Birthday cards

The cards I made last week using those large numbers- Hubbys 40th card for starters. The backing paper was an image of the Leo constellation I found on the net, and I picked out the main stars using acrylic jewels.
The numbers are from stencils,cut from black glitter paper, which I stuck onto card with Spray adhesive.










Top tip here, remember to flip your numbers over when drawing on the back of the cardstock!
Yes, I've made that mistake before.

I added a couple of UTEE hearts, done with WOW Black Twinkle embossing powder.

The 21st card for our niece, I put foiled Congratulations paper onto the card front for this one, and added some Tattered Florals and ribbon, along with a strip of Happy Birthday Vellum.

Mortimers 13th card involved some more Internet images, Call of Duty this time. I used one large image for the backing paper, then Photoshopped some small images into a strip, leaving a black space in the middle where I typed in the birthday message, using a similar font.


Supplies:
 Stencil numbers, 140mm, Clevercut. They do letters as well.
Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die
WOW Embossing powders
 Foiled background paper, Craft Creations
Black glitter card/paper
Black ribbon
Acrylic jewels
 UTEE
 Versamark/clear embossing ink

Easel Birthdays

All three of these were for the same person, so it was hard work making them all as different as possible! Two feature the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals,and I love the fact that they will cut pretty much any material- I've been using up a lot of fancy papers that I have collected, and some of the flowers I really love- the green & gold in the bottom card is a particular favourite. That one also has a four panel image of the Penny Black stamp 'Aspire', matted onto gold & wrapped with a narrow gold organza ribbon. Nesties Labels 7 was used for the sentiment here.

 The top left card features a Chocolate Baroque stamp, Harlequin Rose, which is part of an A4 sheet.The image was stamped in black, mica powders smudged onto the background and chalks & micas used to colour the Rose & leaves.The background is an embossing folder, Creative Expressions' Lattice'. Wrapped with silver & black ribbon and embellished with Black & White Tattered Florals. I have to say that Black & White really is my favourite go-to theme. Nesties Labels 4 was used on this one.
 Top right, the background is another sheet of fancy paper, a vellum panel punched with Doily Dots and some Tim Holtz Rosettes, cut from black & white vellum. The Butterfly panel was made with Fusible Fibres, and I cut out a second set of butterflies to mount on top with silicone glue. the stamp itself is available from two places, Tanda Stamps, Far East Set 1, either as a plate along with other oriental themed stamps, or individually. It is also available from  De Stempelwinkel, as a Non Sequiteur Plate, Samurai Plate. The sentiment is on Nesties Petite Scalloped Ovals Large. On all the cards, the foil printed background paper on the bottom is from Craft Creations.

Ruby Anniversary Easel card

Had some some fun playing with new dies I bought this week: the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals,Movers & Shapers Tattered Florals,Elegant Flourish, and Memory Box La Rue Heart.  I had seen so many good things done with the Tim Holtz dies, and they are so much fun to work with.
 The Lattice 40 was a design I found on UKScrappers, for the Silhouette, posted by a lady called Neries, and her name links to the page it is posted on. I cut it from dark red paper, than layered it onto a pale gold paper.
 The Gold Anniversary backing paper, and the White Congratulations paper are both by Craft Creations, and come in a range of colours with gold or silver foiled print.
  The La Rue heart was cut from the same pale gold paper, and matted onto a heart cut from the dark red paper. I loved the elegant filigree design of the heart, and there is also a heart die that cuts out the block shape. I didn't get that one, I just cut around the outside of the filigree design when it was stuck down, but the die would be useful, I think. I mounted the heart with sticky tabs, using one layer at the front and two layers at the back to give it a little dimension.

I cut out a selection of flowers and flourishes in various card and paper , and curled the petals with the handle of a small paintbrush, then used an embossing stylus in the centres to give them all some shape.

 The layers of petals were stacked up using silicone glue.
The addition of same small seed beads to the centres, with Glossy Accents, finished them off nicely.
 The 40 was added with sticky pads, and then some Burgundy acrylic hearts on to this with a tiny spot of silicone glue. I used silicone glue again to mount the flowers, along with some short pieces of gold & burgundy ribbon. I tucked the two Elegant Flourishes in behind the flowers.

Valentines Card

This was the card made for my Beloved Husband this year.I used the Black & Burgundy theme from our Wedding, and the card also incorporates some of the ribbon used in the Invitations, as I have plenty left!
 The base card is white Pearlescent, from PDA Card & Craft, which is where I buy the majority of my cardstock from. Good prices, excellent quality & choice and fast order turnaround, so whats not to like?
 The ornate background was stamped in Encore Gold Pigment ink onto black pearlescent paper, and heat embossed with Gold detail powder. The stamp itself is called Large Swirl Frame Background, by Magenta, 26019-R.




This was matted onto white pearl card, then black card. Some Burgundy ribbon was tied around the left hand side, and tied in a bow. Then I mounted the panel onto the card blank, which was cut down to a square.

For the tag, I used some dark red leather effect paper. Its a roll I have had for a while, I bought it from Hobbycrafts at the NEC a couple of years ago. I used this to cover a plain white tag, and trimmed it down.

