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

 

 

 

Under the Weather Get Well Card

 

I adored this SugarPea Designs 'whatever the weather' set of clear stamps when I saw it in a card making magazine and put it on my Christmas list - but I hadn't actually used it yet!

That was rectified this weekend when I made a few different cards using the set. The first was this 'get well soon' card - I never have generic cards like this in my folder as I tend to concentrate instead on making cards for upcoming birthdays and special occasions, but it's good to have a few other cards ready as you never know when you will need them.

I took a cream card blank and started by cutting a border from a piece of patterned paper. The paper had different coloured stripes so by cutting a thin piece along the length, I was able to get a little of each stripe, which made for a colourful border pattern.

The other decorations are all from the stamp set - first I positioned the cloud and the raindrops together (they are separate stamps) and stamped them twice at the top, then stamped two umbrellas at the bottom. The stamp set has two umbrella designs, one a block colour and the other spotted; I stamped one in blue and one in pink. The umbrella handle is a separate stamp with a gap in the top that fits over the coloured part, so by using a clear acrylic block you can position it exactly to go either side of the pink and blue parts.

Finally the sentiment which I really like - the typeface is really nice and I'm always looking for sentiment stamps that feature an actual phrase rather than just a word or a straightforward 'get well soon'. This is quite a simple card but I really like the way it has turned out.

I'm sharing this with Crafty Addicts where the theme is April showers, Trimmies Craft Challenge which has 'get well soon' as the topic, and The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers where 'U is for umbrella', though the sentiment isn't exactly snarky so I hope this counts! I'm also sending it to Addicted to CAS where the code word is rain.

Get Well Soon Card for a True Hero

I finally found a use for that 'hero' sticker.....

Usually when I share the cards I've made, it's so that people might be able to take the ideas and create something similar for the same occasion, should they so wish. But this get well card is a bit unique and I doubt many people have the occasion to send a card wishing a friend a speedy recovery after getting injured while defending innocent people in a terrorist attack. (Though it would also make a good Father's Day card!).

The London terror attacks were scary enough without waiting for news all night of a friend I knew was in one of the pubs involved, knowing nobody could get through on his phone, then fearing the worst after hearing he was among the injured. Thanks to the efforts of some of his friends who called around hospitals to track him down, a few hours later we learned he was already out of surgery and doing well. Now I can't stop welling up not only when I think about what happened but when I see the continued news coverage calling him a hero. Not many people would have the courage to step in and defend someone being attacked - as we later learned, by two of the terrorists - engaging them and  preventing them from moving on to immediately harm others, and sustaining severe injuries himself in the process. Geoff Ho, the nation salutes you.

While waiting to be able to visit Geoff I decided to make him a get well card and found I had the perfect thing.

Years ago I bought a packet of stickers for father's day which had various dad-related words and sentiments. There were a few I thought I'd never use, but I hadn't thrown them out just in case - words like tough guy. I don't think my dad would mind me admitting those don't specifically apply to him - my dad is more mild-mannered.

I suddenly remembered these stickers and found a pre-printed card blank -it looks more pink in this photo but was mainly purple. I mounted a different sticker in each circle and a 'get well soon' die cut in another.

I was able to deliver the card in person when I went to visit Geoff in hospital and I am glad to say he is now back home and on the mend.

 

I'm sharing this card with the Unicorn Challenge where the theme is 'for the guys' and also the Cards in Envy challenge with the theme 'you're the man' and Lawn Fanatics where the theme is 'cheerful get well'.

Get Well Soon Hot Water Bottle Card

I made this for a friend who has had an operation on her foot; I also sent her these cookies in the post. I wanted to make a jazzy, fun card that would cheer her up and had previously bought this pack of Alphabet stickers from The Works for only 99p.

 

I used a dotty background as it was quite colourful but not overpowering and also had some plastic hot water bottles, meant as card toppers, which I had bought from Ebay a long time ago. Finally I used a hole punch in the shape of a foot to punch out some feet from coloured paper and stuck these on the card as well.

Back on Your Feet Get Well Peanut Butter Cookies

 

 

One of my friends has had an operation on her foot and will be off work for some time. While she’s working her way through TV box sets I wanted to send her a ‘get well soon’ gift – and had the idea of cookies shaped like feet as a message that she will be back on her feet soon!

