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.
I wanted to make a ‘versatile’ card. A card for almost any occasion. So … I knew I’d have to be able to change the sentiment on the card in order to make the card versatile. So this is the ‘story’ of one card, and, just for the photos – four different sentiments.
Hello …. friend? Maybe? Haven’t seen you for ages? How are you? Or maybe ‘Hello’ on the front, and ‘Get well’ inside? Or …. Hello, Happy Birthday?
Made on a 6″x 6″ white card, and using Dovecraft ‘Couture du Jour‘ papers and decoupage pad as a background paper, and for the pocket (for the tags).
I decoupaged the main focal image, and it has 5 layers in total.
“With Love” …. because you’re not feeling too well? “With Love” because … I love you? “With Love” … just because? “With Love” … on your Birthday?
The tags (in the pocket on the front) were stamped on plain white card, using stamps by Viva Decor. They’re really fabulous crisp images which stamp clearly from the word go.
The tags were then ‘vintaged’ and layered on some green print paper, again from the Couture du Jour papers by Dovecraft. I used some pastel chalks on the tags, in various places – on the one tag, I turned the stamped image of a bird into a blue bird. And on the other tag, I coloured up the stamped image of a rose, using three different colours of chalks.
These are chalks I’ve had for … y.e.a.r.s! I have two large sets of them – both made by Dovecraft. They give a lovely soft, fuzzy sort of colour to things. I really like them.
“Thinking of You” . . . well this one speaks for itself.
The heart hat pins are ones which are generally available. I think I bought mine on Ebay years ago. I wanted some red ones, but had to buy a whole set in order to get the red ones. tsk tsk. No wonder my craft room has no space … it’s filled with ‘left overs’! lol. 🙂
“Just for You” . . . because you deserve it. “Just for You” because you’re amazing. “Just for You” . . . to say thank you for looking after out house while we were on holiday? “Just for You” … because you’re a great help to me? “Just for You” … just because. . . . or for a million other reasons.
The dragonflyover on the right (about a quarter of the way down) is from a selection by Anitas, and the peg with the pink heart on it – down in the bottom left corner, is from the Santoro range. And it’s this mini peg which enables me to change the sentiment on the card. Virtually any sentiment can be held by that peg and it makes the card suitable for pretty much anyone. I’ve just stamped four different sentiments to show you … and added some really pretty glitter – but you could stamp anything you wanted.
And that, as they say …. is all there was to it!Ta daaaaah!
Anyhoo ….. Happy Tuesday, 13th June.
Could someone please tell me who stole January to May? And do the police know about this major robbery?
Do you know what’s made me a bit cross and fed up? Create and Craft are having their CHRISTMASIN[fricken]JUNE event. Ho, Ho bl**dyHo!
Now they (Create & Craft) say (on their website) that it’s only till the 25th June … however, I remember last year and the year before … they said the same sort of thing, and Christmas never went away after their Christmas Event, so I have no hope that they’re going to change their ways and make Christmas in June, July, August, September, or October disappear. [grouch, grouch, grump]
Ah well… I’m sure we’ll survive it. I just won’t be buying anything from them until they stop the madness. 🙂
Wishing you a terrific Tuesday. May the wind be a lazy breeze. May any rains be soft, and feel like a caress as it touches your skin. May the skies be a beautiful blue, and may your day be free of anything which makes your heart ache.
I sat at my desk towards the end of last week wanting to make something different in the ‘handmade card’ category . . . and I came up with A Card for a Gardener – but one with a difference. It’s slim and tall, and stands up all by itself, just like a card is supposed to do, but if you pull on the ribbon at the top, you find that there’s a bookmark hiding inside!
pull on the ribbon and SURPRISE! something is hiding inside!
Trying to make a card suitable for a lady or gentleman, either of which gardens, seemed a challenge at first, (I instantly thought of flowers … and flowers on a card is something one normally associates with a ladies card), but as I was gazing around my craftroom looking for inspiration, my eyes rested upon my collection of Graphic 45 and one of the Graphic 45 collections is a particular favourite of mine, it’s called Home Sweet Home.
photograph credit: Graphic 45
So … the choice was made! The Card (base) is made out of craft card, which I measured, marked and cut to size, scored and folded, then glued all the parts which needed to be fixed together.
