Baby animals

I made these cards for my friend who needed two new baby cards. These were mystery babies again, so no blue or pink just to be on the safe side. My friend hinted that one of the cards could well sport zingier colours instead of the baby pastels, so that's what I did.

Papers: DCWV Pocketful of Posies/HOTP/Sense(?)
Stamps: Penny Black/Finnstamper
Inks: Versamark, ColorBox
Colours: Derwent Watercolour

Again a Penny Black image (they just are so darn cute), coloured in with watercolour pencils and water brush. I used a free template from SCP for the flower stem, but I didn't have large enough scalloped circle so I drew a bigger circle and fitted the scallops of a template along the rim. I stamped the greeting onto a snippet of the same paper as the flower stem, embossed it with clear embossing powder and fixed it onto a small tag, which I knotted around the stem. A piece of violet organdy ribbon finishes the card.

I also made two other cards for my friend to choose from. They had the same colours, but in pastel shades. These were a bit simpler. I used 3D stickers on puched white circles (cardstock and dotty vellum) and the same free templates for the flowers. Again the small tags, but this time I stamped and embossed onto the vellum, and the violet ribbon but this time grossgrain instead of organdy.

Papers: HOTP, Rayher
3D stickers: Eno Craft
Stamp: Finnstamper
Ribbon: Rayher

Rock-a-bye baby

If both of the parents are metal fans, the new baby card needs to have some serious attitude as well. The design is from Heidi Boyd's Simply Beautiful Greeting Cards (p.78), but I altered it ever so slightly...

I cut a circle and halved it, edged the halves with scalloped paper border and assembled into a buggy. The wire that forms the handle goes through the button wheels as well. I'd like to find a more rockabilly style sticker for the buggy, but this jolly skull was the best I could come up with.

B for butterflies (and baby girl as well)

Another welcome card for a new arrival, this one a real quickie. I used recycled cardstock for the card blank, it has nice deep colour with natural speckles, a really nice find. To continue with the theme colour, I used a panel of embossed butterfly paper with gold accents (if I had to guess, I'd say it's Turnowsky's), added a piece of striped lilac organdy ribbon and fixed it with flower eyelets. My trusty Crop-A-Dile had some difficulties with them (the eyelet didn't always flare nicely and tried to buckle from the middle), but with care I got them set OK. Have to practice a bit more with those, or then use the universal setter (although I hate the noise that comes from the hammering).

Cardstock: Rapi
Paper: Turnowsky?
Ribbon: Efco?
Brads: Rayher
Stickers: Tiimari

Little boy blue

I love this dungarees sticker, it's so cute and the best thing is the pants aren't really blue but lavender, so with right papers it can go for the mystery babies as well. Here they are at work again, accomanied by bubble stickers to spell the little rascal's name and flowers with eyelet centres to $add to the boyish look.

Paper: Tilda Crafts
3D sticker: Pickup
Letter stickers, brads, eyelets: Tiimari
Flowers: Prima
Ribbon: The Phrase Café Baby Faces Zachary

Retro baby

This card is straight from CMPC's booklet, A card for all seasons (p. 35), but I was short of ideas and time... as always.

And as always when making cards straight from a model, I got too engrossed with the materials. The fact that I didn't have just that brown polkadot paper almost caused a crisis. As a proof of how sad a geek I am, I actually searched the internet for a suitable polka dot paper, downloaded it, changed the colour in Paint.Net (didn't have Photoshop on that computer) and printed it out. Since I didn't have thick enough wire for the handle, I took pliers and a coil embellishment and brutally mutilated it (unwind it a little). Another window for a crisis was that I realised I didn't have a mini heart punch, but that passed as I found some cut-outs from a heart border punch I had stashed away, just in case I might need them some time (See! Never throw anything away!). I didn't have letter rub-ons so this is a rare occurrence of my handwriting (and I did change the greeting).

I had this image of a milk carton gift bag in my head, so I hadto try to make one. It was a bit tricky, but in the end I manage to make it quite nicely. Since I had most of the brown polkadot paper left, I made a panel for the gift bag to coordinate with the card. I need more of those big peach flowers, they would be so useful...

Paper: Canson Mi-Teintes/internet
Punch: Fiskars
Flowers: Prima
Brad: Tiimari
Ribbon: Tilda Crafts
Chipboard tag: K & Company

Oh boy!

Again a quickie (I seem to be always making cards in a hurry...), this time for a name giving party. I used rub-ons to spell the name on a ready-made tag with trains and inked the edges. I looped blue ribbon and orange ric rac through the hole and fixed the tag onto coordinating paper with a foam pad. The little duck button gives a "childish" feel to the card.

