Nautical makes - a handmade card and model boat

I had to wait until after Father’s Day before I could show you these because I made them for my Dad!  The card is made from 2 of the images in my new Nautical digital stamp set and one of the patterned scrapbooking papers.  I cut along the waves of the backing paper and layered them with sticky foam pads to make the sea.  The boat and banner digital stamps were printed on card, I then coloured them in watercolours and cut them out.  If you are going to colour with a wet medium like watercolours make sure you print with ink that won’t run!  I used an Epson printer with pigment ink – see this post I wrote a while ago if you want to know more about dye vs. pigment ink.

I also made this little boat - after picturing it in my head I was so pleased with how it turned out!  It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be either, although there were a few tricky bits that I had to practise first.  I cut the hull from 3/4 inch thick wood and shaped and sanded it.  I then drilled a small hole for the mast, which is made from a bamboo skewer.  The sails were hand sewn and attached to the mast with thread.  The sails were made from fairly stiff fabric but to make sure they kept straight I stitched a little eye pin to the corners of each sail and pushed them into the hull.  I also added a little flag made from satin ribbon.

By the way, my Dad really liked them too! :D

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 :)

Quick Make for Mother’s Day…

Have you remembered it’s Mother’s Day this Sunday 10th March?  If you’re still looking for something to give your Mum here’s a quick project for a little card.  It could be made as a card on its own or used as a gift tag – why not attach it to a bunch of flowers for a more personal gift…
The card is made from one of the blank tulip cards on my sheet of Easter printable tent cards – the sheet also has daffodil patterned cards on it.
1. Print the sheet of cards onto white card.  Cut out one of the cards and fold in half.
2. Cut a strip of coloured paper and glue along the white space on the front of the card.
3. Stamp (or write) the letters ‘Mum’ onto white card.  Use a heart shaped paper punch to cut out the letters.
4. Glue the hearts to the coloured paper strip.
5. Add some sparkle to the card with tiny dots of glitter glue on the pink spots on the card.

More new greeting card designs!

I have more new card designs to share with you today!  There are a couple of Christmas cards, a birthday cupcake card and 2 blank cards which could be used for a range of occasions.

Most of these have been printed on white card with a lovely linen texture - the pigeons and umbrellas card is printed on white card with a very slightly rough surface.  As I print the cards myself I can do personalised cards too; if you like a design but would prefer a different message I am happy to do custom orders.

The cards all measure 12.5cm square (approximately 4.9 inches) and come with white envelopes.  They are blank inside ready for you to add your own message.

Some cards have also been embellished after printing, like this Clematis pattern notecard which has glitter in the centres of the flowers...

My greeting cards are available to buy from my Folksy shop.

Craft Fayres and New Cards

It's a busy time of year for craft fayres - I had my first one of the season just over a week ago at the Aldham Craft Weekend (above is a photo of part of my stall).  The fayre went well; it was really nice to meet my customers face to face for a change and to chat to the other stallholders!  Every fayre is different so it can be hard to judge which items are the most popular to make, I was really pleased to sell some of my new designs - I sold out of some of my cardmaking kits and this new card...

This card is available to buy from my Folksy shop.  I'll be sharing some of my other new card designs over the next few days.

The next fayre I will be having a stall at is the Christmas Craft Fayre at Firstsite (the new art gallery) in Colchester.  It's on this Saturday 10th November from 11am to 4pm and donations are being raised for Autism Anglia.

London Calling and Christmas note card sets

I have two new sets of note cards to share with you today; the first has a ‘London Calling’ theme.  Each card features a different one of my designs including soldiers of the Queen’s Guard, London buses and taxis, post boxes and phone boxes and zig-zag stripes…

The second set of cards has a Christmas theme – it feels too early for Christmas but the shops are starting to get their Christmas stock in now so I thought I should get mine prepared too!

All of these cards are 10x10cm square and come with white envelopes.  Their small size is perfect for writing little notes!
Both of these sets are only available to buy to buy from my Folksy shop!

