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I'm Lesley and I've been a crafter all my life. I discovered paper crafting about 30 years ago and this is now my great passion.

Saturday, 19 April 2025

Pop-up Diamond card

 Happy Easter, everyone!

Today's inspiration is a pop-up diamond card. This is very straightforward to make, and I think it was one of the first funfold cards I learned, many moons ago! Usually, the top and pop-up are created from one piece of card, but as this topper was paper pieced, I added it separately which makes it even easier.





Instructions to make the Base:

1.    5" x 7 1/2", scored at 2 1/2 and 5" along the long side 

2.    Turn the card and score from the top of the 2 1/2 score line to the bottom right of card, and then from the bottom of 2 1/2 score line to top right of card, creating an X ascross the 5" score line

 1.    5" x 7 1/2", scored at 2 1/2 and 5" along the long side 

2.    Turn the card and score from the top of the 2 1/2 score line to the bottom right of the card, and then from the bottom of the 2 1/2 score line to the top right of the card, creating an X across the 5" score line - see diagram above. 


3.    With your fingers, fold the 2 1/2" and 5" upwards as valley folds and the diagonal one as mountains.

4.     Adjust the folds if necessary to be in line and burnish with a bone folder. 

5.    Mat and layer pretty paper onto the rectangle, then adhere the triangle of the base centrally on top of it and hold in place while it sticks. 

6.    Create topper of your choice 5" x 5" square and adhere to the top triangle of the base. This will now fold to fit in a square 6" envelope. 


7.    I made my topper with an interlaced background die onto the Craft Consortium pink paper and paper pieced 2 layers of blue and purple papers on top. I could have made another card with the blue and purple leftovers. Do not try to turn over the paper and use reverse, and the pattern will not follow through; there may also be slight discrepancies in final fit that way, too. I die-cut another layer of rose gold mirror card and used the framework to make the design pop. 


8.    On the reverse, I stamped and decorated with alcohol markers one of the  Fairy collection stamps on white to create the writing layer. 

9.    I fussy cut the Fairy wishes words from the waste of a sheet of decoupage toppers and added foam pads and also added one of the chipboard ephemera fairies to finish my card. 

You can buy all Craft Consortium Products from the company's website. 

If you have found me here from the Craft Consortium Network page, please follow me on social media and leave me some kind words and likes. Subscribing means you won't miss any future posts and is much appreciated, as it makes the channels/pages appear more often in other feeds.


 IG - https://www.instagram.com/elegant_edges_crafts/

FB - https://www.facebook.com/kilby.Lesley

YT - https://www.youtube.com/@lesleykilby/videos


Thanks for visiting

Lesley xx


P.S. Do let me know if you try this fold - you can tag me on socials or add your card to my FB page above. 


Saturday, 22 March 2025

One Sheet Wonder Memory Keeper with Craft Consortium's Vintage Emporium

 Good morning everyone, 

Today I have instructions to make a really quick memory keeper from one 12 x 12 sheet of Vintage Emporium paper plus scraps and embellishments. I did record a video when I made it but there must have been some kind of glitch because try as I may, I just cannot persuade the video to upload to YouTube or to share. Anyway, it is very straightforward, and I hope you will easily understand the written instructions. 



You will need:

One 12 x 12 sheet paper
scraps of paper for pockets and photo mats
lace/twine/ribbon
tags or ephemera
stamps


Instructions:

1.    Keeping the direction of the pattern, fold the 12 x 12 sheet down the centre.

2.   Unfold and score 3" from the top and 3" from the bottom across the width. Fold gently with fingers, not bonefolder. Paper edges should meet horizontally across the centre. 

3. Fold the corners towards the edges as though making a paper aeroplane and crease. Add a thin bead of glue along the outside edges to make triangular pockets.


4. Add sticky tape across the joins as indicated by pink post-it strips



5. fold in half along the 6" score line. 

6. using a scrap of paper 3" x 6", score at 1/2" on 3" side and adhere inside the right edge of work to make a folding piece to wrap over the front and close.  Round the corners of the extension piece.

7. cut 2 long pockets and 2 short pockets from the paper scraps and then cut thumb holes in each -my pockets were all 2 3/4" wide, 4 1/2 and 2 1/4 long. Add a thin bead of wet glue down 2 sides and along the lower edge of each pocket and add to the front,  hiding the sticky tape. If desired, make tags to fit inside the pockets or use them to hold ephemera. (see photos below)

8. Make 2 photo mats 5" square for each large side pockets. 

9. stamp suitable words from Craft Consortium's Essential craft stamps range





10. Close with twine/ribbon or lace.

You can buy all Craft Consortium Products from the company's website. 

