My Grandson celebrated his very first birthday last summer. My family have been on the receiving end of my hand made cards for quite a few years now. There is always an increased pressure when special birthdays come along. Well, you can’t get more special than your first Grandchild’s first birthday can you? I wracked my brains for ideas for his card and then I had a brainwave. His mum (my daughter) loves the Very Hungry Caterpillar story book and so does Charlie, he has lots of toys, books and even clothes featuring the character. I decided to use that as my theme to create a card in a similar style using a host of dies from my stash and a home made template for the accordion card base. I had the idea of the caterpillar eating his way through the card but, how to create that was another matter. It took days of experimenting, creating numerous templates for the caterpillar and the accordion style card base until eventually I arrived at one I was happy with. Days more were spent die cutting all of the elements, including the caterpillar from a multitude of dies and different colours of card stock, when I didn’t have the right colours I used alcohol markers. All elements were inked around the edges to create depth. The completed card was huge and too thick when folded to go into an envelope so I made a box for it. This will also help to keep it safe in his memory box for years to come. To give you an idea of the size of this, each page of the accordion is A5, the whole thing was 21 cm tall and 118 cm long. This was most definitely a labour of love that I will Not be recreating for anyone else unless, of course, I happen to have another Grandchild in the future.

I loved making this fab fun card. It’s so bright and full of interest. I made the card base using inspiration from Sam Calcott’s Made To Surprise Pop up Bouquet Die set but I did not use the dies as I don’t have have them. By making the mechanism without dies it allows me to change the dimensions of the mechanism to suit the size and shape of card I’m making. I did use the ‘Made to Surprise’ super sliders collection shoes and handbags and make up die and stamp sets to stamp and cut out the elements on this card. The shoes bags and background were coloured using distress oxide inks to watercolour the images and added ‘glossy accents’ to complete the look. Unlike Sam, I mounted the pop up mechanism on the front of my card as it makes for maximum impact when the envelope is opened and it also leaves more room for a verse and sentiment inside the card.

A Baby’s first birthday is definitely a reason to celebrate, There are so many cute dies on the market these days, it’s hard to choose which ones to use. Sometimes I get special requests from friends and other times I like to try out new dies I’ve added to my stash. My friend’s grandson celebrated his very first birthday and she requested a card like the one I made for her other grandson using lovely pastel colours of pearlescent card for a clean contemporary look. The other card was sent from my hubby and myself to the same little boy. I used a background I’d made from strips of coloured card and an uber cute new addition to my stash the Nellie Snellen Dada dies ‘Lion in airplane’ gifted to me by a lovely crafty friend. This made for a bright modern looking card. For further information re materials used or full sized images just click on any of the smaller pictures below.

What better way to create a lasting record of baby’s very special Christening Day than to send a keepsake album for either a boy or a girl, they are soooo cute. There are tags to record all the special personal details of the day including venue, date, godparents, guests and gifts. Cut baby themed printed papers have been used here to decorate a ‘bare basics’ chipboard album. The edges of the pages were painted with whit acrylic paint before each page was covered with patterned papers. The holes were reinforced with metal eyelets using a cropodile. Book binding rings were embellished with ribbons, beads and sentiment tags. For full size images and details of dies used to create this just click on any of the smaller images below.

Baby’s Christening day is a very special occasion, it’s nice to mark it with a special, personalised hand made card that is destined to be kept in baby’s memory box for future years. The card uses a card fold inspired by Sam Calcott of Mixed up Craft’s youtube tutorial Made in lovely shades of pale blue and polka dot with a little silver cross charm.

Landmark birthdays are a great reason to send a bespoke card, what better way of making a loved one feel extra special. This version of pop up card is fast becoming one of my most requested cards to make. In this case it features Prosecco for a change, lots of personalised details included on the bottles. For details of dies and materials used just click on any of the smaller images.

My best friend celebrates her birthday in June so I chose a tropical theme this year for her card using Altenew layering dies that have been in my stash and till now unused. I chose tropical themed papers and bright colourful coordinating card stock to complete the look. Once again I used a double swing card fold inspired by Sam Calcott on Youtube. I used double sided card for the card base that was lime green on one side and cerise pin on the other which made for a more dramatic look and used both sides alternately for the layered sentiments. All in all it made for a bright fun card which my friend loved.

Celebrating landmark birthdays calls for a special card, especially when it’s for a daughter. Pop up cards are always a popular choice, they delight recipients and make for a great display. I chose lovely shades of mint green for this card, it was one of three cards I was asked to make, all for the same recipient so I wanted to make sure they were all different styles and colours. I love layered flower dies and used a couple of different Altenew die sets to create this. Using pearlescent card for the flowers added that extra little touch of luxury too.