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?!

Clematis Note Cards

The first set of my new note cards is finished!  This pretty set has a Clematis theme and contains 4 square cards, each with a different design.  I have designed this set so that you can use them for a range of occasions, two cards have ‘Thank you’ messages on the front, one says ‘Just to say…’ and the last has no message.  The size of these cards (10cm x 10cm) makes them great for writing little notes.

The cards are printed on lovely white linen textured card and come with white envelopes.  As I am printing these cards myself I am able to offer personalised cards too – so if you like the designs but would prefer different messages on them I am happy to do custom orders!
 

At the moment these cards will only be available to buy from my Folksy shop.

More card sets will be released soon!  As well as other sets of small square cards I will also be making cards to sell individually and in other sizes.

New card for Mother's Day

Yes, it's the cupcakes and roses designs back again!  This time I have used the roses pattern and green spots to make a Mother's Day card (Mothering Sunday is on 18th March this year)...

I have printed my design onto lovely linen textured card and finished it with a little flower gem embellishment.

This card is now available to buy from my Folksy shop :)

Paper Makes...

More makes using my printable collage sheets...  The pretty vintage inspired ACEO above was made using a background from the 'Sepia Handwriting' set and 1 inch squares from the 'Vintage Sheet Music' and 'Flowers' (1003) sets. I also used hand stitching, punched paper daisies, a gemstone, old fancy clockhand and glitter.

I love daisies they make me think of sunny summer days :)  The daisies on this card are from my 'Flowers' (1003) collage sheet.  For this design I layered the photo squares on paper over a background paper and added some ribbon, gem flower and 'Thank You' sticker.

 

New Cards

I've been neglecting my blog a bit recently so I thought that it was time I tried to catch up... here are some new cards I've had printed:

I always get a bit nervous sending work away to be printed because I'm never quite sure exactly how they will turn out but I was really pleased with these Hexley cards...

Handmade cards with papers, ribbons etc are great fun to make but they always take me so long to do, so I've been working on some new ideas for cards which are printed but could have hand finished elements too. The 'Wedding', 'Christmas' and 'Birthday' cards below were made by hand cutting letters from coloured card which I then decorated with pen and paint. The rest of the design was drawn in pen and painted in watercolours and finally I scanned the whole design and added a background digitally.

The ladybird card is a little different with the printed part of the card originally made from a combination of collage and watercolours. I've then added a ribbon, punched paper flower and brad to the finished card.

Christmas Cards

Surrounded by all my scrapbooking papers, card, ribbons and pens, I have been busy making lots of Christmas cards! I've even had to stop myself from singing Christmas songs (still far to early for all that!!) :)

As well as building up the stock for my next craft fayre I am in the process of listing some cards in my Etsy shop. Here are a few of my newest creations...

Christmas Cards

I've spent the last couple of days working on some new Christmas cards. I'm building my stock of cards up and trying to be prepared before it (hopefully) gets busy for Christmas.

When I'm making cards I start off with just a few bits of paper and card out and as the day goes on my desk and floor gradually disappear in a pile of ribbons, beads, pens and what seems like everything else I own craft wise! No matter what I do I never seem to have enough storage space or desk space - I end up balancing stacks of paper and boxes of ribbons on the open drawers around my desk! I'm sure this isn't the best way of working... but it does usually result in some nice cards. :)

Another nice surprise!

Treasuries on Etsy seem to be like buses at the moment - you wait for ages for one to come along and three come at once! Today I found out that my 'Teatime Cupcakes' greetings card is featured in a treasury with lots of other great cake related items. You can see the treasury, which was put together by Etsy member Marmalady, here.

The 'Teatime Cupcakes' card was made with a print of my photograph of some cakes I decorated myself. I also used coloured papers, scrapbooking paper, ribbon and beads to decorate the card. There is a space left at the bottom of the card for a personalised message to be added. You can see this card and others in my Etsy shop.