2 Masculine Birthday Cards

Hi there

I've another 'catch-up' to share today.  These were both made for May birthdays, so my catching up isn't a quick process!

I was really pleased with how this one turned out, and how simple it was to make!  I bought a few new stencils a while back and this was one of them.  I love how versatile it is and can see it being used or birthdays, Christmas and any thing else that needs some celebratory stars!

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I washi-taped the stencil (stencil by Funky Fossil) directly onto the card blank, then used various lime, blue and aqua inks through it.  Next I stencilled a few silver stars using stencil paint.

The HAPPY letters were die cut using a Lawn Fawn alphabet set and I cut a narrow strip in the same aqua card for the letters to sit on, then home made decal 'birthday' sticker under the line.

To finish I punched and die cut a few different sized stars from silver and matching colours of card to adhere randomly on the starry swirl - also handy for covering and really blotchy stencilled ones!

It was definitely quicker to make than this next one, which took me ages, but doesn't look half as effective.  A pity both cards were for the same household really or I could just have made 2 of the same design!

 Beer Bottle card

Info:

Kraft base card, pale cream panel with rounded edges, and hand drawn scribble lines in gold pen.
Patterned papers from my stash cut into banners, twine threads at the top. Beer bottles are die cut using a Joanna Sheen die,  and the bottle carrier is actually the tool box from a Spellbinders set
'Celebrate' is also a Spellbinders die, cut in blue and gold card then layered in off-set fashion
The 'your birthday' is another home made decal sticker.

That's it, thank you for visiting today, I hope you'll leave a message before you go - I do love to know what you think!

Happy Crafting, Stay Safe

 

3D project - Card Presentation Bag

Hi there
Okay, I can't help it, I'm feeling very angry right now, so here comes a rant
  All these weeks, most of us have taken the warnings on board, stayed away from our loved ones and changed our plans, all to try and keep this virus from our doors and the doors of those we care about.  Difficult decisions have been made by us all, holidays cancelled, special celebrations cancelled or postponed, including my lovely nephew and his fiancee's August wedding. 
And yet it seems that a great proportion of our fellow Brits have absolutely no regard for anyone - including themselves.  
I'm totally disgusted by them.  I don't know how to express the contempt I have for them. They must be Morons

But anyway, I'm sure you, Lovely Reader are not in that group - how are you feeling - I hope you are keeping safe and well, and now more than ever taking care about where you go and who you meet up with. 💕💕💕

A few weeks back Miri set the Daring Cardmakers challenge and asked us to make cards for Special, or Big Occasions.  It worked out quite well for me as I'd just been asked to make a 90th birthday card.  It was quite a bulky card with a big peony flower in the lower corner, so I thought it would be a good idea to make some kind of presentation bag/box rather than just a regular envelope.
This time it was Dawn's challenge that came in handy!

LET'S GO 3D
For this week's challenge I would like to see
your 3D projects. So please share your gift bags,
boxes and other 3D projects with us!

 Click HERE to see this week's fabulous DT inspiration
 

 

Basically this is the same as a gift bag, but I added a flap with a narrow fold at the top to create a closure.

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 The lovely peony digital papers are a download from Alphabet Store via Etsy, I also made some matching designs to use for the labels

The main patterned curved layer was cut with a die from a Spellbinders set, this piece was then attached over the main gift bag section and decorated with a layered butterfly (Hunkydory).  

For the flapover section, I used another piece of dotted card with one edge shaped using an Oval die (Tonic Studios).

Matching holes were punched in the front of the bag and  the flapover and a silver ribbon added to seal it.

To complete I added a pc generated label, and a hanging tag from the same striped and dotted papers.  The 'S' was cut in the same shiny pink card as the upper layer of the butterfly

You can see the card this presentation bag was made for HERE

That's all for today, Thank You so much for visiting,
i hope you'll leave a comment, I really love seeing your messages!

Happy Crafting, and please Stay Safe

Music themed 18th Birthday plus a Gift Card Pocket

Hi there

I've another 'catch-up' to share today.  

This time a card and a little giftcard/cash wallet both made for the 18th birthday of the youngest of our nephews.  We must be old if all our nieces and nephews have celebrated their 18ths!

Some time ago the lovely Svenja issued a Daring Cardmakers challenge to use sheet music on our cards. It gave me the idea for this one, I found a downloadable copy of the 'Happy Birthday to You' music and tweaked it a little in Paint Shop Pro to personalise it.