If you have found me here from the Craft Consortium Network page, please follow me on social media and leave me some kind words and likes. Subscribing means you won't miss any future posts and is much appreciated as it makes the channels/pages appear more often in other feeds.


 IG - https://www.instagram.com/elegant_edges_crafts/

FB - https://www.facebook.com/kilby.Lesley

YT - https://www.youtube.com/@lesleykilby/videos


Thanks for visiting

Lesley xx




 

Wednesday, 5 March 2025

Little Ones Triangle Box

 Good afternoon,

I made a triangle gift box for an upcoming Baby Shower with the fabulous new Little Ones Collection from Craft Consortium. One look at the images and you can tell it showcases the designs by Helz Cuppleditch as they are all adorable. 



One of CC elements that I tend to use A LOT is the decoupage. It comes with a whole design on one A5 sheet comprising a large panel about 4 x 4 (but they do vary), and 4 or 5 layers. I often split these and make 2 projects from each sheet so they are very affordable  

Today’s make was inspired by a lady called Laura Stranks but her make was far too small. I resized to fit my gift and here are some brief instructions  

You will need:

White base card 220gsm 6 x 12

3 strips mat colour 7/8 x 4 1/2 ( need to be much longer than sides) 

3 strips design paper from the paper pad 5/8 x 4 1/2

Craft consortium A4 coordinating paper pad 

CC decoupage (base layer of 3 different designs in the pack) 


How I made it

Score the base on the long side at 3 7/8, 7 3/4, 11 5/8

Turn and score 1 1/16 from both long edges 

See my rough template  for the shape. You don’t need to squint to see numbers  but 




Cut up the score lines on the long edges to the first score line only  measure 5/8” from this cut each way and mark the edge of base. cut from the measured point diagonally to the top of the straight cut to form a V as shown  

Fold and burnish all folds. 

Adhere the mats and panels to the sides then join the sides with red liner tape or wet glue on the 3/8” tab .

If the panels are a little large, trim to fit.   I call this card surgery. You even remove the bricks along the edge and glue back so along the new edge of a smaller square  no one will notice! 

Fold in the top and bottom flaps and check that they fit without overhanging. If necessary trim to fit. 

Mat and layer the strips and adhere along the top flaps. Trim to fit without overhanging scissors.

Bottom flaps just need folding, checking for size and gluing shut  


Reinforce the bottom with a layer of card. Hold the box along the edge of scrap card and pencil around edges. Cut to fit the bottom. Make sure it is slightly smaller rather than bigger - you will need an equilateral triangle with 3 3/4 sides if you prefer to draw with compass. Glue on the bottom. 

Add a little tissue paper on top of gift before folding the top flaps like a box or pinwheel so they hold each other in place. 





Please message me pics of your makes if you try this fold


You will find me on FB as elegant-edges-crafts and also on IG with same name. If you use Craft Consortium,products please share tag me and CC on Instagram or you may share on thEir Official Network page on FB  


Happy crafting


Lesley  






Wednesday, 22 January 2025

Showstopper Flap card with Let Spring Begin Collection

 Good morning everyone, 


Today, I have another fun fold card with the Let Spring Begin collection from Craft Consortium. 




What you need:

You will need:

 

metric

Imperial A4 and US

Base card x 2

13 x 26 scored 6.5 / 13

10 ¼ scored 5 1/8/ 2 ½+

Flaps x 3

5.5 x 5.5

2 ¼ x 2 1/4

Tags to fit pockets

 

 

Struts 3 x

13 x 1

5 x 1/2

 

 

 

Design paper

 

 

Centre panel

12.5 x 12.5

4 7/8 x 4 7/8

Side panels  x 6

12.5 x 6

4 7/8 x 2 3/8

Side panel pocket

6 x 4

2 3/8 x 1 1/2

Flaps x 6

5 x 5

2 x 2

 

Here is a link to my YouTube video for full instructions and tips.

I love that it folds to fit in a 6” square envelope and stands well to show off the cute artwork.

This collection is available from Craft Consortium at: the shop

Please tag me on Social Media if you make this card fold as I would love to see your card too.  My thanks to Olga Mulder for inspiring me to make this card. 