 

Cookies are also easier to package and post, and likely to keep longer, than sending cake or muffins.

 

Last year I came across a hot drink called Peanut Hottie, which is like hot chocolate, made from a powder – but it tastes of peanut butter! It is very sweet and not something I’d want every day (or even every week) but if you like peanut butter then I highly recommend it. I’m planning to try mixing it with cocoa powder to make a Reece’s Pieces style drink!

 

Because it’s a powder I immediately thought it would be good in baking, particularly in cookies where the addition of peanut butter would change the texture. If you are making sugar cookie dough to roll out and use with a biscuit cutter, it’s important your mixture isn’t too sticky. But I was bored with making plain biscuits; I was going to flavour them with matcha powder but realised my matcha was a year and a half out of date (and since it’s supposed to be green, I wouldn’t be able to tell if it was mouldy!) so threw that out and decided to make peanut butter flavour instead.

 

I used a basic sugar cookie recipe and added the Peanut Hottie, so this is

Peanut Butter Cookies - An original recipe by Caroline Makes

 

2 cups self-raising flour

pinch of salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup caster sugar

1 egg

2 tbsp. Peanut Hottie

 

 

 

      Preheat oven to 180C.

 

In a large bowl cream the butter and the sugar then beat in the egg. Fold in the flour, salt and Peanut Hottie and combine until you have a dough.

 

Refrigerate for half an hour then roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter and place on a lined baking sheet

 Bake in the oven for about 12-15 minutes depending on the size of your cookies.

 

 

I used a foot-shaped cutter that came in three different sizes and decided that rather than decorate the cookies I would sandwich them together using a thin layer of Biscoff Lotus Biscuit Spread which is really yummy.

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I then packaged up the cookies to send to my friend and happily they arrived in one piece, though she said the box was a little squashed!

 

 

I'm sending this to SupergoldenBakes for her Cook Blog Share linkup.

 

 

 

Get Well Soon Cookies

 

I made these cookies for a friend who was recovering from an operation, after seeing similar 'Get well' selection boxes online. The ones that you can buy are pretty expensive - but very high quality and beautifully decorated. However I wanted to have a go at making my own.

I used a simple sugar cookie recipe like this one here. Cream the butter and sugar then beat in the egg and vanilla.

Finally fold in the flour. Some recipes advise chilling your dough; others don't. Either way it is pretty easy to roll out and cut using cookie cutters.

I wanted my cookies to resemble medical equipment and put on my thinking cap. In the end I bought a cross cookie cutter from Ebay, which I intended to use to make the Red Cross logo; I also used a round cutter to make pills and simply used a knife for the other shapes, which included sticking plasters, a medicine bottle and a nurse's shirt.

I also used a giant heart and some small heart cutters and a bone-shaped cookie cutter. The other shapes at the bottom are intended to look like a pair of crutches, as my friend had an operation on her foot. I should have bought a foot-shaped cookie cutter really!

The cookies only take about ten minutes to bake; allow them to fully cool before you decorate them.

To decorate the cookies I mixed royal icing with a little water; you need a fairly thick consistency. I bought some small piping bags online as I find the smaller bags much easier to work with when piping details. I coloured different bowls of icing using gel food colouring. I also covered some of the cookies with white fondant, which I rolled out then used the shape of the cookie to cut around.

Below you can see the bone, which I left plain but piped the shape around the edge of the cookie with white royal icing. I used the heart cookie cutter to cut out the same shape in fondant which I had coloured pink and stuck the fondant on top with a little royal icing. I did the same for the large heart and piped the words 'get well' on it, which looked perfect until the last minute when the icing started to run! For the bottle, I covered the cookie in white fondant and made a label and lid from pink fondant and piped on some details with royal icing. For the crutches, I covered the cookie in fondant and piped on the design with royal icing. I also made a blue plaster, but the royal icing was a bit runny.

I also made some pills by covering the round cookies in white fondant and piping a line across the middle like you would see on an aspirin tablet.

For the red crosses, I melted some red candy melts and spread them on the cookies. I quite like the way these have turned out, even though they are not perfect!

I packaged the cookies in a box with a get well card and sent these in the post - amazingly they arrived intact! My friend was really pleased to receive them while she was recovering from her operation.