Another pop up card inspired by the fabulous Sam Calcott though not using the dies. This time I shaped the pop up mechanism in the shape of a flower pot. My friend loved poppies as they reminded her of her mum and so I’ve made quite a few poppy cards for her over the years. Sadly, this is the last one I’ll make for her as she passed away last month. It gives me great comfort to remember her joyous reaction when she opened this card. The best part about making cards for others is seeing how they are received.

I was asked to make an extra special card for a friend’s mum’s birthday. I made a pop up box for the same lady last year and her mum loved it so much she never took the card down. I was asked to make the same again but slightly different. I used different flower dies for this one and used pearlescent card too. For an extra bit of sparkle is used Spectrum Noir sparkle pens on the flowers and stickles glitter glue on the inside layers of the butterflies, although it doesn’t always show up to well on photographs. For details of dies etc used just click on any of the images.

I had two cards to make for land mark birthdays. one for a friend to send to her brother in law and one sent from me to my brother in law. I’m still feeling the love for Sam Calcott’s Fabulous Flip cards so chose this card style for both cards. Both feature drinks as the main theme but if you popped on here week or so ago you’ll notice I’ve used the cute Dexter dog stamp and die again on one as it look remarkably like my brother in law’s dog. For details of stamps and dies used just click on any of the images.

My eldest daughter celebrated her birthday this January. She’s had an amazing year becoming a first time mum, and making my hubby and I first time Grandparents. I always try to make my family cards that bit more special. I love cards that stand out from the rest and saw this cube card on youtube. I thought it would be perfect to cover with photographs to reflect events from her last 12 months. It was hard picking which photos to include as we have so many, I used every available surface as you can see from the pictures. The colour scheme was dictated by her favourite football team i.e. Manchester City but in this case was really appropriate as it was also a celebration of her becoming mum to a beautiful baby boy. Am happy to report that she loved her card and at least some of the hundreds of pictures stored on phones and tablets actually made it into print.

My friend asked me to make a birthday card for her to send to her son who is a dog groomer. I was excited to see Sam Calcott’s new Fabulous flip cards but didn’t have the dies. I did a bit or research on youtube and found various tutorials showing how to make these without the dies. Here’s my version. I was really pleased how this turned out. Obviously I had to have dogs featuring strongly and thought it would be fun to depict various dogs before and after grooming. The large dog is similar in appearance to her Son’s own dog. Cards like this are so much fun to make, give and receive. For details of dies used just click on any of the images.

My youngest daughter is an amazing baker, not by trade, she does it for pleasure. Her best makes are cakes, pastries and tray bakes. They are always really delicious. She makes celebration cakes for all the family when it’s their birthday as well as baking for colleagues at work to brighten their days. I’ve made many cards over the years for her birthdays but not a baking themed one so that’s what I chose to do this time. Making cards for family members always means a special card, even if it’s not a milestone birthday, they’ve kind of come to expect it these days. If you’ve seen my recent posts you’ll probably realise that I’m really enjoying making pop up cards lately, inspired by the fabulous Sam Calcott though not using the dies. They really make an impact and look great on the mantlepiece. For this card I used digital stamps which were free as a premium member of Craftworld. I did actually have the physical stamps too from a free give a while back with Creative Stamping magazine. The digital stamps can be resized to suit your project and in this case I enlarged pretty much all of them before colouring with Prism Brush markers and then fussy cutting them out.

My daughter’s partner enjoys lots of sports so when it came to making his birthday card this time I incorporated two of his favourites, namely golf and cycling, I then added an aeroplane as a nod to his job. I love this size of card A4 folded in half lengthwise, it’s great for scenic cards like this.

Inspired by the wonderful Sam Calcott’s ‘Pop Up Bouquet’ here’s another pop up card, this time I put the pop up mechanism on the front of the card. I made my own version of the mechanism using a score board and craft knife as I don’t have the dies. I love how this looks, you get the immediate Wow! factor when you take the card out of the envelope and it saves having to decorate the front of the card like you would have to if the mechanism was on the inside. My son in law Dave is still heavily involved with various home improvement projects, ably assisted by my hubby so he has yet again, had a DIY themed card for his birthday. For details of dies etc used to create this just click on any of the images.

Regular visitors may have seen something very similar to this before, Pop up cards are always very popular. My friend asked me to remake a card she ordered a couple of years ago, that one featured rose wine. This time she wanted pink gin to celebrate her niece in law’s special birthday. I don’t have any dies appropriate for Gin bottles or gin glass so on this occasion I used digi stamps. This allowed me to change the size and shape of the bottles and glasses. Once I was happy I printed them onto white card and fussy cut them. The images were coloured with promarkers and I then applied glossy accents. For more details re items used to create this just click on any of the images.