Three Quick Cards

Hi everyone,

this week I had three cards to make and, as usual, very little time to make them. So it was a perfect opportunity to try a new die that I've recently treated myself to:  Decorative Blossom Corner die by Heartfelt Creations. Primarily I bought this die to decorate the flaps of envelopes and boxes I make for my cards but after doing a browse on Utube this is definitely a die with endless possibilities. 

Whilst browsing I saw two almost identical but very beautiful cards made by Christina Griffiths and Gloria Gross and fell in love with them... the design was perfect for what I needed.

Here is my take on the cards:

The first card was an anniversary card.  I used my usual 'go to' card, 300grm pearlised ivory card for all three cards. As you'll tell from my earlier card posts I use this card all the time... I like how robust and strong it is plus it looks wonderful whether it's in white or ivory. The pearlescence is extremely subtle which makes the card look elegant rather than tacky.

Here's a view from the side showing the front embossed cover.

I used the corner die to cut two images in the card, then separated the corner die from the card on one.  The cut corner die piece was then sprayed with adhesive and glittered. The remaining cut away card was dry embossed using a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, wrapped in wide ivory taffeta ribbon before being secured in place on the  back and front of the base card with foam dimensional pads. 

Here's a view of the back cover. Both covers were cut smaller than the base card,
effectively matting and layering them on top of the base card.

A few ivory self-adhesive half pearls were added to the corner die before adding an inner leaf for the sentiment. My main sentiment on the front of the card was computer generated text on a Sizzix Floral Oval die cut piece of ivory card.

Very simple but I actually liked the clean lines without the front & back covers.

The second card was a birthday card. I used the the same technique as above but without the additional back and front dry embossed covers. Ivory taffeta ribbon was replaced with wide purple taffeta and my Happy Birthday sentiment was with a Creative Expressions die and lightly inked with Distress Ink to tone with the taffeta ribbon. 

Tiny tiny purple self-adhesive pearls from Hobbycraft decorated the corner die which was left plain and unglittered.

My final card, a Get Well card for one of my dear elderly mums, was a combination of both the earlier cards. For this card I cut and dry embossed back and front covers but not an additional corner die. 

Again the corner die was decorated with the tiny purple half pearls but left unglittered. 

My front cover sentiment was again computer generated on to an ornate oval of ivory card cut using the Sizzix Floral Ovals die but this time I added a rosette of ivory lace and a few flowers to one side.The main flower was a left over from the Mother's day cards I'd made earlier this month, plain white but dyed using Distress Inks and spritzed very lightly with Biscotti  Glimmer Mist.The three rose buds were left their natural cream to tie in with the card colour but again very lightly spritzed with the Glimmer Mist.

All that was left to do were the inserts which I glued into each card at the shoulders using ivory pearlised paper to tone with the card itself. I didn't mind seeing the insert through the corner die when the card was closed (see the first image of the anniversary card) but if I had it would have been easier enough to  use the corner die to cut the insert too.

Thanks for reading my post and please feel free to leave a comment if you've time.

Carol. x

Happy Mother's Day

I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that I have three lovely ladies that I make cards for on Mother’s Day.  It warms my heart that these wonderful women are still in my life;  they are in the twilight years of their lives now, two in their late 80’s and my own mum is 93yrs old. Despite this last year having been more than a challenge for two of them with age related health issues, they still remain beautifully strong, independent and  inspirational ladies, who are dearly loved ….

So here are the three cards that I’ve made for ‘my gals’ this year…. and as I always tell them, every inch made with love and smiles.

I try to keep all three cards fairly similar each year,
as obviously there are no favourites.

This was the card for my mum.

And this was one of the other cards.... 

Almost similar except I used the reverse of the Bo Bunny's paper as my top layer this time. My third card was identical to this one but was labelled with God Mum instead of Mum.

The base cards were all 300 grm. pearlised ivory card, cut to fit 8” x 8” boxes I made for the cards in the same pearlised card.  My first layer on each card was dusty pink card from my stash, which I layered with gorgeous Bo Bunny paper. Each layer was dimensionalised using foam pads.

