Recent Birthday Cards

I don't know if other card makers are the same...you make up a whole batch of cards which you like at the time, but when it comes around to someone's birthday you almost feel guilty giving one of 'those old cards' and end up making a new one, despite being pushed for time!
Well, here are some of the 'made quickly' cards that are usually, in my eyes, winners!

This card was created for my dear friendy, Jools, who attends my monthly card making and scrapbooking workshops. Jools invited a whole bunch of us to our usual haunt, Maxi's at Jacaranda Centre for her Birthday Lunch. So, seeing as it was a lunch get together, I had the morning to throw a card together. Cheeky, hey!! As I often do, I opened one of the folders where I had stored pics of cards I've seen on various blogs that inspire me. As usual, the card looks nothing like the original, which is just as well, as I wouldn't want to be yelled at for copying!!

The Cuttlebug background is the freebie I got in my recently purchased second Cuttlebug. (As my current one goes through quite a lot in classes, I'm scared it's on its last legs, so need a back-up one!) The Scrapbook paper is from Creative Memories. The flourish is a Mariaan Design and the square is a Cuttlebug Vintage die. The 3D flower is from one of the Dutch pages I got from Margo.

This purple card was originally a FunDay Challenge, where we were given a cardmap to follow. As I did it in the hour before the goils arrived, it wasn't one of my best (should've had more bling & 3D!) and certainly didn't shape in the competition voting! Nonetheless, I added birthday wording afterwards and it became my sister, Kelly's card on the 8th October. Kel loved it! It's still sitting on our fridge for us all to squizz at.


This card was made for Muz (as we affectionately call Kel's son, Murray!) He turned 13 last Friday and I was frantically looking for a pic to colour that was 'boyish'. I decided that this one was sweet, depicting that that he's at the age when he's between cars - too old for a pull-car and too young for a real one! I love the primary colours that are somewhat muted in this card. It was also inspired by something I'd seen on a blog, but definitely nothing like it! Thanks to all who share their cards, as I am doing...the inspiration sure helps!
I must just mention that Kel wanted to draw in a nose and mouth on this little guy...she can't believe we would use images that don't have real faces. Hmmm...just wait till I show you some Tilda cards, Kelly!!! lol

The Other 4 World Card Making Day Cards

I bought a few lovely punches recently and this is one that appealed to me. It looked appropriate to also be used on men's cards, but also proved to be quite a challenge! I had visualised using glittery paper behind the punched squares, but what to do with the rest of the card?! I used a new Couture Creations Entangles folder to create the squiggly bits on the red cardstock and was glad to again use the downwards Happy Birthday stamp that's been neglected for so long. All in all I was happy with this result.
These interesting corners are Nellie Snellen Dies and it's quite fascinating that it doesn't cut out a shape that must then be stuck onto a card...you have to tuck another colour cardstock underneath it to enhance the design. I realised that on a small A6 size card like this one, you can only cut the opposite corners, whereas on a bigger square card, 4 could look just fine.
I love the elegant non-fussy design of this card...must make some more!
We attended a family engagement yesterday and I had to make a card for the happy couple. This photo stamp is so effective for a card for a couple, so I decided to stamp it with the Tea Dye Distress Ink. The gorgeous trellis work was done with a fancy thing I bought quite by chance, not knowing what it was! It's a Letterpress Stencil made by Sizzix...it's a longish plate made of solid plastic with this raised, hard pattern on it. The idea is that you ink it up and place it onto the Cuttlebug (or similar) with the cardstock either under or over it. You use just the A and one B Plate. Then as you wind it through, the image is debossed onto the cardstock along with the colour. I thought of it as a different kind of stamp...don't know if I'd buy another product like this, but maybe I need to see what else one can do with it and others. You definitely can't cut it out to stick it on - it needs to become part of the background, but your cardstock needs to be able to fit the width of the Cuttlebug!
Peel-offs and flat pearls made the card quite stylish, methinks!
I stamped the same image with a black inkpad and because the ink created a silly line across the girl's neck, I had to devise a way to hide it. (Okay I know that wouldn't have happened had I used a Brayer!) I found some interesting vellum in my stash that has a sort of wispy, cloudy effect on it...it makes the picture softer and creates a lovely effect. I used a piece of embossed white cardstock on the left and a piece of mottled silvery black in the top right corner. As always, the flat pearls fill the gap and create an overall pleasing card.

