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 :)

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?!

Treasury Challenge Winner!

Remember I entered the British Sellers on Etsy Treasury Challenge #10?

I love finding new items on Etsy and bringing them together to make treasuries (they normally take me ages to do so I don't get around to doing very many) so it was really exciting to hear that my treasury was picked as the winning entry to the challenge!! :D

It means that I get to choose an item from my shop to be the inspiration item for the next challenge.  I decided to pick this Fish themed printable gift box as I hope that it could inspire lots of different themes!



To enter the challenge simply create an Etsy treasury around this item - the winner will get to choose something from their shop as the inspiration item for the next challenge.  For more information on the challenge please go to http://www.etsy.com/teams/6966/british-sellers-on-etsy/discuss/10386824/

I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with! :)

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. :)

Fish Printables part 2

I'm launching the next 3 products from my fish range today...

First up is a pair of printable gift boxes...

The design of one box features lots of fish and the other has a simpler pattern of spots and fish scales.  I've decorated the box photographed using a little fish tag, some fancy eyelash yarn and blue stranded cotton.  These little boxes are perfect for giving small gifts in a unique way - they could also be used as favour boxes at parties.

I have decided to expand my range of printable products by designing more items for parties.  It's simple to achieve a themed party with little more than a printer and scissors - if you're feeling more adventurous the printables could be embellished too.

These tent cards (there are 4 designs in the set) come blank with the option to personalise - they're great as thank you cards but could also be used as food labels...

Also new in the party range are these name place cards.  The full sheet includes 8 different fish designs...

More printables in the party range will be released tomorrow! :)

If you like these fish printables why not enter my giveaway for a chance to win any 4 printables from my shop!

New Fish Printables!

I'm excited to announce my new fish themed printable products are ready for release! :D  The new range includes printables for craft projects and parties - I think they would be especially great for boys' birthday parties.  They are all my own designs made with a combination of hand drawn pen drawings and digital art - I think the hours of work have been worth it and I'm really pleased with how this set has turned out (even if I do say so myself!) :)

For anyone interested in fish, this set features illustrations of a clown fish, angel fish, regal tang, copperband butterflyfish, emperor angelfish, harlequin rasbora, black neon tetra, cardinal tetra, siamese fighting fish and guppy - 10 points to anyone who can recognise them all!

Today I am launching the first 3 products from my fish range...
A set of 10 scrapbooking papers, each is 12 inches square and the designs include a full sheet of fish, fish scale patterns, spots and stripes...

Cupcake toppers - these can be cut as squares or use a 2 inch circle punch to decorate cupcakes, make into gift tags, use on cards and more...

Printable labels which you could use in scrapbooks, cardmaking or as gift tags...

More products will be launched over the next few days so keep an eye out for them!

If you like these fish printables why not enter my giveaway for a chance to win any 4 printables from my shop!

Something fishy

I've been working on some new fish illustrations and thought I would share some pictures of my work in progress...

I started with lots of sketches of different types of tropical fish...

I chose a mixture of freshwater and marine tropical fish, focusing on colourful ones or fish with bold patterns. These illustrations were drawn in pen and watercolour pencil...

I then scanned these drawings and finished colouring them digitally...

I'll be using these fish in scrapbooking papers, greeting cards etc. - more on the finished designs soon!

Spending so much time drawing fish made me want to visit the fish shop again - yesterday I bought 2 mollies and 2 panda corydoras for my tank.  The Panda corydoras are my favourite corys - they're the sort of fish I based my DORA illustration on. :)

To celebrate reaching 100 likes on my facebook page I have decided to hold a giveaway - look out for more on that later this week!

Pick of the Week

Better late than never, here is last week's Pick of the Week...

I love the colours and dream like quality of this illustration by Kailey Lang.  "Fishes Wishes", originally painted in watercolours, gouache and ink, is available to buy as a 7x11 inch painting from her Etsy shop: bumblebooHandmades

Clown Fish

I painted this ACEO of a clown fish before Christmas but have only just listed it in my shop.  I love the brightly coloured fish in marine aquariums and the bold markings on clown fish inspired this painting.  It was drawn in pencil and pen then painted in watercolours on 140lb extra smooth watercolour paper.