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.

Sunny side up

Nothing goes better with yellow sunflowers than blue gingham. This cheery card has the essence of summer written all over it.

I stamped the sunflower image with black on white card an coloured it in with coloured pencils. I wanted the background to be blue rather than black, so I used the most vibrant blue I had, not a bad result there. The image had a checkered border and I wanted to extend it to the background as well, so I backed it with a gingham napkin. To add some interest, I added a small sunflower embellishment to panels corner.

Lazy days

I had doubts with these Penny Black stickers. The picture is printed on clear matte plastic, so I was worried how much the edges would show on the paper, but as it turned out they blend into the background quite nicely. And since the plastic is matte, it does not clash with paper. Nice.

I chalked the edges of the sticker panel to highlight the torn edges. I chose the patterned papers to coordinate with the sticker but mere browns would have looked dull, so the brighter striped paper with greens and yellows helps to cheer things up and break the horizontal lines. A bit of paw-pattern ribbon and a greeting with orange brads finishes the card nicely.

La femme belle

I have a weak spot for eccentric stamps, so I have ever growing collection of Zettiology and Paper Artsy stamps, but I rarely get to use them (or maybe I'm just too concerned what the recipient will think about the card). I tried to achieve a vintage silent film feeling in this cards since the lady in the stamp vividly reminds me of the ladies in '20s and '30s movies.

I stamped the lady with black Versafine on white watercolour paper. It's nice that the stamp frames itself so I only left a narrow white border. I coloured the headscarf and lips with plum and red rub-on colours using cotton buds as applicators. The black and white diamond paper adds a bit of harlequin feeling to the card. I tore a piece of rose-patterned vellum, fixed the stamped image on it and attached the whole thing to the right-hand side. I took a length of black and white ribbon, folded it into L-shape and secured the fold with a white mini heart brad. The bow under the brad is actually from a bra. Since I don't have a gromlet setter, I made the openings for the prongs with a thick needle and folded them flat with fingers. The result: a very nice card, if I may say. I actually didn't realise how much the ribbon looks like film strip until now. I don't mind, though :)

It's a kind of magic...

I really do love this card, all the pieces of the puzzle work so well together and I definitely need more opportunities to use that lovely fairy stamp. Too bad I only had one of those crescent charms.

The blue background paper is again flocked (I'm hoarding the remainders of that paper for a special occasion, it's so gorgeous). I stamped the fairy on blue paper with black Versafine and left a narrow border. I used a corner punch to nick the corners and wound a length of embroidery floss around the panel, it looks a bit like moonlight. Then I attached the panel to the flocked paper, knotted the charm onto blue ribbon and fixed everything onto a card blank. The peel-off continues the vine theme to the envelope.

Anniversary roses

Another simple card, but only by its design. I still couldn't help myself with the ferns and other fiddly bits in the 3D picture but just had to cut them all out. It does look good but boy it takes time and patience. I fixed the finished picture in the card blank, added the age with peel-offs and punched the diamond border with a border punch and added a strip of rose patterned vellum to highlight it. A coloured-in peel-off rose finishes the envelope.

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.

Monochrome birthday

I actually did ponder for a while whether goths have or celebrate birthdays. Of course they do, so here's at least a dark if not handsome card for a goth.

I've had a collection of handmade papers just sitting on the shelf but now I steeled myself (I DO have a thing for my stash...) and decided to use it as well. Still wondering why I cut the piece from the 12" pad and not from the A4 pad... An Autumn Leaves text stamp with a piece of black ribbon and black and white Prima polkadot flowers secured with brads and voilà, the card is ready. I like the way the white edges of the ribbon echo the pattern on the black paper.

Big and bold

This card was really simple to make since the turqoise flocked paper had so bold a pattern (reminds me of Designers Guild patterns). I layered few flowers and a piece of yellow ric rac and secured them on the paper with a funky flower brad. The largest flower wasn't bright enough so I added a bit more colour with a felt tip, two "coats" boosted the colour nicely. Greeting tile came from a mag, but it looked a bit lonely on its own, so I added a peel-off to lift it off the background.

Little prince

I have mixed feelings on this card. I like the stamped image, the colours, the book plate, the stars, but I don't like my result here. I was really pressed for time with this card and unfortunately it shows. I was trying to catch a train in order to catch a plane and not finished with packing or getting things ready at home, but this one card I just had to make since I was missing the celebrations. I actually posted this card from the airport... Let this serve as a lesson for me that it might a good idea not to leave everything to the least minute (a lesson I will never in a million years learn...).

I coloured the stamped image (from a swap) in with coloured pencils and backed it with orange paper. I punched the corners and attached the panel to a length of orange ribbon. I folded the ribbon and attached it to the card blank with an orange brad and added three star beads to the right with glue dots. The bookplate is attached with orange minibrads and the greeting was the first suitable Words to Go word I came up with. What this card would have still needed is some semblance of border for both the card and the stamped image plus something to back the stars (punched white+contrasting circles would probably work well).