It won’t be long before the graduation season begins and I will be joining millions of other parents in celebrating the achievements of their offspring. What better way to mark such a special occasion than by sending a hand made personal greeting card that will become a cherished memento of a a very special memory. Here are some of the cards I have made to celebrate various graduations of friends and relatives. Each as individual as the recipients. I’ve yet to decide on a design for my daughter, but then again, this will be her second degree and the card I made for her first degree (A word book) was a lengthy labour of love and will be hard to top. To see the cards in more detail and for details of dies etc used to create these, why not browse the galleries and click on the individual pictures for full sized images and details.

My last 2 posts were cards for the girls, so, in an effort to redress the balance, here are some Extra Special (as in larger than normal size or more intricate/alternative card design) cards made for those special men in our lives or for special birthdays. Dies and materials used can be found by clicking on the individual pictures. I’ve included one or two in this preview that haven’t been previewed in a post but were added to the gallery. Most of my cards are very specific to the recipient, in terms of their hobbies, interests and preferences but most could be adapted to include your own preferences.

It’s always worth re-visiting the galleries as they are often updated. I’ve just added lots to the Ladies Extra Special gallery. All the cards in this gallery are either larger than a standard card or a more intricate card design like and exploding box or parcel keepsake style. These are not all newly made cards but they are new to site. Over the years I’ve made one or two and thought they were all in the galleries but I’ve found some that got overlooked when I set things up at the start. As always, I go to great lengths to provide all the details about which dies I’ve used to make each card and you can access this information by clicking on to any of the individual pictures/thumbnails in the galleries. It’s worth noting that if you view the galleries just by the thumbnails you won’t be able to see the whole picture, clicking on the image will reveal the full picture as well as details of the dies used, just in case you fancy having a go at any of them.

I know this is a little late but here are a couple of Mother’s Day Cards I made for Mine and my friend’s Mother-in-laws. I just love all things House-Mouse and so does my friend so they were the natural choice for our special ‘Mums’ as the images of sewing and knitting wool accurately reflect their interests in the cutest way.

I use Joanna Sheen’s CD roms all the time, I have all of the House-Mouse ones she’s produced and thought I’d share with you how I use them.

I don’t often print the sheets straight from the CD. I like to enlarge the images where possible especially if it’s going on a bigger card. I open the pdf and select just the complete image (not the decoupage pieces), then copy and paste it into a ‘Word’ document where I can resize it to suit my needs.

Once resized, I copy and paste the image as many times as I need for the number of layers I’m going to decoupage. Some layers only need small elements of the picture so I crop these and arrange on my page to save paper & printing. I print onto 250gsm and sometimes 300 gsm card which makes for a much sturdier finished project although it can be a challenge to cut some of the smaller features out, especially the tails.

After I’ve carefully cut all the layers out, I lightly ink around the edges of all pieces with Tim Holtz Pumice stone distress ink (I think it’s the perfect colour to tone in with all of the House-Mouse images) this neatens them,  disguises any rough edges and helps the raised layers blend seamlessly with the base image.

Like many, I shape the pieces of each layer with a bone folder or sometimes just in my hand. I like Pinflair glue gel for assembling the layers as it’s clear and is less noticeable than foam pads, but I still use foam pads in the centre of the larger pieces where they won’t be visible.

I often use small die cut accents on the finished card, especially if I have dies that relate to the images, like the buttons added to one card and the die cut bow added to the other.

As a final touch, I love to add shiny eyes and noses to the mice and also to any items in the image that would be shiny e.g. water, glass, metal objects in the image. I used Anita’s 3D gloss, much the same as Glossy Accents, and carefully apply to the topmost layers.

There are lots of House-Mouse cards in the galleries especially the ladies and in Christmas gallery they have their own section. Why not have a browse, a smile is guaranteed.

We had 2 special reasons to celebrate with our daughter recently, both of which called for special cards. The first was her engagement on New Years Eve. The card I came up with was a bit different than many engagement cards so I thought I’d share the logic behind my design with you. My starting point was her beautifully stunning Trillion Cut engagement ring. I searched for inspiration and found the star fold card that many of you will have seen, when opened it is triangular in shape. I’ve seen this card fold many times before but not made one. I always wondered how the recipients would display them as they don’t stand up like a traditional card, so I decided to attach mine to an 8″ x 8″ card blank. The card fold allows for both sides of any card stock used to be visible so my next task was to search through my 12″ x 12″ double sided card stash.I couldn’t believe my luck when I found the perfect one, red and white on one side and blue and white on the other. My daughter is a passionate Manchester City fan and her partner is an avid Manchester United Fan. We had talked about the shape of My daughter’s diamond being significant, in much the same way as a trilogy ring signifying the past, present and future which is why I added these sentiments to the card. I really enjoyed this project, especially as it was for my own daughter and I have a new interactive card design which I will no doubt use again in the future.

The second reason to celebrate was the same daughter’s birthday. As I said previously, she is a Manchester City fan, so I used this as my theme. She’s had lots of Manchester City themed cards over the years, so my challenge is always to come up with something different. For this one, I used a new die set; the MFT All Star High tops set. This is such a cute die, I just love how they turned out. The detail you can achieve is amazing although they do need a certain degree of patience, especially with the eyelets. But I hope you’ll agree that the end result was worth the effort. I cannibalised an old shop bought MCFC birthday card of my hubby’s for the embellishments and couldn’t resist using the pun for the printed sentiment.