For the patterned papers I resized several Black, White and Grey patterns so they could be printed in small sizes

Info:

White square card blank 
Sheet Music printed in Black and White
Circle dies used to 'make' a vinyl record
Digits cut in silver and black card using my Silhouette Cameo 
Stars and twirl embellishments die cut from silver card
Patterned paper banner pieces hand cut and adhered over black and white twine. 

Wallet for Gift Card, Cash etc

G

Info: Grey and White digital papers printed onto white Bazzill card and folded to create the pocket.  Second printed design added for the flap.  The twine was threaded through holes at the back then wrapped around and tied at the front.
The sentiment is also pc generated.  

Thank you for visiting today, I hope you'll leave a message before you go - I do love to know what you think!

Happy Crafting, Stay Safe

 

Bags of Style

Hi there

I hope you are keeping well and staying safe. I can't help feeling that with everything starting to open up I want to take even more precautions, not less.  So many people think its all over and they can behave just as they used to do - and that makes me want to stay away from shops etc, not go into them!
 

Remember when you used to dress up for a posh night out and spend hours on hair, make up, glitzy frocks etc?  No, nor do I 😂😂 but hey, we've seen the pictures so we know what Ruth is getting at for this week's Daring Cardmakers challenge!

  GLAMOROUS
This week's host, Ruth is looking for some panache

 and pizzazz!
Get Glam and Glitzy and show us whatever makes you 

feel like a movie star!

Click HERE to see this week's fabulous DT inspiration
 

Well, not having a glamorous bone in my body, I struggled this week and there were a couple of false starts before I hot on the idea of making a handbag card

The bag shape is quite simple, its just a long strip of card with a few folds. This diagram provides a guide, just decide what dimensions you want for the front of the bag and make your calculations from there

 
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Black Bazzill card for the bag, folded as in the diagram.

Extra black card cut to size for the embossed panels (Swirls Embossing Folder by Cuttlebug) 

Gold panels cut abt 0.5cm larger than the embossed panels. then all these panels glued in place on front and back of bag. 

Next I cut a rectangle about 2cms wider than the front flap of decorative paper (Meet Me in Paris by DCWV)  As this piece extends over the folding section its a  good idea to make matching creases in it before lining up and adhering in place.

I added a gold strip to the lower edge of the flap.

Next I made a couple of tassels from the 'flap' paper and some glitter paper, and a gold tag (plus one in white for adding a tiny sentiment). These were attached to the back of a gold die cut and embossed shape (Spellbinders) before gluing in place. All my detail elements are die cut - its amazing what you can find to use for these when you look through your die collection!  You could also use large brads, jewels, charms etc.

It's much easier to make than it looks, and I'd love you to have ago and let me know how you get on.

That's all for today, Thank You so much for visiting,
i hope you'll leave a comment, I really love seeing your messages!

Happy Crafting, and Stay Safe

Blooming Big

Hi there

I slipped 'off the wagon' of mid-week blogging for a while (again), but I'm 

back trying to catch up with sharing some things that I haven't 

got round to showing on here yet.

This time its a birthday card with a lovely big flower and some

gorgeous new swirly accents!

Info:

White square card blank 

Background: Crafters Workshop little circles stencil, Tonic Embellishing paste in shades of turquoise, gold and lime green

Black and white striped card strip and sentiment were created on the pc and printed onto white card 

The gorgeous flower was die cut (Tonic Studios) from turquoise card, then I used a finger to add some of the gold Tonic Embellishing paste in what I hope gives a 'distressed' appearance to the petals!

The swirly accents are also from a Tonic Studios die set.  I cut them from a piece of card I'd used for another project.  It had been inked and rubbed with embellishing paste to add a pretty sheen.

That's all for today - short and sweet!  I can do that when I try really heard, you see 😉
Thank You so much for visiting,
i hope you'll leave a comment, I really love seeing your messages!

Happy Crafting, and Stay Safe

 

Flights of Fancy

Hi there

I hope you are keeping well and staying safe.
  It's not all over - just read what front line doctors and nurses are saying about how scared they are about people who have that "its all back to normal" kind of attitude!
There's been a lot in the Media this week about tourism and more specifically the various airlines.  I mean, really?  Would You want to be cooped up for several hours with a load of strangers - with no idea where they've been, who they've been in contact with, what they've touched?  

Much as I'd love to disappear to a Greek Island for a week or two, it won't be happening any time soon!  

