Birthday cards for a special person

Aaarghh!! I can't believe it's been so long since I last updated my blog (or since I last made any cards!) but I've made 2 cards for my lovely daughter-in-law Anna's birthday on Saturday (two cards because one will be from my Mum).
Anna took a shine to my Tilda stamps so I've made her a card using my two new stamps, they have been coloured with pencils and sansador using paper stumps (a new technique I'm just trying out) and mounted onto some very sparkly backing paper from Joanna Sheen, the sentiment was printed out from the PC. The seated Tilda is perched on some card made from the swiss dots cuttlebug folder (kindly sent to me by a crafting friend), the little strip of grass and flowers in the corner are from Cuddly Buddly's garden download kit and the large white flower and pink gem brad are from my stash.
Mum's card to Anna was made using some stencils that another crafting friend kindly purchased for me. I've used some gorgeous Diane Rooney papers that I downloaded from Daisie company for her name and the co-ordinating flowers came from the same place, I think the set was called "Fleur". Again I've used some sparkly backing paper, just hope she likes them now.

The Third Card

Well at last, I thought the glaze I put on this card would never dry! This is the final ladies card for my order and is for a 40th birthday. The customer who ordered it is going to the party, but does not know the birthday girl really well so she asked for champagne or something celebratory. Well, I didin't have any images of bottles of champagne but thought that cake and balloons seemed quite a celebration, so hopefully that will be ok.
The image is (again) from Greetings Card Factory and I've (again) printed 2 copies, for decoupaging the balloons and bows on the parcels. I've mounted it onto some glitter card, added some K & Co numbers, stickle glue (I use this on everything!)and some crystal glaze to add highlights to the balloons.
Apologies for the quality of the picture, for some reason my scanner didn't like this card!

Cards for the Girls

I made a start on the other orders I received last week. Now that those pesky men's cards are finished I knew I would enjoy making some feminine cards.
The first one is for my hairdresser's daughter Kellie who has recently had her first baby. I have it on good authority that she is a shopaholic, so I thought a shopping card would be just right. The image is part of a kit from Daisie Daisie mounted onto some Cuddly Buddly papers. I printed the image twice and decoupaged some of the details, added some glitter and gems and Bob's your uncle!
The second card is for my hairdresser's aunt who's in her eighties, so I thought a floral image would be nice. The image is from Greetings Card Factory, again mounted onto Cuddly Buddly papers and finished off with some peel offs and a few gems.
The sentiments for both cards were done on my PC.
I've started the third card but it's still drying so I'll post that one tomorrow.

Gift for a friend

Well, I should be making cards today, but I felt like doing something a little bit different instead. I had stamped some images to send to a friend and so decided to make a little "pouch" to put them in.
I used a 12 x 12 scrapbook paper and trimmed it to 6 x 12, then folded it in three and stuck down the sides of the bottom third to make a little pouch to put the stamped images in. I finished it off by embossing and cutting a scalloped edge then adding some co-ordinating ribbon, a sentiment and little glittered embellishment. The fastening was made from some little buttons and ribbon.

Commisions for men's cards

I had some orders from staff at my hairdressers for quite a few cards for birthdays this month. There were 3 men's cards required, now I find it a struggle doing men's cards as I get bored with them so I thought I'd better do those first and get them out of the way. The subject matter was interesting to say the least, one ice hockey theme and 2 football themes, one for Spurs and the other Man Utd. This is the result and I hope they like them because I really don't want to have to do them again!
The ice hockey images are from Greetings Factory, the footballer images from Cuddly Buddly and I googled to get the club logos and then used them to make backing paper for both football cards.

Friendship Book

My best friend lives so far away that I rarely see her, we do speak on the phone but that always makes me miss her more. She had asked me to make some family birthday cards for her and I decided that I'd make a little friendship book and pop that in with the cards when I posted them to her.
I made the book from some stiff cardboard packaging that I had kept. The covers are 6" square and the inside pages 5" square and I decorated them with lots of girly bits and bobs that I already had including flowers, gems, peel offs, rub ons, embellishments and stickers. She's very fond of cute images so I stamped a variety of cuties, (a couple of Magnolia Tildas, some Cuddly Buddlys and All Night Media's "Friends Forever"), now as soon as the book rings I've ordered arrive I can put it all together and post it to her.
I won't have to do my little books like this after October because I'm getting a "Bind-it-all" for my birthday (along with a Cuttlebug) hooray!

3rd Wedding Anniversary Card

It's my son and daughter-in-law's 3rd wedding anniversary on Monday. I just can't believe that three years have gone by so quickly, it really does seem like their wedding was only about a year ago, ah well I suppose that's a sure sign of my getting older!
I wanted to make them a card that had quite a young, modern feel to it so decided to go for a black, white and silver colour scheme.
The greyscale image is from the Greetings Card Factory CD (the shadow images actually do look a bit like them!) matted and layered and then simply mounted onto some monochromatic backing papers from my stash and finished off with a silver metal look sentiment and some peel offs for their names.
I suppose before I know it I'll be making a card for their fourth anniversary!