Boy's birthday card

Tomorrow is one of my OH's g/nephew's birthday. I had to make a card in a bit of a hurry to catch the post but this is what I came up with:

Thanks to a nearby Hobbycraft I grabbed a little set of toppers and some brown foam letters/numbers. Phew, no time to colour in an image - to my delight - so I had to make the trip :)  Mind you, the parking there is awful - just a little car park (some serious underestimating I suspect) and of course tons of folk going in just for a nosy as it's newly opened. Hopefully the novelty will wear off and us 'serious crafters' might get a chance to park without too much trouble before long. Loads of folk are just mooching and coming out empty handed......mind you, I think Pauline and I are working hard at making up the difference :)

It's yet another easel card, topped with Core'dinations blue card, the cowboy toppers (and I have enough left for another card due in a week's time), the letters/number (glittered with stickles), some red card candy, a red button threaded with raffia and that flipping Happy, Happy Birthday stamp that I have to touch up each time. I must look for a decent one as I do like it..........no wonder it was in a Hobbycraft reduced tub ages ago :(

Yeee Ha - all done in the whirl of a lasso :) I'll be almost replicating this one for the second card. Thankfully that little chap is only going to be two as the cowboy topper I have left is riding a rocking horse! As Ben is now nine years old maybe it's time to dispense with putting his age onto cards - until the milestone ones at least.

Di
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'Just saying Hello' notelets

It's raining outside and I just grabbed a little time slot to rustle up some notelets....beats housework hands down!

The cards are 4" x 4"white linen, topped with scalloped circles cut from fairly big scraps of pearlised card (and I kept the leftovers too!) . The 'Just saying Hello' was stamped in Stayzon Black using an Elzybells sentiment (thank goodness I managed to buy a few stamps before Elizabeth closed her store) and the beautiful little sparkly toppers were in my stash. I don't think anything else was needed so I left it at that.

One of my best finds lately came from Hobbycraft - a pack of two tiny wooden easels which are just great for propping cards up on to take photos. They weren't expensive and I was delighted as I've been searching for them for a while now!

Di

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Good luck to two young ladies

A friend's two daughters are taking ballet exams on 4th November. They are such well behaved young ladies that I thought she might like a card for each of them from their Mum and Dad to wish them luck on the big day. This is what I came up with:

Lucy is the youngest and her favourite colour is pink, hence the pink dress. Holly is almost a teenager and I thought white was suitable.

First I embossed the flowers down the border of the white linen cards and then added clear gems to the centres of the flowers - Kan Ban Bling.

The backgrounds are diecut and embossed using oval scallop Nestabilities and the feathery toppers were bought from The Range a little while back. They might not be true ballet dresses but they're near enough and the feathery effect is lovely! I added peel offs spelling out Good Luck and their names. Hope the cards work for them - they've been practising so hard.


Di
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Mia's 3rd birthday

Today is my OH's grand daughter's 3rd birthday. Life has had a few downs this past week or so and I only hope our presents and card reach her in Germany in time :( She is such a sweetie and we love her, and her baby sister Olivia, so much. This is one of my favourite pictues of Mia, and little Livi (Olivia) is in the background:


I think this little lady might break some hearts when she grows up?!

Peppa Pig is a great favourite at the moment but I went more traditional when making her birthday card. Cinderella!!

The images are thick cardboard ones from QVC and the sentiment 'Thank heavens for little princesses', also in the same set, is so appropriate. The card also came from QVC in a set of really pretty delicately patterned cards for 'special ocasions'. It was really just a case of 'position and stick' once I'd selected what to use - certainly much quicker and easier than the 90th card in my previous post!! I then stuck a 3 on the little bush and spelt out Mia's name using really pretty glittery letter and number stickers from Hobbycraft. In my haste I didn't keep a note of the manufacturer but it was either Anitas or Papermania. I love these and as it's Olivia's 1st birthday in a couple of weeks time I'll be using them again no doubt! The insert has a Cinderella image printed on it - from the internet of course :)

Happy Birthday Mia!!! Love from Grandad and GranDi xxx

Di
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90th birthday card

Recently a friend asked me to make a 90th birthday card for her Grandmother. As I always do, I asked what her interests are. Apparently she is Austrian by birth and loves Viennese waltzes. So far so good - ideas were beginning to formulate already! Then, my heart sank when my friend added that she loves playing Scrabble and doing crosswords. Oh boy, how could I combine those without it just looking like a 'jumble'?!

