Card Making Basics - The Blank Card

I love to make seasonal cards.  And this year, I will be sharing them with you.  Before I do, I would like to show you how I make blank cards.  They are quite easy to make, and will save a lot of repetition and space if I tell you here and now.  I make a size called A1, which is a party invitation style.  I use this size because if you unfold an A1 card, it is exactly half the size of a 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper.  Also, blank envelopes can be purchased in groups of 100 at most stores that sell office stationery.  But, they are also easily made out of paper.  But this blog post will focus on making the cards, not the envelopes.  So here we go.

A few years ago I bought a bunch of 8.5 x 11 inch cardstock at a Hobby Lobby sale, and spent a lost weekend cutting them in half.  I left the unfolded and filled this box with the results of that weekend.  As you can see, I have barely put a dent in my store of pre-cut cards.


This is what obsession may look like.

 You can buy cheap cardstock for these card blanks at Wal-Mart, where you can get a pack of 50 sheets for $5.00.  This means 100 cards for $5.00.  They sell Colorbok cardstock.  It is a white centered cardstock.


Yes, it's cheap.  But it shows that it is cheap.

 There are two flaws I see with this cardstock.  One is the way they package it.  They hold the pieces together by adding a little extra cardstock and perforate the edges, so you can tear them out.  This leaves a jagged white edge on one side of the cardstock.  However, this can be overcome by a little ink on the edges if you want to go this way.  I bought a package just to use on this year’s cards to prove that to you.


Leaving a jagged edge on my paper isjust.. it's just wrong!

 The other flaw is their color.  White cardstock is white cardstock.  It looks like bleach.  Colors, however, seem to be washed out.  The first picture below are two different cardstocks of a dark red.  The bottom paper is Bazzill, the top is Colorbok.  In comparison, the Colorbok paper looks brown.  The second picture is black.  This time, the bottom is Colorbok and the top is Bazzill.  The Bazzill paper is much deeper.  And this picture shows a third flaw.  Even with clean hands, every time I handled the black paper, I left finger prints.  Fortunately, I know how to remove those prints.  I will tell you how in another blog.


Hmm... one of these is definitely NOT red.



Yes, they are both black.  But one can be used for forensics.

   















Okay.  Now I take a piece of paper and put it on the cutter, as below.  I cut the paper in half, which means setting it at 5.5 inches.



Make sure your edge is even against the cutter...



... and that your paper is indeed 11 inches tall...



...and you will end up with two 5.5 inch pieces

    
This gives you two pieces of paper. These are basically your card blanks.  Unfolded, of course.


This is how I store them.  You can fold them first with a bone folder if you prefer.

 This is the unfolded card.  You can also cut the paper in half the other way, which makes a taller card. For that, you cut at the 4.25 inches.


Make sure it's straight as before...



...and if your paper is indeed 8.5 inches long...



... you will have two 4.25 inch pieces...



... just like these.  Nice huh?

 Here is the differences in size.  I use the taller cards like an A-frame, with the fold at the top.  But you can use the cards in whatever direction you want to.  Most of the time, I cut my cards the first way.


They are the same size, but a fold makes ALL the difference.

 Of course, if you make cards this dark, you might want some paper on the inside that you can stamp or write on.  For this, I usually use plain white cardstock.  Basically, you use the inside of the card as a matte, and cut the “picture” (aka the white paper) to fit inside it.  Start by cutting the paper in half again, either way.

Here we go again... do I really need to tell you to keep it straight?

Then cut the paper in half the other way.  This gives you four equal pieces.

Don't be tempted to double up.  They like to slip apart, making them uneven

To make it fit within the inside of the card, cut 1/4 inch off of two perpendicular sides.  Most cutters give you a handy guide just below the cutting line.  Line your paper up at the first line below the line, that I am pointing at here.

That's not nail fungus. I got happy with glitter glue.

This makes one side 4 inches, and the other 5 1/4 inches.

I guess I show you these shots...

... for visual confirmation.  Or filler...

This size fits both my regular cut card and the A-frame cut cards.

My regular cut is like a pair of "relaxed cut" jeans.

The a-frame cut is like "boot cut" jeans.  It's all about preference really.

