A Baby’s first birthday is definitely a reason to celebrate, There are so many cute dies on the market these days, it’s hard to choose which ones to use. Sometimes I get special requests from friends and other times I like to try out new dies I’ve added to my stash. My friend’s grandson celebrated his very first birthday and she requested a card like the one I made for her other grandson using lovely pastel colours of pearlescent card for a clean contemporary look. The other card was sent from my hubby and myself to the same little boy. I used a background I’d made from strips of coloured card and an uber cute new addition to my stash the Nellie Snellen Dada dies ‘Lion in airplane’ gifted to me by a lovely crafty friend. This made for a bright modern looking card. For further information re materials used or full sized images just click on any of the smaller pictures below.

What better way to create a lasting record of baby’s very special Christening Day than to send a keepsake album for either a boy or a girl, they are soooo cute. There are tags to record all the special personal details of the day including venue, date, godparents, guests and gifts. Cut baby themed printed papers have been used here to decorate a ‘bare basics’ chipboard album. The edges of the pages were painted with whit acrylic paint before each page was covered with patterned papers. The holes were reinforced with metal eyelets using a cropodile. Book binding rings were embellished with ribbons, beads and sentiment tags. For full size images and details of dies used to create this just click on any of the smaller images below.

Baby’s Christening day is a very special occasion, it’s nice to mark it with a special, personalised hand made card that is destined to be kept in baby’s memory box for future years. The card uses a card fold inspired by Sam Calcott of Mixed up Craft’s youtube tutorial Made in lovely shades of pale blue and polka dot with a little silver cross charm.

Landmark birthdays are a great reason to send a bespoke card, what better way of making a loved one feel extra special. This version of pop up card is fast becoming one of my most requested cards to make. In this case it features Prosecco for a change, lots of personalised details included on the bottles. For details of dies and materials used just click on any of the smaller images.

My best friend celebrates her birthday in June so I chose a tropical theme this year for her card using Altenew layering dies that have been in my stash and till now unused. I chose tropical themed papers and bright colourful coordinating card stock to complete the look. Once again I used a double swing card fold inspired by Sam Calcott on Youtube. I used double sided card for the card base that was lime green on one side and cerise pin on the other which made for a more dramatic look and used both sides alternately for the layered sentiments. All in all it made for a bright fun card which my friend loved.

Celebrating landmark birthdays calls for a special card, especially when it’s for a daughter. Pop up cards are always a popular choice, they delight recipients and make for a great display. I chose lovely shades of mint green for this card, it was one of three cards I was asked to make, all for the same recipient so I wanted to make sure they were all different styles and colours. I love layered flower dies and used a couple of different Altenew die sets to create this. Using pearlescent card for the flowers added that extra little touch of luxury too.

Another special request for a special birthday. This is only the second hat style easel card I’ve made. I love how realistic the hat looks when finished and it’s definitely a card that will stand out from the rest on the mantlepiece. Because of the dimensional aspect of this type of card it has to have it’s own box. What better than a matching hat box. For those crafters out there, it takes quite a lot of card stock to make the card and box, especially if our using A4 sheets.

I had a request for an explosion box card for a 60th birthday. I love making these kinds of cards, they have the ‘wow’ factor that you want for a special landmark celebration. For this version I used pearlescent cardstock to make the flowers in shades of pinks and purples to coordinate with the patterned papers I’d chosen. The sentiments were typed and printed out and then die cut.

Regular visitors will know that my sister is also a crafter. When it comes to her birthday, I always try to make something a little bit different. This time I chose a double swing fold card inspired by Sam Calcott of Mixed up craft I saw on youtube. My sister is also a keen gardener so I chose this as my theme and picked patterned papers and a stamp to reflect this.