It was recently a male relatives Birthday, and pretty much like most ‘made by hand’ card makers, I don’t like making cards for men. They all seem so twee or predictable – so … ‘forgive me Crafter for I have sinned’ … I will normally buy the men in my life a card for their birthday. And … this is the story of how this card came to be.
I knew I’d bought a card for this particular relatives Birthday.
Mr. Cobs knew I’d bought a card for this particular relatives Birthday.
Could I find said card?
Not on your nelly! (I have no idea where that saying came from – but it’s most definitely a saying here in the UK, and has been since dirt was invented. It means: ‘Not on your life’!).
So, with very little time left before a card had to be delivered by hand, I got my thinking cap on and came up with a card which, I have to admit, looks better in real life than in the photo. But … and this is the important bit … it practically made itself.
It began with a cut and scored white card. I chose the cafe latte coloured, striped with cream stripes card for the top part of the card, and the rich chocolate-brown Happy Birthday card, in different font styles for the bottom. (You can buy both these cards in a huge variety of different colours – so check out the options if you visit the website). Both of these cards are from the Anna Marie Designs range.
I cut these different cards to size, then layered them onto some black card stock, then fixed them to the white card.
Then cut the tag from some white card stock, using a Tattered Lace Peach Sorbet Torn Edge Tags die. I don’t think Tattered Lace make these anymore, but I’ve had a look round and found some on Amazonhere.
The ‘Birthday Wishes’ was stamped using a stamp from the Wishes and Vines by Silhouette Stamps. I’ve had these stamps for a while, but you can still buy them in one or two places, both in the US an in the UK – so ask Google to be your friend and I’m sure he’ll help.
I stamped and then layered the tag onto some black card, which I then carefully cut around, attempting to match the wiggly outside of the tag itself.
Then I added a ribbon made from some wide silk ribbon in my stash and …. That’s all there was to it!
I would have posted this a couple of days ago … but I couldn’t find the place I’d saved it to on my computer! {sigh} … It would seem that Birthdays are going to be a nightmare when card giving this year. First Birthday of the new year and I’m already ‘fudging it up’!
I know I don’t normally do Jokes on any day but Friday … but I heard this one and I need to share it with you ….
Why did the cow cross the road? – It wanted to go to the mooovies.
Yup … still finding it funny and still laughing out loud. lol
Have a really great rest of your day, and thank you so much for coming and having a coffee with me!
Sending you lots of squidges in a huuuuge bucket ~
Like the proverbial bad penny, I’m back again, this time showing you some more of the cards I made for neighbours. I’d got to a point this week where time was of the essence and I needed to find quick, simple cards which contained a smile – so these are a tiny selection.
I made quite a few of these Ho Ho Ho cards, on different shaped and sizes of card – some of which went into the post – but the ones going through the mail system: I lined one side of the envelope with some good gsm cardstock, so that the buttons wouldn’t split the envelope, or get damaged.So if you make some of these which are going through the mail system, just line your envelopes with something which will take the brunt of any machinery or bad handling.
I made these with different coloured buttons and really mixed it up, depending on who I was sending them to. But have to admit that my favourites were red buttons.
Another red button Ho Ho Ho, ↑ but this time made with a square card as a base.
This Snowman card is destined for a neighbour with two children. I thought it would raise a smile with them. (And you can never go wrong when you add googly eyes. Doesn’t matter what you add them to… letter box… CCTV camera warning signs … wrapped sandwiches in lunch boxes. Nope, you can never go wrong with googly eyes). 👀
Finally … the one that I think is my favourite … more buttons again, but used as hanging baubles. There’s something so friendly about these that they just make me smile.
Items used for these cards are: an assortment of buttons, a black fine nib pen, Dovecraft Ribbon, Kuretake Clean Colour Brush Pens in 2 different colours of orange – for the snowmans nose; Googly eyes; and the letter ‘h’ from a set of alphabet stamps which I got free with a magazine about 12/14 months ago.
You may have noticed a Tree on one card, in the feature photo at the top of this post …. (I repost this picture, to save you scrolling up again). . .
…. the tree card is in the middle at the back. I forgot to take an individual photo of that particular card, but it’s made using a Christmas Tree made from Bark, which I bought from Anna Marie (in the UK), and I added a glass star to the top then used Stickles to add red baubles and Stickles in Christmas Green (a mix of green and red) to add ‘tinsel’.
And that …. as they say … is all there was to it.
I got the idea for almost all of these cards from Pinterest last year – but didn’t use the idea. However, with time running out fast I looked around my craft room for things that could make plenty of cards in a short time …. the buttons yelled and waved at me from the shelf, so I took them up on their offer. If you get yourself a little production line going, you can get plenty of these done in the blink of an eye. I highly recommend them to those of you who are attempting to stretch the remaining hours before the day.
Thank you so much for coming, I love knowing that you’re here, so do stop and say hello in a comment, if you have time.
Well now that Valentines Day has been done and dusted I can finally share the ‘card‘ I made and has now been given and proudly on display.
It’s not actually a card though. This year I thought I’d start a new ‘thing’ for us. A new Chez Cobs tradition. A Memory Book for each Valentines Day – and this is the first one.
It’s made in the same tried and trusted way I make mini Albums – but with just a few ‘pages’, as it’s meant to be a Valentines Card/Memory Book. so it has to cover the dual aspect – if you get what I mean.
Rather than try to explain how I made it, I took photo’s of each step of the making so that you can see how it comes together…
Using 12″x 12″ Chipboard, I cut three sections – measurements for my ‘book’ are as in the photo above – but you can make an album/memory book in any size you want.
Pieces cut, and placed in position so you can see how they go together. I’ve written on the individual parts in pencil so that it just makes everything doubly easy.
Cover the front and back in your chosen papers. All the papers used here are from the First Edition Papers, by Trim Craft, in the Love Story 12″x12″ pad and cut to size.