Lion and lace

This card started with the lion embellishment and the crocheted lace. I wanted something to balance lace's texture so I mounted the lion on corrugated card. Since I had scraps of paper lying around, I tried a different way of making the scalloped edge and cut narrow strips which I then glued behind the lion panel. The corners were a bit tricky but I think it works alright. I cut a square of light green silk paper and attached the lace to it with double-sided tape. For a neat edge, I mitred the corners of the lace.

Blue for a boy

Another rare exception of getting to make a baby card after it's born, so a blue card for a boy this time. The big polkadots and scalloped edge just scream "Baby!".

So, nothing fancy here. A ready-made embellishment on scalloped card, backed with fluffy mulberry paper and baby blue polkadots, piece of light blue gingham ribbon, a couple of buttons with embroidery floss and words from Words to Go.

Pretty booties

It's nice for once actually now which one the baby will be, so with this baby card I didn't need to fret what colours to use.

Again a card that barely qualifies as crafting: a ready-made bootie embellishment on diamond patterned paper, punched heart border for the side and three flower stickers with sequins. Just punching and sticking together left for me, so a bit of a bore albeit a quick one.

Copy-paste

Sometimes you come across a perfect stamp, but lack the means/money to get one for yourself. I knew I wanted to use this rompers stamp, but didn't have it plus didn't have time to try to find one, so I did a bit of copying. I don't usually draw on my cards because I really do suck at it, but at least this time I had a model to rely upon.

So, again a variation of my violet/Cuddly Friends card. I traced the rompers from the book onto acetate and cut it out. Then I used it as a template and traced the outlines on the checkered paper. I drew in the details with a black marker pen approx where they should be. It's not as nice as the real thing, but it will do. I added two green stars at the corners to balance the busier left half of the card and to complement the green on the decorative papers.

Double trouble

Two cards in appr. 3 hours = no time to waste, a baby congrats and a congrats card needed. So I went for simple and tried and tested. Most of the time was spent going through the stash (now, what does that say about me...)

The baby card is another variation of the baby feet/Cuddly Friends card featured earlier. The general congrats card is almost too easy to mention: I glued a decorative paper with a macro daisy on a card blank and attached a chipboard tag with a pink flower brad.

Pit-a-pat

This is the baby design I like the most, or at least the one I use most often. And I absolutely adore this K&Co. Cuddly Friends paper!

I made the card blank from lilac Canson MiTeintes paper (not especially sturdy but a perfect colour) and brightened it up with the patterned paper. I stamped the baby feet with wisteria Fluid Chalk on lilac paper and matted it on purple paper. I fixed the panel onto the card with a foam pad and put a miniature clothes peg on the top.

Bootee-licious

Baby cards that are made in advance are bit problematic. I don't have pretensions with colours (blue for the boy, pink for the girl) but I can never be sure this is the case at the recieving end. Most of the time the baby's gender is still a mystery. As a result, I tend to use lots of neutral colours like yellow, purple, green and orange for the mystery babies.

For the card on the left, I draw the bootee templates myself and cut them from purple cardstock. I wrapped a length of white cord around each bootee and tied it into a bow. I used left-over pieces from peel-offs to give the impression of cutwork embroidery. I cut a square panel from yellow paper, punched the corners and decorated the edges with peel-off borders. I fixed the bootees on the panel with foam pads and attached it on a purple card blank. Last, I added a small round sticker to spell the greeting.

The card on the right is much simpler. I mounted an ready-made dungarees sticker on light yellow paper and mounted the panel first on violet spotted paper and then on darker violet paper, leaving narrow borders both times. When finished, I fixed the panel on a white card blank.

May I present...

I made this card for my friend's daughter's name giving party. It's surprisingly simple for my card but I rather like it that way. Since "labelling" boys and girls by colour was a sort of issue at the time in our chats, I consciously tried to avoid making a girly pink card.
I got some good snaps of the baby when she was only a few hours old from a friend, so I decided to start from those. As I just printed the photo on common printer paper, I'm not sure how long it will last without deterioraring. I then measured the place for the window on the card front and cut it out with carft knife – not the best solution, mind you. Luckily I had light yellow cord I used to hide the edges of the aperture. I hid the cord's rough edges under a small bow of the same cord.

I wanted to make the photo of the baby as the focal point, so the card front should stay quite minimal. I chose a picture of a teddy bear and building blocks as the colours suited the cord, and the silver highlights added a bit of flair to the card. The card front still looked a bit unfinished so I added thin borders with light yellow and light green gel pens, which seemed to do the trick. To continue with the non-girly colour theme inside the card, I mounted the photo print on light yellow handmade paper and added the violet rattler picture to adorn it.