Happy Birthday Mr.Cobs!

Making ANYTHING for Mr. Cobs has always been a logistical nightmare. He’s got a sixth sense when something is going on which relates to him.  A cake.  A meal.  A gift.  A plan. A surprise,  etc etc.   But making a card for him probably the worst because he pops in and out of the Craft Room  all the time.  He comes to bring me a surprise ice cream from the ice cream man.  To bring me a coffee.  To collect empty coffee cups.  To look for the dog, or one of our cats.  He’ll come bearing any packages which might have arrived for me, or even to tell me something funny which he’s read in the newspaper, heard on the radio, seen, or thought of.

I love him dropping in.  Except .. when I’m trying to make him a card.  I rarely make cards for him as I find it just too difficult to work on one in secret.  But I managed this time, Yay!

In my panic about him creeping up behind me, (always a nightmare at anytime)  I forgot to take photographs of each step, but I did remember at around the ‘quarter into it’ mark, so at least have one ‘in the middle making photo’  to share :

Happy Birthday Mr. Cobs 2

It’s meant to represent his shed.  A total mess, and no rhyme or reason to it … but he seems to know what’s there, and I guess that’s all that matters.  (Doesn’t stop me from wanting to get in there and label everything and put them all in some sort of understandable order though! lol).

Anyhoo

The card was made using Card-io Stamps, –  and the notes saying ‘Happy Birthday’ were made on the computer (I wanted to use a particular font, in the right size – so stamps wouldn’t do it … but stamps could be used),  liquid pearls (for the drips of paint and the paint drips on the pots) and  Anita’s 3D Clear Gloss.  The stamp pads I used were by Memento and Papermania,  dye ink pads.

Happy Birthday Mr. Cobs

Each of the little pinned notes were first curled up a little at the bottom, then glued to the card front.  The two different types of bulldog clips were then stamped into place – in oder to ‘anchor’ the notes to the wriggly (hand drawn) string which stretches across the card – again these bulldog clips are Card-io Stamps. And the cupboard (with opening doors!) was again made using Cardio Stamps, and a bit of careful cutting with a scalpel and metal rule.

And that’s all there was to it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. COBS!  (erm ….  how old will you be next year, sweetheart? [snigger])

Happy Saturday all.   ~

Sig coffee copy

 

Advertisement

Sunday Arrivals!

 On Platform 1 A Beautiful BOY!   

  On Platform 2A Gorgeous GIRL!  

Two beautiful new souls to cherish and love!

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.

New Baby Boy 1

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.

New Baby Boy 2

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….

New Baby Boy 3

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!

New Baby Girl 1

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.

New Baby Girl 3

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.

New Baby Girl 1a

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).  

butterflies1

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.

Birdhouse Baby

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 …New Baby Girl 2

…  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, todayNot by train, you understand.  No no.  As is the tradition in all new babies, they came by Storknaturally!  😀

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.

http://artatzazuta.wordpress.com/2014/07/18/celebrating-life-2/

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 spamNothing 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.

Have a truly, blessed Sunday all. 

Sending you love, smiles and joy ~

Cobs siggy sml

Life is a Journey .. not a Destination. ~ A vintage style handmade card

 

Life is a Journey, not a Destination.
Life is a Journey, not a Destination.

This post is dedicated to Stacey, a fellow blogger on WordPress, who came up with a brilliant idea of promoting other crafting blogs in posts.  Stacey very kindly mentioned my blog (with a link) and other crafters blogs that I hadn’t seen before which was enough to tell me that I too should take up her idea and promote crafters blogs on my own blog here. 

So, since Stacey came up with the idea, I am firstly promoting her blog (link below) and dedicating this post  – and this card  –  to Stacey. 

Stacey’s blog can be found here:  http://staceyscorner.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/share-sunday/  ~ go and take a look and maybe even click to follow her.

To Stacey,   a dedicated blog post and card,  for an amazing idea!  ~ from Cobs.

. . .  join me on a journey through this card  . . .
. . . join me on a journey through this card . . .

 

Every few days/weeks  … now and againI’ll make what I call a ‘labour intensive’ card.  One of those cards which takes more time than the regular cards you’ve so far seen me post here.  This card – ‘Life is a Journey, not a Destination’, is one of those cards.

It’s not that these types of cards are difficult, they just take a little more thinking and working out so that you end up with the ‘feel’ that you started out knowing you wanted.  This particular card was inspired by a piece of wall art which I have hung in my bedroom, facing my bed.  It’s an iron framed rectangle with a piece of calico strung in the centre and printed on the calico are the words Life is a Journey, not a Destination, and that’s what gave me the theme for the card.

I wanted the card to have a vintage style, with a slightly ‘steampunkery’ feel to it – but at the same time I knew I wanted it to carry a message,  and wanted the message to be read as either literal or spiritual, depending on who the card ended up with, and the circumstances they were in within their life, at that time.  And ... I think I’ve managed it.

This card could be for someone who’s:-  moving house;  going on a cruise or going abroad;  it could be a simple regular birthday card (for either a man or a woman);  it could be for someone who’s starting a new job;  or perhaps for a person who needs some encouragement;  maybe some tests soon?;  or … it could be given to someone who is going through some sort of personal challenge or challenging time, and this card would be a gentle, loving way of saying that they’re going to get through this time and move on to a better place or time.

