Birthday Card and Candle Made to Order

This was a card that was made to order for a friend's Dad's 60th. And of course all net proceeds went in to my charity pot!
Thank you for your order Claire!

She also ordered a candle too, which is why I have included it in this post!

As always, click on them to view in full. I totally <3 my new camera!

The finished card.

Inside with matching panelling, with the candle.

And a super close up of the candle.

I would like to enter the card in to the following challenges please:

• Stamptacular Sunday: No Kids Allowed... Birthday
• Crafty Cardmakers: Special Birthdays

Card Recipe:

• Really thick blue card stock
• Flippin' Men Stamp
• Blue sticky ribbon
• Gold mirror card
• Plain white super smooth card stock
  
• Tiny self-adhesive Gems from 'The Snowman' collection
• 6, 0, D, A, D silver stickers, coloured with Peel Off Pens
• ProMarkers {will edit colours in later as I need to check some of them)

Candle Recipe:

• Candle
• D, A, D alphabet stamps
• ProMarkers
• Gold elasticated twine type-stuff, instead of ribbon to make it more masculin.
• Tissue Paper
  

Will be back laters with more!

Major BIG Catch Up Part III

Part 3 of my update.

A nice Audrey Hepburn twisted decoupage card. I could have split up the layers but I wanted to go all out on this one. Used card stock, gold mirror board, prima flower and gem, and I can't remember what designer paper I used as the backing paper.

A side view so you can see the layers.

A single layed Audrey Hepburn mounted on a different style of card {which name escapes me right now}. Again, gold mirror board was used, excuse the reflection from the camera lol

A miniture version of the twisted decoupage featured on the first card.

A nice big 3 way fold {again the proper name of the fold has eluded me} card of James Dean, I believe. Once again, this one is twisted decoupage, mounted on gold mirror board.

Side view.

Inside, with the magnetic bookmark I made to go with it, and as you can see from the picture below, the magnets are pretty strong.

The card on it's side, showing that the magnetic bookmark does not slip off.

The other side of the bookmark, with me holding it up and giving it a little shake, still doesn't slide off!

The inside of the magnetic bookmark.

And finally, the King! Though this pic does the card no justice at all! And the silver mirror board doesn't help much either! There is a space at the bottom to allow for personalisation, or for one of the generic tags to go on it that came with the set.

A side view to see the layers.

MAJOR Update Part II - Son's Birthday

Okay, a major even happened whilst I was away.
My wonderful son turned 11 at the end of September, so here are a few piccies, along with some other pics of cards I made for other September birthdays!

William's Card. Details can be found at the bottom of the page. As always, click on the image to enlarge and view in better detail.

Tags I made for his birthday pressies.

Opening one of his pressies.

William's cake, which was yummy BTW. And YES I did save that ribbon and add it to my stash! I DARE you to tell me that you don't do that!!

I have just realised that I already posted the other cards here lol, so no need for me to post them!


Recipe for William's Card:

• Plain white card, pre-folded with matching envelope from a local craft store.
• 'Tyler and Piper - Rock Stars' (set of 2 images) Digital Image from Pollycraft.co.uk
  
• 'Birthday' Wire Word by Papermania from madaboutcards.co.uk
• Backing Paper is 'Looney Tunes Hop n Bop' from madaboutcards.co.uk
• Self-Adhesive Foam Numbers from stamps.co.uk
• Music Metal Charms from madaboutcards.co.uk (just £1 for a pack of 9 different charms).
• Daisy and Dandelion Stick on Sentiment from madaboutcards.co.uk (just 50p for a pack of different sentiments, at the time of writing this)
• Various papers from Claire Curd's signature range on the inside of the card (Not Shown)
• Whisper Brush Markers used to colour in the image
• Double sided sticky tape
• Anita's Tacky Glue
• 3D Foam Pads (you might not be able to tell but I stamped and coloured the image several times and découpage'd it)

Recipe for the Tags:

• White card stock
• 'William - Where's the Party' Clear Stamp from PollyCraft.co.uk (This is to be retired as soon as it is sold out)
• Whispers Brush Markers
• Double sided sticky tape
  

A Forgotton Card

Argh! I can't believe that I forgot to post this card!
I think it's because I made it a long time ago for my buddy in America, and sent it to her at Christmas, along with her Christmas card, for her birthday this year which was in March!

I applied the backing paper to the card and left it to dry while I drew out the dress shape on card before adhering paper to the dress along with the band and strip with another sheet of paper. I then added Glittering yarn on the trim and band, then I used some designer chipboard to create the flowery thing embellishment. I used foam pads to mount the dress on to the card.