The ‘spine’ is covered in Card – by Anna Marie, and some plain red papers which I had in my stash. Each of these were decoratively cut using 2 different Spellbinders Dies, which work together and come in the same set.
Fixing the ‘spine’ to the book covers. I’d fix the spine chipboard to the papers/card first, once in place, you can then fix that whole spine section to the covers. Make sure that you leave enough space for the book to open and close.
Outside done …. now for the inside.
For my Card/Memory Book I took three 6×6″ ready scored and folded card blanks, then fixed them together using red tape and glue. I then fixed the very back page of those now glued cards to the back, inside cover (which I’d already fixed decorative papers to in readiness).
Then basically, you’ve got your ‘book’. Now you just have to go to town and make it pretty and put into it what you visioned it was going to be!
I decorated each ‘set’ of pages in pairs. Each page which faced another page was decorated in the same paper. That way they kind of ‘spoke’ to each other. BUT … you can decorate you pages in any way you want to. Different colours, looks, designs etc on each page if you wish. It’s your book.
On some pages I just had a sentiment and some decoration. On others, as in the above photo, I fixed a little envelope which had a little ‘billet doux’ (love letter) hidden inside it. I made sure that there was plenty of blank space on the envelope for it to be addressed to the receiver.
There are hidden tags(see the page on the left as you look at the above picture); places for a photograph – either one already taken, or one taken on *that* day;and tags fixed into place which held their own message, but one which could be added to in order to personalise that particular message in some way or another.
A Blackboard,in the shape of a heart, on which a personalised message could be written. Bunting ‘strung’ across two pages saying: ‘HAPPY ❤ DAY’ (happy hearts day – or happy valentines day) … and a set of golden keys.
As you can see in the above photo, there are places all over the Memory Book where you can write little messages.
There are hidden tags, and tags which show you where they are. The tags are of a size that you can write messages or memories on them, and also fix photographs to them – so that all the messages and memories all come together inside the Memory Book.
And finally … I decorated the outside. I knew exactly what I wanted the front to look like, and because of that, I left it till last so that I didn’t crush the roses or accidentally pull something off! (I’m such a klutz and knew I’d do it, so took precautions and decorated it last of all).
I was so thrilled at how this came together and so pleased that, although filled with love, it wasn’t ‘mushy’, but had a charm and clearly showed a true friendship, which spoke volumes. Oh… and I can happily tell you that the Memory Book/Valentines Card was very well received and is being proudly displayed on the dresser. 😀
I hope your Tuesday was a lovely day – whether you celebrated Valentines Day or not. It was just a day which happened to be the 14th February.
Did you know:That academic studies have shown similarities between falling in love and obsessive compulsive disorder, taking cocaine or eating chocolate?
And …. Research (in 2012) showed that when a loving couple stare into each other’s eyes for three minutes, their heart rates synchronise.
oh … and:Research also suggests that the average person will fall in love seven times before marriage.
Also:A recent survey reported that two per cent of couples have fallen in love in a supermarket.
And finally ….. Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary defined love as, “A temporary insanity curable by marriage”.
See? You didn’t know that you didn’t know that did you? And there you are again! PROOF … as if proof were needed, … that The Cobweborium Emporium (i.e. this ‘ere blog) is very much an educational tool. You get educationalmalised every time you pay a visit! Bit like reading a book while you’re on the loo!LOL
And now we’ve reached the depths of my sense of humour, I shall send you love and plenty of happy squidges.
Have a truly wonderful Wednesday, with love ❤ from ~
I broke out the Graphic 45! I did. I really did. Graphic 45in their Times Nouveau collection, and made a Tag Card, on a Graphic 45 large tag, and it’s all held onto an Easel which has a working stand, which ‘folds’ out from the back and holds the card like an easel would hold a piece of art work in a Gallery. It has two hidden tags (one you can see in the picture above) and a little something special on the back, for writing the message.
I wondered if perhaps we could do another GIVE AWAY for this card – if anyone would like it. I’ll explain in a minute how to enter the give away if you’d like to, but first … I thought I’d better show you how I made the card.
SHOPPING LIST (roughly’ish’ – if I’ve forgotten to mention anything just point it out in a comment and I’ll let you know.)
Pinflair Novelty Easel Card – minus the ‘canvas’
1 x Graphic 45 Lrg. Tag from a Regular Tag Album (9 pack)
Kraft Mannequin from a pad of 45 (2 sizes: large, smaller, & either plane or foiled in gold and silver) by Craftwork Cards
News Print card by Anna Marie Designs
Olive Spot and larger spot in black card – both by Anna Marie Designs
Graphic 45 Times Nouveau Classic Collection – plus some chipboard tags and stickers from this collection.
Very pale mint spot from stash.
Tiny black with off white spots paper from stash.
Ribbons and twine are all from stash.
How I made it:- Take one black card tag … cover it on one side with Newsprint card,
Add a tiny piece of very pale mint spot paper, and a larger piece of olive spot card. Making sure you leave a section for a tag to ‘hide’. (shown by the bit of white and grey leaf card)
Add a piece of Graphic 45 Times Nouveau in the dog-tooth design. (Again building in a section for a tag to hide in – not shown in this picture (above) but you’ll see the tag hiding place in the next photo)
Can you see where the little hiding spot is on the right hand side now? Here in this photo (above) I’ve added some black card with very tiny white spots on it; a mannequin which I distressed and wrapped in a little length of green organza; I added a fussy cut rather stylish lady, which I mounted on first black larger spot card, then again on small spot card – just for the contrast; A vintage Car – again fussy cut, but this time from some papers I had in my stash. I then popped the chipboard ‘Swanky’ tag onto the card and pushed two pearly hat pins behind the card, so that they peeped out a the top of the chipboard tag.