I’ll give you a list of everything I used to make this card at the end of the post, because I don’t want anyone to look at the list and think that they couldn’t make a card like this.  I might have different stash to you, and I might have different cardstock; dies; ink pads; glues etc etc … but I’m pretty sure you will have things in your stash that you could use to pull a card like this or similar together.  Just because the list of stuff I’ve used might look long – please don’t be put off.  If you want to make something like this, go and look at your stash.  You’d be surprised what you can use in order to make your own style of card.

For now .. I’ll just give you different photos of the card so that you can see things closer up….

Up up and away!  . . .

Life is a Journey not a destination 2

(working)  compass  to help you keep you going in the right direction . . .

 

Life is a Journey, not a destination 3

 

Time passes quickly, –  so some gentle encouragement to enjoy the beauty of every moment.

 

Life is a Journey not a destination 4

 

As followers and readers of my blog know  …  I LOVE to put surprises inside all the cards I make.  I feel that the inside of a card is just so wasted and such a let down when you open a birthday/Christmas or any other time card, and find a big white space with a little bit of writing. 

I like cards to be beautiful inside and out and surprise the receiver when they open their card! . . . 

 

Life is a Journey not a destination 5

Oooo…  I wonder what the magnifying glass is for?!   ;D 

Life is a Journey not a destination 6

OOhh .. another surprise!   ..  now we have a lucky wish star and a ticket which gives me ‘entitlement’ to one wish!    But .. what the devil is that magnifying glass for???

Life is a Journey not a destination 6a

 

Ah haaaa!  . . .   It’s so you can read the page from the dictionary/thesaurus!  Ok .. one mystery solved,  . . .   but  … what’s that pink ticket by the end of the handle?

 

Life is a Journey not a destination 8

 

Ah haaaa!  . . .  mystery number two solved!  (Just call me Sherlock.  lol)

Life is a Journey not a destination 7

Oh, and by the way  … the postcard inside . . .  is for you to write your message on, for the person you’re sending the card to!  See?  It all makes sense!

Life is a Journey not a destination 9

And that  . . . (photo above)  . . .   is the just finished card, stood on a glass cutting mat, on my desk …  and that’s all my  mess  important, essential, fabulous, well organised   {cough}  equipment and tools behind the card.  (I’ll clean it up properly at some point, so that I can take a photograph of my craft room and share it.)

 

The Recipe for this cardI used:

  • Sheena Douglass – Little Bit Sketchy – Magnifying glass stamp.
  • Papermania Acetate (for the ‘window’ of the magnifying glass)
  • Papermania Black Embossing Powder
  • Stazon ‘Saddle Brown’ ink pad
  •      ”       ‘Jet Black’ ink pad
  • Memento Dye Ink Pad in ‘Desert Sand’
  •      ”               ”            ”     in ‘Rich Cocoa”
  • Xcut Build-a-Scene Dies – Vintage Hot Air Balloon
  • Heartfelt Creations 12×12 pad – which I used some of the images from.
  • Spellbinders ‘Once upon a Time’ Die
  • Tattered Lace ‘Postcards’ Die set
  • Heartfelt Creations ‘Time Sentiments’ stamp
  •         ”               ”          ‘Journey Sentiments’ stamp
  • Pinflair Gentle Blends – in Denim colour
  •       ”            ”            ”      –  in Dark Khaki colour
  • Graph It Glitter Ink Pen
  • Compass – was in a pack of 4 I bought a while ago, from the children’s section of either Asda or Tesco.
  • Dictionary page was cut from an old Dictionary/Thesaurus which was no longer used.
  • Cardstock used:
  • Warm Chocolate Brown 300gsm
  • Plain Black 270gsm
  • Orange – was scrap from my scrap draw
  • White – 270gsm
  • Kraft Card – 300gsm
  • Extras:
  • 2 x short lengths of silver-grey Rayon Seam Binding.
  • Grey and white Bakers Twine
  • 3 x fuzzy, funky fibre, Eyelash Knitting Yarn/Wool –  1 x length of warm brown.  1 x  length of jet black.  1 x length of a blues and purples mix.
  • One tiny metal vintage looking Postcard embellishment.

And that’s all there is to it!  😀

Aw, please don’t be daunted by the apparently long list of ingredients for this recipe.   I’ve named almost everything I used here just to be helpful to anyone who wants to know where I got a particular thing, or the make of the papers or dies etc,  (named everything apart from glue .. but if you need to know:  I used Collall All Purpose, Anita’s Tacky Glue, hot glue, and Double Sided Tape) – but I bet you use tons of stuff when you craft a card and you don’t even notice what you’re using anymore.  It’s just all  … ‘stuff’ … which is treasured and loved,  and there because you use it!

Thank you so much for coming to read.  I hope you like the card!  Oh … and don’t forget to visit Stacey’s blog!

Please have a look around my blog here and check out the different categories.  There’s a list of them all in the column over to the right, – you’ll find the list of categories towards the top of that column.

Have a truly beautiful rest of your day!  ~

Cobs siggy sml

 

 

 

%d bloggers like this: