20 Sunday Mar 2016
Posted in Beautiful Butterflies, Big Shot, Birthday, Dies, General occasion
Hi!
I wanted to show you the card I made for my Mum’s 70th birthday.
I picked some card stock and matching pretty paper for the base. I added a paper doily and a punched white circle in the centre, then added a die cut butterfly. Then added extra detail with stick on pearls.
I was very happy with how it turned out, and the birthday girl seemed to like it!
Thanks for reading đŸ™‚
Caro x
16 Saturday Jan 2016
Posted in Baby cards, Cards, Curly label, Perfect Polka Dots, Using up scraps, Word Window
Happy New Year!
I’m back at my craft desk today after a nice break over Christmas and New Years. I am visiting a close friend who has had a new baby next week so wanted to make a special card.
I have seen punch out baby drawer cards all over the Internet and have been itching to make one. So here’s my version:
I used a top gold card blank (cut an A4 sheet in half vertically at 10.5cm) and then cut the shape from the bottom with 2 cuts of the curly label punch. The drawers are 8cm x 2cm and embossed with my spotty folder for added texture. The top of the drawers is 11cm x roughly 1.5cm (I just used up a scrap).
I used Sahara Sand card stock and sponged the edges with Blushing Bride.
The images are from the Baby Bundle set and the sentiment is from Nursery Necessities (both retired Stampin’ Up! but there are lots of cute baby sets in the current catalogue that would work just as well).
I cut out all the shapes. One tip for cutting really tiny shapes like the curve of the coat hanger – if you have a marker the same colour as your card stock just colour around so it’s not obvious if you leave a bit for added strength:
It’s a good idea to position the clothes etc before you stick down the drawers – I stuck a few behind the drawers:
(I used dimensionals to stick on the drawers and mini glue dots for the fiddly little cut outs).
I hope you enjoyed that card – and hopefully my friend will too!!!
Thanks for reading.
Caro
16 Saturday Jan 2016
Posted in Baby cards, Cards, Curly label, Perfect Polka Dots, Using up scraps, Word Window
Happy New Year!
I’m back at my craft desk today after a nice break over Christmas and New Years. I am visiting a close friend who has had a new baby next week so wanted to make a special card.
I have seen punch out baby drawer cards all over the Internet and have been itching to make one. So here’s my version:
I used a top gold card blank (cut an A4 sheet in half vertically at 10.5cm) and then cut the shape from the bottom with 2 cuts of the curly label punch. The drawers are 8cm x 2cm and embossed with my spotty folder for added texture. The top of the drawers is 11cm x roughly 1.5cm (I just used up a scrap).
I used Sahara Sand card stock and sponged the edges with Blushing Bride.
The images are from the Baby Bundle set and the sentiment is from Nursery Necessities (both retired Stampin’ Up! but there are lots of cute baby sets in the current catalogue that would work just as well).
I cut out all the shapes. One tip for cutting really tiny shapes like the curve of the coat hanger – if you have a marker the same colour as your card stock just colour around so it’s not obvious if you leave a bit for added strength:
It’s a good idea to position the clothes etc before you stick down the drawers – I stuck a few behind the drawers:
(I used dimensionals to stick on the drawers and mini glue dots for the fiddly little cut outs).
I hope you enjoyed that card – and hopefully my friend will too!!!
Thanks for reading.
Caro
04 Tuesday Aug 2015
Posted in Dies, Kids cards, Kids party, Thank you, Top Note
I needed to whip up some simple thank you cards for all the generous people who gave my son such amazing birthday presents. And they needed to be very simple and quick to make!
Voila!
The backing is an A4 sheet cut into fours, with some white shapes cut from the top note die. Simple stamping of an owl stamp and a thank you greeting and we’re done!
Now to get organised enough to write them!
Thanks for dropping by.
Caro x
01 Wednesday Jul 2015
Posted in Birthday, Framelits, Gift tags & wrapping, Kids cards, Kids craft ideas, Kids party
Today I want to share with you the card I made for my son’s birthday. We’ve had Ninjago invitations, Ninjago cupcakes, and Ninjago party stuff – so there’s no way I was going to get away without a Ninjago birthday card!
After being a bit “Ninjago’d out”, I wanted to step it up a notch for the birthday card, and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.
It took me a little while to figure out how I was going to get the peek-a-boo effect so I’ll show you how I did it.
I used a normal C6 card base and cut a 9 x 13cm piece of yellow for the inside.
I was thinking about just drawing / using circle punches for the eyes on the inside of the card, but had some printable eyes left over from the party (web address in the photo)
First I cut out an eye mask, then traced around the shape onto the front of the card (I recommend you cut two – one to trace around and one that will still be neat to use inside the card)
I then needed to be able to cut out the shape. I thought I would use my big shot with a small die just to cut a hole in the centre of the traced area to be able to start cutting out neatly.
Then inspiration struck! The curvy image from the Banner framelits set worked perfectly to get a “tie” at the edge of the face mask area! So instead of just cutting out some space for starting off my cutting, I shifted it off to the side to get this shape:
Cutting out the rest and voila!
The next step was to grab a Sharpie and trace around the edges to neaten them up – but also to colour in the area marked by the impression of the edge of the die (you can see the faint impression in this next picture)
And the end result!
And of course, no little Ninjago fan’s birthday present could be complete without Ninjago wrapping on his present!
(I dropped the glued eyes on the present, so they are not straight, but I’m pretty sure he won’t mind!)
I think it will be a while before I feel like making Ninjago themed anything again, but the little guy has absolutely loved everything, so it’s all been worth it. I can’t wait to give him his card tomorrow on his actual birthday!
Thanks for reading.