I used Tim Holtz’s Sizzix multi media die to cut a lattice frame for behind the flowers, which were either fussy cut from the Bo Bunny paper and layered with dimensional foam pads and/or hot glue, or bought from Hobby Craft and died with Ranger Distress Ink to match my colour theme. A dab of Glossy Accents here and there as dew drops and some pale dusky pink self adhesive pearls for the centres helped to bring the flowers to life. 

As all three of my gals have failing eyesight 

I wanted colourful and dimensional cards for them to be able to feel and see.

The lace on my Mum's card was Guipure lace from my stash, as too was the wide cream taffeta ribbon that I used on all three cards for the double bows… I love working with both of these as you’ve probably seen from my other card efforts. My Mum adores lace so she had to have an extra touch of the Guipure on her card (Smile)..... ok, so there is one favourite.

Thank you so much for stopping by and, if you’ve got a moment, please leave a comment as I love hearing from you…… Happy Mother’s Day.

Hugs

Carol. xx

Wedding Card

Hello,

I'd like to share a wedding card that I've made this evening.  I was asked to make it at very short notice by a friend and as I didn't have much time it needed to be something quite simple.  This is what I came up with....

I decided to work on pearlised cream and white card stock so that I

could use some wedding script card that I had in my stash... it's gorgeous white card (approx. 270grm) with embossed silver text of the wedding ceremony...... and some wide, light cream taffeta ribbon (Ribbon Girl).

You can see the script better in this next picture......

My base card was white pearlised 280grm card,  matted with silver mirror board raised with dimensionals and then again with more pearlised white.  I used double sided tape to secure the pearlised white card layer to the mirror board. The matting was  finishing off with the silver script card on top. All the layers had the corners 'nipped' with my Friskers corner cutter.

The floral flourish was cut in pearlised white card using the Divine Florals die and decorated with tiny, tiny white delicate pearls.  I used Glossy Accents in a Fineline applicator to adhere the floral flourish to the script card and although the pearls are self adhesive I added a touch of Glossy Accents to these too for added security.

My image was stamped on cream pearlised card firstly with Versamark and then embossed in white fine detail embossing powder (Stamping Up).  I really loved how the white detail of the stamp stood out on the cream card....very simple but effective.  The image was 'fussy' cut and raised on dimensional.

The wide, light cream taffeta ribbon was threaded under one side of the floral flourish and over the other side before the flourish was glued in place. I gathered a small piece of pale cream vintage lace from my stash to make a rosette  and popped this behind my hand tied bow.  Then I added a white organza ribbon 'rose' to the centre of my bow using hot glue.  The final touches were a white pearl to the centre of the organza rose and a couple of strands of cream stamens.

I like to add an insert to my cards so this card was lined with white pearlised paper to match the base card. The verse was computer generated in a copperplate font in pale grey to keep everything delicate.. ...I think black is way, way too harsh.

Finally I made a box and using the same die, cut a label for the top which was also decorated with tiny tiny white pearls. You can see the light grey colour of the font in more detail in the picture below.

 I was really pleased how well the pearlised cream and white card work together.  Certainly the cream taffeta ribbon and vintage lace worked in pulling everything together because they were so pale  and the tiny white pearls kept things delicate and tied in with the fine detail of the image.

Thanks for letting me share this card with you. I hoped you liked it.  Please feel free to leave me a comment as I love hearing from you.

Happy crafting,


Carol. xx

An update ……

I mentioned yesterday that I hadn't been idle over the last month so I thought I would share some of the things I’ve been doing lately.  Grab a coffee and get comfortable as it's a bit of a marathon post:-

Firstly I was asked if I would make a baby picture for a friend’s new baby boy and decided to work on the theme that I’d used towards the end of last year.  This is one of my the original pictures…. 

As you can see it’s tiny butterflies and pearls made into the shape of a heart with an ombre colour theme to match a Moulton Brown candle I was given as a birthday present.

