First Wobbly Tooth

STORY OF A PSYCHOTIC MOTHER

Sorry if this is messy - posting from my mobile because my camera is flat again.

What an eventful evening! My son declared he had a sore tooth whilst eating afternoon tea so off to the dentist we raced - I'm an anxious mum and he doesn't brush properly!

 

 

 

 

All good though - he liked the dentist, his teeth are wonderful ... And he's get his first wobbly tooth! I'm ridiculously excited!

So what do I do? Why, I spend my evening agonising over the possibility of him losing his tooth at school, so I create a cute/fun incentive for him NOT to.

A Tooth Cosy!

I showed it to my husband - he gave me an "are you mental??" stare.

See the below pics - its a simple envelope with the sides sealed with double sided tape (I'd sew but I suck at it), the flap held down with restickable glue, a folded up tissue (cut down to a suitable size) stashed inside and whatever decorating you want on it. I even stamped the tissue decoratively :)

The restickable glue will need to be reapplied, I think, and is not entirely ideal but my best option for making sure he can open and reseal the envelope. My original idea involved punching a little hole in the flap and another in the front wall of the envelope and feeding a piece of ribbon through each hole with a knot at the end so that the package could be tied shut ... But he doesn't know how to tie knots and bows yet! Even if the glue doesn't hold, it should be secure enough anyway :)

It doesn't have to be fancy - just needs to be cute and hold together long enough for the tooth to make it safely under their pillow.  Hey - even if you're not psychotic like me, it's also a cute way to "present" the tooth to the tooth fairy!  Easy enough for the kids to make / help make / decorate, too.

 

 

Happy Wobbling!

 

Dani :)

 

 

 

 

Wedding Fever

I have a friend who is getting married in October and I want to make her the perfect card. Don't know if I am there yet but happily throwing a variety of styles of cards together as practice to help me decide what I will finally make for her :)

One is in silver and white with a big lovely fabric flower and a skeleton leaf for a delicate splash of colour.

Another is going with more chocolatey tones, using my own stamps to create patterned paper and making it pop with a scattering of jewels and pearls.

And finally, I made a couple of simple ones, utilising heat embossing (which I love!). Minimalist and cute!

Hope you enjoy!

Dani :)

Christmas is-a-comin'! - Ongoing Update

BE PREPARED!

Stay Tuned - This Will Be Updated Each Time I Make More

Scoff if you will, but I like to be prepared!

The first couple of years that I made my own cards, I slaved away doing mass production for the month of November. And frankly - it was a bloody miserable experience!

So now I like to make one here and there in the last several months of the year and tuck them away in a cute Christmas box to keep them fresh and clean.

Below are the cards that I have made - each one very different!

 

As you can see, even though my blog has been quiet, i have still been productive - Hope you enjoy!  I'll update with more card pictures as I make them.

 

 

 

Christmas Obsessing

Dani :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whale Of A Time!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! :)

This year, my husband and I will have been married for 8 years - together over 10 years :)  We're celebrating this by taking a little whale watching cruise!  So in honour of that, I've themed the card I'm giving him.

I make the effort to annoy my husband and show him EVERY card I make.  He's patient but only glances at each card and says "Cool." - it's not his cup of tea.  So it's become tradition for me to make him cards - mostly because I like being annoying!

I quickly got over my phase of thinking he'll cherish these cards, so I never make much of an effort - and generally I like to make them super cheesy!  Strangely, they often end up being amongst my favourites, anyway.

This card was simple:

1. First I used publisher as a quick and easy way to find a  cute picture of a whale - I love this one because it was a good cut out that sits neatly at the bottom of the card.  I also created my greeting on publisher.
2. I fussy cut the whale and cut use a paper trimmer to cut your greeting strips.  When I fussy cut the whale, I trimmed off the spurt of water.
3. I cut white card 12cm x 24cm and then folded in half.
4. I cut a strip of blue card, about 3cm wide and slightly longer than the card.  I used a border punch to create the "waves".
5. I edged the blue card with dark blue (Versa Magic 'Night Sky') and stuck it onto the bottom edge of the card.  I trimmed the sides and reinked the side edges of the blue.  (I'll admit now, also, that I trimmed the entire card a little, which is why it looks a little more slender than square).
6. I stuck the whale onto the bottom edge of the card, over the blue card.
7. I created my own spurt out of sticker gems, stuck on the greeting strips and embellished the top left corner with a few more sticker gems

And that's all there is to it!  I plan to stick a folded up "keepsake" copy of the booking for the whale cruise inside the card :)

Now I'm off to stock up on Sea Legs!

Happy Anniversary! :)

Dani :)

 





Black & White

 

ROCKIN' THE MONOCHROME!

When making cards, there's no denying that the monochrome look can have a terrific impact - it can  be eyecatching, sexy, classy, modern, masculine (or feminine!), and fun!