Then came some finishing touches … Added ribbon, made a bow and added netting in two colours and a couple of flower from my stash; some tiny pearls around the neck of the mannequin and tucked some sequins into one of the folds of the organza so that they would catch the light. I then made some little tags using both spot papers and some Graphic 45 Paper, . . . and then came the easel for it to be displayed on …
There is a little ‘making’ to the actual easel – but it’s nothing which is difficult. They’re fabulous easels, and so beautifully made. Everything is cut ready for you, and REALLY well cut too.
I had trouble lighting this card. I tried it with the flash, without the flash, with desk lamps, with ceiling lights … and every combination of the previously mentioned ways. I would say that the true colours are somewhere between the last two photographs above. The one on the easel seems to have a little too much of a yellow tinge to it. Where-as the photo before it is rather pale and wiped out by the flash I think. It looks like it needs to be taking iron tablets. lol
OK… here’s the *instructions* for entering for the give away for this card if you would like to throw your name into the mix and be in with a chance of winning it . . . .
TO ENTER THE GIVE AWAY HERE’S WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO
You MUST be a follower of the blog – The Cobweborium Emporium. (This is because I have to keep in mind that I’ve made great friends with almost all of my blog followers and so have a great loyalty to them and would want one of them to win the card. I think this is fair).
IN A COMMENT BELOW YOU MUST TYPE THIS WORD IF YOU WANT YOUR NAME TO BE INCLUDED …. and that word is:-GIVEAWAY. ← Exactly like that. Oneword. Type it at the start or end of your comment.
You have to put it exactly like that – one word, in capital letters. Simple – and it makes sure that I don’t miss anyone. 🙂
And that’s it. That’s all you have to do. Simply make a comment with the word GIVEAWAY either at the start or the end of your comment. It couldn’t be easier, could it! Oh … and … Please DON’T put your real name or address in the comments box. I need to look after your privacy and security. If you win, I’ll organise how to get your address afterwards.
To make sure that all is fair, each entrant will be assigned a number in the ‘time order’ in which they make the comment, and I’ll get the Random Number Generator to choose the number, and do a screen shot of the R.N.G and post it so that you can all see which number was generated.
I’ll ‘run’ this giveaway from today (Wednesday 5th October 2016),until next Tuesday – TUESDAY 11th OCTOBER, and it will end on that day at 6pm UK time. Just a week – so that no one is kept hanging around waiting for the result. (We don’t have zones in the UK, we just have one time zone for the whole of the UK – so you’ll have to ask (perhaps) Google to work it out for you so that you know what time that would be where-ever it is that you are.)
This is open to ANYONE IN ANY AREA OF THE WORLD …so long as your country allows a card posted to you from outside your country through your customs. You won’t be asked for any postage or any monies what-so-ever. This really is just a little fun between us friends.
Well, Wednesday has found it’s way to us all again. I have a plan for today already ear-marked: I’d love to show you, if you don’t already know, how to make your own professional looking Christmas Crackers. Not from a kit … not those kits you buy for making Crackers, which are from thin card and don’t look like proper Christmas Crackers at all. I want to show you, if I can, how to make firstly a regular Christmas Cracker … and then how to spice them up a little and make them into something way more special. The problem is … can I do it in pictures? I’ve only ever shown folks how to do this face to face, sitting next to each other so that they can see exactly what I’m doing. And … I still don’t know how to do the video thing … and load a video onto YouTube – which perhaps would make things easier. But … I’m going to give it a try and see if I can make it work, and hopefully I’ll be able to share the secrets with you.
So anyway ... what are your plans for today? Going anywhere? Making anything? Cooking something? Sewing? Knitting? Anything?
Do share the information with me because I can then come to your blog and badger you if you don’t post the results of it for me to drool over! 🙂 lol – just joking. Actually … no, no I’m not. I feel, as your friend, that it is my duty to come and badger you. So yes, I shall come and badger you and poke you with the end of my stick! It’s a tickling stick and so will make you laugh!
If you’re still reading, (well done), I wish you an absolutely WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY! May the day be bright. May the winds be gentle. May your day be easy. And, until we meet again, may your God hold you in the palm of his hand.
Morning/afternoon/evening – all you lovely readers! (And those who don’t feel that lovely but really are very lovely indeed!)
I’m here and I’m still crafting … but I’ve had to back track on a project. [insert sad face here]. My much-loved Grandson began his new ‘big school’ this week, and the teacher had given all these little ones (on their visit to the new school a couple of months ago), a little bucket, which she asked them to fill with ‘stuff’ related to things that happened during the summer weeks before they started school.
My daughter (his mummy)doesn’t get out as much as she’d like to, due to a medical problem which can keep her not exactly house bound, but it doesn’t allow her the sort of freedom to come and go as much as you and I have and so I guessed that filling the bucket might be somewhat of a problem. So because of this I came up with the idea of making a little book/album and fill it with photo’s and mementoes of things that my Grandson did with us, his Grammy and Grandad, in the summer before big school. (Grammy and Grandad memories added to Mummy and Daddy memories would make up a selection of great memories for my Grandson to share at school). And making & recording memories is what’s been keeping me busy for the last few weeks. I’ve had tons of little things to do with this much-loved Grand-baby of mine (yes, I know he’s not ‘mine’, I have to share him with Mr. Cobs, and his Mummy and Daddy, and his other Grandparents, and his aunty and cousins ….and… and … on and on!, but when he’s with me he’s all mine).
It was a fabulous little book and I was so pleased with the way it was coming together. I’d planned that all the memories and photographs were going to be on large tags, which slotted into pockets which I’d built inside the book. I showed the book to my little grandson a couple of weeks ago and he loved it. It didn’t have the pictures in it at the time, I’d kept those to one side, but just wanted to show him the book – and I had the devil of a job getting the book back off him! He wanted to keep it and take it home. lol. Oh! I’ve just thought! … I perhaps should have told you that this darling, adorable little boy, who is just four and a half years old and the most incredible little chap who’s so easy to love, was born with Cerebral Palsy. It has affected his walking to some extent, and also left him a little behind educationally. His understanding is about 18 to 24 months behind children of the same age as he is.
