Cutting 4 card bases from one 12x12 paper

A week ago I had the privilege of meeting a wonderful group of ladies who get together regularly to make cards.  I introduced them to CTMH and we created two cards and had a great time!

One thing I learnt from them is that not everyone is a scrapbooker (gasp!).  Because they do not scrapbook, they do not regularly use 12x12 cardstock.  They usually use 8.5x11 cardstock cut in half to make two 4.25x5.5 cards.

There are many ways to get the most out of a 12x12 sheet of cardstock when making card bases.  I'm going to make an effort to create and post a few of them over the next week or so.

Here is my first one.  This one will give you two standard 4.25x5.5 cards, as well as two 3x3 cards, with one 1x8.5 scrap and two .5x5 scraps.

Here is a picture after I cut the papers, with the measurements written on it.

To cut this, first cut the 12x12 sheet at 3.5 inches, you will then have a 3.5x12 piece and a 8.5x12 piece.  Now cut 1 inch off the long side of the 8.5x12 piece so that you are left with an 8.5x11 piece of paper that you can cut in half at 5.5 to get you your two standard card bases. Now, cut the 3.5x12 piece in half at 6 inches, then trim .5 inches off each one so that you end up with two 3x6 card bases.

3x3 cards are perfect size for quick little pick me up cards and they also work great if you punch a hole in the upper left corner and use it as a tag on a gift bag or gift.  If you are wondering about envelopes for this size card, CTMH does sell them, they are so cute and tiny..

The previous two posts are the standard sized cards I made with these card bases, below are the two 3x3 cards I made with the other two card bases.

For this card I used a mosiac tile technique, to do this technique, start with a piece of cardstock about 1/8th of an inch smaller than 3x3 and stamp the stamp image on it. Then I used the great CTMH alcohol markers to colour the image. Then I cut the image up into squares, these are not very even, but I like the effect anyway.  Then I glued the pieces down to a 3x3 piece of Olive cardstock leaving a small amount of space between each. That then became the card front.

For my second 3x3 card, I used the Perfect day stamp set and chocolate ink to create an all stamp card, I really like the effect, especially with the Desert Sand ink sponged around the edges of the card. What a perfect pick me up card!

I hope that helps give some ideas for using 12x12 paper for card bases.  Thanks for looking.