Once I made one I was hooked and made a few in different colour themes.  I have an old Sizzix die that cuts and embosses three different sizes of butterflies.   which was perfect for these pictures.

                I adapted the theme to 

                   make a baby buggy in shades of blue and added a label with the baby's details underneath:-

So that was project one.  Next was more to satisfy my desire to have a go at a pop up card.  

Here is a 50th birthday card I made after looking at various video tutorials   on Utube…..there are plenty out there to choose from so you can’t go wrong with these cards.  

They're a lot easier to make than they look and my friend was delighted with the one I made for her. As it was a little bulky I decided to made a box and popped it in that.

Td it….phew!!!!

The banner was made from folded and trimmed washi tape and a couple of Starbucks coffee stirrers, embellished with a couple of hand tied bows.

The cake itself was a die cut which I pieced together and glittered. A couple of white feathers set behind it added a softening touch.

The diamante 50 is something I had in my stash but it was originally bought from a cake decorating shop.  I saw it and thought I could make use of it on a card...... et voila!  

The larger 50 was traced freehand onto card-stock, cut out, 

sanded and then sprayed with glue and glittered.  I then 

attached it to some strips of plastic packaging (from a 

recent Tim HoltzIdea-ology purchase).  I tied a tiny bow 

from some pale pink ribbon I had in my stash and popped 

it onto the numerals with a glue dot.

The basic card was blue card-stock layered with Bo Bunny designer paper.

Ok, so what next.... well more cards I'm afraid:-

A couple of Baby’s first Christmas cards for a new Grandmother…. yes, I know it's a bit late but who am I to question! 

These little ones were born in late December and their proud Grandma wanted them to have (somewhat belated) 1st Xmas cards for their Memory Boxes… so I set to and these are the cards I made.

I embossed a bauble in white embossing powder and then added either pink or pale blue half pearls, a die cut snowflake which I glittered in white and a simple organza hand tied bow.

All that was needed then were a couple of boxes with a personalised belly-band to pop them in.

Next on the cards (pardon the pun) was a 60th Wedding Anniversary card for a member of my family.....

A couple more pictures.....

 The card base is 300gm white pearlescent card layered up with Centura pink pearlescent card on mirror board. French Guipure lace and wide white taffeta ribbon went across the top of the card. A single SU ribbon rose in the centre of the bow finished with a pearl.

The numerals were chipboard sprayed with glue 

and doused in glitter. The bells were up-cycled 

from another card with a tiny half pearl added to

Thank you so much for popping by.  There's still a little more for me to share with you but I'll save that for another day.  Hope you've enjoyed what I've shared this time and hope to see you again soon.

Bye for now and happy crafting.

Carol.x 

Wedding card commission.

I  love making Wedding or Civil Partnership stationery so when I was asked recently to make a wedding card I was delighted... any excuse to play with my stash of Guipure lace.

This is the card I made............

It's a largish card (18cm x 18cm) using 250gm pearlescent cardstock as the base. I cut another layer of the pearlescent cardstock on which I layered a gorgeous cream fourish paper from SU, nipping all four corners of both layers before popping it onto dimensionals and attaching it to the base card.

Here you can see the fine organza ribbon with the heart shaped
edging, doubled up and decorated with tiny cream pearls.

Using doublesided tape I secured the gorgeous leaf Guipure lace trim to the top of the uppermost layer. With a piece of sheer cream ribbon edged with tiny hearts cut slightly wider than the card, I first folded it in half  and then secured it with double sided tape to the top edge of the Guiplure lace trim ( with the fold of the ribbon uppermost and the tiny hearts, now doubled up, on the bottom edge), and wrapping the two cut edges  into the inside of the card.  As I always use a matching insert inside my cards the wrapped edges are hidden by the insert and don't show.  Finally I finished off the top edge with a row of tiny cream pearls.

This picture shows the lovely SU cream flourish paper that I used.
It also shows the tiny little cream half pearls I used on the die cut.