I’m aware of how careful we should all be of our little ones, so instead of giving you his name, we’ll just call him little H here on the ‘net.
I’d almost finished the tag book, apart from a couple of photo’s and fixing a couple of feathers and an Oak leaf in place, when it turned out that his mommy decided that she didn’t want to use this book after all. [insert miserable face here].
I was at a loss about what to do with the tag book – it wasn’t at all big enough to use as a mini album, and I couldn’t make it bigger as the book itself was ‘made’ in full. So after a couple of days of looking at it and trying to come up with ideas, I decided that rather than lose the beautiful memories we’d made during the summer, I thought the best thing I could do was to de-construct it, and then build a proper mini album, and use what I had, in a way which would make it feel like it had only ever been like it was in its new ‘form’. So this is what’s keeping me busy and stopping me from keeping my blog up to date! (Sorry about that. Life!).
But … I thought I’d take this opportunity to share something I put together for this little chap (well, for his mum and daddy to be precise) – which was a Thank You card to all his nursery school teachers.
I had a Big Friendly Giant decoupage card – ‘un-constructed’ – in my stash for ages and never made it up. And, well, … I had a couple of days where I’d totally lost my mojo, so I thought I’d get the mojo juices running by making up the découpage card. Crafting something was better than just sitting there looking at my desk.
All the things needed to make up one card, came inside this ↑ handy wallet/envelope, from the makers of DoCrafts.
And this ↑ is what it looks like when you unpack the contents of the wallet/envelope
It was easy as melting chocolate with a heat gun, to put together. Just layer it all up. So I did … and loved it when it was made, and just as I was popping the last element in place, the phone rang … it was my daughter on the phone. We chatted for a while then I said that I’d made this card ….. and she said she needed a card to thank everyone at the Nursery School. She’d got cards for the teachers who had the most to do with little H, but she wanted one bigger card for a general Thank You, to everyone.
I looked at the BFG card and had an idea. I could turn this card into a thank you card easy peasy. So I did.
If you click on this photograph ↑ it will open up into a much bigger picture so that you can see it and all its layers. But … it’s not quite finished, so remember to click back to see the finished article.
I cut some flag bunting using a die, in four colours of gingham card: Biscuit; Baby Blue, Teal Blue and Pink, and mixed up the colours so that the bunting was a combination of all four colours. I die cut some alphabet letters to spell out the words ‘Thank You’, which I then mounted onto the flags and finally added some buttons, blue ribbon (to be the ‘book mark’) and a little card rosette with a button at the centre, for the top of the front.
And that, as they say, was all there was to it. But I loved the way it turned out. Just shows you that you can change a découpage card ‘kit’ to make it fit the occasion you want it to fit.
So … that’s me talked out, now it’s over to you.What have you been up to? Done anything nice that you want to share? Been somewhere lovely? Or just want to have a general chat? I’m in favour of anything you want to say. Say it in a comment below and I promise to answer.
In the cottage where Mr. Cobs and I used to live we had a HUGEmongous back garden. A tiny postage stamp sized front garden, but the back garden was fabulous.
We lived in that cottage for around 30 years, and I always said that I’d never leave it. However, what’s that saying about the best laid ‘schemes of mice and men’often going awry? My plan for never leaving the cottage totally changed when our youngest daughter got married and moved to the end of the planet. (Well no, not quite, it was only to the end of the country – but it felt like another planet altogether). She missed us, and the dogs, and the cats …. and … oh, everything! This missing us was making her dreadfully miserable, even though we travelled to see her and she to see us. Eventually we made the big decision that we’d sell up and move to live near her and our new son-in-law.
We’d said many, many years ago (when we were young and full of pie in the sky ideas) that maybe, possibly, perhaps, one day we might like to live by the sea, but we’d long forgotten that, and besides which, we’d grown older and less inclined to ‘up-sticks’. But anyway, … our cottage was sold, and we bought a new place near our daughter and son-in-law and moved lock, stock and … all our animals.
The long distance move was quite an ‘experience’ – but I’ll save that amusing, hair-raising tale for another day.
We’ve made friends with our new neighbours – all of them are just the most lovely folks, and we’re really settling in here in our new home and it’s feeling more like ‘us’.
I happened to admire some bluebells in one of my neighbours gardens, telling her how I missed the bluebells in my old garden. So she did no more than … gave me some of hers! I was beside myself with thanks to her. Mr. Cobs planted them in the rear garden and … the dog thought they were a new place to pee and killed the darn things.
My neighbour gave us some more some weeks ago. This time we planted bundles of them in the garden to the front of our new cottage, and just a few in the rear garden (and are keeping a close eye on the dog!).
The bluebells looked a little limp and very sad. All the leaves were just lying around on the ground like wilted things and I honestly thought we were going to lose them all. But suddenly … a spike appeared. Then another. And another and …. they looked like they were going to flower! AND … joy of joys … … THEY DID! They all began to flower.
I decided that I’d make a ‘Thank You’ card for my neighbour, and would take some photographs of the little bluebells for her, to include in the card.
So this, dear reader, is the story of how this card came to be, and how I went about making it.
Hand painted by Cobs.
I wanted the card to be very personal. Something where the ‘elements’ were a little more personal so that my neighbour would see that this really was a thank you from my heart. I began by painting a little bundle of bluebells – in a very light-hearted, kind of country style / folksy art way. (Country / folk art style painting is so much more friendly and less ‘formal’, don’t you think?).
Then I tried something I’ve never done before …. making felt flowers.
I made some bluebells from felt, wire and florist tape, then set this on one side for later.
I’d chosen to make a 6″x6″ white card as a base, and mat and layer onto the front of the card with something fresh and pretty as a background.
I stitched around the card I’d chosen for matting and layering on the card stock, in zig zag stitching.
