Thirtieth Birthday Card

This card measures 6 ins x 6ins and is made using a white, pre-scored card blank from a bulk pack bought from Hobbycraft.

Another very quick card today, made for my nephews 30th Birthday. The background paper used was a bit of a bargain, found in Home Bargains for just £1.  It’s a limited edition docrafts Capsule Collection (Elements – Metallics) containing 36 different 6ins x 6ins metallic papers.  Well, it would have been rude not to make a considered purchase at that price, especially as the designs are all perfect for making really quick cards.

With the card front covered, all I had to do was glitter the wooden letters (from a set from The Works) with silver micro glitter, wait for them to dry and then glue them on to the card with a sprinkling of silver stars.  I am so lazy these days!

I also found these other docraft paper packs, also £1 each, again, it would have been rude not to snaffle them up (I have never ever seen docraft products in Home Bargains before, perhaps they were having a good old clean out during lockdown?).  The wood papers will be good for men’s cards and no doubt a few school homework projects. 

The “In Bloom” pack contains 46 double sided papers.  The flower designs are OK, but it’s the mustard, black, white and pink patterned papers that I really like, being perfect, I thought, for a more contemporary style of Christmas card this year.  My aim is to only make a few cards, the ones I have to post, keeping them really quick and simple to give me more time to concentrate on making little Christmas tree tranklements to give instead of cards, to hopefully come out year after year, rather than end up being in the bin or recycled like the majority of cards.

Fairy Door Christmas Tree Ornament

Oh my goodness, I just love these wooden fairy door toppers from Hobbycraft (pack of 4 for £1), when I saw them I knew I just had to have them and what I was going to do with them.

https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/fairy-door-wooden-topper-4-pack/649157-1000.

As soon as they arrived I took one of the craft stick houses Marc and I had made during my recent stay with him in Worcester (of which more in the coming weeks, as I gradually complete the projects we started together).

I added Aleene’s Glitter Snow on the edges of the roof and the “shelf”, then added the door where I put a scrap of yellow paper behind the window, to give the appearance of a light being on.

I also accentuated the bars on the door and letter box, added a red door knob and a tiny punch piece of holly with red gem holly berries on the heart.

When the snow was dry I added a tiny snowman, also made during my visit to Marc (some of the others we put in equally tiny bottles …..watch this space) and a bottle brush Christmas tree. 

I cut the bristles off the back of the tree to flatten it out in order to stick it to the house.  I also changed the original base for a smaller red bead to fit better on the shelf.  The tree was then decorated with small flat back gems in red, gold and silver and topped with a gold star.

I was pretty chuffed with my first attempt, it came out pretty much as it had looked in my head, another Christmas 2020 tree fairing idea potentially in the bag …….. but then I got to thinking, if I coloured the house red (in this instance with a red Sharpie pen), it would help to accentuate/bring the door out more to the fore. Colouring the roof green, also made it look more Christmassy, especially when I then swopped the star for a snowflake ………. I am almost there, the roof perhaps needs to be a lighter shade of green or simply completely covered in snow? I think there are a few more tweaks to be made, but hopefully I will get there, so watch this space for a completed update ………..