My niece recently celebrated her 21st birthday so a special card was in order, to mark the occasion. As our gift was going to be money, I made the card dual purpose using the four internal boxes for our gift. The Medium Exploding Gift Box Die Set from Simply Made Crafts makes making a card like this really easy. It looks great when using double sided cardstock as both sides are visible on the completed project. It was a different way to gift money and a different style of card which, I’m happy to say, was very well received. For details of dies used click on any of the pictures.

It was my Brother in law’s birthday a couple of months ago and masculine cards can be tricky, especially if the person they are for doesn’t really have any hobbies. I’ve made him quite a few cards over the years and coming up with something new can be a challenge. I’ve had this fab retro campervan die in my stash for ages and till now not used it. I love how the die cuts all the little extra details to make a brilliant finished result with not too much effort, although some of the pieces are quite tiny. I chose retro colours to add to the authentic look. To make the map, I used some printed paper from a Docrafts papermania Mister Mister set. I folded it map style and added distress ink to give it an aged look. I used a Spellbinders embossabilities folder to create the road from black cardstock with silver gilding wax. I chose my favourite Z fold card base and was quite pleased with the end result, I think my brother in law was too.

I had a recent request to make a card featuring replicas of the recipient’s Chihuahua dogs. After a fair bit of experimenting with dies from different sets and a fair amount of freehand snipping, I managed to come up with a line of pooches that were a reasonable match. It’s great fun making cards like this, having to think outside the box in the way that dies are used and the best bit of all is the delight on the recipient’s face when they open them. It makes all the time and effort involved worthwhile.

When you’re a card crafter, it’s hard to keep coming up with different ideas for family members, they’ve seen everything I’ve ever made. My hubby has spent months helping our daughter and her husband with some pretty extensive home improvements. When it came to his birthday, I wanted to theme his card towards some of the things he’s been doing. I have a number of crafting CDRoms in my stash and hadn’t used some of them. I found the perfect one for my needs. A Debbi Moore Shabby Chic double CD for men  Tools Of The Trade and Through The Window. I printed out the elements for what was intended to be 4 cards but had the idea to join all four together to make one big card that would open out. despite looking complicated, once everything was printed and cut out, it went together relatively simply. Mission accomplished, he was certainly surprised and a little amused by his 3D greeting.

Two of my friend’s Sons have just celebrated the arrival of new baby boys and both requested my most popular make for babies, i.e. the Keepsake parcel card. Regular visitors will have seen these many times now but I always add subtle differences so that no two cards are exactly the same.  I also made straight forward cards for the same babies too. It gave me the opportunity to use a new die set which is just the cutest ever the Marianne collectables Eline’s Babies set. There are a number of different elements that allow you to create babies of either gender in various outfits and in various poses. I had so much fun making the babies for these. For more details on dies used and for full sized pictures just click on any of the pictures.

I was asked to make 2 birthday cards for a very special lady who I have know for most of my life. The said lady was celebrating her 80th birthday. One card was to be from her grandchildren and one from her children. It was pink and flowers all around with a pop up box and an exploding box card, both of which seem to be firm favourites for commissions. For details of dies used just click on any of the pictures.

I was recently asked to make two extra large cards for a very special 90th Birthday. The birthday boy loves ‘The Rat Pack’ and also enjoys a ‘Jack Daniels’ whisky, so these became my themes for the two cards. It’s sometimes tricky making more than one card for the same recipient. It’s important that both cards are special but then they need to be different too. I decided to make them both A4 in size with one being orientated landscape as a double Z Fold card and the other orientated portrait wise with a fold back front to enable stability. Larger cards can be a challenge and need to be made from a minimum of 300 gsm card stock of they are to be sturdy enough to stand without bending or falling over. The ‘Rat Pack’ card utilises mostly die cuts with some printed backing papers produced in ‘Word’ and a music themed stamp which is heat embossed. The large vinyl Record was made using black mirror card which is cut with a large circle die and then I used nesting circle dies to emboss the ‘grooves’ of the record. The sentiments and numbers are die cut from glitter card and layered up for dimension. The whisky themed card was created using personalised replica labels created with Craft Artist Professional software superimposed onto photographs of a whisky bottle and whisky glasses. Glossy accents then adds to the realistic ‘glass’ effect. These are positioned on an embossed background which has been inked and gilding wax applied. I then added a ‘Wellington bear topper and some die cut embellishments to finish off. For more details re dies used just click on any of the images.

I was inspired by the wonderful Sam Calcott for the card fold I used for this make up themed birthday card. The addition of some rose gold glitter card, pearlescent card, mirror card and sparkly gems add that extra touch of luxury to make the recipient feel extra special. For details of dies used just click on any of the images.

My sister asked me to make baby keepsake cards for her Nephew in Law on the birth of new new baby daughter and one the same but with different wording for the proud Grandparents. Regular visitors will have seen these cards before. They are such a delight to make and are always well received.

I made this card using a digital card front layout that I created using Craft Artist 2 Professional. The addition of some appropriate die cuts finished this off perfectly. The great thing about hand made cards is, as I’ve always said, the ability to create a very personal, unique, one off greeting for those special occasions.