Busy Weekend

This weekend saw me making plenty of cards for various occasions, including my first proper order - my brother was talking about my cards to one of his friends who needed one for her mum's birthday later this week. The theme for this card was The Cat in the Hat.
I began by looking at the character on-line and sketching out some ideas. I decided to make (yet another) silhouette card but highlight his famous hat and bow-tie.
To make it, I drew out my cat onto black card and finished it off by adding a red and white paper hat (and tie) with pen detail. 
I finished the card with silver stars and a happy birthday foam sticker.

After I had shown it to mum, she wanted one for her boss' birthday, her boss who happens to like cats. This one was more or less the same, with small changes in the details.





My third card of the weekend was a new baby card for our brand new family member (a distant relation). This one required a bit of inspiration. I finally came across the perfect template.

I used some pink and cream spotted paper for the rabbit, finishing it off with a little pink ribbon and pen features. The card itself was decorated with a strip of cream ribbon and some pink gingham tape with a 'congratulations' foam sticker (there is a lack of 'new baby' or 'baby girl/boy' stickers in my stash).


My other creation was for a family friend who was starting a new job. This was a new theme for me, having never made a 'good luck on your new job' card before. So I hit my magazines once more. Unfortunately, they were limited and all included stationary or shirts and ties which wasn't what I was looking for. I did have one idea though and that was shoes. My friend, Jan, absolutely adores shoes, so I decided to make them the focus of the design.
Again, I chose to do a silhouette card but used brightly coloured paper from the Retro Rose range for the shoes and detail on the card. I am so happy with the design and love the colours. I think it definitely ranks up there with my favourite makes. I used Word to help me write the message, but typing it out, finding the right font and copying it onto the card. I didn't just want to write good luck but I was able to come up with this sentiment, which I thought matched my card perfectly.

Crafting in the Sunshine

Today, I was left with a dilemma. I don't know how the weather's been where you are, but here, it's be gorgeous. I have also just finished all of my university work so I have nothing to do except chill out. My dilemma was this: enjoy the sunshine, as I should seeing as the sun is rarely seen in the UK, let alone Manchester; or, spend the afternoon making cards. In the end I decided that if I couldn't bring the sunshine into my room, I would take my craft stash out to the sunshine. So, grabbing my beach towel and my kit and went and sat out in the garden at the front of my uni digs. 

 Overall, I had a rather pleasant and productive afternoon. The six cards I made today included an anniversary card for my parents, a new baby card (made using some of my German stash) and another card made using recycled materials, this time a Flake Easter egg box. 

 I was particularly pleased with the butterflies card. I had seen cards using little butterfly embellishments and only attaching the body of the butterfly to the card, leaving the wings stood up from the front, almost as if it was about to fly away. For the two butterflies, I used peel-offs on some patterned paper and then cut out the shape. I actually use foam pads to stick them to the card to really make them stand out. The smaller butterflies were made using a shaped punch and there were some other peel-offs as well. All that was left to do after that was glue a nice piece of paper to the front and add a message.