And that is pretty much it.  I cut a ton of these and they last me quite a while.  Halloween cards will be made with these awesome black cards this year.  And as soon as I figure out what I am going to do, I will totally share that with you.

One Hour “Pastries”–Mini Doughnuts

For those that want to know, doughnuts are not pastries.  Technically, given the way they are made, they would be closer to cakes.  That being said, doughnuts are often sold in bakeries that specialize in pastries, because they are crowd pleasers.  And America is well known for taking liberties with food categories.  The truth is, I recently purchased a new baking pan from Bed Bath & Beyond and I wanted to play with it.  It was very quick, so I thought I would share my results with you.
First off, I will show you a picture of my helper chef, D’argo, who was a little too eager to be a part of the baking process that he was banned from the kitchen while I worked.  He almost tripped me twice, with his frenetic running around.  But he was hopeful through the end of the process that he would be allowed back in.


I promise to only trip you when you are carrying bacon...

 As always, I gathered my ingredients together, to make sure I had everything.  Success!  I had enough for a double batch, assuming everything turned out right.


If you have ingredients in jars your Grandma would love, it will taste even better!

 Here is the pan that started it all.  Isn’t it cute?  On the back of the packaging is a simple recipe for cake doughnuts, made with buttermilk and a touch of sugar.  Wait… there is also a tiny recipe for a vanilla glaze for the doughnuts…


These make mini-doughnuts... or large Cheerios.



If you can't read this, I give all the amounts below.

               















Let’s make that too.  I have the ingredients.  There’s not much to a glaze other than water, a touch of flavor, and a load of sugar.  I even have food coloring.  Ooh!  And sprinkles.  Great donuts have sprinkles! <drool>


Powdered sugar... the most dangerous powder I ever deal with.

 Anyway, back to the doughnuts.  First step, preheat oven to 425.  Second step, spray the doughnut trenches with vegetable oil spray.  Then, judging by the recipe – which you should always read through before making for the first time – my third step was to melt the butter.  As it wasn’t but 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter, it took about 25 seconds in the microwave.


Delicious delicious sunshine!

 Dry ingredients first.  In a big bowl, mix 1 1/4 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg, and 1 1/2 teaspoon salt.  Mix it all up.  I just stir with whatever mixing spoon I used last.  But, I'm not that picky.


Avoid the temptation to throw this at someone.

 Add the liquid ingredients: 1/2 cup buttermilk, the melted butter, and 1 egg, lightly beaten.  Stir until moistened.  Do not over stir, because you don’t want to de-fluff the dough.  The key to a great cake donut is fluffiness.  Just ask anyone who has ever eaten a squished doughnut.  They suck.


Don't' fling this at anyone either.



Okay.  You can fling this.  Just a little though.

              










If you have a pastry bag, this dough is just thick enough to load into it, which really helps in loading the tiny doughnut trenches in the pan.  I didn’t have a clean one at hand, so I did what anyone in a hurry would do.  I loaded it into a quart-sized Ziploc bag, sealed it really good, and cut a tiny piece of one corner off.  Quick-time pastry bag.  Fill the doughnut trenches half full says the recipe.  That is easy to do with a pastry bag.  Not so easy to do with a spoon.  You can trust me on this.


They kind of look like tortellini right now.



It looks gross, but trust me, this works.
















                             
Pop the pan in the oven and bake 4-5 minutes.  The doughnuts will be done when you touch one and it springs back.  For anyone who tries this and doesn’t know what this means, if you put your finger on a doughnut and it doesn’t leave an indention… they are ready.  They will still be pale, but don’t let that bother you.  Let it cool for 5 minutes before flopping out of the pan.  Mine pretty much fell right out.  Let them cool on a wire rack.  Respray the pan and load up another dozen.




If you eat one now, you will lose a few tastebuds.  Totally worth it.

     
The recipe says it makes 2 dozen of these bad boys.  But I made a little over three dozen.  As you can tell by the picture below, they overfilled a trench every so often.

This is how Spaghettios make each individual noodle

Now, on to the glaze!  Actually, as the recipe says, it is more of an icing than a glaze.  I added just a touch of yellow liquid coloring.  As you can tell by the photo, I over did it a little.  Well, I like it anyway.  If you want to make a donut glaze to make it look more like your traditional donut... heat the glaze just a little.  This will require you to dip the donut into the glaze, turn it back over, and let it drip over something as it dries (and it will, never fear).  That sounded like a little too much work for me, so I didn't do that.