I then chose and fixed to the ‘base’ layer of paper – the papers behind all the adornments. The deeper green paper on the front and back of the card (the holder of the bookmark) are from a selection of papers by Dovecraft, called Couture de Jour. But the paper used on the bookmark itself is again from Dovecraft in their range called Floral Muse.
Distressing and inking up took place, and made everything look like it had enjoyed a good ol’ time in the garden with it’s gardening friend. (I almost feel like the distressing looks like soil covered fingerprints!)
I cut out the images I wanted to use from the Graphic 45 papers, and placed them where I eventually wanted them to be, – then leaving them there, I turned my attention to making some vegetables out of Hearty Clay.
If you haven’t already tried this clay then I can highly recommend it. It’s easy to handle and will dry quickly – I always give it overnight, simply because I want to ensure that all the moisture has had chance to evaporate. (You really don’t want to put wet clay on a card!).
It’s also very light in weight so it adds little to the weight of a card.
Once the clay vegetables were dry I painted them and put them on one side for the paint to dry. While I was waiting, I fixed all the fussy cut items to the card. Then I sprayed the dried vegetables in a quick dry glaze, and once dry I added them to the card, then turned my attention to the bookmark.
showing the back of the card and the front of the bookmark.
Again, wanting to make sure that the card could be given to a lady or a man, I chose the stamps carefully. All the stamped images you see are Graphic 45, and from the same Home Sweet Home range. I stamped the images in black dye ink, then hand painted them using watercolours.
showing the ‘stand’ for the back of the card.
Finally … I made a fold out stand for the back of the card so it could stand up by itself, or if preferred it could lean against a book or a shelf, wall, etc.
trying to show the glaze I gave the card.
But . . . there was just one last thing I wanted to do … I glazed the front of the card so that it gave it an extra sort of ‘aged’ look to it, and especially so to the craft card. (see above photo) It made it look like I’d found it in Grandads shed, a left over from the 1940’s. It was a bit difficult to photograph the glaze, but the photo above was the best out of the ones I took.
And that’s all there was to it! 🙂 The bookmark can be separated from the card holder, and the card can stand there all by itself without the bookmark. So your gardener friend or relative can use the bookmark in his/her [gardening] book and not lose the page they were reading , – AND … they will carry your inscription around with them tucked into the pages of their book! Something which would make me smile over and over!
Actually … perhaps we could make this card a give-away! Yes … let’s do that. If you’d like to enter your name into the mix for this card to be sent to you, simply add the word GIVEAWAY either to the start or end of a comment, and we’ll give it till Thursday of this week – so the 4th of May – at 6pm (UK time), at which point I’ll get a number generator to pick a number and I’ll announce the winner on Thursday evening! Oh … and those of you who’ve won a previous give-away, please enter if you’d like to win this card … you’re not excluded just because you were picked out before. It’s all just down to the luck of the generator.
I can either write the card out to whoever wins … or I can leave the card blank, and the winner can give it to someone else as a gift for their birthday. Winners choice. 😀
Happy Monday, and …. HAPPY MAY DAY!In case you didn’t look at the calendar this morning, today is the 1st of May 2017. This day won’t ever happen again. It’s the only May Day of 2017, so beg you to enjoy this day like it should be enjoyed.
“The world’s favorite season is the spring.
All things seem possible in May.” Edwin Way Teale
I feel the earth waking up truly now. Everything seems brighter, lighter, more joyous. People seem to be happier too. Oh … and the little cottage along the road has some holiday makers in it already! I saw the people there walking their dogs earlier. (I wanted to run off with the dogs! Two fabulous White Highland Terriers, all snuffly and smiley).
Oh anyhoo …. I’ve yapped enough. I shall shut up and leave you to enjoy the last gulps of your coffee.
Thank you so much for coming and having a coffee with me. I absolutely love seeing you. It brightens my day and makes me so happy to share some time with you. It’s like having an open house and all my friends popping in, sitting around the pine kitchen table to share a few smiles and giggles together. What a great way to start the day! ❤
Sending lots of May Day love and buckets of squidges, from me here in my corner, to you there in yours. Be good to each other and … may your God go with you.
