Probably thirty years ago, or more, Terry Curran asked me, now that I had turned my hobby into my job what I was going to do for a hobby.
Good question, card making might be one of the answers.
It has the benefit of being easy. The explosion in card making coincided with the explosion in die cutting which occurred with the introduction of die cutting machines, that anyone could afford. Previously a die cutting machine was the sort of thing you would find in a factory which was doing so well it could afford to splash thousands on a machine to cut things out. The clothing industry had plenty of them cutting out fabrics for mass production of clothes but the production line surged sideways into cutting out anything else flat, including card and paper and eventually the machines that started in box making factories were domesticated. The first ones were basically like an old mangle. Hand turned rollers squashed raised metal shapes into paper to cut the paper out. Very quickly the home version, which had started with cutting out paper shapes progressed to cutting out complex printed paper shapes. Once the domestic machines were electrified, you could cut out lots of shapes without getting an arm like Popeye. Anyone can do it but the results are dependant on the artistry of the person producing the artwork for the paper shape to be cut.
I don’t think that I would ever sell anyone else’s art, everything I do is collectable because it is original, but as a hobby it’s perfect. I do it if I feel a bit off, I do it if I can’t get my own artistic juices flowing and I do it for fun. I’ve been making cards for about thirty years, the first were photographs of my dolls, I didn’t have a die cutting machine. Watching the now defunct Create and Craft TV persuaded me to buy a machine and upgrade to an electronic machine, though the latter upgrade had a lot to do with my first broken arm.
I’ve espoused artwork from many places. Easily my favourite currently is Carnation Crafts. Here they are: www.carnationcrafts.co.uk
They provide downloadable artwork and the dies to cut it out and broadcast a demonstration of the dies and what can be done with them. They also have email subscriber exclusive offers. The latest one is a frame with a squirrel looking at you. It is only three inches tall by two wide. All the parts are readily snippable apart, so that combining various colourways in different manners can produce something quite original. Rather than sticking flat, layers of paper can be raised by foam tape to provide a more three dimensional result.
I snipped out the backgrounds and water coloured them
Glued them back inside and either added the stacked frame and character to a plain background, as produced in the set on offer,
and then got creative using characters from previous releases
or went the whole hog, added the coloured background and all sorts of extras to the frame.
This is not difficult, if you can afford a machine and some dies and print off the artwork you can do it. Thirty years into this hobby if anyone receives a card I’d bought from a shop they’d be deeply offended. Just like the dolls house stuff I’m going to have to live to at least a hundred and six to use all the dies and print offs. Just like miniatures once you get going the ideas come thick and fast. One great advantage of this hobby is that failures simply go in with the paper recycling.
I’m enjoying this currently but once I have really shaken this dreadful virus, or whatever it is, I shall be back to the reality of dolls.
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