the card a little bit, even though glue dries, and it lays it down flat, the dimensionals just give it a little pop.

So, to start the card you do come out with, you do start out with an eight-and-a-half by eleven piece of card stock, and you can cut it in half, five-and-a-half inches, so I have my paper cutter open, and there's an adjustable arm, let's open, and I am going to slide that right down, and separate and the card stock will make two cards. You are going to fold these in half and use them. The other way of cutting your card stock, is lengthwise, and halfway, is four and a quarter, and I am going to use my paper cutter again, which is this orange blade and just slide that right down. This folded in half, will make the same size card, it will just open a little differently, it will open up and down, or you can have it open sideways. The card that we are going to be using today is going to be more traditional. Because card stock is about 80 pounds and its a little hard to fold without using a bone folder, you do want to use something like a bone folder to give you a good crease, so, it doesnt chunk up on the edges.

So, I am going to use a bone folder and just take that down, and slide it to fold my card stock. Again, you can make two pieces out of one sheet of card stock, so, you might as well just take that and fold that other one. I find that if I stamp, I am going to make more than one card, even if I just need one card, I can put the others away for another time. When I need a card, I'll just rip, take it right out, and write inside of it, and stick in the mail-box and I am done.