I will pop the TV on to take a gander at Create and Craft (UK) now and again when I’m crafting up a storm in the craft room, and sometimes spot things that I’ve not seen before. This happened recently when they were showing some new stamps called ‘Altenew’. A lady was on-screen demonstrating these new stamps (new to me) which I’d not seen before so I watched to see what they were.
If you’ve ever stamped with Card-io stamps then these are very much similar to those – although they’re bigger. But the idea is the same, being that you use a variety of stamps in order to build up a unique picture or scene. The postage and packaging charges push the prices up of anything bought on C&C so I looked around on the internet to see if I could find the stamps anywhere else at a cheaper price, and as luck would have it I found a small craft shop not far from where I live, called My Mums Craft Shop ~ link: www.mymumscraftshop.co.uk ~ who sell Altenew stamps. They didn’t have the stamps I wanted in stock one the day I phoned, but they were waiting for a delivery, and the (really lovely) lady on the phone told me that they would be there within about ten days, after they’d made it through customs in our country, so I asked to be notified when the stamps were available for sale, and as promised I was emailed just over a week later. (I can’t quite remember how much this craft shop charges for postage and packaging, but I know it impressed me and I vowed that I’d shop there again).
At the same time as buying a selection of the stamps I also bought two sets of Altenew stamp cubes. And this post is how I got on with the stamps and stamp pads on my first use and sharing the card I made using the stamps.
I wanted to play with the Vintage Roses stamps, so decided that I’d just do some happy stamping to start with, in order to get a feel for the stamps and see how well the ink pads worked. The following four photos are images stamped onto some scrap card out of my scrap drawer. I perhaps should have chosen something a little better, as the ink wanted to bleed on this card, hence the smudgy outlines of the different colours.But .. I was only playing so wasn’t overly bothered ….
This ‘2 rose’ image was made using (for each stamp) 4 different stamps. If we just look at the bigger of the two roses – you might just be able to see that there are actually 4 colours used. Very pale pink; a rosy pink; a deep pink with a tad of purple added; and finally an almost vintage style red. All these different colours go onto 4 totally different stamps, (one colour per stamp) which will, when stamped, make up all the layers of the petals of the rose, and add the shadows and hi-lights.I added a third rose, a rose bud and some leaves, all stamped with Altenew stamps in the same Vintage Roses stamp set.Same stamps, this time using a selection of 4 different blue inks – from the Altenew Stamp Cubes.The same roses – only this time in Yellow.
By this time I’d got the idea, so decided to make a card and this card was the result:
Card made using papers from the Floral Muse range from Dovecraft plus a sentiment “Just for You” from the same Floral Muse range, and stamped images using the Altenew Vintage Roses.
I stamped the rose images a few times, so that I could fussy cut them and create a 3D decoupaged image of the roses, building up certain parts more than others, in order to give it the right ‘feel’.
Taken from an angle so that you could see the ‘layers’ of the 3D decoupaged roses. If you look carefully you’ll just about be able to see the little foam pads between the layers.
I carefully dragged a glue pen around the rose petals and over some parts of the leaves, and sprinkled them with glitter dust, to give them a magical twinkle.
The Butterfly was stamped using an image from a set of stamps in the Floral Muse range, by Dovecraft. I stamped it using a quick dry fluid chalk ink pad in a colour called ‘Rusty Bucket’.
The wide, pink Organza ribbon was wrapped all the way around the front of the card so that it continued onto the inside. Added to the top of the ribbon inside was a sentiment stamp using the same ‘Rusty Bucket’ chalk fluid ink pad, – the sentiment stamp is from a small collection made by Jayne Nestorenko.
It needed a box,because I feared that the roses would get crushed in the post, as this one is going to the other side of the world, so a box was called for…
I made up a white 6×6″ box, but then sprayed it using some Lindys Stamp Gang sprays in two different colours, which matched the papers on the card really well. I stamped another rose and some leaves this time using a different set of Altenew rose stamps, and once I’d cut the images out, I attached them to the top of the box – only this time the rose and leaves are flat against the box lid so making wrapping and posting easier and safer.
After using these new stamps, how do I feel about them? Well actually I quite like them. They give me the opportunity to make something unique and to make it personal, and gear it towards the person I’m making it for. And … it stops all that fiddling about trying to get different colours of ink onto different parts of a stamp. With this design it makes everything simple!