The next layer was cream pearlescent cardstock die cut using the second largest  Nestabilities  Fleur de Lis Squares, with the text computer generated in a pale grey.  I toyed with the idea of inking the edges of the die cut but in the end decided that the card was going to look fussy enough without that so limited myself to adding a few tiny cream pearls to the corners of the die cut, before popping it onto dimensionals and positioning it in place on the main card.

You can see the layering and
snipped corners in this picture.

For the lace collar behind the double bow, I used  four leaves cut from the Guipure lace trim and secured them in place with a little hot glue. The cream leaf-shaped hat pins (with a couple of loose cream pearls added to the stems) I secured through a dimensional and then hot glued the double bow that I made from 11/2 "wide cream tafetta ribbon on top.

Hope you like it............

Carol. x

Birthday Commission

We had visitors to stay this weekend and along with that came the request 'could I just run up a quick male birthday card' whilst they were there.  As the weekend events left absolutlely no time to craft I had to come up with a tried and tested card that I could rattle off quickly and this is it.....

I use this card as one of my wedding stationery protfolio so I can make it with my eyes shut now.  I decided that rather than make this one as the usual pocket invitation, I'd adapt the front of the tux to be the front of a normal side-opening card.

Base cardstock?...... guesses on a postcard... seriously, the usual pearlescent 250gm cardstock I love to use. The black striped cardstock for the trousers is SU cardstock, which unfortunately is now retired.  Bright red double sided satin ribbon was used for the cummerbund, with black grosgrain ribbon for the bow tie.The rest was a little scoring on the scorebroad for the front of the shirt and a snip for the neckline and Bob's your uncle.

A simple  'Happy Birthday' was requested for the front so I resorted to the Happiest Birthday Wishes stampset from SU, which I stamped in SU grey, again on the cream pearlescent card.

Hope you like it.........

Carol. x

90th Celebration

Can't believe how long it has been since I last posted but I've been busy training to become a Celebrant and making bereavement stationery.  A whole new venture and the journey into bereavement stationery is more than  a slight departure from the bespoke wedding stationery I usually make.

On a slightly happier note these are some invitations I made for a very special lady in my life who is about to celebrate her 90th birthday.  Very simple cards but sumptuous Guipure lace is so beautiful it doesn't need much to make a gorgeous card.

I used my usual 250gm pearlescent cream cardstock for the base card and computer generated the text for the embellishments.  I cut and embossed the top layer of the embellishment in the same cardstock, using the smallest die cut from  Nestabilities long classic rectangles.  Using double sided tape, I layered this onto silver mirror card which I cut slightly larger to leave a small 5mm border round the top cream layer.

The Guipure lace trim was cut to size and added to the top of the card with double-sided tape. On the larger invitation I used a double layer of the Guipure lace slightly overlapped. and a single layer on the smaller RSVP card.

 Apart from nipping the front corners of each card to mirror the scallops in the Guipure lace  and adding inner linings, also in cream pearlescent paper to match the cardstock, that was it!

Hope you like them.


Carol. x

Toby's Christening Cards & a Birthday Card

Hi again,

three cards to share with you this time.  A couple of Christening card and birthday card.

I really agonised over the Christening card as it was for a lady I didn't know and didn't have the opportunity to talk to myself.  I had absolutely no idea what she wanted other than it had to be a big card, non religious and boxed.  So I decided to make a lavish one and a plain one and give her the choice. Here they are:-

Firstly the lavish.....

This card measures 19cm x 17cm, so for me it was HUGE!  My base cardstock was pearlescent white matted with silver mirror card then layered with some very pale blue patterned paper.

The Fleur De Lis Square die cut was inked with Tim Holtz Distressed Ink and dotted with a few pearls then popped onto dimensionals. A plain square, cut in the base cardstock, was popped on top of the die cut, again with dimensionals.  The text was computer generated in a pale grey colour.

The whole topper was off-set to make room for the wide taffeta ribbon which I tied in a double bow and positioned over the top of the lace on the base layer but just underneath the topper.  Finally a couple or three pearls in the top left-hand corner of the card to finish it off.  A very easy and simple card but not quite as quick and simple as the next one..........