A side view.


Recipe:

• Card stock
• Black and White paper is from the Hint of Pink Collection by Kate Knight (Dovecraft) from craftingdirect.co.uk
• Pink dress paper is from the Raspberry pad from Creative Tones Collection by Papermania.
• Band and trim is also from the Hint of Pink Collection by Kate Knight
• The 'flower' embellishment was made up from several pieces of chipboard from the Hint of Pink Embellishment tin by Kate Knight
• Glittering yarn (white/clear) from madaboutcards.co.uk (just £1!)
• Foam pads
• Anita's Tacky Glue from madaboutcards.co.uk
  

Recipes for Previous Cards

Here are the recipies for the cards I posted on 29th July.
Most links link directly to the product.


Card One (Brother Card):

• Card was a free sample from stamps.co.uk
• Dark blue stock paper
• White card stock
• See D's So Big Alphabet stamps
  
• Rainbow Sparkle Embossing Powder (No longer available from where I got it from)
  
• Self-Adhesive Foam Numbers from stamps.co.uk
• Diamond Stickles from stamps.co.uk
• Small gem embellishments from 5mm Round Coloured Gems pack from madaboutcards.co.uk (Often out of stock, gotta be quick to get these!)
• Anita's Narrow Blue Organza Ribbon from madaboutcards.co.uk
• Papermania Foam Stamps from ???
• 'Hand Stamped by....' stamp from madaboutcards.co.uk pound shop
• Gluegun
  
• Black ink
• Whispers Black pen
• Silver pen
  
• Craft Knife
• Anita's Tacky Glue Glue from madaboutcards.co.uk

Card Two (Balloon):

• White card stock
• Red paper stock
• Balloon Template FREE download from timeforcrafting.co.uk (I scaled it up quite a bit and my son didn't use it as a card shape, instead *he* rounded off the flat edge)
  
• Printable 'Happy Birthday' backing paper from madaboutcards.co.uk
• Self-Adhesive Foam Numbers from stamps.co.uk
• See D's Birthday Words Collection? (It came in a set)
  
• See D's Birthday Collection? (It came in a set)
• Anita's Narrow Blue Organza Ribbon from madaboutcards.co.uk
• Diamond Stickles from stamps.co.uk
• Scrap piece of red ribbon
• Stock silver glitter
  
• Black Ink
• Red Ink
• Whispers brush pens
• Funky Scissors to create the jagged edge effects from madaboutcards.co.uk
• Anita's Tacky Glue Glue from madaboutcards.co.uk

Mini Box Project:

• White card stock
• Black paper stock
• Blue paper stock
  
• Inner backing paper all from a 2x12 Colossal Border Strip pack from madaboutcards.co.uk
• See D's So Big Alphabet stamps
• Powder Blue Sparkle embossing powder
  
• Star Embellishments from a local craft store
• Diamond Stickles from stamps.co.uk
• Photograph printed from PC
• Small gem embellishments from 5mm Round Coloured Gems pack from madaboutcards.co.uk (Often out of stock, gotta be quick to get these!)
• UR 21 Plastic Number Plate embellishment from madaboutcards.co.uk
• Anita's Sticky Ribbon - Check/Tartan from stamps.co.uk
  
• Self-Adhesive WhiteSticker
• Happy Birthday Stamp from a See D's collection
• Red Foam sheet from madaboutcards.co.uk
• Anita's Tacky Glue Glue from madaboutcards.co.uk
• Heatgun
  
• Metal Paperclip
• Blue Ink
• Red Ink
  
• Black Whispers brush pen
• Red Whispers brush pen
• Scoreboard and bamboo folder
• Silver tag (source unknown)
• And a cheque ;)
  

Card Three (Mother's Day):

• Part of a kit that is no longer available. I have the same card available for sale for just £2.90 including P&P (UK only) leave a message if you are interested with your e-mail address.

Card Four: (Get Well Soon):

• Green pre-folded card from local craft store
• Red paper stock
  
• Petals made from various papers from the Creative Tones pack and the 'Love' pack from the Colossal Paper Pack collection from Papermania. The packs my son used from the Creative Tones collection were; 'Amethyst Infusion', 'Antique Cream', and Venetian Skies'
  
• 'Pot' made from a sheet of paper from the Simply Elegant Colossal Paper Pack from Papermania
  
• Impress Machine
• Impress Upper Case Italics die cuts
• Anita's Tacky Glue Glue from madaboutcards.co.uk
• Diamond Stickles from stamps.co.uk

Birthday Goodies

It was my birthday on Monday (27th), so I thought I would share some of the awesome handmade cards I got!