The ink cubes … well the colours are nice… and they’re VERY juicy, but to be brutally honest I did question if they perhaps had been used before. The edges of the stamp pads were a bit ragged, as if they were old(ish). After using them I concluded that they were so juicy they couldn’t possibly be old because they weren’t dried out at all, but I was disappointed on how ragged they were around the edges of the pad bit of the ink pad. However .. they worked in the right way and they did what they said they’d do on the pot.
The blue roses were made using the Altenew Stamp Cubes. The Red (pinky) roses and Yellow roses were made using Dew Drops ink pads in four different colours, and all the leaves were stamped using Dew Drops. So if you have the colours already I think I’d say that you can use your own colours of pads – butmake sure you have the right amount of different shades so that you can make the rose … or any other of the stamps which Altenew make. (and they make quite a lot!)
May I just take a moment to say that I haven’t been paid money or given any crafting goodies for sharing my experience of Altenew Stamps or Stamp Ink Cubes. Neither have I been encouraged, paid money, nor promised products or discounts to share my experience of the craft shop where I found the stamps I bought. I don’t work for either of these companies. I’m just a crafter who’s happy to share experiences with other crafters in order to make our crafty lives happy.
I’ve really enjoyed playing with these stamps and like the card I made for my friend. I think she’ll like it too. There’s nothing so lovely as receiving a hand-made card from someone.
Well, Summer seems to have arrived– although we did have some spectacular thunder and lightning storms a couple of days ago, which scared me half to death and had two of my cats hiding under the furniture, and the dog barking her head off. It sounded like a war zone … or what I imagine a war zone to sound like. BOOM.BOOM! … rumble … rummmmmmble. (rain starts) BOOOM ~~ KerBOOM ~~ BOOOOOM!I darn near joined the cats under the sofa, I’m telling you!
It’s also very hot here – humid and sticky and tiring. I keep yawning – and I actually fell asleep in the chair on Monday afternoon! I think I need to think like the Spanish and take siestas during the summer. Ahhhh… just the thought is making me smile.
Well, that’s me done and dusted. I wish you a very happy Tuesday and leave you with a few words to make your smile a little wider ….
Always remember to forget The things that made you sad But never forget to remember The things that made you glad.
Always remember to forget The friends that proved untrue But never forget to remember Those that have stuck by you.
Always remember to forget The troubles that have passed away But never forget to remember The blessings that come each day.
Have a truly blessed day all. Remember to stop at some point during your day and smile as you make a memory.
I found this idea on Pinterest about … oh, I dunno, … a gazillion years ago? – maybe. And although I thought it was a good(ish) idea at the time I found it, I put it into that category folder inside my brain of: “Good looking Pinterest ideas which probably don’t actually work in reality”.
How wrong was I!!!
It really does actually work! I can’t believe it!
I already had one of the required perspex/acrylic certificate ‘stands’ so all I needed was some velcro.Do you think I could find this simple thing anywhere? It was rarer than Gold dust here where I live. However, a leaflet left in my mail box came at just the right time. Lidl were having packets of it in their stores, amongst the crafting specials, the following week. I couldn’t believe my luck, neither could I believe how cheap it was when I went in to buy it. They had white or black, and I could have either sticky backed self adhesive, or the unsticky type. I decided upon the self adhesive and crossed my fingers that it was the ‘self adhesive’ which actually stuck to things!
I cleaned up the certificate holder so that it was sparkling clean(to make sure that I gave the self adhesive Velcro a fighting chance), and then sat working out where I should stick the Velcro for maximum bottle storage. I’d noticed that the idea I’d seen on Pinterest had only shown three rows of bottles, but when I measured up, three seemed so very far apart, and had such a waste of space in between the rows, so I inserted a sheet of A4 into the certificate holder, but left just a smidgen of the edge sticking out along one side, so that I could make a little dot at the points as I measured them.
I worked out that on an A4 Certificate holder(which mine is – but check the size of yours or check before you buy one, as there are various sizes) – If you measured one centimetre down from the top of the paper and draw a straight line across the paper, then from that line measure 8cm down and drawn another line, and do it a further two times. You should then have four lines.
Then … cut four lengths of the hooks side of some of your Velcro, in the WIDTH of the perspex stand. (I used black but you can use any colour you like). Insert your piece of paper with the lines on it, back into the stand and lay it on your desk.
