Baby Hand Print Get Well Card - A little bird told me you're not feeling so chirpy

My mum has been in hospital for nearly four weeks after being suddenly struck by a serious illness but she is recovering really well and will hopefully be back home soon - a huge relief for all of us.

 

I live a couple of hours away so in between visits I’ve sent her a few things in the post, including a get well card that I made in haste and forgot to take a photo of.

 

This is the second get well card I made, or rather that my ten month old daughter made. We go to a class occasionally called ‘Baby Picasso’ that is basically hand and foot painting with some messy play as well. There is a theme each week and we have the opportunity to make one picture or card or other item (before Christmas for instance we did tree decorations) using hand prints and one using foot prints.

 

It gets quite messy - you have to put paint on your baby’s hand or foot and then stop them wiping it on themselves or you before you are able to get them to place it flat on a piece of paper! Then the other details and embellishments are added by the parent, as this particular class is for pre-walkers so the babies are too young to do it themselves.

 

The theme this week was birds, and my little girl made a picture of two robins sitting on branches with handprints in paint.

 

I decided to turn it into a card so when we got home I glued the picture onto a blank card and had a think about a suitable sentiment. The phrase ‘a little bird told me’ sprang to mind straight away then the rest followed and seemed perfect for a get well card - ‘you’re not feeling so chirpy’!  I wrote the sentiments on the computer and stuck them on the front of the card and inside printed ‘get well soon’.

 

I gave my mum the card when I went to visit a couple of days later addressed to granny from my daughter - she really liked it and hopefully it helped cheer her up a little bit!

 

I'm sharing this with the following craft blog challenges: The Male Room - nature (this card would work for a man easily!)

Paper Funday - anything goes

Everybody art challenge - anything goes

Unicorn challenge - things with wings

Heart 2 Heart challenges - creative cards

 

 

 

You're a Treasure Pirate Card for Kids

I have a confession to make about this card - I made it for a friend’s little boy who was turning three, and forgot to send it!

My husband and I were ill for nearly a whole week, luckily the days when we were most sick didn’t overlap so we were able to take it in turns to look after our baby with a bit of help from my mother-in-law as well (who then got sick after she had been to see us!). Luckily baby S didn’t get ill at all which was a huge relief!

That whole week passed in a blur and it was only some time later I realised I had missed the birthday and not sent the card. Sorry Alex!

I’ve decided to share it now as I think this is a really cute theme for children that works for both girls and boys. I bought a set of clear stamps from eBay (which didn’t have a brand - look up ‘pirate clear stamps’ on eBay and you will find them).

I had some sea themed backing paper that I hadn’t really used before as it was a tricky design - not a patterned paper as such but most of it was plain blue or similar with a detailed design in one corner. I found it hard to know what I could add to the card to complement it without covering up the design but also without the backing paper stealing the show - but these pirate stamps were perfect.

I stamped the boy pirate onto white card and coloured him in with Promarkers and did the same with the treasure chest and boat, and stamped the words ‘you’re a treasure’ directly onto the card, which I then went over with a black Promarker.

I'm sharing this with:

Outlawz Challenge Songs and Rhymes - Row, row, row your boat

Sheepski Designs - For the kidz

Cardz 4 Guyz - All at sea

Unicorn and Balloons Birthday Card

I went a bit unicorn-crazy recently after buying a new rubber stamp and some patterned papers. This card uses one of the papers as backing for the card - it's a busy pattern so I left a bit of white edging around the card.

I then added some die-cut pink balloons and some die-cut blue bunting, which matched the background of the card - I bought both sets of die cuts on Ebay. The 'happy birthday' is from an old set of stamps called Say it with Stamps from All Night Media, stamped onto a piece of pink card which I cut out freehand.

This would be a lovely birthday card for a young girl!

I'm sharing this with:
Penny Black - something beginning with B (balloon)
Outlawz Challenges - Up, up and away
Creative Knockouts - For the kids

Dino-Mite Dinosaur Birthday Card

I made this card for an 8-year old girl who is mad about dinosaurs at the moment. Ages ago I bought a pack of silver dinosaur outline stickers for another birthday card and have found it hard to use them up - as they are small silver stickers, sometimes solid and sometimes outlines, they don't work on a lot of backgrounds but putting them on a plain card doesn't look very good either.

I decided to do the best I could with them, and started by sticking the dinosaur outline sticker onto a small square or rectangle of pink paper. I edged that with a silver outline edging sticker and did the same with two smaller dinosaur stickers.

Using a thin rectangular card blank I turned it on its side, covered it in textured pink paper and stuck a strip of pink patterned paper down the middle. I then mounted the dinosaur pieces onto this to make it look a bit more interesting.

Finally I added a slogan I'd seen somewhere: have a dino-mite birthday! I typed it on the computer in pink and printed it out on pink paper. It doesn't have enough space around it to look professional so if I made this again I would use a wider card, but I still quite like it.