So for now I'll travel in my dreams and via photographs.
The whole 'flying' thing has been in my mind a lot, not only because of British Airways and co, but because of Shabneez's challenge to the Daring Cardmakers this week! 

  

It's my turn to host the challenge this week and I have gone with a theme that I hope you'll enjoy as there are lots of choices:

Wing It!
Please use anything with wings on your cards this week - insects,
birds, fairies or even planes!
To get you started, Click HERE for this week's inspiration from the design team

Just for a very short time I thought about not using butterflies - but in reality that was never going to actually happen!
 

 Info
To begin with I used a couple of stencils to make the background. A large circle one was taped into position, then another with a kind of dotty, spattery pattern was placed over the top and inked through with pale blue, and a little pink ink.  When the stencils were removed I added a few 'dots' from the spatter stencil just outside the circle too
My butterflies are from dies by Hunkydory and Ultimate Crafts.  I got some gorgeous new Washi tape earlier this week so had a bit of an experiment with one of them.  I taped a few strips of Washi onto a sheet of thin card and used this to cut the lower wings of the butterflies.  I think it worked pretty well, especially as these designs are so detailed and have added gold highlights.  The upper wings and body sections were just cut in black card.
I used a pretty die cut border across the card, then above that another strip of the same Washi tape.  The black and white striped strip of card was positioned so that just a tiny Washi tape stripe is visible. 
Once I was happy with the placement of the butterflies, I added the sentiment pieces.  The Black and white designs and sentiment were pc generated, 'Hello' was die cut twice, one layer in black and one in gold
To finish, I punched and die cut some really tiny circles of gold card, and scraps of the washi tape wing waste to sprinkle around on the background

That's all for today, Thank You so much for visiting,
i hope you'll leave a comment, I really love seeing your messages!

Happy Crafting, and Stay Safe

 

June's Elemental Inspiration

Hi there

I hope you are keeping well and staying safe.
 Last weekend we made a 'socially distanced' visit to my cousin's garden. It's the first time I've been further than the 'Click and Collect' thing at the supermarket and a change for him too as he lives alone and hasn't seen many people since the home-working began. He doesn't drive and public transport isn't a good option at the moment, so we took our sandwiches and he had his own, and we sat in his garden at the prescribed distance apart. Not quite the pub lunch we usually meet up for, but it was a really lovely afternoon  all this really makes you appreciate the simple pleasure of a sandwich sitting in a garden, having a good old chin-wag with someone you've not seen since New Year!
Anyway, I was really aiming to get this week's Daring Cardmakers project blogged on schedule (for once).  I reckoned I just had time to do it before my grocery order arrived (yes, amazingly I'd managed to grab a delivery slot this time).  But then the doorbell rang and he'd arrived over half an hour early - typical! 😆

So I'm still late - and its my challenge too!  This week it's a , here's Miri's challenge for this week:
June's Elemental Inspiration picture

I've chosen a 'fun in the sun' kind of theme for my mood-board and I hope you'll have some fun with it.  All you need to do is choose at least 3 elements to use when you make your card.

Ideas:check design, flowers, water, picnic food, fruit, basket weave or wood textures, drinks, playing games, gardening. Summer song lyrics...

To get you started, Click HERE for this week's inspiration from the design team - and to meet our fabulous new Guest Designer

Itook the stripes from the deckchair, woordgrain texture from the jetty and a flower pot from the board, and added in a loopy sentiment for good measure.
I love the way our Nar used strong, wide horizontal stripes as a background for some of her cards, so I decided to have a go at something similar for my card.

Info
2cm wide washi tape was used for masking the white parts of the stripes, and using a couple of shades of lime green inks gave a bit more of a textural appearance to the stripes. When dry I trimmed a couple of cms off the side to make the card a fat rectangle - which seems to be my favourite card shape atm. For the pot I inked another piece of card with several shades of aqua ink, ending up with a very deep colour rubbed on for the top layer.  When it was dry I die cut the flower pot and caded a layer of PVA for a glossy finish. To add interest to the rim of the pot, I used some copper gilding flakes.

For the woodgrain panel I used a distressed stripes embossing folder and white card, then inked another piece of card in a darker sgade of green for matting.

The flower is made using a Dainty Daisies die set from Tonic Studios, a centre piece from (I think) a Die'Namics set, and leaves from a Spellbinders Die set of the month set.  

The Sentiment piece, and its tiny chevron background were pc generated

That's all for today, Thank You so much for visiting,
i hope you'll leave a comment, I really love seeing your messages!
  
Happy Crafting, and Stay Safe