It helps to leave the ‘foot’ of the stand hanging over the front edge of your desk so that the stand lays completely flat.
Using your drawn lines on the paper as the centre marker for the middle of the Velcro tape, stick the hooks side of the Velcro to the perspex certificate holder/stand and press down firmly to make sure that it’s adhered in all the places along its strip.
I would use the hooks side of the velcro on the stand, – and the eyes side of the velcro on the bottles. (The eyes side is much softer to the touch, so it will be more comfortable for your fingers, – so put the soft side of the velcro on the bottles.)
Do that four times, so that you’ve got all your lines ready and waiting for your bottles.
Now … get all your bottles of Stickles out and count them. Cut that amount of little bits of the ‘eye’ side of the Velcro – roughly about one centimetre wide strips – and when you’ve got them all ready … lay your ruler down on your desk in a comfortable place that you can lean over and look ‘down’ on the rule. Then taking one bottle of Stickles, lay it next to your rule, with the bottom of the bottle at the 2.5 centimetre measurement. Where the beginning of the 1cm measurement sits(not quite half way on the bottle), that’s where you’re going to put the bottom of the little Velcro strip you’ve just cut. Apply it. Press it down firmly, then hang it on your new Stickles Storage System! Repeat for the rest of your bottles!
A slightly blurred, but closer up view.
VOILA! A Pinterest ‘make’ which actually works!
This works SO well for me, as I’m one of those crafters who, if I put things away in boxes or cupboards, ‘out of sight’ means ‘out of mind’, and I forget them.
I know that the detailed instructions I’ve given to make this, might make it sound complicated. Nothing could be further from the truth.
This is the most simple thing I’ve ever ‘made’ in my life. It’s so quick and easy that I really don’t feel I should be ‘pleased’ with myself for doing it. And, I’m not. I’m more ‘pleased’ to have found something on Pinterest which actually works,and I also wish I’d have had a go at this a long time ago.
Oh … and if you look closely, you’ll see that there are two bottles of Dovecraft Glitter Glue hanging on the stand too … which shows that even with slightly bigger bottles than the Ranger Stickles, the measurements I’ve given still work. I think that because the stand (and most of these types of stands) tilts back slightly, it means that the bottles actually hang just a little proud of the stand at the bottoms of the bottles (yes, the bottoms – not the upside down tops, – if you follow me), and this means that taking a bottle from the stand is easy to do.
Before I go …
I know my blog has been rather quiet for a couple of weeks … life just kind of gets in the way sometimes. But I’ve been crafting and do have a few things to share. I just have to find the time to load the photos and crop/re-size them.
Thank you so much for coming to share a bit of time with me. I’m so thrilled that you’re here, and I thank you from the heart of my bottom for coming. It reall does mean so much to me that you pop by for a visit, so: Thank You. xxx
Although I’ve called this handmade card ‘Just a Note’ – in this particular instance the note is a thank you note, – however, because of the design, you can easily change the ‘subject’ of the card to suit your particular reason for sending it.
The card is based around an angle fold, which conveniently gives you two tag pockets by a nifty little folding trick which I hope to ‘teach’ those of you who may not have come across this style of card before, by using step by step photographs. Shall we begin?
You need a 12″ (inches) by 5″ piece of cardstock. A good weight one, but not one which is so heavy that you find it difficult to fold and score.
I’ve made a diagram of where to score (NOTCUT) the card in the hope of you ‘getting’ it easily. Click on the following photograph to open it up in a larger size so that you can read it. (but don’t forget to click ‘back’ in your browser so that you come back here to continue reading).
I know that it might look complicated – but it’s really not. I’ve made the lines and instructions in different colours so that it made it easier to follow the instructions.
Once you’ve got your card cut, (12″x 5″) and then scored it in the two places shown, – make the folds. Fold along those two lines ready for making the card:
Now at this point I think I’d recommend that you now make another one exactly the same – but this time in cheaper card or paper – so that you can then cut it up in order to use the sections as templates, or ‘patterns’ to make your paper cuts.
Let’s presume you’ve done that and move on to the next step.