Thomas the Tank Engine 1st Birthday Card

Copyright Caroline Makes dot Net

This card is obviously for my friend's one-year old son Alex! I know a lot of small boys like Thomas the Tank Engine so when I found this picture of Thomas - it's actually from the end of a wallpaper border - I decided to cut it out and make it the centre point for the card. I had some foam letters and numbers that I think I got from The Works, that are a bit too childish for most of my cards, but I thought would work well on this. There was just enough room to spell out Alex's name and I added the number 1 in the top corner.

Fashion Birthday Card for a 7 Year Old Girl

This is a card I made for my friend's 7-year old daughter who has decided she wants to be a fashion designer. I had a sheet of die-cut cardboard shapes of dresses and handbags in different colours and decided to make a fashion show theme. I chose a pink card blank and turned it on its side and cut out pieces from a darker pink piece of cardstock to represent curtains and the top of a stage. I stuck a variety of dresses and bags on the card and some stars in the top corners, and finished it off with a Happy Birthday topper.

I'm sharing this with Fab Funky Challenges as their theme is 'girly and pretty'.

Pop-Up Animal Card

Here's the other card I made for a three year old boy's birthday (they are twins). It has a pop-up cow and a farmyard theme on the front.

I made it from the same magazine and paper set as the pull-along tractor card and this was a bit quicker to make but probably more difficult. I've never really sucessfully made a pop-up card before and it wasn't entirely clear from the instructions which tab to stick where, so it took me a couple of attempts before I could get the cow to pop up!

I started off using a template to cut a particular shape out of a piece of green card.

I also covered the inside of a white square card blank with printed green paper that I thought looked a bit like grass and leaves, and cut out the cow picture that was provided.

I added a couple of birthday banners across the card, and stuck the cow onto the cardboard shape I had already cut out. After a couple of false starts I managed to stick it correctly so the cow folds down when the card is closed, and pops up when the card is opened.

I covered the front of the card in the same backing paper and added the other animal pictures that were provided in the pack. I thought it was still lacking something though so I found some die-cut balloon shapes and made them look as if they were attached to the pig and he was floating in the sky. I also added a silver 'happy birthday' outline sticker to the balloons.

Here's the cow popping up when you open the card - I'm really pleased I've got the hang of pop-ups now!

Farmyard Fun Pull-Tab Card

I made this birthday card for a little boy who was turning three. It came from a card making magazine full of ideas for children's cards; the magazine also came with a set of printed papers and pictures to cut out to make each of the card projects. I'm glad I had full instructions as this was a bit tricky (though now I know how to do it I could make something similar again), and it did take me a lot longer to make than most of my other cards. As you'll see below, there is a chicken hiding behind the window in the hay loft, and you can pull the tractor to open the barn doors and show the horse who is inside.

Here's the magazine I used

The first step was to cut out the barn doors and horse picture then cut them both in half down the middle. I then had to mount each piece on a piece of card cut out according to a template; it has a large tab on the left, a smaller one on top, and a square hole in the middle. The piece of card underneath has tabs that can be folded.

Place the two pieces together and use the tabs on the bottom piece to hold the top piece in place.

Next I cut out the large backing picture

And also the shed. There was a small picture of a chicken which I stuck behind the window gap and stuck a shutter - you can only see the underneath of it here - over the top, so it can be opened and closed.

Next I glued the barn onto the backing paper, having put the horse and barn door cardboard piece in the middle. There's just enough room at the sides that you can pull the blue tab on the left, and open and close the barn doors.

Finally I glued the tractor picture onto the end of the blue tab. Here the barn doors are closed and the window shutter is also closed.....

... then pull the tractor and the horse appears!

The birthday boys are 2

My boyfriend's nephews turn 2 tomorrow and I wanted to make them each a birthday card (they are twin boys) -but had to bear in mind the cards couldn't involve any small pieces that might fall off and get swallowed!

So I decided it was best to stick to die-cuts and stickers. For the first card, I bought some glitter 'outer space' stickers and covered a square card blank in blue paper. I added the stickers, including one that is a speech bubble, and on that I put an outline sticker of 'happy birthday' and the number 2.

For the animal card, I bought a decoupage set that just needed the shapes cutting out. I used foam adhesive pads between each layer to make a 3D effect. I covered a white square card blank in yellow paper, and I already had a packet of die-cut balloons at home so I overlapped three of them at the top of the card, and added a 'happy birthday' outline sticker and a red number 2.

I think this is the first time I've made a birthday card for a child so it's hard to know what a 2-year old would like - I thought I would stick to bright colours, simple shapes, and while I think the animals are good, I'm not sure if the space theme is a bit too grown-up for a 2-year old - but I'm sure he won't care!