For this one I used the pearlescent card stock in cream but this time I cut the card slightly smaller (15cm x 15cm).  I wrapped wide cream taffeta ribbon round pale blue card stock then nipped the corners with my Friska's corner punch, before matting it onto the cream base. A pale blue pearl went into each corner, into the gap neatly left by the nipped corners in the blue cardstock.

Using the Fleur De Lis Squares dies I cut a smaller frame this time and again computer generated the text. I can't resist pearls so although this was to be a less 'flamboyant' card I needed to add just a few more so a couple of tiny cream pearls were added around the frame.

And which was the lucky card...well actually I was the lucky one as my customer wanted both of them!

Now this is the one I really enjoyed making this weekend... a birthday card for a very lovely and much loved elderly friend of the family.  She makes such a fuss of any card I make it is a pure pleasure making a card for her.

Again cream pearlescent cardstock for my base card (w.18cm x h.14 cm) matted up with a rich purple cardstock and purple patterned paper.

 I tied a double bow with 4cm wide purple taffeta ribbon, which I wrapped round the purple cardstock, before gluing it to the base card.

The bling was a purchase I made whilst on holiday abroad recently.  It's really meant for ironing on to fabric but I couldn't see any reason why I couldn't use it on cardstock and at the price it was worth a try....it worked, phew!

Think you can just make out the delicate
colour wash on the  larger frame.

The label was the large frame from the Antique Frames & Accents Nestabilities die set which I washed round the edges of with a water pen and marker to get a gentle purple hue. Then I over laid it, slightly off centre, with the tag cut from the same set,  which I stamped first with my Happy Birthday text and then popped onto dimensionals.

Thank you for letting me share these with you.

Happy crafting.

Carol. x 

Thank you ......

Do you ever sometimes feel that someone isn't quite so happy with your choice of card, when you gave it to them, as you thought they might be.  Well I had that feeling with one of the mother's day cards I made, so it was a lovely surprise yesterday to be asked to make a thank you card like the mother's day card I had given the recipient.

Thank goodness for the blog because at least I could have a swift peek at my mother's day post to remind myself how I'd made the cards..lol.

It had to be a green card as I only had  2" wide taffeta ribbon in olive green  left in my stash ( Note to self: I need to order more of that gorgeous, gorgeous taffeta ribbon from the Ribbon Girl).

My base card is cream pearlescent cardstock.  My next layer is Stamping Up paper which I glued onto more of the cream pealescent card to give it more rigidity and to hide the Guipure lace and taffeta ribbon that I secured to the back. ( I adore the Guipure lace.... it's stunning isn't it!).  The double bow was tied with my trusty bow maker...couldn't live without it.

Next I cut out two die cuts from the  Spellbinders Labels 8 set (the two largest) in the cream pearlescent cardstock.  For the smaller of the two I again glued SU paper onto the cream card before cutting the shape. Both of these then had the edges inked with SU ink.

The next layer was a Marianne Die cut in the cream pearlescent card with the edges inked again. On top of this I used a die from the Spellbinders Parisian Accents did set, again cut in cream card with the edges inked.  Finally I stamped the text from a stamp set I have called Blocked Greetings in SU Old Olive ink, cut it out using a Frikars 1.5" circle punch and inked the edges once again.

To complete the card I used a couple or three olive green half pearls along the ribbon and on the top layers. I should mention that all the layers were popped onto dimensionals.

Inside the card I used another of  the Parisian Accents dies to add a couple of flourishes to the top corners of the inside flyleaf. These were cut in the cream card and inked like the layers on the front of the card.

Happy crafting,

Carol. xx

Card Menu

Ink: Old Olive (Stamping Up) Dies: Labels 8 (Spellbinders), Marianne & 1.5” plain circle punch (Friskars) Papers: Neutrals (Stamping Up) Accessories: Oliver Green 2” wide taffeta ribbon (The Ribbon Girl), 2” gorgeous Guipure Lace (stash), Oliver Green half pearls(Meiflower)