Handmade Birthday Cards

Spring is a busy time for birthdays and other card giving occasions in my house, so I thought I would share a couple of cards I made recently.

This fishy card was for my Dad’s birthday.  I used some backing paper from my set of Fish scrapbooking papers and fish from my collage sheet printed onto card.  The vallis leaves were cut from coloured paper and I made the design more 3D by sticking the fish on with foam pads.  Finally, for a bit of sparkle I used some translucent sequins…

I’ve made a few variations of this butterfly card recently (this one was for my sister’s birthday)…

I love the pearlescent pea green card blank I used for this design, unfortunately it’s a discontinued colour so I won’t be able to get any more :(  I printed one of my butterfly patterned papers onto sandstone coloured card and the butterflies and message were printed on card from my butterfly collage sheet.  After cutting the patterned background to size I coloured the edge with a gold inkpad.  The large butterfly was attached with foam pads and the small butterfly glued to the card along its body, with the wings slightly folded up for a 3D effect.  I also used some pretty yellow and blue gems to finish the card.

Have you bought any of the printables from my shop to use in your cardmaking or craft projects?  If you have I would love to see what you make with them!  Leave a link to your photos in the comments below :)

How to make Birthday Bunting…

What birthday party would be complete without a birthday banner?  This ‘Happy Birthday’ bunting is made from my printable butterflies themed bunting, below are some different ideas for putting the bunting together…

The basic bunting

The printable bunting comes as 5 sheets for you to print (I have more themes in my shop for different themed parties).  Each sheet measures 8.5x11 inches (or prints on A4) and each pennant measures 5.2 x 7.6 inches.  {If you would like more information on printables – what they are and how they work please take a look at my faq page here.}

When you have downloaded the bunting, print the 5 sheets onto white card using your printers highest quality setting.  Using card rather than paper makes the pennants sturdier and stops them from curling.  Cut the pennants out.  You’re now ready to try these different ways of hanging the bunting…

1. Peg up your pennants!

Lay out all of your pennants, equally spaced, to measure how long the banner will be.  Cut some coordinating ribbon or thread to the desired length – make sure you leave enough on the ends to tie the banner up.  Attach the pennants to the ribbon using pegs or clips.  Try clothes pegs decorated with scrapbooking paper, mini pegs or binder clips.

2.  All tied up

Punch 2 holes in each pennant – one in each top corner.  Tie pennants together with ribbon or fancy yarn – you can experiment with different textures colours and widths of ribbon.

3. Thread it up

Punch 2 holes in each pennant as in the previous example.  Thread the pennants together on one long ribbon or length of yarn.  Lay all of your pennants out first to make sure you thread them in the right order (yes, I have got words backwards before!!).  In the photo above I’ve made my own cord by crocheting yarn in chain stitch.

I hope this has inspired you to be creative with your birthday banners!

Monday Make – Fish Birthday Card

Recently I’ve spent quite a lot of time on paperwork and planning the Christmas craft fayre, so thought it was about time I made something!  This fun birthday card didn't take long to make and features my copperband butterfly fish illustration.

To make this card you will need:

• Fish Cardmaking kit  OR  a card blank, fish printable scrapbooking papers and collage sheet
• gemstones
• white card
• glue, scissors, double sided sticky foam pads, corner punch

1. Cut out the butterfly fish and ‘Happy Birthday’ message from the collage sheet.  Cut a piece of patterned paper slightly smaller than the card – so that it lines up with the fold of the card and there is a border along the other 3 sides.

2.  Use the corner punch to make 2 rounded corners on the patterned paper, then glue to the card.  If you don’t have a punch you could use something round as a template (eg. a small coin) and cut the corners by hand.

3. Mount the birthday message on white card, then stick the message and fish to the card with the foam pads for a 3D effect.

4.  Glue the gems onto the card so they look like bubbles coming out of the fish’s mouth.  Instead of gems you could also try using sequins or beads.

Now you have one finished fish card!

You could make similar cards with some of my other fish too – why not try a clown fish card or cardinal tetra?!

Ball Games party

This new printable party set has a ball games theme - great for sports themed birthday parties!  The set comes in two colour schemes - either green and orange or blue and red and features a range of sports balls from football and basketball to tennis and cricket.

The party set includes an invitation, cupcake toppers, tent cards, name place cards, straw flags and a birthday bunting banner.  The invitations, cupcake toppers and tent cards come personalised too with your own choice of wording.

For more details see this listing in my Etsy shop here:  https://www.etsy.com/listing/105788658/ball-games-personalised-printable-party

London Party!

I was just going to use my new London themed illustrations for scrapbooking paper and a collage sheet but thought they'd make a nice, unusual party set too - what do you think?
They'll be available to buy from my Etsy shop either as a full collection (invitation, cupcake toppers, bunting, name place cards, tent cards and straw flags) or individually...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doing the photo shoot for my Rule Britannia set was fun before so I think I'll have a go at a photo shoot for this one too - I might have to hold a un-birthday party so I can try them all out! :)

A Fishy Party!

I have 3 more fish themed printables to share with you today...
These invitations are part of my new party range...

They are available in 2 sizes (5x7 inch or 3.9 x 5.1 inches) and come blank for you to fill in the party details.  I am also offering the option of customised invitations so all you need to do is print them.

What party would be complete without some bunting?  This printable bunting comes as 5 sheets for an easy to make 'Happy Birthday' banner...

And my last printable for today is this sheet of flags - simply print, cut out the strips and wrap round straws to jazz up a drink or wrap around cocktail sticks to decorate cakes...

All of the party printables are available to buy individually from my Etsy shop - so you can mix and match the items you would like.  Or if you like them all, I will also be offering a party set with customised invitations, cupcake toppers, tent cards, name place cards, straw flags and bunting which will save you money compared to buying them all individually. :)