World Card Making Day - Purple Cards

Saturday 1 October was World Card Making Day, but I left it a little late to inform all the friends, so by the time I finally sent out an e-mail, most of them already had their day planned.
Nevertheless I decided to make it my OWN Card Making Day! By the time hubby came home from being out helping friends with work around their house, I had finished 8 cards. It might not sound a lot, but I felt I'd achieved much!
I recently bought this cute little flower stamp thinking it had great potential...and it does! I have many multi-coloured inkpads from years ago, with their refill inks, and this purply pink one is perfect for these cards. The above card smudged a bit , so I gently dabbed a medicine sponge into the darkest ink colour and carefully 'bounced' it across the image to hide the smudges. I've often seen that people use scrapbook paper scraps on their cards, but I forget about it, so at long last I found time to 'play'.
Because of the smudging of the previous stamped image, I learnt the lesson and clear embossed the rest of the images. This lovely border is a Nellie Snellen die. I must tell you that I laughed so much...after running the die through the Cuttlebug, it has lots of little bits sticking in the various crevaces and they can be loosened from the back by pushing them out with a pin. I got impatient and wacked the die hard against the mini bin to dislodge the pieces and my elderly dog Sheena who had been sleeping woke up with such a start (& a stinky fart!!!) and glared at me as if I'd just initiated World War 3!!! Shame, I forgot she was sensitive to loud noises! But, I mean, it IS MY studio. Needless to say after the second fright, I decided to banish the dogs outside for a while.
This card seems to be everyone's favourite and I guess I'm going to have to incorporate it into a workshop! I stamped the lovely Great Impressions (South Africa) stamp and embossed silver (I need to find more silver embossing powder!) I then extended the swirl by adding another swirl with one of the DoodleEaze stencils bought from Melanie. I 3D'd the layered flower and added a few more flat pearls to finish it off.

This die is part of the set of two in the Nellie Snellen pack. A very simplistic card made more stylish by adding various shades of flat pearls.

"Torn Doggy" Card

In July this year, I attended some classes at Margo Middeljans, who also teaches card making, but in a totally different way to me. At the end of the one class, we were given a pack of limited card making goodies & challenged to make a card using those items only. In the pack was thick brown handmade paper, yellow mulberry paper, a skeleton leaf, a few flowers, a wood pencil & some jute. Okay so I didn't use the last two items, but no worries, I made do with the rest.
Earlier that month I'd gone to the Your Family Craft Expo where I'd seen this cute idea of making "Torn Teddies" with the templates supplied in the kit. This was developed by Melanie who has lots of lovely ideas on her website.
So with the addition of a few other things like the googly eyes and tongue and a brad for the flower, I presented my card to Margo. Hmmm...must find out if the others did their 'homework', too!!
I hope you like the skeleton leaf that was changed into a muzzle! I also had to edge the brown pieces of the handmade paper as they were the same colour as the base card.
Just to give you a basic idea, the kit consists of about 8 or so hard plastic shapes and when you look at the key supplied, you can see what belongs to what part of the animal's body. You the lay the templates down on a tearable paper and 'draw' around it with a brush and water, then tear it out then piece it together. It's oh-so-cute!

Marie's 80th

My friend, Joey asked me to please make another special card for a dear friend Marie who was turning 80. Joey likes me to always include the age on the outside and to make it as personalised as possible. I used a whole bunch of my new dies and punches on this card and was quite thrilled as to how it turned out.The envelope is always temperamental in the printer, so I find it easier to print out the name, cut it with a fancy trimmer, edge it and add some embellishment to make it extra special.
Needless to say, both ladies were thrilled with the result!