Music and Drumkit Birthday Card

I made this card for a relative who is a musician; it can be hard to make cards for men that aren't just fairly generic so if a guy I know has a particular hobby (or in this case, it's his profession) I try to theme cards accordingly.

The main elements of this card come from a set of die cuts I bought that you press out from a sheet, I'm afraid I can't remember the brand! The musical notes and stave across the top come from a sheet of outline stickers (I think they are Anita's) and the backing paper is actually from a 6x6 paper pack with an Oriental theme - I thought this one would work with the reds in the drum kit and happy birthday square.

I'm sharing this with:
Allsorts challenge - music
Dream Factory (Die Traumfabrik) - Save the last dance
Jo's Scrap Shack - anything goes
Crazy 4 Challenges - masculine

Car, Map and Signpost Birthday Card





 

I treated myself to the latest issue of Creative Stamping and indulged myself in making a few cards one day while the baby was asleep. There was a large A4 sheet of clear stamps as the free cover gift that had a travel and transport theme - handy to make cards for men.

 

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I decided to make a version of the card featured on the front cover of the magazine with a few differences. First I stamped the road map rubber stamp multiple times over a white square card blank - you can only tell the pattern repeats if you look closely!

 

Then I cut a border to go around three sides from an old envelope I'd received in the post and kept. Next I used the car stamp and the signpost stamp on red card and cut around them and stuck them onto the card. I stamped the top part of the signpost again so I could cut out two of the arms and use a small adhesive pad to raise them from the card.

 

I used the 'enjoy your birthday' sentiment stamps as on the card on the magazine cover, and mounted them on red card so the colours brought the whole card together. I like this card but unfortunately after making it I can't find the car stamp anywhere - that's the problem with clear stamps!

I'm sharing this with Cardz 4 Guyz where the theme is travel or transport and Craft Stamper where anything goes as long as you use a stamp, Moo Mania where the theme is masculine and Challenge Up Your Life where the theme is vehicles.

Pop-Up 3D Box Birthday Card for My Husband's 40th Birthday

Have you come across box cards before? They fold flat to go into an envelope, but when they are opened, pop out into a three-dimensional box that stands up, and often has other elements 'exploding' out. They take a little while to make but are really worth it as they are impressive and really unusual. I made this one for my husband's 40th birthday last year and he was really pleased with itI'd heard of these cards but didn't know how to make them so looked for a video on You Tube.

It's a bit too difficult to describe each step and easier to direct you towards a video like this one or this one - I can't actually remember which tutorial I used now!

 

You need a fairly large piece of card to start with, roughly A4, and score lines at certain widths apart so you can later fold along them.



 

Make cuts part way up where you have scored

You'll find the card then folds into a box shape.

To decorate, I cut squares of patterned paper the same size as the sides of the box and used a different paper on each side (but in the same colour scheme).

Stick two strips of acetate inside, folding them at the ends so you can glue to the sides of the box; these create cross strips that you will then stick things to.

To make an element stand up out of the card, stick it onto another strip of acetate as shown, then stick this acetate strip vertically to the horizontal ones running across the box. Glue dots are good to use for this.

 

This is the effect you are going for! You can add as many of these as you like.

 

 You can see that here I've got three elements sticking up inside the box; two are glued onto acetate strips running horizontally through the box and one is stuck to the front and the back of the box itself. Make sure the elements aren't aligned with each other either in position or height, otherwise you won't be able to see them all when you look at the card from the front.

 

Here's a better view of the box so you can see the elements sticking out - a 'happy birthday' die cut, a 40 I cut from silver card, and a 'with love' heart. I also used a 40th birthday message topper on the front of the card.

And here the card is from the front; it's better in real life as you can take in all the elements at once. I think my husband liked it and seemed pleased with the amount of effort I'd put in to make him something special!

 

I'm sharing this with Cardz 4 Guyz as the theme is 'January blues'  and the Make My Monday challenge where the theme is 'fancy folds'.

Pile of Presents Birthday Card

This is a nice and easy birthday card to make but one that is clean and simple but quite colourful at the same time. I often find it easier to make feminine cards so this one is good for a male or just someone who doesn't like butterflies and flowers!

The presents are from a simple sheet of stickers that had gifts of different sizes and shapes; I chose the rectangular ones and varying heights in blues and greens as I thought they went together nicely. The sentiment at the top was from a rubber stamp and I went over the word 'birthday' in green Promarker to match the rest of the card.

Father's Day Shirt and Tie card

This card would be really nice alongside this cake...  but if you don't have time for baking this is a quick and easy make. It's not my neatest - I made it rather on the hoof standing up in my craft room which I had tidied in anticipation of new double glazing being done that week, and didn't want to get out all my craft supplies again and mess everything up!