My crafty friends know I agonised over how to tackle this card - and I ended up a bit out of my comfort zone. Sketches, test layouts and goodness knows what! This is what I came up with:

I abandoned the crossword idea - even using it on the insert I felt would have been too much of a muddle. The card is from The Range - a large square one with embossed dots which I brushed over with a Brilliance Inkpad - Pearlescent Beige as the white was just too stark. The music (Strauss - Blue Danube Waltz) was from the internet and I adjusted the colour to made it look more sepia before printing onto plain 130gsm paper. I also found the violin and the Scrabble tiles images on the internet - both printed onto photo card to give them a glossy finish. The 'ninety' (A Hero Arts stamp from a set with all ages in - so useful!) was stamped onto the back of an oval sentiment from Craftwork Cards. The oval shape was brushed over with the same Pearlescent Beige as the card itself and the 'ninety' was stamped using Cosmic Copper, with a small gold sparkly gem on the dot above the letter 'i'. I spelt out Nanny using the snipped-to-size Scrabble tiles (Nanny is the family's pet name for this very special lady).

The final touches were leaves from Hobbycraft, cream and peach roses (glittered with Stickles gold) and cherry blossom flowers (all flowers came from Wild Orchid Crafts). Then finished off with a double layered bow of organza ribbon (cream and peach). The insert also has a peach rose printed on it.

It's now safely packed in a box from Craft Creations, ready for delivery tonight to my friend. I hope she likes it and I hope you do too.I've lost count of the hours I spent on this but, as I said, it's for a very special lady celebrating a very special birthday!

Later edit:
It went down really well with my friend - apparently Nanny's favourite colour is peach so that was also a lucky 'extra' :) It isn't the big day until Tuesday so I might have more feedback after then. For now, I'm just happy it's been made and has initial approval!

Di
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Chilli eatin' House Meece

Today is my OH's birthday! A friend gave me a House Mouse decoupage sheet from the Food and Drink set - just perfect! He loves hot food and would eat chilli con carne anytime! You can buy the House Mouse decoupage sets here - and postage is free!

I wrote my 'slushy' message before I remembered to take a photo - oops! Here's a close-up of the main part of the card. I just love the little mouse gulping water :)

I made an easel card using cream linen cardstock topped with Core'dinations reddish coloured card, embellished with cream Card Candy. The button was from my stash and I tied a little piece of raffia through the button rather than the usual girlie organza ribbon. From a covering sheet, which comes with all the House Mouse designs, I cut out a little mouse to go alongside the sentiment - thanks for the idea Pauline...........and thanks for the chilli eatin' decoupage sheet!

I tend to sit in bed with my morning cup of tea, tray on lap, snipping out decoupage (I know, how sad is that!) whilst OH watches the early morning news. I actually cut this little lot of decoupage out with him sitting right next to me and he didn't even notice! Hmm, I wonder what THAT says?! :)

BTW, he loved the card! I wonder what will be on the menu for dinner this evening :)

Di
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Dancing in the rain

After the weather recently this card seems quite appropriate. I found the words in my little pink craft notebook (I try to write down sayings etc. in there that might be handy for future use....and of course there's my wish list of all things crafty in there too!!).

The image is a Sugar Nellie stamp called 'Splashing Maggie' and she's so cute :) Of course I coloured her with Aquamarkers, am loving those, and added some Anitas glaze to the puddle splashes and her coat buttons. I used plain white linen cardstock and then ran some acetate through the Cuttlebug using a random dots embossing folder which I think is really for snowy efffects but in real life it works very well giving the efect of rain when it's folded over the front of the card. The photo doesn't do it justice but I suspected that would be the case :(


Di
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Finding your Frog Prince

I bought these 'Frog Prince' stickers in Germany whilst over there in May. I had the inkling of an idea of what I wanted to do with them but it wasn't until this Monday when browsing round a local garden centre that I found the small 'unprincely' froggy stickers :)

The card background is a white linen A6 card, the little 'unprincelies' are surrounding the Prince himself on a background of green Coredinations card from my stash, cut into a flower shape with my trusty Woodware flower punch. Some little green sparkly jewels from my stash (KanBan) brightened it up a bit. The sentiment 'You have to kiss a lot of toads to find your Frog Prince' was printed and then stuck onto a background of the same green card as the flower. I keep a note of little sayings and this was one I wrote down some time ago :) The ribbon is sticky backed and came from my stash - I think it was originally from QVC.

How about this for spooky - late yesterday evening I went into the garden to check that I'd closed the greenhouse properly and felt something light land on my foot (I was wearing flipflops at the time). It moved off PDQ as I squeaked in alarm.....then, when I looked closer it was the tiniest and cutest little frog I've ever seen! I tucked him into a safe place away from prowling cats but there was no sign of a crown I'm afraid :))

Di
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