Fashionistas always say you shouldn’t mix spots and stripes. I say … ‘do whatever feels good’. So I matched spotty card with gingham! (see above photo – the gingham is down in the left corner).
I stitched around the watercolour card in straight stitch, on the sewing machine.
I cut a slightly larger than the card size piece of green Organza ….
Green Organza, into which I hand sewed a running stitch and then pulled on the ends of he thread to gather the Organza up a little to make it look a bit scrunched and folded, behind the card.Showing you the white base card, with the gingham mounted on top.
Before I layered the spotty card onto the gingham, I distressed the edges and then using a duster brush, to give the card a more vintage feel, using some warm brown ink from a StazOn ink pad.
See the ‘gathered’/folded organza? I added a rough cut piece of muslin behind the painted bluebells, and added some deep blue paper ribbon, which I wrapped around the watercolour card twice and added the bow. I then added some cotton lace to the bottom of the card.
Then it was time for me to build the idea I’d had when I first thought of making this very special thank you card.
I knew I wanted it to have a vintage feel, to almost feel like it came from the 40’s or 50’s. I chose all my flowers, and knew that I had some wooden plant markers in my craft room somewhere … finding them was going to be the tricky part. Would you believe it! I found them in the very first place I looked! (That NEVER happens normally!)
My very most favourite part of card making … adding the ‘decorations’.
I added the little nest with the three bird eggs, by using my hot glue gun. It’s a very light weight decoration, so doesn’t make the card heavy. The flowers are all from my stash and bought from various places.
The little dragonfly is a metal, Tibetan Silver embellishment. The white fuzzy ‘flowers’ you see are a type of Gypsophila, which I’ve only recently discvered and absolutely love them. They make things so pretty, and give so much more depth to a floral ‘arrangement’ on a card.
The wooden plant sticks are blank – but you can change that really simply by either writing on them yourself (if you have a steady hand) or … choose a font on your computer, print the word(s) out that you wish to have on your plant stick and simply glue the word onto it!
Close up of the tiny boots.
The two Wellington boots are metal, Tibetan Silver, and actually do stand up all by themselves! I hung them on some silver chain – leftover from my days of jewellery making, and added the Rayon Seam Binding bow, in a deep blue colour.
I’d made the card so that it was a pocket card(with an easel stand to the back so that it stood up all by itself), and made two tags for inside the pocket. One was to be a bookmark, and the other was for photographs and the dedication (the ‘to’, ‘from’ etc).
Showing one side of the Tags
You can click on any/all of these photographs and they’ll open up to a much bigger photo which you can see a little more easily if you wish.
One side of the bookmark
The bookmark is double-sided. On this side (shown above) I’ve used two stamps from the ‘Floral Sentiments’ Vintage Collection which I stamped in black, and also another stamp called ‘Parchment Script’ made by Image Tree, which I embossed using Gold embossing powder. I also stamped two tiny butterflies from a collection by Cavallini, which I embossed using Copper Kettle embossing powder.
The other side of the tags
On the reverse side of the larger tag I stamp some card with a Postcard stamp (by Urban), which is where I wrote the ‘to ….. from ….’ – and on the reverse side of the bookmark; I computer made the little picture of the bunch of bluebells teamed with part of a poem written by Anne Bronte′.
If you click on this photograph it will open up into a much bigger view, and you’ll be able to read the poem.
Click on the photo ↑ to make it bigger – but don’t forget to click ‘back’ to come back again!
The photographs mounted onto the larger tag
I took a handful of photographs of the bluebells blooming in my garden, chose the best three, then resized them on my computer to make them smaller, and kind of cuter, and added them to the one side of the larger tag. Oh … I forgot to say . . . I stamped that word ‘Photographs’ – using a Tim Holtz stamp.
Close up of the photographs. click on the photo to make it bigger – but remember to click ‘back’ to continue reading
Obviously, a card with a bird’s nest on the front isn’t going to fit into an envelope! I had to make a deep box …..
I didn’t want to make the box in the same colours, but I did want the box and card to ‘speak’ to each other and have things in common . . . so I used dotty card – only this time in deep purple, and stamped all around the outside of the box with bird themed stamps. Bird Nests. Bird Houses, Dove Cotes. Birds on nests in branches …. etc. And just for a bit of fun, I added the little resin birds nest to the lid of the box. I added the little topper of a Garden Shed and made the bunting from scraps of different colours of dotty card, hand stamped with the letters from the alphabet to spell out ‘THANK YOU’.
Do you remember those felt bluebells I made, right at the start? Well … there they are. On that box lid.
A close up of the felt bluebells.
The colours of the bluebells aren’t actually quite as shocking as in the photographs of them. The flash obviously surprised them and make them a little more flamboyant than they really are. lol.
When I took the card over to my neighbour, she was absolutely thrilled with it, but as surprised as surprised could be that I’d made the card myself. She exclaimed …. “You made this??” … then a few moments later … “And you actually made this??” …. then …. “I can’t believe you made this. It’s wonderful!” … … which I didn’t take offence at, I just giggled my head off. (Although I do wonder what I look like I make in my craft room People probably think I make a mess more than I make anything else! LOL … Hmm, actually, looking at my craft room – they’d be right! eek!)
Well that’s it. That’s the story of this card, and how it came to be. OH! I nearly forgot to tell you … my neighbour said: “You couldn’t have brought this on a better day… it’s my Birthday tomorrow!”. Awww, I was filled with fun bubbles when she said this. She would have an extra card on the shelf!
Thank you SO much for coming to visit. I love seeing and chatting with you all via comments. It makes blog land such a wonderful place to be in. I’ve made some really fabulous friends and blogging buddies, and I never guessed that I would when I first began this blog, just over a year ago. So thank you for making this dotty old card makers days even more brilliant!
Sending love, and wishing you all …. a truly blessed rest of your day!