Caro x
07 Sunday Jun 2015
Posted in Bird Builder, Chalk Talk, Dies, Framelits, Invitations, Kids cards, Kids craft ideas, Kids party, Owl
We’ve spent this afternoon making birthday invitations for my son’s upcoming birthday party. He decided on Ninjago invitations (for those not up with small boys, that is a type of Lego based on ninjas!) His favourite Ninjago is Kai “the red guy”.
I had a grand vision for how these might look, but then had to tone it down to match the vision of the birthday boy. Which is after all the point (allegedly!!)
I was planning on using the top note die to get a nice curve on the yellow mask top and bottom, making the eye brows from the branch of the bird punch as the eye brows, and layering black and white circles from the owl punch for the eyes. However small boy was most insistent that we should draw the eyes and eyebrows ourselves, and it turns out that dropping liquid paper onto the eye balls to make the whites of the eyes is super fun when you’re 5!!
So, here they are in all their glory. Perhaps not as glossy as I’d planned, but made with love by the birthday boy đŸ™‚
Next challenge: Ninjago cup cakes for the big day. Red icing anyone? đŸ˜‰
Thanks for reading.
Caro
Btw I cut the yellow strips with one of the labels from chalk talk framelits. I was very happy with the pretty rounded edges but he decided they should all be chopped off!
11 Monday May 2015
Posted in 1 inch square, Labels collection, Wedding cards
Tags
On the weekend I attended a wedding that was actually a vow renewal ceremony, as the couple had been officially been married for some time but wanted to have their “big day”. Which posed a little bit of a challenge on the card front!  I played around for a bit with the idea of I Do x 2.  Here’s what I came up with:
I chose the colours (Night of Navy, Very Vanilla) to match their wedding invitation. Â A dark coloured card base can be a bit of a challenge when it comes to writing the message, so I used my labels framelits to make a nice space to write the message. Â Â 
I was pretty happy with how it turned out – and it’s nice to have a little bit of spare time to be making cards again!
Thanks for reading
Caro x
16 Thursday Apr 2015
Posted in 3D / pop up, Cards, Embossing folders, Small Heart, Sweet treat cups, Wedding cards
Hello
I don’t know how many times I’ve started a blog post by apologising for the length of time it’s been since I last posted, but here I go again! Life just gets busy!
Today I wanted to show you some wedding cards I made for a dear friend’s wedding a few months ago. This is a snippet of their wedding invitation, which inspired me to make not one, but three cards for their wedding!
I tried to use their design as inspiration, and the colours they chose were uncannily similar to Stampin’ Up!’s Night of Navy and Very Vanilla.
Design one – wedding gate fold card
(I used my sponge daubers and pearls to add colour and sparkles to the embossed flowers)
(I love this teeny tiny sentiment from the Teeny Tiny Sentiments set)
Design two – embossed wedding card
This card actually used a Christmas embossing folder tipped on its side. You’d have to look very closely to see the Christmas details at what should be the top! Again, some sponging and pearl details set it off.
Design three – wedding easel shaker card
This was my son’s favourite! He loved the heart shaped cup and shaking the card to make a sound with all the little cut out hearts with the small heart punch.
I loved them all, but ended up using the gate fold card as my card to the happy couple. My son insisted on the shaker card being from him, and my parents ended up using the other card. So none of them went to waste!
Please let me know if you’d like instructions for any of these cards and I can post the dimensions.
Which one was your favourite?
Thanks for reading
Caro x
08 Tuesday Apr 2014
Tags
gift tag, gift wrapping, Scallop Tag Topper punch, Simply Sketched, Stampin Up, using up scraps, Wine bottle gift tag, wine bottle gifts, wine bottle topper
Hello
Today I wanted to show you a wine bottle tag I made to give to a good friend for his birthday.
I used an off-cut of Not Quite Navy card stock I had lying in a scrap pile, and cut the end with the scallop tag topper punch. Â I used my 1 3/4 inch circle punch to make a hole for the bottle neck to go through, then scored to make the fold for the wine bottle cover.
The card stock was too wide to fit in the slot in the tag topper punch so I slid it over the plastic part of the punch, and then under the metal cutting part to make it work – leave me a comment below if that doesn’t make sense and I’ll try and explain better!  I then just cut diagonally from the edge of the scallop to the edge of the card stock to make the pointed shape.  This picture may give you a better idea:
And isn’t it perfect how one of the smaller dies from the labels framelits fits so perfectly inside the scallop topper tag punch?
The image here is from the Simply Sketched stamp set (a 2013-14 Stampin’ Up! hostess gift)
This gift coordinated nicely with one of the cards I made and showed you a few months ago:
Now that I know how easy it is to make a wine topper using the scallop tag punch, I think there may be a few more gifts like this in my future!
Thanks for reading.
Caro
18 Tuesday Mar 2014
Tags
gift card, gift wrapping, gift wrapping ideas, Mixed Bunch, Scallop tag punch, Scallop Tag Topper punch, Stampin Up, Sweet Sorbet
Hello
Yesterday I showed you a card I made for my Mum’s birthday using the Circle Thinlits die and the Sweet Sorbet Designer Series Paper (DSP).
Today I want to show you how I wrapped her gift. Â Â I first wrapped it in ordinary brown paper, then stuck a leftover piece of Sweet Sorbet DSP on the top.
I made a gift tag from the Stampin’ Up! Scallop Tag Topper punch (Pistachio Pudding) – using the same Mixed Bunch embellishment as the birthday card.
(Looking at that now, I think next time I’d round the two bottom corners?)
A little Crisp Cantaloupe ribbon and the present was done!
The gift and card looked really beautiful together đŸ™‚
I hope Mum enjoys her present even half as much as I enjoyed wrapping it!
Thanks for reading
Caro x
Caro's Pretty Things 