Next I added Distress Ink in Aged Mahogany to colour the white edges of the tag, and to swipe over the texture of the paper too.
I punched a hole in the top of the tag next,then used a hole re-inforcer, coloured Black with a Promarker, to finish it off. I also used the Promarker to colour inside the hole, to hide the white edge.
 I got these from Wilkinsons, by the way. I thought they'd finish off  tags I cut myself tags nicely.







Now I selected some Black & Burgundy paper flowers (Craft Creations),and cut the heads off the stems. I used the Black Promarker again to colour the green leaves black.



A dollop of silicone glue next, and some small pieces of ribbon pressed into it, then the flower heads on top of them.

The Black & White heart  is I believe, a freebie from Craft Stamper some time ago. I stamped it in Versafine Onyx Black onto a scrap of the pearl white card, then added a couple of layers of UTEE. I put an acrylic block on it overnight to flatten it, after the UTEE had cooled down. I added it to the tag with some more silicone glue, so I could angle it slightly. A small length of black organza ribbon threaded through the tag, then finally I added it to the front of the card with some sticky tabs for dimension.

50Th Birthday

I was taking some pictures off my camera for the next few posts, and found quite a few pictures  I had forgotten about. This one was for Beloved Husbands Aunt. The card itself is full A4 size, and is an Easel card.The numbers were cut out on the Silhouette,from white pearl card, and I am almost certain the cutting files came from UKScrappers. The face of the easel was covered with an embossed sheet of 12x12 card, and the letters were backed with a glittered vellum.The base is covered in a Happy Birthday foiled paper, from Craft Creations. A Tim rosette, and Nestie die cuts and some white organza ribbon  completed the card.

85th Birthday

The lady who ordered the Ruby Anniversary card, also wanted a card for her Mothers 85th Birthday, and again I went with an easel design. The base and face of the easel were covered in a rose print paper, and both edged with a silver peeloff border and corners. as the lady seems to be wearing a pale lilac and silver dress, I went with these colours for the card. I cut silver & lilac paper with a deckle edge blade on three sides, then punched a fancy border on the last side. These were layered up, then the photo matted on top. I wrapped White & lilac ribbon around the front and tied in a bow before I mounted it onto the easel. A triple embossed heart in White & silver finished the front. The base uses Nesties Petite scalloped rectangles, again in Silver & lilac with white/lilac roses (Craft Creations) in the corners.The word MOM was cut out with a Quickutz squeeze and Alphabet die. Its been a very long time since I last used that- I'm not even sure if they are still making them! I bought it very early in my crafting, to add names, ages etc to cards, then got annoyed at not having any real choice in size of letters, and that I would constantly have to buy new Alpha sets if I wanted a different style, and still not have much of a size range. So I ended up buying a Silhouette digital cutter- I found them on a really good promotion, loved the fact that I could cut any font on my PC, in any size I wanted. I have had it now for about 7 years, and I have to say it was the best money ever spent, when you consider the cost of Alphabet sets/shape dies for manual machines.

More Christmas cards

 These are cards ordered by a work colleague for Christmas, this first one will be for his wife.The backing paper is from Craft Creations, and the Rubber stamp is from Elusive Images,Mistletoe Script .Stamped first onto a silvery blue card, then onto inkjet film with Stazon Black, then glittered. I cut out the glittered image and mounted on top of the stamped image with silicone glue. The heart is made with triple embossing, as I did on my Anniversary card.

 This card is for his son, and teen boys are not easy to make for!This image was stamped on inkjet film with Black stazon again and glittered. I trimmed it square and mounted onto a piece of holographic card with brads.It doesn't show well scanned, but the colours change on the background, almost like reflections of the candle flame. This stamp was from The Stamp Man, unfortunately I think it is retired now. I have scanned the image with white paper behind it so you can see the wording.

Add caption

This one is for his daughter, who is much younger, again stamped on inkjet film and mounted onto holographic card with silicone glue behind the glitter. This backing paper is also from Craft Creations, and I used a scoring board from The Glitter Girls for the 3 squares, and snowflake table confetti in pairs, one silver & one holograhic, joined with a brad The snowman stamp is by Funstamps, Scribble Snowman, F-M131..

Wedding/Anniversary

Another version of the Anniversary card from an earlier post, this time in blue /silver.

At the Altar 2

This one uses blue vellum border punched with a Fiskars Rope Border punch, rhen a length of ribbon added over the top. At the Altar stamped in silver onto white pearl card and blue vellum. Blue organza ribbon tied in a bow and added to the top. Spray of blue flowers addedin a curve shape, with a heart charm.

Gold & Burgundy wedding.

Base card is cream linen A4 scored & folded. Dark Burgundy paper has a strip of Ivory wedding day paper( Craft Creations) mounted in the top half, and a strip of wedding vellum is then attached to the left side with gold eyelets. thin gold cord threaded through and tied in a bow, then mounted onto gold paper, leaving a wide border, then mounted onto the base card also leaving a border.A red & Gold padded heart attached with a glue dot. 2 Burgundy & 2 Gold roses( Craft Creations) tied together along with a rose leaf and a little gold bead cord, which I found on a market haberdashery stall. Stuck down with silicone glue, and a short length of gold ribbon tied into a bow and stuck on top, also with silicone. I punched out an envelope from Gold paper( envelope punch by Woodware)and added the small words and Heart. A corner of the envelope is pushed into the wet silicone glue. Names and Dates added in peeloff letters (The Art OF Craft).