Happy St George’s Day Folks. My friend asked me to make a card for her cousin’s 50th Birthday. As his birthday is on St George’s Day I decided to go with the George and The Dragon Theme. The addition of a swear box is a private joke between my friend and her cousin. This is a good example of why having a handmade card means you send a unique and personal greeting on those extra special occasions.

Gatefold birthday card made for my Brother-in-law’s April birthday. I used  a Tattered Lace Magazine gift die as the main focus for this, it came with issue 55 of The Tattered Lace Magazine, I also used the Charisma that was included in the magazine adding glossy accents to the shirt buttons,  shoes, watch, belt and umbrella handle and mounting on foam pads. I used the colour scheme of the Charisma for the rest of the card adding cute shoe die cuts made using an unbranded shoes die set to echo the main focal topper. For details of the dies used just click on the image.

Guitar themed birthday card made for our friend’s 65th birthday this month. Sadly Due to lock down we were unable to celebrate with him but managed to make sure he still had a special card and present. I hand drew the template for the guitar and used Nesting circle dies, an ‘oval’ die (actually the body of a teddy bear) and a label die for various elements. The strings were threaded using button thread. Am happy to say he was delighted and we are looking forward to a big celebration when we’re all out the other side of these difficult times. Take care and keep safe and most importantly STAY AT HOME.

Unusually, I was asked by my friend to make a 60th Birthday card for her sister in law who is nuts about Manchester City Football Club. Apologies for the picture, I forgot to take a proper one before giving it to my friend. But hopefully you can get a good idea from the one picture I have which is not quite finished, I added crystal gems to the centre of the flowers and also added the ‘th’ and a ‘sister in law’ sentiment on the front. The flowers were stamped and die cut using Spellbinders Sun kissed fleur stamp and die, then coloured and shaped. I made the background by glueing strips of card together. I die cut the logo from one of the leaflets my hubby got in the packaging with his MCFC season ticket.

Baby keepsake parcel cards are by far my most popular make. I love making these and adding all of the special personalised details that make them something to be treasured forever. If you want to have a go at making one, why not check out my Tutorial which takes you through the process with pictures and step by step instructions. I’ve made the same type of card for baby births, confirmations, special birthdays and other occasions too. I don’t always have the photographs to insert when making these and leave an open pocket in the centre so that the recipient can insert photos of their choice but on this occasion I did have the pictures.

I love butterflies and I also love kinetic cards. When I saw the Flutterings Butterfly die set by Angela Poole I just had to add it to my collection. Here is the first card I’ve made with it. My friend’s 50th birthday seemed like the perfect reason to try it out. There are some lovely embellishment dies in the set which I used on this card and also a fab  border die which I didn’t use. It was really useful to watch the youtube video showing how to assemble this. The mechanism goes together well but needs a little working of the folds to get a smooth action. It’s definitely a conversation piece and I’m sure this die set is going to get plenty of use in the future.

Hexagon Pop Up Card I made for my friend’s birthday recently using some new dies from Tattered Lace. The card does fold flat for posting but benefits from having the hexagon frame base to keep the shape of the card when displayed. I also used one of my favourite new die sets from Spellbinders the Indie Line Shapeabilities Dies Layered Monarch dies. I’m a big fan of layering dies, they give all the effects of dimension without adding too much depth which is great if you are posting your cards.

I had great fun making this cute suitcase card for my daughter’s birthday recently. She was busy making plans for her honeymoon so I used this as the basis for my card. The main card was made using the Tonic Studios Verso Kings Cross Suitcase Die set. I then created a concertina section for the inside decorated with items she’d be likely to pack, some sentiments and the verse which I wrote especially for her. For full sized pictures and details of dies and stamps used to make this just click on the individual images.

Hi all, just sharing a ‘Z’ fold cycling themed birthday card I made for my brother in law’s birthday recently. I had fun creating the background for the centre circular section, lots of embossing, inking and gilding wax. Had to get creative with the cycle die though, the one I used is actually a tandem cycle which I cut down and placed so that it looked like 2 bikes, 1 entering and 1 leaving the centre section. The background paper was from the Docrafts papermania Mister mister collection. For more details re other dies and stamps used, just click on one of the images.

I was asked to make a card to be sent to a fan of Rosé wine and came up with this Pop Up box design combining stamped die cut images with Bottle and glasses cut from thick acetate to replicate the real thing. Colouring in the wine in the acetate bottle and glasses was a challenge. Eventually I came up with a realistic looking solution. I mixed a small amount of distress reinker solution  (Tattered rose) in with some Glossy accents which worked quite well, I did have to add a couple of layers to achieve the desired effect but think it worked out quite well. To make this card I used a base pop up as shown in my Scenic pop up box tutorial, the template for which, if you are a subscriber, you will have access to. I used a variety of dies including; Card Making Magic Die Sets Solid & Overlay Number & Suffix, Unbranded nesting stitched stars dies, i Craft Cheers & Happy dies, Apple Blossom Die Set Cheers! Wine Bottles & Glass, Apple blossom dies, embossing folder and stamps from Issue 161 of Simply cards & Papercraft magazine and Crafters companion Gemini Expressions Metal Die – Uppercase and lower case Alphabet Sets. I embossed the background, inked with spun sugar distress ink and added some Cosmic Shimmer metallic gilding polish and glitter for a touch of glitz and glamour.