And there's no reason you can't tie that into your stamp colouring as well.  If you're  fan of using copic markers, the impact is incredible.  I use watercolour markers, a little more subtle but still fantastic!

I went for cute and fun in this card :)  I think it would appeal to girls in the 10-13 age range :)

I started out by stamping my image and colouring it with various shades of black, grey and white.  To boost the impact I did colour the skin properly and added one element of red, in the cherry, to make the picture pop.

I used only THREE pens in this colouring:  black, red and skin tone.  Any actual black colouring, I used the black marker directly on the card.  Grey was achieved with the black pen, but painted on with an aqua brush (click here for instructions).  I used the pen-tip of the marker to add texture to her hair.

I finished her off with a little jewel on her bow :)

I got a piece of black card with a faint design to back my coloured image.  You could probably use flat black but I think a faint design adds something.  At the other end of the scale, anything with a clear pattern will be too busy and your picture will be lost.

I distressed the edges of the backing card to relax the style and add some definition to the edges (the other side of the card has a design on white so it worked well because when I distressed the edges, the white showed).  I then mounted my image onto the card with foam tape, to give her lift.

I then mounted my image and card onto patterned paper (black pattern on white) that is only a little smaller than the size of my overall card.  The patterned paper I chose is flocked and also has a little shine to it - gotta love textures!

I added black ribbon to break up the pattern a little.

And to finish it off, I stuck the patterned paper onto my base card and inked the edges of the card with black - again to continue the relaxed feel of the card, but it also helps add some definition since you have laid white paper on white card.

I made a little tag - this one I cut out with my cuttlebug, but you could always cut out a rectangle and snip the corners at an angle at the end with the punched hole to give it a tag look.  I used bright red ribbon to embellish the tag, continuing the theme but not overdoing the red.

I then gave it one final touch:  a black heart on the tag with a little red jewel in it!

Happy Monochroming!

Dani :)

There's A Use For Everything!

 

RIBBON SCRAP CARD

As a general rule, unless something looks truly hopelessly useless, I don't throw stuff out.  Most of the cards you see are made from whatever I have lying around.  I am sure I could make superb cards if I went out and bought new stuff everytime and planned ahead, but I'm a fly by the seat of my pants (impatient) kind of girl, so I work with what I have as best as I can :)

A card like this is perfect for using up scraps of ribbon!  Plus it's just plain cute!

Ok, so I selected my main card size as 10.5 x 14cm (it will be white, as usual!).

Now cut a piece of coloured card at 5 x 13cm.  One centimetre in from the right edge, cut a slit.  I used my paper slicer to do this, however as it's a rotating blade, it's hard to gauge where it is cutting in instances like this.  I went for "safe" and extended it out with a hand blade.

As you can see it's straight but a little dodgy at one end - NOT a big deal!  You don't want a big gaping hole or anything, but the ribbons will disguise this anyway.

Next I got some contrasting paper (about 6 x 13cm) with a colour in its pattern that matched my coloured card.  I used an edge punch to pretty it all up a bit and stuck it to the front of the coloured card, at the left side, leaving roughly a centimetre of the coloured card (to the left of the slit) visible.  I trimmed the left edge of the patterned paper so that in total now it is 5cm from left side to scalloped side.

As you will see in the picture below, I also got the same patterned card (another piece about 6 x 13cm), and stuck it to the underside of the coloured card with about a centimetre and a half sticking out the right hand side of the coloured card.

IMPORTANT:  Don't stick down the coloured card to the right of the slit or you can't feel ribbon through it!

Ribbon time!

Pick out a menagerie of colourful ribbon scraps and and slide them through the yellow slit upside down.  Take the time to decide what order you want them in and what colours work for you.

Now fold each ribbon over and, imagining your worst enemy, jam a reeming tool through the ribbon and card (in the centre of the ribbon, a few mm from the edge of the coloured card).

I use a cheap thick old-style foam mouse pad for "reeming tasks".

Once folded and reemed (ooer!!), carefully hold the ribbon in place while you replace the reeming tool with a mini brad.  I started with the two end ribbons, then did the middle ribbon, then finished up with the rest - just to make sure the spacing was ok.

It gets a bit messy flipping it over each time you stick a brad in, so let it sit in there and keep doing the same to each ribbon.  It actually helps everything stay where it should be while you work because the brads are wedged into the foam mouse pad.  Then, once all the brads are in place, carefully lift the card up, flip it over and secure the brads properly.

Trim the ribbons to look how you want them to look - generally the front half of the ribbon is shorter than the back half.

And now the finishing touches -

• Affix your ribboned card onto your main white card, keeping the margins even on top, left and bottom.
• One square coloured card 4 x 4cm layered beneath one square white card 3.5 x 3.5cm.
• Stamp greeting on white square, embellish if you wish
• Stick to the middle of the top patterned card

Done!