Using the templates(or ‘paper patterns’ which you’ve made), cut the papers which you want to be the front and middle section of the inner parts of the pockets. Remember that if you’ve chosen papers like mine in the photograph above, which have writing on it (or a picture) which you want to be able to read, you’ll have to cut and place the right way round so that the pattern or writing makes sense.
Glue or adhere your papers into place and then flip the whole thing over so that you can’t see those papers anymore.
You’re now going to work on the fronts of the pockets. The outside one, and the inside one.
Using the papers which you cut out using the paper pattern for the pockets, glue the papers in place – again remembering to place the papers the right way round, if they have a ‘right way’.
If you now fold your card along the two score lines, it should look something like this:
or rather . . . nothing like that⇑ because you’ll have used your own card and papers!
Now comes the enjoyable part. Decorations! Yay!! 😀 (I love embellishments, flowers, ribbons, bits, bobs and adornments. Can you tell?)
The metal ‘charm’ on the front of the card is from a range called Santoro, by Dovecraft.
You can put anything you like into the pockets on your cards. In mine, I’ve used tags, but if you wanted to give a gift card for a birthday or Christmas, you could tuck a gift card into the inner pocket for the recipient to find, and maybe a tag on the front stamped up with the word ‘Birthday’ or a sentiment of that style.
You can obviously decorate the pockets in any way you choose, but I’ll show you in the pictures below what I did to this particular card.
Two tags for the front pocket – the biggest one is decorated in paper then stamped with the ‘Just a Note’, and the butterfly. I added a short length of lace, and some paper roses and leaves, and tied the tag with some blue Rayon Ribbon. The little tag was stamped on the front with a double butterfly stamp.
The backs of the tags were decorated with papers and stamps – but, silly me, forgot to take a photograph of the backs of these two tags. tsk tsk.
Opening the card . . .
I chose some vintage looking roses paper for the inside left hand side of the card and decorated it with a small paper doily (distressed and stained with some ink), to which I added some mulberry paper flowers, leaves and a miniature post card cut from a pad of similar types of paper embellishments. I added a rayon ribbon bow and around the very edges of the flowers I dragged a fine nibbed glue pen and sprinkled it with a little glitter dust, which brought the ‘view’ to life.
Finally, I added a twinkly, sparkly dragonfly (lowest corner of the post card) and a tiny twinkly wings bumble-bee (top right corner of the post card).
On the inside pocket, I simply adorned the pocket with a mulberry flower (and leaves) and turned my attention instead to decorating the tags inside the pocket.
The two ~‘inside the card’~tags were covered with various papers and then stamped and decorated in a style to suit the ‘feeling’ of the card.
Starting with the larger of these two tags: Using a warm brown ink, I aged the tag edges to give it that ‘old’ feeling. I then attached some vintage lace which I bought in a bag full of off cuts of vintage lace, from Ebay, about five years ago (and I’m still using them now. There were THAT many different bits! Such a lucky find). I added some of the beautiful blue rayon ribbon to cover the edges of the lace, and to that I used Pinflair glue gel to stick a short length of a double row of string of pearls, along the centre of the ribbon, and then tied a double bow with a short length of the same rayon ribbon and glued it in place.
I adhered some mulberry flowers and leaves and added pale cream, pearl flat-back centres, then finally added a little blue resin swallow bird, in flight.
The little tag: I simply stamped a butterfly on the front, and gently distressed around the edges, to give it that vintage feel.
The reverse of the tags:
. . . . finally the back … and as I always say to everyone – ALWAYS sign your artwork . . .
. . . can’t read it? . . . here y’ go:
It was, indeed, “Hand made by Cobwebs”.
This type of card is just so versatile. It suits all styles of cards and all colours. You can dress it up or dress it down. All you need to do is change the tags, and you have a card suitable for almost any occasion.
I think I might make another card using this design – but this time for something totally different – so that you have something to compare it with for versatility.
Thank you so much for coming to visit me and my blog. I appreciate your visit more than you can imagine. It means the world to me – so a big THANK YOU – just as the card says.
Have a trouble-free Thursday, and, in the words of Sergeant Stan Jablonski from Hill Street Blues: “Let’s do it to them before they do it to us!”.
Let’s be careful out there, – my blogger friends. (I’m really ‘dating’ myself now, aren’t I?! LOL)
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.
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The Art of Cobwebs 