I really love how, when you make cards yourself, or commission a specially made card, you can be as unique and individual as the occasion and recipient and create a lasting memory to treasure.

A special friend of ours celebrated his 60th Birthday recently and so, of course, a special card was required. He has always been a fan of Sherlock Holmes and so I used this as my inspiration. I had no idea what I was going to do and started looking online for ideas. I found a template to create a miniature deerstalker hat and that was where I started. I searched through all of my CD roms for a suitable tweed like backing paper. I printed this double sided onto thin card and managed to make a really cute 3D hat. Then I realised it was going to pretty tricky attaching my creation to the front of a card. After hours of trying to think outside the box, I realised I was going about it the wrong way – inside the box was the answer. Using the format for an exploding box, I tailor made one to fit the the hat. I really enjoyed every part of making this. Using lots of different techniques, Die cutting (of course lol), inking, stamping, embossing, gilding, stamping and heat embossing and triple embossing to name a few.

This is most definitely a ‘One Off’, it took me days to make and I won’t be making these to sell. Apart from the numerous sheets of card stock used, it’s hard to quantify the hours involved in experimenting and then creating the finished product. Instead of adding the birthday sentiments onto to box, I decided to include a scroll on which I printed a personal poem I wrote retelling many of the memories we’ve shared since we met. What started out as a card, became a very personal and unique gift which he was delighted to receive. As usual, details of dies and materials used can be found by clicking onto the individual pictures. Hope you like it.

If, like me, you are a Pinterest fan, no doubt you will have seen various versions of One Sheet Wonders, i.e. making multiple cards using one sheet of patterned paper. I, like many papercrafters, have a vast stash of beautiful touchy feely double sided papers that I can’t bear to use. I can never decide which side of the paper to use and spend hours looking, feeling,. One sheet wonders are a great way of being able to use both sides of the paper on one card. In my case, I chose 2 different 12″x12″ double sided papers and used half of each sheet, so I had 4 designs to work with. I chose an example of a cutting template I’d seen on Pinterest but did lots of snipping to get the different looks and added die cuts and faux stitching to complete the cards. The other advantage of making these was that I used up some aperture card blanks I’ve had for years. I cut off the 3rd part of the card (meant to fold behind aperture) and used it to create a layer for the front, then glued the mat and layers over the aperture. For details of dies etc. used just click on the individual pictures.

One of the best things about hand-making cards is that you can make something as unique and individual as the occasion and recipient. This card was a commission to celebrate a significant anniversary for a business. I would not advocate the use of company logos in your card-making for obvious copyright reasons. In this instance, the logo was used to send to the same business so I took the chance, and will not be re-using the logo for any other purpose. The card is an A4 version of the double ‘Z’ fold card that I have come to love. I made the the base card using 3 sheets of A4 300 gsm card. 1 sheet for the the back, 1 folded in half for the front and 1 sheet cut down to make the 2nd ‘Z’, a hinge to join the front to the back and the supports for the pop up elements. I used Craftartist professional2 software to create the decoupaged logo and also the sentiment. Once decoupaged, I used Anita’s 3D gloss on the decoupage and the front sentiment. The pop up section was created in the same way as you do a pop up box card. I took my inspiration for the flowers and colours used from the logo to create a co-ordinated look. For details of all the different dies I used, just click on the individual pictures. I really enjoyed creating this card and love the extra dimension that adding the pop up elements gives.

A special occasion for a special friend or relative calls for a special card. Here are 2 examples made using a variety of dies. The wedding card was made using the Tattered Lace Zig Zag Cascade set of dies which I managed to buy on special offer from Crafting.co.uk. I bought these predominantly for the arched sentiment dies included, which I know will come in useful for lots of different occasions. I used the Memory Box Alphabet Soup dies to add personalisation to the arched sentiment by snipping away the letters from the sentiments and gluing the letters of the recipients’ names onto the remaining arch. I cut both the arch sentiment and letters twice, once with the mirror card right side up and once with the mirror card right side down. This allowed me to make the sentiments look as good from the back as they did from the front as the zig zag card structure means you can see both sides. For further details of dies used for both cards, just click on the individual pictures. The 90th birthday card is a 21cm square card, again using lots of different dies, but made all the more special by the use of luxury quality double sided pearlescent card stock.

I bought the Tattered Lace Mug collection dies a while ago when they were on special offer at Crafting.co.uk. I predominantly bought them for the sentiments that were included as part of the set and didn’t get round to using the actual mug die until now. For this card I used thick acetate from some packaging material that I’d saved. Though the die didn’t cut completely through the acetate (not surprising given how thick it was) it did get most of the way through, so with a little bending to and fro and an odd snip here and there, I ended up with a great beer glass. The insert card was chosen to look like lager and I attached it with red liner tape on the inside back of the acetate card. I used the sentiment dies from The Tattered Lace Zig Zag Cascade set (also bought on special offer). I’m quite pleased with the end result and, having now used it, can see it coming in handy for lots of different occasions. I still have numerous dies which I’ve yet to use, owing to my obsession for buying dies, especially when they’re on sale/special offer. The only problem I have is coming up with storage solutions for my ever-growing collection. Are you the same? Do you have any great storage solutions to share? why not drop me a line and let me know. Am thinking I may post some pics of how I manage mine.