Happy Scrapping!

Dani :)

When I Should Be Sleeping

WHAT I DO WHEN I SHOULD BE SLEEPING...

Here I sit, so bleary eyed that I'm seeing triple.  I have been booted out of bed by a sick child, snoring husband and snoring dog!  So rahter than nap on the couch, what do I do?  Make cards!

Just some very simple ones and I admit to a bout of middle-of-the-night laziness so didn't get step by step photos of them - trust me, you won't need it :)

My Button Card

Simply string together some colourful buttons and stick them down the card!  I have wrapped the string around to the inside of the card and covered them with a large "sticker" I created with my mini xyron.

Then I stamped my greeting and surrounded it by my favourite mini buttons and some jewels!  Done!

My Swirly Card

I have a set of stamps I used that are of a whole lot of swirly designs - I just stamped the ones that I thought looked best!  Stuck on a couple of little flowers (the ones pictured are actually brads), some jewels and a greeting.  Finally, I layered it with contrasting card and that's that!



Sugar n Spice Card

This was one of those cards where I had so many ideas that they started to merge - and I like it!  It's got sweet and it's got spice :)  Plus it's quick and eye catching!

Put black card through the cuttlebug with embossing folder.  To give the card some more "gloss", I ran a black ink pad over it.  Wrapped some purple ribbon around, wrapped some sheer ribbon (with a buckle) around the purple ribbon.  Attached to the card with foam tape.

Cut out butterfly with cuttlebug, bejewelled and applied a ribbon.  Stick to the card with foam tape.  Attached this to the main card and inked the edge of the card in an eye-catching colour!  Done :)

Happy brainstorming!

Dani :)

Apron Card

 

SWEET LITTLE APRON CARD

Bear with me, I've not charged my camera battery yet!  So this is all photographed with an iphone - yuck!

I have seen these cards here and there on the internet and think they're just gorgeous!  I'd love to be creative enough to create little rolling pins and such for the pocket, but for this first attempt, I dont think I'll push my luck :)

This is a card that would be great for people who love cute things, love cooking or love gardening.  I put a thank you message on it because it looks, to me, like a card that is perhaps ideal for for someone whose home you stayed in - an acknowledgement of their hospitality!

So first of all, Google (or create) a template of an apron.  Fold your main card in half and place the template along the fold and cut around it.

The first thing you want to put on your apron is the loop for the neck.  You can use either ribbon or cardstock / paper for this.  In this instance I have used paper.  I cut a strip of card 15cm x 1cm and secured to the top front of the card, in a loop (see above), with double sided tape.

On top of the neck loop, put a decorate "frill".  I used a border punch and some white cardstock to create mine, but you could also use some lace for a more 'authentic' look.  To fit my apron, I created a border punched length of card that was 6cm x 2.5cm.  Apply more double sided tape to the top of the apron and attach the frill.

Now cover the front of the apron with double sided tape and lay it face down onto the back of the patterned card you will use for the apron.  Make sure that the top edge of the card is exactly where you want it at the top, because you can't trim around the detail you've already put down!

If you want, you can use the template to cut out an apron shape and stick it on, but I find this quicker and less likely to be stuffed up by crooked applications or edges that don't quite meet.

Cut around your card ink the edges (carefully, lightly across the top so that you don't ink the frill - or if you plan ahead better than me, ink the top edge before you stick it down!!).

Now it looks a lot like an apron :)

Pocket time!

Cut out a rectangle of a contrasting cardstock colour - mine is 8.5cm x 6cm.  Round the two bottom corners.  On the back, mark 1cm down on both sides of the pocket.  That is the stopping point for the double sided tape you will place around the edge of the pocket.

You can now stick the pocket onto the front of the apron.

What I thought would be cute is an insert (for a message), for the pocket, that can be pulled out.  I incorporated the pocket "frill" into this.  I had the frill 8.5cm x 2.5cm.  I cut out cardstock that matched the base card (5.5cm x 6cm), rounded the corners and stuck it to the back of the frill, with mo more than a 1cm overlap.

I put another strip of paper that matched the apron (1cm x 8.5cm) that I placed along the bottom of the frill with an overhang of only a millimetre or two.  This was just to make it look a little nicer.

Stamp or write a greeting on the little card.

Slide the insert into the pocket.  It's starting to really come together - we're on the home stretch now!!

Now, if you're into sewing, by all means (before attaching the pocket!) stitch the edges of the card!  However, I'm a little "sewing challenged" so I drew my stitching on - around all edges of the apron and pocket.

Now that's done, it's time for decorating!  Go crazy and decorate your apron :)

There we go - a cute little apron card! :)

Happy Baking!

Dani :)