Sandcastle Holiday Birthday Card

This card is A5 in size and is made using a white linen effect, hand cut card blank.

Lucy and I are always on holiday when it’s her birthday in July and so most of the birthday cards I have made her in the past have had a holiday/beach theme, and my 2015 effort is no exception.

I had a rummage in my drawers and found some old tags that I thought would pass muster for holiday colours and some felt, self adhesive seaside theme stickers I’ve had for ages, I can’t remember where they were originally from, but would not have cost be more than £1, but saying that they are really excellent quality, as you can see from the close up pictures, having been machine stitched, slightly padded, with button embellishment and other extra bits.

I mat and layered the background on plain blue and blue gingham papers and then edged it all with faux stitching and a few random doodled shapes.
The plastic, self adhesive letters, came from E-bay and I think they originally were meant for putting on cars (??) but always come in useful when I want to make a card on the hoof.

I guess in all, this card took me about half an hour to put together, and as per usual it’s always the working out where to place everything  first so the card looks balanced that takes up at least 60% of that time!

“Happy Days” Leaving Card

This card is A5 in size and is made using a white linen effect, hand cut card.

Another of my big, blousy cards today, even the person I gave it to was a little taken aback by how in your face it was, after being, in the past, a recipient of my usual restrained, less is more affairs  ….. but when it comes to making cards at the moment it’s still all about trying to use up as many of my self adhesive alphabets as I can !!!

I decided on the “Happy Days” sentiment to celebrate Sarah’s leaving teaching to help her artist husband with his admin and the birth of her first grandchild …… “Happy Days” indeed!

Over a pale green gingham background, I added the word plaques and then embellished with flowers and leaves using my EK Success Retro Daisy punches and Woodware “LeafMakeBeech” punch, which also embosses the veins on the leaves.

I’ve then gone totally over the top with the faux stitching, and assorted flat backed gems ….. but if you can’t got over the top for two such occasions rolled into one, when can you?

We’re Going To Miss You – Leaving Card

This card is A5 in size and is made by simply scoring and then folding a sheet of white linen effect card.

Ooooooowwfffffff, nothing subtle or less is more about my last “Leaving Card”, it’s well, very erm…… very pink!!!! It was made for one of the many staff at school who were leaving at the end of the summer term and to help pay off my “staffroom dues”, as well as to help use up just a small part of my vast pile of self adhesive alphabets! 

I had perhaps one of the leaving English staff in mind when I chose to use the printed text paper as a background and for the flower centres. To bring the design together, I’ll be honest, I think  I’ve gone into  pink “overkill” using a little too much Bazzill for the layered punched flowers with flat backed gem centres, and some of the  mat and layering!!!!! A little faux stitching and strategically groups of three dots helps to finish off the design ….. but it just too over the top foe me  …..  looking at the pictures with fresh eyes, I wish I had substituted a little lime green for some of that pink!!!!

Happy Birthday Card

This card is A5 in size and is made using a white linen effect, hand cut card blank.

Please forgive the quality of the pictures in this post, I didn’t realise that there was a smudge on the camera lens until I went to edit them.

This was the card I made for my Brother in Laws birthday.  The pictures makes the colour of the letters look a little pastel, but in real life I think they looked much more “masculine”!

I like the idea of using lots of texture, hence the corrugated card, mat and layered on silver to help accentuate and define the edges.

My self adhesive alphabet stash is going down …… if only on the vowel front, I am going to have to start being more inventive when it come to the making up of words for other cards, if I am going to make any more headway in using up the other consonants, as Marc keeps on telling me, time to get my Silhouette out.

I’ve added coloured wooden stars from Paperchase and tiny silver confetti stars here and there.  I put metallic brads in the corner of each word plaque but I am not sure if they add anything.

I don’t use brads enough, and have got quite a few that really do need using up, any ideas on how to use them on a card in bulk?

Card For A Newly Qualified Pharmacist

This card measures 5.5 x 5.5ins and is made using a linen effect, hand cut blank.

Please excuse quality of photos, there was a smear on my camera lens, that I didn’t notice at the time and is now driving me mad!!!

My niece had recently qualified as a Pharmacist and this is the card I made to congratulate her. 

I found the sentiment on Google and changed it ever so slightly to suit the occasion.  I then typed it out using a variety of fonts and printed it on a green gingham card, followed by a bit of mat and layering on silver.

The addition of the capsules was a moment of inspiration when I couldn’t find anything that looked like pills amongst all my embellishments, and I was too lazy to make some using fimo!

I suddenly remembered these small, plastic “time capsules” I got from a company called Silver Crow in the US about ten years ago ….. filled with glitter, they were perfect!!!  I am now wondering if there are any other ways I can use them again.

Card For A Fashionista

This card measures 5.5ins x 5.5ins and is made using a white linen effect, hand cut card blank.
Please excuse the poor quality of the photos, I didn’t realise that there was a smudge on the lens until I edited the pictures……. doh!

This card was made for my nephew’s girlfriend to congratulate her on gaining a “first” for her fashion degree.  My first ideas were over complicated and nothing came out right …… so I Googled for a while, which is what I always do when I am stuck for an idea, and then after about five minutes the word “fashionista” jumped into my head  ……..

…… and as I was running out of time and still desperately trying to use up my thousands of self adhesive letters, I decided to keep the idea very simple, but that said it all!!

So …… with just a handful of Papermania self adhesive letters, a bit of mat and layering on silver mirror card and a smattering of silver stars and clear flat backed gems, I think I pulled it off!

Dinosaur Nine Square Patchwork Card

This card measure 5ins x 5ins and is made using a white linen effect, hand cut card blank.

What, more dinosaurs?  I can’t believe just how many packets of stickers I have found squirreled away, however I am determined to use every last one, so my apologies if you are bored of my dinosaur cards, but dinosaurs never go out of fashion!  These stickers cost me 60p a pack from a market stall, goodness knows where, and goodness knows how long ago!!!!!

Instead of punching the Bazzill background squares, I cut them on my small X-Cut guillotine because the dinosaurs were a little too big for my 1in punch, this in turn created a sort of patchwork effect.

I am not sure about the overall design though, which is why I only made one, something is missing, but I am not sure what? Perhaps I need to add more detail to the background of each square?

Russian Doll Nine Square Cards

These cards all measure 5ins x 5ins are made using a white linen effect hand cut blank.

The stash busting continues, as it has since January (and it’s unbelievably September already)  ……. this time using my packets of Russian Doll stickers from Accessorize from goodness knows when!

So, it was a matter of just keep going until every single sticker was gone ….. so lots of mat and layering and punching of 1in scalloped squares in contrasting colours and a little faux stitching and doodled dots…….

……. and viola …… and yet another “tiny” pile of stash bites the dust!!!!