The safe arrival of a new baby is definitely a reason to celebrate and what better way than by sending a hand made personalised card. My sister’s step son welcomed his first born and so I made them one of my Keepsake parcel cards. I also made a card for my sister and her hubby to send too. To view details of dies etc used follow the links in this post to the gallery and then click on the relevant thumbnail pic.
Many people struggle making cards for men. Maybe because of this, I have a wealth of dies and stamps for ‘masculine’ cards. My dilemma when card making is not the gender of the recipient, it’s their relationship to me. Every year I need to come up with different design ideas and I try to utilise new card folds whenever I find ones I like. My New favourite, as regular visitors will have gathered by now, is the Pop up Easel Block card I first saw on Sam Calcotts Youtube channel via pinterest.
Here are two cards made for my eldest daughter’s husband and my youngest daughters partner, both using the above mentioned card fold but in different sizes and with different themes. For information on dies, stamps etc used and to see full size images, just click on any of the small images.
My pop up cards have proved to be really popular with friends and family especially the pink prosecco and rose wine versions. Generally they are all made to similar dimensions. I have, though on occasions, made larger versions. This is a larger version of the prosecco card made for a good friend to send to her daughter on her very special 50th Birthday. Glossy Accents and rose gold glitter card adds to the luxury of this showstopper card. For details of dies and resources used and full sized images just click on any of the smaller images.
What a great way to deal with those occasions where the card shops fall short. Joint occasions celebrating more than one thing at the same event. No need for two cards when you opt for handmade. This card was made for the baby of our friend’s daughter, and while you can’t see the inside, I wrote two verses, one for the birthday and one for the naming day. Personalisation also makes this bright colourful card extra special too.
The birth of a baby is a magical and very special event in the life of the parents and the family. Keepsake parcel cards are the most popular card I am asked to make. There are subtle differences that make each one a unique memento of baby’s birth. Here’s one of my recent makes. For Details of dies etc used and full sized images just click on any of the smaller pictures.
I just fell in love with the free stamps that came with issue 109 of Creative Stamping Magazine. I chose to work with the hexagon stamps first using yellows and greens and added glossy accent highlights. My sister’s birthday was coming up and the hexagons made me think of bees. Not long after the ‘punny’ sentiment came to mind. Hence the design of the first card using one of my now favourite card folds the Pop up Easel Block card. The Tattered Lace Freda Frog die was perfect for what I had in mind, I printed and cut from the charisma downloads. The bee was made using Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 4 Pack 663852, Bee by Lisa Jones and the sentiments using Bright Rosa Sentiment dies snipped to create the words ‘hop’ and ‘bee’. I used nesting hexagon dies to cut out the stamped hexagons. I had quite a few of the hexagons left over and when I needed to send a card to a crafty friend who has been under the weather, I thought the bright colours would cheer her up. The ‘Thinking Of You’ sentiment was die cut using a Card Making Magic die set.
When my special men celebrate their landmark birthdays it calls for an extra special card. I love trying out new card folds and the Pop up Easel Block card as demonstrated by Sam Calcott https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXwMfMt-HGM is fast becoming a firm favourite of mine. I had 2 special cards to make, one for my nephew’s birthday and one for our Godson’s 30th birthday. I have some brilliant large number dies from Crealies which are perfect for special ages cards. For details of dies and materials used just click on any of the smaller pictures below.
We now look after our grandson once a week while his mum is working. Weather permitting, it’s nice to take him out to the local parks and we have our lunch out too. I decided to make myself a bag to take our grandson’s necessities along with us. I had a number of bag patterns, though none purpose designed for the job so decided on using Butterick Waverly B6148 sewing pattern. This has large and small versions of the bag. I adapted this by using the large version for the main part of the bag and also used the small version (though I halved the depth) to make the front section and pockets and then joined them together. I made the changing mat to go inside by copying my daughters actual travel changing mat. The changing mat fits inside the main bag in it’s own pocket. The biggest challenge of all was actually sewing with plasticised fabric. In the end I invested in a teflon foot for my sewing machine but even so it did challenge my patience at times.
I love it and have used it often, made from wipe clean plasticised cotton fabric and lined in dark navy to avoid stains. It has lots of room to hold spare clothes, Toys, food, drinks and other things too. I might try making another one similar as I think it would make a great holiday back perfect for carry on flight bag and/or beach bag.
My Grandson celebrated his very first birthday last summer. My family have been on the receiving end of my hand made cards for quite a few years now. There is always an increased pressure when special birthdays come along. Well, you can’t get more special than your first Grandchild’s first birthday can you? I wracked my brains for ideas for his card and then I had a brainwave. His mum (my daughter) loves the Very Hungry Caterpillar story book and so does Charlie, he has lots of toys, books and even clothes featuring the character. I decided to use that as my theme to create a card in a similar style using a host of dies from my stash and a home made template for the accordion card base. I had the idea of the caterpillar eating his way through the card but, how to create that was another matter. It took days of experimenting, creating numerous templates for the caterpillar and the accordion style card base until eventually I arrived at one I was happy with. Days more were spent die cutting all of the elements, including the caterpillar from a multitude of dies and different colours of card stock, when I didn’t have the right colours I used alcohol markers. All elements were inked around the edges to create depth. The completed card was huge and too thick when folded to go into an envelope so I made a box for it. This will also help to keep it safe in his memory box for years to come. To give you an idea of the size of this, each page of the accordion is A5, the whole thing was 21 cm tall and 118 cm long. This was most definitely a labour of love that I will Not be recreating for anyone else unless, of course, I happen to have another Grandchild in the future.
I loved making this fab fun card. It’s so bright and full of interest. I made the card base using inspiration from Sam Calcott’s Made To Surprise Pop up Bouquet Die set but I did not use the dies as I don’t have have them. By making the mechanism without dies it allows me to change the dimensions of the mechanism to suit the size and shape of card I’m making. I did use the ‘Made to Surprise’ super sliders collection shoes and handbags and make up die and stamp sets to stamp and cut out the elements on this card. The shoes bags and background were coloured using distress oxide inks to watercolour the images and added ‘glossy accents’ to complete the look. Unlike Sam, I mounted the pop up mechanism on the front of my card as it makes for maximum impact when the envelope is opened and it also leaves more room for a verse and sentiment inside the card.