I don’t normally make ‘requested’ cards. I make cards and donate them to charitable causes and organisations who sell them to raise their much-needed funds. But .. I made an exception with the request for this card. The person who asked me if I would make a card for someone told me about the lady they wanted a card made for, and also why they wanted a special card made – and I knew I had to make the card.And that’s why this is a ‘Special’Pink Ribbon Card.
So armed with this information, I set out on my journey of making a special card ….
I began with the background:- I embossed a 6×6 piece of good quality craft card using a Sheena Douglass embossing folder, putting the card through the embossing machine twice (because the embossing folder I wanted to use was only 5 x 7.) I had to be careful about where I placed the ‘join of the pattern’ of the double pass so that the embossing ‘fell’ just right so that the pattern continued as seamlessly as possible.
Then came colouring the woodland scene: Three colours of Gentle Blends (by Pinflair) blending the colours over the embossed areas in the places I wanted them to be and then using a duster brush I added a little cantaloupe coloured ink from a Memento Ink Pad and another yellowy colour which was slightly more buttery, to the centre of the ‘view’ to give it that ‘hazy sunshine in the background’ feeling.
I hand painted the butterflies, leaves, flowers and grass using a paint brush and Memento ink pads, and. once the ink was dry added a little pearl gilding wax to some of the butterflies, to give them a slightly ethereal feel and make them look as if their wings were fluttering. I gave each of them a little glitter trail – ‘falling’ behind them as they fluttered their wings to fly, using a glue pen and some of my favourite glitter dust. It kind of gave the whole scene a magical feel.
The sign post I built using my computer. I went around all the edges of the sign post with a black pen so that it gave the post a little depth and made it look like it had a dark shadow falling behind it.
A darker view of the card so that you can see a little more of the details which the flash has hidden on the other photographs.
I wanted to add a little more depth to the leaves on the branches , so I ran the embossing folder with a scrap of craft card inserted into it, though the embossing machine again, but this time carefully cut out a branch and its leaves, and then painted the branch and leaves using the paintbrush method, but this time in three darker shades of green so that it looked like it was somehow in the shade. (I added a little glitter to the very edges of some leaves, which again, just added to that all round magical woodland feeling).
I die cut the bicycle using some textured black card, and, using a white pen, added highlights to the bike where the light would have naturally caught on it, to give it more of a dimensional feel.
At last I was able to assemble the whole card.I fixed the sign post to the background, using Pinflair Glue Gel, and a tiny bit of tape on the back, where I’d pushed the bottom part of the post through to the back of the embossed card. Then attached the embossed background to the card base – with my favourite ‘go to’ glue:Collall All Purpose Glue.
The bike was added using some black foam tape, cut and snipped to the right proportions, and the extra branch was added using Pinflair glue gel and Anita’s Tacky Glue.
I added some pretty papers to the inside of the card and stamped a butterfly from a set which I’ve had for donkeys years . . .
. . . and so that the inside of the card reflected the front, I added a little bicycle stamp to the other half of the inside of the card. Signed the back and … voila! One card all done and dusted . . . . . . . except . . . . . it needed something more . . . A Box! So I made it a special box …
The decoration to the top of the lid was made using a Tonic Die set, and I just glittered the words (‘with love’) and the wings of the dragonfly.
NOW it was finished! I’m really pleased with this card. It has something magical and special about it. I love it.
Thank you so much for coming to share this card with me. I enjoy your company!
My mojo feels like it’s on its way home again, Yay! – so I thought I’d do something which was gentle and simple and not send it running to the hills before it got inside, sat down and had a coffee, – so I stamped a card for either a new baby or a Christening – but with a slight twist. Instead of using the typical blue or pink colours I decided that I’d drag green into the mix, kicking and screaming, and put it to work.
Obviously for a little girl – all those pinks, lilacs, lavenders and rosy colours give that away, the ‘dress’ on the card is totally stamped using Cardio stamps and five colours of Memento inks, and using a three generation stamp technique. The bows and ribbons on the shoulders of the dress are hand drawn, and the butterflies holding the dress up are hand stamped. Tiny dots of glue from a glue pen, right into the centre of each flower and a few shakes of glitter dust gave the dress a little twinkle and some texture.
I blended ‘Lettuce’ from an Adirondack ink pad around the edge of the white card (Neenah card in ‘solar white’, by the way) using a duster brush and my blending mat. The border around the white card is hand drawn using a black micro pen.
The sage(ish) green polka dot layer is card by Anna Marie, and one which I love.
I have a selection of different card stocks from this wonderful crafty lady and I can heartily recommend it. It’s heavy weight, but not so heavy that it drags your base card down, and it comes in an excellent range of colours.
I added a green ribbon bow– in (roughly) inch wide satin ribbon, and finally – added an insert of pale pink, to contrast with the green.
Ta dahhhh! Card made.
I’m quite pleased with this one. I’m not really much of a stamper (despite my huuuuge selection of stamps and my addiction to buying the darn things) but I will admit to having a very big soft spot to Cardio Stamps and their Crystal Clear Pegs. …. If you haven’t tried them I can recommend them. Give them chance, because they’re a different way of stamping than using a rocker block or an acrylic block. Play with them and give yourself time to get used to using those pegs. Once you have I bet you’ll fall in love with them and wish all stamps were made the same way.
On reading one of the blogs I follow, I found out that one the writers of a blog, who had been MIA (Missing In Action) for a couple of weeks, had a very good reason for being away from her computer: She’d had a baby! A beautiful, baby girl! After congratulations had been said I thought that it would be a lovely thing to make a baby card for the mommy and her new bundle of love and scrumptiousness, so I sat at my desk and gave it a bit of thought.
The first thought I came up with was that if I was going to make a card for a new baby girl, then to be totally fair, I should also make one for a little boy too. So here I am again, sharing (this time) two cards for the price of one!
I decided on Beatrix Potter – Beatrix holds a big place in my heart – so made two very different cards, but around the same ‘theme’.
Firstly – Just arrived – On platform 1:A New Baby Boy.
Made on a 6″x6″ white, pre-scored & folded card by Papermania. I love their cardstock – 300gsm weight – so it will take practically anything you ask it to. The backing paper is from a range of Beatrix Potter papers & toppers which I actually got free with a magazine over a year ago, and hadn’t used at all (I think, because I loved them so much, I wanted to keep them!) When I went through the papers I fell instantly in love with this backing paper and knew it was going to be the basis of the New Baby Boy card.
The Gingham Check card which I used to mat and layer behind the Hunca Munca, cradling her baby, topper, is from a range by Anna Marie Designs.
I added the fabulous ‘New Baby‘ duckling tag and then chose some ribbon to match the card. In the photographs the ribbon for some reason looks lighter than it is in real life. I think it’s possibly the way the flash on the camera caught the satin of the ribbon and washed out the colour a little. Little blue bow applied to the top left hand corner. I then added a strip along the bottom of the card of Potter paper ribbon, and then resting just along the top of that I added a blue blossom twig (again by Anna Marie Designs) to represent a branch, to which I knew I wanted to add a little metal, antiqued bird house (which has a baby bird perched up on the roof – which you sadly can’t quite see properly in the photo).
The bird house has a hanging loop on top which was too ‘tough’ for me to snip off with my jewellery tools, so I added a tiny bit of ribbon through the loop and tucked the ends under the New Baby topper, gluing them in place with a dab of Anita’s all-purpose.
Of course – me being me, I had to take the decoration into the inside of the card….
I added a pale blue insert to which I added a matching blue ribbon at the top of the page, and at the bottom I added a tiny topper which had daisies, grass and leaves on it, and it just finished off the card nicely.
~ ~ ~ Just arrived on Platform 2: ~ ~ ~
A Gorgeous Baby Girl
The new baby girl who began my thought of making a baby card was born on the 9th July 2014 and her name is Alea Francesca. (You’ll find a link to the momma’s blog at the bottom of the page).
Because I had Alea in mind, I felt as if I ‘knew’ who I was making this card for and …. well I just went to town on the whole girliness!
Again made on a 6″x6″ 300gsm card, by Papermania. To which I added a 6×6″ piece of pink with white polka dots card (by Anna Marie Designs). I added a small paper doily (Dovecraft) – which I actually stuck to the card with foam tape, as I wanted it to be raised slightly from the card so that I could add flowers which where kind of tucked under the doily.
I’d already chosen the topper that I wanted to use – Mrs. Rabbit and her baby bunnies – but I wanted to give it a little more importance – so chose a frame from a selection by Trimcraft (their Santoro range). I cut some pink, gingham check card (Anna Marie Designs) to fit the back of the frame exactly, and mounted the topper onto that then fixed it to the frame using Anita’s all-purpose glue.
The addition of the ‘Congratulations’ gave the card it’s sentiment.
Then it was time to fix some flowers. All the flowers you see are all paper flowers. I’ve had them all for . . . – ohhh, yonks! I use paper flowers all the time so used to buy a pack of them every time I did any crafty shopping, consequently I don’t currently have to ever buy any – and probably won’t for a while! But paper flowers are pretty much generic so any you have would likely work if you’re hoping to make a card ‘like’ this one for yourself.
To the bigger flowers I added a button for a centre and sprinkled a tiny amount of glitter dust so that it would stick to the glue which popped up through the button holes. To the smaller Blossom flowers which had no ‘centre’, I added a teeny flat-back pearl in a colour which matched or complimented the colour of the flower (flat back pearls by Anita’s – the Gemstone Pearl Wheel). Other blossoms came with their own stamen centre.
The pink and white popcorn type of flowers(look above the Congratulations topper – just above the blossoms there) are by Anna Marie Designs.
Then came the butterflies. With all those flowers there just HAD to be butterflies!
I’ve had a big bag of plain coloured butterflies in my stash for about 8 years and never used even one of them. I don’t know where I got them from or why, and I actually put them in a box to go to the charity shop, along with a few other crafty things which I wasn’t using. However, I got them back out again because I wanted paper butterflies for this card. So I chose colours and sizes and then stamped a butterfly on top of the card shape in order to give them the correct butterfly markings. I creased and folded them a little to give them ‘flight’, and then used Anita’s 3D Clear Gloss to give them all a glossy coating – as if I’d clear embossed them a couple of times (only without the pitting which you can sometimes get by doing that).
I couldn’t catch this glossy coating properly in a photograph. I either got ‘white out’ – where you couldn’t see the butterfly at all, or nothing. So you’ll just have to imagine a photo of the whole card showing the butterflies with their glossy shine! But I did manage a ‘montage’ of the butterflies from the gazillion I took while I was trying to capture one whole ‘good’ photo – so this montage kind of shows that the butterflies did have this lovely glossy accent.
The addition of some really lovely warm, rosy pink ribbon and a little antiqued, metal bird house completed the front of the card.
Inside … I just simply added one tiny thing …
… a silver star, right at the top of the pink insert. Is it because the new baby is a star? Is it a wish star? It’s a star which will have meaning to the new mummy and daddy – and to the baby as she grows up and looks back over her baby cards.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, are the two arrivals at Platforms 1 and 2, today. Not by train, you understand. No no. As is the tradition in all new babies, they came by Stork – naturally! 😀
Thank you so much for reading, looking and for visiting, but before you stop reading: can I just please just give you a link to the blog I referred to up in my post above – so that you can see the wonderful new life which is the little girl who started off my thinking of Baby Cards.
Please click to visit the blog and … if you can … leave a comment of congratulations for the new mommy. After all – we all love acknowledgements on something we’ve done which we’ve worked on,and I can think of no finer thing in life than a new baby, which someone has worked extremely hard on producing (and then some!) and can think of no better thing on which to receive congratulations.
Thank you SO much for taking the time out of your day to come and visit. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your kindness, your support and your friendship. For those of you who follow me – thank you. For those who don’t but are visiting: Click to ‘Follow Me’! What have you got to lose? You won’t be sent loads of rubbish or spam. You’ll just get an email to let you know when I’ve made a post on my blog so that you don’t miss amything. No spam. Nothing which asks you your date of birth or even your location! All you have to do is put your email address into the space provided so that the system knows who to send the email to.
There was a supplement with my Sunday Newspaper this week which had a nicely written article about the war years, and accompanying it were some fabulous pictures of posters from the same time. They absolutely fascinated me. I was sat there, with my magnifying glass out, reading each poster with gusto. (They were all printed small size – hence the magnifying glass!)
Well they obviously had an effect on me because I sat in my craft room with just one thought… make a card which had a vintage feel about it. Something which had that wonderful romantic feel about it, but a card which could be sent even to a friend for a birthday or any other reason.
I started with my stash of card stock, looking for ditsy prints. I chose a Tilda, duck egg blue with a little flower pattern down the side, and another Tilda print from the same range, this time with teeny tiny ditsy flowers on it. They needed ‘ageing’ – so I firstly took my scalpel to them both and roughed up the edges. Then I chose two colours of dye pads and blended around the edges.
I used Memento Dye Ink Pads in Rich Cocoa and Rhubarb Stalk.
I wrapped the duck egg blue card stock with two short lengths of narrow lace, then attached it to a craft card which I’d already scored ready to make the card. (The finished card will measure 5½” square).
With the ditsy flower card stock, I curled the edges and corners by gently pulling and curling them between my index finger and thumb. I then wrapped a wider, short length of lace around the ditsy flower card stock, and fixed it to the duck egg blue, using Collall glue. (I love Collall all-purpose glue. It’s not an instant fix, it gives you just enough wiggle time – but it’s an instant fix within a minute. So if you use it – get your wiggle done asap!)
The little postcard was cut from another piece of Tilda cardstock, and I just inked around the edges (again using Rhubarb Stalk) and blended, then curled the edges and stamped ‘for you’ using a sentiment from a gorgeous little selection of stamps from the Lillibet range. Originally the sentiment read: ‘Just for you” – but I snipped the ‘Just’ off (I kept it and still use it when I need to) so that I had more options with the stamp. I then fixed it in place.
Then came the flowers…
I sorted out a little selection of paper flowers which I’ve had for … ohhh, for ever! but realised that I had no leaves of the right size so I called on an old trick I’ve used for donkeys years. I got out my tins of silk flowers and looked through them for flowers which I could cut up to make leaves. I didn’t need tons, just a handful of small and slightly bigger than small …. I then ‘dyed’ them using my ink pads:
There’s one green leaf in the photo above – which is one of a few that I dyed before I thought of taking a photograph to explain what I was doing ….. So the flower heads you see – the white and purple – are going to become leaves, using the two ink pads you see in the photo. Memento New Sprout and Bamboo Leaves.
Now – before I show you the next photo, if you try this yourself, you’vegottoHAVE FAITH.
If you try this yourself. . . You’ll think at first that you’ve completely messed up and made the worst leaves in the whole world – but give them a few minutes and they become much nicer.
Here’s what happens when you first do them . . .
Don’t they look awful? They’re too strong. Too … aw, just ‘too’! But … have faith. Put them to one side and get on with something else. Don’t keep looking at them. Just leave them alone and do something else.
While they were doing their ‘thing’, I got on with the card.
I wanted to add a little glamour – but not too much. So I decided that I’d add a very gentle twinkle to the card by using a Graph’It Glitter Ink pen, in Silver. I touched really lightly all around the distressed edges of the cardstock – VERY lightly. It left behind it the faintest twinkle, but it was enough to make it feel ‘perfect’.
I’m not sure if you can see it in the photo above, but if you click on the photo, it will open up much larger and you’ll then be able to see the faint twinkle to the distressed edges. (Don’t forget to click back again so that you come back here). You’ll also be able to seethat I lightly dragged the same pen over the embroidery on the lace you see in the photo. It just gave it that teeny bit of twinkly glamour which I wanted to add to the card.
Now then . . . . Do you remember those awful, horrible looking leaves? Well this is what happened to them after a few minutes . . .
See what I mean about having faith? Those leaves are all made from petals of flowers. The larger ones in the first photo are the very petals you saw before they’d been attacked with the ink pads. I just inked them. Snipped them, and then left them alone while I did something else. Voila. Instant leaves.
The green twiggy things are Blossom Twigs from Anna Marie Designs.
The two hat pins: The one is a heart-shaped regular, but fancy, dressmaking pin, but the other, the beaded hat pin was in a little set I bought from Hobbycraft about 10 months ago, for just £2 for a set of six. (They were my bargain of the day, in the sale!)
The pink Dragonfly is one of a small selection which I’ve had in my stash for ever and ever and I can’t even remember where I got them from.
The Pink; Rose; Cream; Lilac; Blue; Red pearls which I’ve used as the centre of the flowers, and on all four corners of the card, are from a wheel of pearls made by Anita’s (I bought them from The Range – although you might be able to buy them from other places). There are literally hundreds of these little pearls, in an amazing array of colours (all colours in one wheel – and more colours than I’ve used here) for £3 (English pounds). You even get the storage wheel – imagine a grapefruit cut through the centre so that you can see all the segments – well that’s what this wheel is like, and each segment contains a different colour of pearls. It’s a totally fabulous design idea and I love the pearls. Oh .. here y’ go … I found a link: http://www.therange.co.uk/anitas-assorted-coloured-pearl-gemstone-wheel//the-range/fcp-product/67347
And that, as they say, is ‘it’! One Vintage, made For You, hand-made card.
I really like this little card. I wasn’t sure I was going to, about half way through, but I kept on with it and I’m now thrilled that I did because it’s darling. My mum would have loved this card. So .. Mum … this one’s for you!
Thank you so much for coming and staying for a while. Hope you like the card.
The Art of Cobwebs 