The Jingle Bells set of digital stamps contains several bonus papers that match the coloured images. I used the black version as the background for this card, which is always a great contrast. Some silver mirror card added a nice shine to the project.

One productive afternoon, I printed everything from the Daisy Elements set, then trimmed, punched and cut my way through it all! I managed to create four cards before I ran out of steam... not bad for an afternoon in the craft room.

PRINTED SHEETS

AFTER CUTTING, PUNCHING & TRIMMING

Strictly speaking, this is more a design tutorial than a card fold tutorial, but it's versatile, relatively simple and gives a fabulous end result... all the things I love in a good card. I will also point out that the original project uses a piece of acetate as the card front, and has a spring element in the centre that permanently holds the card closed. Any personalised greetings are added on the back. It's a beautiful card and I highly recommend visiting Sam Calcott's YouTube channel to see for yourself.

1. You'll need one 6" square card blank, eight 2" x 2" pieces of white cardstock; eight 13/4" x 13/4" pieces of patterned paper - four in one colour and four in a contrasting colour; one 3" x 3" piece of white cardstock; and one 23/4" x 23/4" piece of patterned paper, plus embellishments of your choice.

2. Start by securing all the patterned paper to the cardstock, leaving a small white border around all four sides.

3. Placing the first four squares is the trickiest part. I found it easiest to use a centring ruler to get an even placement, but you can simply eyeball it if you prefer. The corners of the squares closest to the edges of the card should come all the way to the edge. See the photo below.

4. To place the second layer of squares (if you are as fussy as I am about things being straight), draw a vertical line and a horizontal line at the half way points of your card, stopping just short of the edge.

5. Match the points of the squares with the lines you drew for even, straight placement.

6. Secure the 3" x 3" cardstock to the centre of the previous two layers, then decorate as desired.

An appropriate blessing for all those nine-to-fivers out there... it's something I always hoped for when I worked in an office every day.

Here's another card I created using the digital papers from earlier in the month, along with several of the pre-coloured images. After printing them, I fussy cut around the edges and layered them onto my background using dimensional tape.

The new Café Elements set contains seven pieces of digital paper, which can be used for online projects or printed and used with more traditional techniques. This tutorial will also work for the free digital papers I sometimes post with the monthly challenge.

1. I'm going to start by presuming most people who read my blog know how to save digital files to their computer and can access them as necessary. So... start by opening a blank document in your word processing program (I use MS Word). I like to resize the paper to the size of my card blank, which in my case is usually 51/4" square. If you like to use 4" x 6" cards, you might like to resize the digital paper to fit exactly, or print 6" squares and cut them to size.

2. Change your printer settings to the highest quality for a smooth, even result. If you're going to print directly onto cardstock, change the paper type as well.

3. When I'm printing digital papers, I like to use a good quality paper that's slightly heavier than typical printer paper. I purchased this ream at my local office supply store, it's 120gsm instead of the standard 80, and it's bright white and very smooth.

4. Once you've changed the settings, hit print and wait for your pages to emerge. You can now use them as you would any other piece of patterned paper, but with the added benefit of never running out!

Digital Paper