If you have found me here from the Craft Consortium Network page, please follow me on social media and leave me some kind words and likes. Subscribing means you won't miss any future posts and is much appreciated as it makes the channels/pages appear more often in other feeds.


 IG - https://www.instagram.com/elegant_edges_crafts/

FB - https://www.facebook.com/kilby.Lesley

YT - https://www.youtube.com/@lesleykilby/videos


Thanks for visiting

Lesley



Sunday, 18 August 2024

Triple Layer stand up card with Happy Harvest

 


 

Good morning everyone, 

I have another fun fold card with the Happy Harvest collection from Craft Consortium today. 

There are instructions on how I make this style of card in a previous post here and a link to my YouTube video here

I love that it folds to fit in a 6” square envelope and stands well to show off the cute artwork. I made my own decoupage for the top layer. 

This collection is available from Craft Consortium at: shop


If you have found me here from the Craft Consortium Network page, please follow me on social media and leave me some kind words and likes. Subscribing means you won't miss any future posts and is much appreciated as it makes the channels/pages appear more often in other feeds.


 IG - https://www.instagram.com/elegant_edges_crafts/

FB - https://www.facebook.com/kilby.Lesley

YT - https://www.youtube.com/@lesleykilby/videos


Thanks for visiting

Lesley




Monday, 12 August 2024

Another Christmas Market card







Here is another make with the Christmas Market collection from Craft Consortium Ltd. You know when you get an idea for a project and have to make it! Well, here it is. No dimensions as I had to make and post it  - no time to write it all down.

I love how the CC Mirri card sets off the papers. 

The main panels were cut from the 4 x 4 topper sheet and the rest is from the 12 x 12 papers - they really do all the heavy lifting with this card,

Hope you like it and can get this super cute collection.


Back soon,


Lesley


Sunday, 21 July 2024

Christmas market from Craft Consortium






Sorry, I've been MIA lately but Ive been jet-setting off to my daughter in Australia, catching up with friends near Perth and popping into Singapore on the way. We left before the summer here in the UK had even started. We experienced hot and humid weather in Singapore, coooold wintry weather in Melbourne (down to minus two or three), and then pleasant sunny cardigan temperatures in Western Australia. Along the way, we missed a mini heat wave in the UK too. Still, it was all worth it!

Back to my craft table where the new Collection from Craft Consortium was waiting for me. This is another collaboration with Helz Cuppleditch and her whimsical designs never fail to delight us all. 

Here are three card designs that I rushed to complete for the launch last week.


                            

As soon as I saw the multi-image page in the 6 x6 pad, I knew what project was top of my list - this block card. I matted the images with some of the new pink Mirri card too! It really is gorgeous!  There are several colours now and I think this pink and possibly the deep blue are my present favorites,

I really love the font of the Merry Christmas stamp here. There are 2 photopolymer stamp sets in the collection and lovely big images that you can colour easily. I chose to fussy-cut around those crazy letters; because there are no straight lines with this font, fussy-cutting is easy! I never thought I would be saying that! 


     

A new addition to the 12 x 12 paper pads are larger multi-image pages. Traditionally, we have had  
4" x 4" cut-apart images, 9 to a page, but now there are also 6" x 6" ones that are perfect to trim to size for 6" cards. You could simply add one to the front of a card and "Job's a good 'un!".  Obviously, I wanted to do a little more that for a Design Team project! 

My second card is a corner fold card; I used one of the 6x6 panels inside and chose one with a focal point in the bottom left corner. I the used a 2 x 2 panel in the 6 x 6 paper pad for the corner fold on the top and cut panel strips from a page in the large paper pad.  It would be very quick and easy to make lots of these for Christmas, too. 




                                            

My third project is a split-stepper card. This is another very straightforward card to make. I cut around the houses and made each side of the street mirror the other and fit my card panels. The main card is decorated with chunky images from the ephemera pack and also words trimmed from a "wordy sheet" that I raised with dimensional foam pads to be a similar height as the ephemera, I was going to add a large "Happy Christmas" die cut suspended from the corner joint but decided it would mask too many little additions. 

All of these have plenty of room to write on the reverse too. 


Hope you like them. See you soon,

If you would like more inspiration with this collection, pop over to the Craft Consortium Official Network Facebook page where all the DT members are sharing their projects.

FB


Lesley


Christmas Market Collection is available Online from Craft Consortium Ltd  shop

Pop-up Diamond card

  Happy Easter, everyone! Today's inspiration is a pop-up diamond card. This is very straightforward to make, and I think it was one of ...