Another special request for a special birthday. This is only the second hat style easel card I’ve made. I love how realistic the hat looks when finished and it’s definitely a card that will stand out from the rest on the mantlepiece. Because of the dimensional aspect of this type of card it has to have it’s own box. What better than a matching hat box. For those crafters out there, it takes quite a lot of card stock to make the card and box, especially if our using A4 sheets.
I had a request for an explosion box card for a 60th birthday. I love making these kinds of cards, they have the ‘wow’ factor that you want for a special landmark celebration. For this version I used pearlescent cardstock to make the flowers in shades of pinks and purples to coordinate with the patterned papers I’d chosen. The sentiments were typed and printed out and then die cut.
Regular visitors will know that my sister is also a crafter. When it comes to her birthday, I always try to make something a little bit different. This time I chose a double swing fold card inspired by Sam Calcott of Mixed up craft I saw on youtube. My sister is also a keen gardener so I chose this as my theme and picked patterned papers and a stamp to reflect this.
My daughter asked me to make a special wedding card for her best friends’ wedding. Both the bride and groom are best friends of my daughter, they all met at university and have remained firm friends ever since. This was a very special and long awaited wedding, having been postponed twice over the last 2 years due to Covid and then the arrival of their baby. My daughter chose the quirky wording so it seemed natural to use the funny photographs of them as part of the card. The front photograph is of the wedding venue. A double shutter card makes a great statement and guarantees a star spot on the mantlepiece.
A 50th wedding anniversary is definitely cause for celebration and demands a special card to mark the occasion. My sister is also a card maker and so when she and her hubby celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary in April, I had to make a special card. The double shutter card creates a great display when opened up fully. For details of dies used just click on any of the pictures.
When my friend passed away after a long battle with cancer and the effects of treatment, her husband asked my if I knew anyone who could make a memory bear for her Son using one of her coats. I immediately volunteered for the task. We chose one f her favourite coats made of the softest fur fabric. I used a pattern I found on Pinterest that I’d used to make memory bears for my daughters when their Grandma passed away. This Time I enlarged the pattern to make a larger bear. This one was a little tricky as the fabric was checked which meant pattern matching. The end result was a super cute cuddly bear who my friend’s Son loved to bits.
It’s always a challenge to make birthday cards for my hubby. I’ve made him so many cards over the years and it’s difficult thinking of something new to do. I’ve had a set of barn door dies and stamps in my stash for a while that I’ve not used till now. It took a bit of figuring out but I managed to make this card for my hubby which includes his favourite things. I used other stamps and dies from my stash to create the scenes behind the doors. He loved that the doors moved.
My daughter asked me to make a wedding card for a friend of her boyfriend. She wanted something clean, simple and modern. I used a photograph of the wedding venue which I faded out and added some modern florals using the Sizzix Brushstroke Flowers #2 die set.
My brother in law recently celebrated his 70th birthday so I had to come up with a special card. Whilst looking through my stash I came across an old kit for an exploding box card. The quality of the card was not as good as I would like so I glued everything onto some 300 gsm card stock and added some extra touches. The end result turned out quite well. I added a small card to put my greeting on.
When my daughter had her first baby last year it motivated me to get crafty in ways I’d not done in a long time. I crocheted bootees, baby converse, shoes and toys, knitted a cardigan and made two cotton crocheted blankets which my daughter loved and used all the time. I decided to knit a larger blanket that would serve as a proper cover for my grandson’s cot bed and be big enough to tuck in even when he gets bigger. I bought some 100% cotton double knitting yarn and assembled lots of wash cloth pattern motives on pinterest from a fantastic member called Daisy and Storm who can also be found at https://daisyandstorm.com/. I chose animal and vehicle motives and the letters of my Grandson’s name. I included the year of his birth and the favourite football teams of his mum and dad together with a manchester bee motive and a frog (which is a family thing from my dad) I didn’t realise what a task it was going to be. I ended up with 210 stitches per row and there were 399 rows in all, not to mention 4 rows of single crochet round the entire completed blanket. It took the best part of 1000 grammes of wool and quite a few months to complete. By the end I was getting kind of sick of the sight of it but, once finished, was worth the effort. A special, personalised cosy blanket made with love.