That looks almost like liquid uranium.

 I decorated the doughnuts three different ways.  First, I used another Ziploc pastry bag (snack size this time) to put a circle of glaze on each doughnut, followed by sprinkles.  Second, I used the pastry bag and swiped stripes across several doughnuts, again followed by sprinkles.  Third, I left some without icing.  My husband, Brant, doesn’t really like icing, so I knew he would eat those.  Melted chocolate would also go over great with these.  But when hasn't chocolate and doughnuts gone together?


Just like the Simpson's doughnuts.... only yellow.



Plain.. for people who can't stand the happiness of sugar.



Tiger striping... you can pretend you are fierce when you eat these!

       
Now that they were done, I needed a taste-monkey to see if they were really good or just so-so.  Brant was the victim – er, taste-monkey – last time, so I decided to try someone new.  The dogs volunteered, but since they can’t talk and will eat anything I thought to find someone else.  So I took the doughnuts to work, and asked a friend from our neighbor lab, Stephanie Brosius, to try.  I captured her immediate reaction.


Taste-monkey Stephanie approves!



We want to eat doughnuts!  (and bacon!)

            

The Becker Scrapbook So Far

Hey there.  I know what you are thinking… “Oh no!  Not another scrapbook post.  We want to bake!”  Well, that one is just one blog down the pipeline.  However, I have actually had some readers (two, which is a large percentage of my core readership) tell me that they wanted to see the blank scrapbook I was making for my niece and new nephew’s honeymoon trip through Utah.  So, I have taken pictures of the pages so far.  I love these pictures, and I am proud to show them.
This is the first page. I know it is a little… busy. But I like it. I wanted to introduce an air of excitement. The main paper set I used for this is the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Lost & Found paper stack, but I also picked through my large private collection for anything that had a camping theme.  Unfortunately I do not know exactly what the titles of these papers are, but they were most likely bought at Hobby Lobby.  I included a small just above the title with a large tag halfway inside it for journaling.

Now the pictures are a little more laid back.  This one features stickers, both bought and handmade.  The letters are purchased. The signs in the top corner and down the middles are made.  I cut them from a paper full of them, and ran them through my Xyron machine.
d
I like this set of pages.  The first page is pretty blank. I think that the place she is going will more than decorate the page.  I put up a couple of Quickutz suitcase die-cuts to decorate the page, a couple of sticker phrases, and a Tim Holtz sticker of a couple that has similarities to the Beckers.  the second page is just a large matte, for them to fill as they want.  If you look at this picture, you can see that the picture has a pattern.  I think it is a picture of a sweatshirt.

Another two page spread.  This time the large matte is first.  This one was just too cute to pass up.  The second one is another fairly blank page.  I did put more Quickutz handmade die cuts here, such as the US shape, the shovel, and the sign.  I also included a metal finding with a cute sentiment on it.

This two-page spread is more sedate than the others, but I think it is a great spread for travel.  I cut a page with a world map in half, to make the pages match.  The page matte is a wood pattern, so the picture mattes reflect the somber color.  To lighten the mood of the page, I put sticker phrases down, and made a couple of butterfly stickers out of a piece of pretty paper and foam tape.

I just had to use the frenetic papers I had with all the camping signs on them, they were just too fun.  Of course, it did need to be calmed a little.  So I used pickle-colored Bazzill cardstock for both the page mattes and the picture mattes.  All of the accents on this page are hand made, most are Quickutz.  In case you cannot tell already, I have a lot of Quickutz dies.

And finally, at least so far, the two-page spread based on a picture of a Utah mountain range.  I believe the blog about this spread explains this picture wonderfully.  And I love the way it looks.

Below are close-ups of some of the hand made accents I made.  Note that the butterfly is merely two identical cut-outs, stuck together at the body of the insect with a little tape, with the wings of the upper cut-out bent up a little bit.  Looks cool, no?
                      
I think my favorite die cut that I have used so far for this scrapbook is the Swiss army knife.  I used silver metal-looking cardstock for the knife and bits.  And the ladybug… that is just too cute to leave out.