Like many crafters out there, I am constantly being inspired by the very talented Sam Calcott of Mixed Up Crafts. Her creativity knows no bounds. She is constantly coming up with new and innovative designs for unusual cards and she generously shares her ‘how to’ guides on her website, youtube channel , Facebook and the Craftworld website. When I saw her demonstrating the tower block card I just had to have a go. My friend requested a special birthday card to send to her auntie who was celebrating a special landmark birthday so I used Sam’s expert guidance to create this card. I used various dies to embellish the card and you can find details of which ones by clicking on any of the photographs.

Hopefully i saved the best till last. This is the third of three special wedding cards for the same happy couple. This last one was sent from the brides Grandma and was requested to be very special. Again I took my inspiration from the invitation, I echoed the floral wreath element in the centre sections of the card. This is a huge double shutter card measuring 42 cms wide when opened out fully. It takes a large amount of card to make one it’s all been matted and layered. I Used the same lila pearlescent card from card one to do the first layer of this and then matted the same ivory pearl card as the card base for the top layer. The various floral elements were die cut using lots of different foliage die from my stash (too many to list) and cut from different shades of green, lilac and purple pearlescent card. This was definitely a labour of love which took many hours to create but I hope you’ll agree that the end result was worth the effort. I have included details of main dies used (apart from small foliage ones) as usual and you can see this information by clicking on any of the images.

Here is the second of 3 wedding cards made for the same couple. This time I picked out the green of the foliage featured on the invitation so that it would be different to the first card. I used ivory  and green pearlescent card and added flat back pearl gems to the flower centres. THis was made using a mixture of Tattered Lace and Spellbinders dies, for more details click on any of the images.

I was asked to make 3 wedding cards all for the same couple. This is the first one, sent to the couple from one of the bride’s aunties. I had a picture of the Wedding invitation and took my inspiration for all 3 cards from That. In this first one I picked out the lilac element from the invite. Apparently the bridesmaids dresses were a lilac/grey colour with a green iridescent sheen. I just happened to have some pearl card stock that was lilac with a hint of green in the pearlescence. This looked better in the ‘flesh’ as I used pearlescent card stock for the lacey card front and added lilac diamante gems neither of which show up very well on the pictures. For details of dies used click on any of the images.

Another special request for a special birthday. This time it was for an exploding box card, similar to one I made a while back for my sister. This time the card was to be sent from the lucky lady’s parents. Using double sided patterned cardstock really enhances the look of this style of card as you can see the design on both sides. I used the Medium Exploding Gift Box Die Set from Simply Made Crafts to create this as it saves time on measuring for all of the different elements though you could make your own version without dies. I used some of my favourite layered flower dies to decorate the internal box lids and layered number dies on the outer lid. For details of all dies used just click on any of the photographs.

A friend requested this Pop Up box birthday card for her Sister’s 65th birthday. Just the thing to chase away some of the blues of the last 18 months, with this, everything’s in the ‘pink’. For details of dies used to create this just click on any of the pictures. For instructions on how to make the card base take a look at Tutorial number 6.

I was asked to recreate one of my wine themed Pop Up Box Cards only this time for a lady celebrating a milestone birthday of 70 years. Out came some of my favourite layered flower dies to add pretty floral elements to the card and using silver mirror card for the sentiments and numbers brightened up the look too. All in all I was pretty happy with the end result. I had been worried it wouldn’t look very feminine but in the end it did and the pink blooms looked really pretty with the greens of the leaves and bottles.

I was asked to make 2 cards for special friends, it can be tricky sometimes, making more than one card to end up with different designs but so that neither looks bigger or better than the other. In this case I chose the same card fold for both cards and changed up the colour schemes, patterned papers and dies used for each one. For details on the dies used for each ard just click on the relevant pictures.

I was recently asked to make a special birthday card for a friend’s mum. The remit was bright spring florals. I absolutely love layering dies and now have a few beautiful sets in my stash. I made use of these to create a large pop up box card incorporating various dies from Altenew and Sizzix plus a couple of Sizzix bumble bees. I’m very happy to say that the lady was so delighted with her card she has refused to put it away and still has it on display. For details of other dies used, as usual, just click on any of the pictures.

My sister celebrated her 65th birthday last month and I needed to make her a special card to mark the occasion. I have seen hat easel cards around quite a bit this year and when I was lucky enough to win the Cardmaking Magic The Circular Box Complete Bundle courtesy of Craftworld, the first thing I thought was that I could use the main die set to have a go at making the hat easel card for my sister. The dies made it really easy to do, I also used a few extra nesting circles dies from my collection to complete the project. The die set enable me to make the perfect box to house the card safely. The flower dies included in the set made up beautifully. The pretty papers were from a very inexpensive 12″ x 12″ paper pad bought from Home Bargains.