Since I started making my own cards, it seems all of my family have followed suit!
Which is a great thing, not only does it mean that people get great homemade cards, it means that we are saving money and the environment too!

My awesome Uncle has tonnes of crafting stuff though he tends to stick to PC CD Rom programs to make his cards, which is cool too!

As always click the images to view in full size.

The cards my Uncle made from himself and my Aunt. Thank you!! xxx

My Mum also started off card making using PC CD Roms, maybe a year or so after I started making my own. She has since progressed to making her own using various media and quite recently she has purchased some stamps and inks, though I do not think she has used them yet.
She doesn't often buy kits, as it is more cost effective not to, but she saw a set of kits on QVC and thought one of them would be perfect for my birthday!

The middle one is an awesome Elvis card that my Mum made from her and my Step-Dad. I am a total Elvis fan, so I was very pleased to receive this. It is a découpage card :)
The card on the right is from my little brother, which, I believe was his first time at making his own card! Usually my Mum makes his lol (The same brother who features in the post previous to this.)
The card of the left is from one of my other Aunt's. She started making her own cards 2 or 3 years ago!
Thank you to all!! xxx

Close up of Elvis!

I did get mostly money for my birthday, which I don't mind at all!
After using some of it to buy a subscription to genesreunited.co.uk as I have recently picked up my other newish hobby of family research again, I bought some craft goodies, as I hadn't bough any since about March (ain't I good???) and as there was a sale on, it would have been rude not to ;)

I got; The Big One by Clare Curd (200 sheets of awesome papers), Paper Shapes (which I thought would be great for my son also), Couture Ribbons, 4x different Clangers backing papers, 4x different Looney Tunes backing papers, 2x different Scooby Doo backing papers, 2x Sets of Clangers découpage kits (4 in total), Masking Tape, Oriental Spice, Colossal Strips (only bought them as a tester really, to see if it was nice enough to buy a large pack, and for 50p you can't really complain, and yes, they are quite nice really!), 2x Message Tags, 2x Jolly Nation découpage kits (Movie Star Lady and Movie Star Man), 3D Birthday Stickers, Anita's Calendar Tabs for 2010 (which I plan for my son to make into New Year Cards for family - any tipos on how to use them are most welcomed!), Assorted Craft Wire, White and Clear Beads, See-D's Magical Christmas stamps (£1!!!!), See-D's Personal Labels stamps (£1!!!!), Marie Curie Daffodil Stamp (50p COME ON!), and 2x Vintage Bauble Ribbon Stickers (1 blue, 1 red).

My next purchase will be a paper crimper, as I really want to make some of these cool Crimped Envelope Pocket Cards (Tutorial available here) for maybe next years birthday cards!

Also for my birthday I got this tiny but cute plant! After some research I found that there are several different ones to collect and take care of. You only need to water them (by dipping the bottom into a bowl of water for a few minutes), every four weeks or so. Then when it is fully grown (after 4 - 6 months), you can tranfere it into a bigger pot, though I haven't quite figured out how to get it out of the casing yet, though I have plenty of time to find out still! You can read all about Pet Plants here. The one I have is Xing, which means Happiness and is symbolised by the Finger Plant.

And finally, I seriously need to have a sort out with my craft stuff and the boxes I keep them all in! I have a couple of spare boxes to put my goodies in, I just haven't got around to doing it yet lol
I think I will have a sort out in the next week or so after I have made all of September's birthday cards, which I will be starting very soon!

It's Been a While........

Well, it's certainly been a while since I last posted anything!
And I feel so guilty about it as my new obsession is only FACEBOOK!
So yes, I broke one of my new year's resolutions, which was to blog every day!
I'm bad I know, but this time I promise to blog more often!

Anyways with a bunch of birthdays and Christmas just around the corner, what better time to pick up my blog to showcase my makings!

And as I haven't posted in a while, and some birthdays have been and gone, I best post them here to get up to date!

As always, click the images to enlarge :)

Firstly, it was my brother's 21st birthday in March, and my first attempt at using stamps only to create a card. I stamped 'BROTHER' using letters from a See D's collection. I then embossed it using 'Midnight' from create n craft. I then gentle inked my black inkpad all over the front and around the edge. I glued some blue stock paper to the card before attaching 'BROTHER' ata slight angle and roughly drawing the black border. I then attached a 2 and 1 foam shape along with 10 gem embellishments. Using a craft knife I created two slits for the ribbon to pass by. Finally I used Stickles to create another border, let it dry then wrote ' To a Special' and 'Happy Birthday'.
For the back, I used a foam shape to create the flower on to some card, inked and embossed it, and inked around the edge. Then I stamped 'Hand Stamped By', which unintentionally left a funky-rough edge around it, so I decided to keep that, then I embossed that too. Finally I inked a foam smaller 3 flower stamp, inked the edge and embossed that too before signing my name.

This card was made by my son, for my brother's 21st.
He used some card stock for the main card, with some 'Happy Birthday' backing paper.
He then used a balloon template to create the errr balloon with some red stock paper then inked the edge. He attached some scrap ribbon to create the whole balloon effect. He used a multi 'Happy Birthday' stamp from a See D's collection and used some funky scissors to cut it out before inking the edge. The same applies to the Birthday Cake. He coloured it in with Whispers Brush Pens. He also attached foam numbers then using the Impress Machine and dies he cut out 'STEVEN' before spreading glitter all over the place lol.
He created the inside tag the same way as the two on the front, and the same goes for the tags on the back.

For his birthday I got him an experience day, to go visit a football ground, as I was sending it early and was kinda rushing it, I did not have any wrapping paper in the house, so I dug out an AIRMAIL kit I bought years ago, as I knew it had some plain brown paper in there, plus it was nice and thick and looked good. I jazzed it up a bit with a handmade tag, from said brown paper. I inked the edge with brown ink, cut out STEVEN with my Impress Machine and dies and used a pen to outline the letters, I attached some ribbon top the tag, and used some (christmas) gold curling ribbon to tie it all together as I used flimsy tape on it so the paper could be re-used again!

This mini project was a pain in my backside!
I thought it would be nice for my brother to have as I had sent his birthda pressie early.
I started making it long before his birthday, as I knew it would take forever to make!
The first image shows 'BRO' stamped with stamps from a See D's collection. Image is inked slightly, with a couple of star embellishments and Stickles to highlight some of the lines on the backing paper. Sticky Ribbon attched to the top.
The second image shows a photo of my 'baby' brother, and you can just about see my arm, as I was holding him. This was attached to card, with Stickles used to fill in the white gap, and an inked edge. 4 gem embellishments were added. Sticky Ribbon attached to the top.

The 3rd image shows a plastic 'U R 21' plate embellishment along with some star embellishments and some Stickles applied to several of the dots on the backing paper. Sticky Ribbon attached to the top.
The 4th image shows a cheque holder that I made. 'Happy Birthday' is stamped on to card using a stamp from a See D's Collection. Edge is then inked and bottom is glued on to the inside of the box then using a metal paperclip the cheque is attached. 'Pull Out' is written on to a sticker. Sticky Ribbon is attached at the top.

The 5th image shows an overview where you can see the football shirt that I made from 2 pieces of foam and 2 pieces of card. I drew out the shape on some scrap card, then drew it on to 2 pieces of red foam, cut them out and stuck together (to make it more bulky), then I did the same for the card pieces, but slightly larger. I coloured the card in our team colour. Then added xxx as stitches around the edges, then I wrote his surname, and '21 today'. Added Stickle squiggles.
The 6th image shows the lid and the outer box. I applied the same backing paper to the box. I then inked the top and sides of the card and embossed it with 'Midnight' from create n craft and applied the Sticky ribbon around the top. I drew an 'S' on to some card and embossed that also, before applying it to another embossed circle card.

The 7th image shows the bottom of the box with a small 'Handmade by...' tag, along with the ribbon. I forgot to take a pic of the inside of the lid, but I used black stock paper in it, with a stamped 'Happy Birthday' then I drew tiny stars in gold pen around it.
The 8th image shows the final product with the ribbon and tag. I can't remember if I made the tag or if it's a pre-cut one. I THINK it might be a pre-cut one.
It's a good job I started making it early too, so it had time to be played with, as the lid fit was VERY tight!

My Mother's Day card for this year, and as it is very close to my brother's birthday, I didn't have time to make a new card, so I delved in to my 'previous makes box' and added a few stickers to it, so that I could post it along with my brother's cards.
I have quite a few of these cards, so if anyone wants to buy one, please contact me by leaving me your e-mail address in a comment. (Cards are £3 each, includes P&P) I will e-mail you back details on how to pay. I will post dimensions later.

Goodiesssssssss. I adore getting new goodies! I did get these a while back though when there was a HUGE sale on, and quite a lot of the stuff was only 50p each! Plus I got a buncha Smirk stuff too as I have been dying to get my hands on some since they came out!
Here you can see; two doCrafts magazines with free stickers (25p each!!!!), 3 12x12 funky card -not shown, a pack of 40 mini christmas stamps (for just £5!), Anita's Tacky Glue, 4 pairs of funky scissors (50p each!), 4 packs of Dovecraft Christmas Rose Tinted Shaker embellishments, 5 packs of Christmas backing paper, a wonderful fairy stamp, 2 packs of glue-gun glue, pack of forever friends decoupage card kits, darts and football decoupage card kits, 2x Smirk Ribbon Stickers, 2 Smirk Stamps, 2 Smirk packs of ribbon, Smirk Glitter tags, Smirk embellishment tote and a pack of 12x12 Smirk papers.
Oops almost forgot to mention, all from www.madaboutcards.co.uk and their sister site, craftpoundshop which can be accessed from MAC, you can also purchase items from both places with the same shopping cart.

Finally, a card made by my son for my Uncle, who was in hospital at the time.
He used a green pre-folded card. First he cut a strip of dark green stock paper and glued it in to place then he cut out four petal shapes from different paper stocks, using my hand drawn template. He then attached a dot in the centre of the petals.
Then he used my Impress machine and dies to cut out 'GET WELL SOON' then glued them in to place. Finally he cut out a 'pot' from some stock paper and applied some stickles to give it more definition, then I applied some swirly stickles to the card so it wasn't so plain (he is only 10, he couldn't do that part himself! On the inside, he attached a wallet sized (very recent) school photograph using some easy on, easy off tack, so my Uncle could take it off and put in his wallet later!
My uncle loved the card, and is now recovering well and back at home after 6 weeks in hospital!

I will post recipes for all the projects later, as I will need to rumage in my boxes for some of the items.



*insert siggy here later as it is not working at the moment!*

Two New Cards

Two new cards for today for two birthdays in February.

First up is this card I made for my Sister-in-Law. Excuse the glare on the first pic, which is why I included a second pic for it :)

And finally this card for my Aunt.



Recipes:


Card One:

• Luxury Felt 7x5 blank card from cardmakingcrafts.co.uk
• Die Cut Blue Daisies Decoupage sheet from madaboutcards.co.uk (though you can no longer buy the twin pack sheet, you can get the same flowers in a book pack with 19 other flowers and a few bits and pieces, all for £9.99 - great value!) Just click the link.
• Panel was made by me with different shades of blue chalks mixed and blended together on some white stock card with a little water. I used Faber-Castell Creative Studio Soft Pastel Set
• Happy Birthday, Best Wishes and Swirl Stickers from a pack of Anita's Outline Stickers, which were free with an Issue of DoCrafts (I will lookup the issue number shortly).
• Ribbon Trim is from a pack of Papermania's Springtime Ribbon Stickers from firststopstationers.co.uk
• Loose Ribbon threaded through the hole on the 'Happy Birthday' is Anita's Everyday Ribbon - Blue
• Peel-off Stickers Borders, Straight (Silver), from madaboutcards.co.uk
• Anita's Tacky Glue from madaboutcards.co.uk though they only seem to stock the smaller bottle these days.
• Foam pads from local craft store.

Card Two:

• Luxury Felt 7x5 blank card from cardmakingcrafts.co.uk
• Die Cut Decoupage sheet from madaboutcards.co.uk (though you can no longer buy the twin pack sheet, you can get the same flowers in a book pack with 19 other flowers and a few bits and pieces, all for £9.99 - great value!) Just click the link. (I can't remember the name of the flower, sorry).
• Panel was made from some red paper stock.
• Birthday Embellishment is a Papermania Wire Words.
• Ribbon Trim and Corner Stickers from a pack of 3D Glitter Embossed Stickers - Rose Borders & Corners from Papermania.
• Birthday Wire Word is mounted on a piece of scrap card, which in turn in mounted on a sheet of Raspberry Champagne Creative Tones Border Pack from Papermania from madaboutcards.co.uk for just £1! Then I remounted the sentiment on to a piece of card stock twice, once to get the white border effect the second to hide the brad split pin fastenings from the Wire Words. Inside I stamped a 'Happy Birthday' sentiment on to an oval shaped piece of card stock. Stamp was from madaboutcards.co.uk and it is a 4-sided Happy Birthday Stamp.
• Also used a floral stamp on the inside sentiment which I got from a local Ex-Catalog shop. I also mounted the sentiment on to a matching sheet of 8x8 Raspberry Champagne Creative Tones Border Pack from Papermania which you can get from firststopstationers.co.uk, also available in other sizes.
• Anita's Tacky Glue from madaboutcards.co.uk though they only seem to stock the smaller bottle these days.
  Foam pads from local craft store.