You can use any pattern for the background - plain, striped, checked - anything that would resemble a man's shirt. This piece of paper is actually an offcut from a piece of wrapping paper!

I cut out the tie not following a template (you can tell, oops) and added a 'happy Father's Day' silver outline sticker; it doesn't show up too well in this photo and it looked better in real life!

I'm sending this to:
Cardz for Guyz - something blue for Father's Day
Always Fun Challenges - for a male or dad
Crafty Cardmakers - Father's Day

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'.

The Life in your Years Birthday Card

Do you know the quote "In the end it's not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years"? I was familiar with it but hadn't realised it was attributed to Abraham Lincoln! I had a sheet of die cuts from a card making kit that had various sentiments and quotes on them, including this one.

The die cut was quite large so I decided to make it the centrepiece of the card on its own - but as it needed something else to create interest, a gatefold card was ideal. This is a card that is split in the middle of the front of the card and each side opens outwards.

I covered both parts of the front with blue spotted paper and covered the inside with a different piece of blue paper from the same pack - since when the card is standing the inside will be partly visible. I glued the die cut onto one side of the front so it would sit across both parts but allow the card to open, and added a 'happy birthday' outline sticker inside.

Blue Buttons Card for Dad

Looking through my craft stash I found some large foam flowers and stems which I don't use very often; they are quite difficult to get a professional finish with as they do seem more suited to children's crafts. But I remembered I had a bag of buttons and decided to make a flower shape using buttons. The topper says 'to a special dad' and was from a pack I bought on Ebay, while the background to the card is a piece of backing paper from a male themed set that has various words ranging from 'football' to 'couch potato' - luckily quite small so you can't really see them!

Floral tag initial birthday card

Here's a geometrics-meets-floral birthday card I made for a male friend of my husband. There's no reason why men can't enjoy flowers, but the fact that these have browns and yellows as the predominant colours makes them a bit less girly.

I had a pack of sticky card toppers that featured a tag - the one in the centre of the card -that consisted of a brown background with the words 'just for you' on the bottom (I'm not sure what the words across the middle are supposed to say!) and a brown flower and a couple of buttons. I decided to make this the centrepiece of the card but knew it needed something else.

I covered a square white card blank with brown paper and added a wide strip of patterned brown paper down the side. I used two corner stickers with brown and yellow flowers from the same pack in opposite corners of the card.

Once I bought a pack of cardboard letters and have used them a few times to spell out different names so now I only have odd letters left. I had the letter D, which was this friend's initial, and the letter was brown with flowers so it worked really well with the other colours on the card.

Sailboat Happy Birthday Card with Silhouette Cutter

I was very lucky to be given a Silhouette Cameo by a friend earlier this year - she'd decided she didn't want it any more and offered it on Facebook, and as I love card making I jumped at the chance, even though I didn't really know what it was!

Silhouette America is a company that makes various die cutting machines but unlike my Sizzix Big Shot cutter which I wrote about here, they are electronic. And rather than using metal dies which you have to purchase, you can create your own designs, or download ones other people have designed, sometimes free of charge and sometimes not - though most only seem to cost 65p. That sounds a lot cheaper than spending £10 on a die, doesn't it? The part I haven't mentioned is that the Silhouette Cameo machine which I've got cost £250 - which is why I felt so lucky to receive it!

I thought I'd already blogged about something I'd made using the Silhouette but don't believe so. I got it out to use for another project, which I'm not going to write about yet as it's a birthday gift for a friend later this month, and while I was there I decided to do a few other things.

Once you have the software for the Silhouette loaded, it's really easy to go into the (small) library of free designs (though there is an extra free design every week) or into the store where you can look up any design or shape. I wanted a sailboat for my other project which cost me 65p to download, and since I'd done that I decided to use the same template again (you only pay once, to download it) to cut out a few more boats, and use one to make a card.

Here you can see the screen on my laptop, where I've placed and re-sized the different templates I'm using onto an A4 sheet. One thing I like is that you can copy and paste and cut out more than one diecut from the same template at the same time, which you can't do with the manual cutter (though the manual cutter is quicker!).

Here you can see the Silhouette Cameo machine - it looks like a printer but is narrower. You feed in the piece of card you want to cut, stuck onto the sticky backing paper which keeps it in the right place. When it's done you peel it off - you can see here one boat has been cut out; I reused this sheet the other way around for the designs above.

Some of the pieces I've cut out - the centres still need removing

It's great to be able to cut words in different fonts. You can write your own words which I have done and will blog about separately but it's trickier as you have to make sure all the letters are joined to each other!

For the other project I keep mentioning I had bought some sailing themed backing papers from Ebay - a pack called Sail Away by First Edition. I used one page from this, showing a wave design, as the backing paper on a large A5 card. I also cut a circle using the Silhouette and as the boat was patterned - a triangle design that reminded me of flags and therefore sailing - I mounted the boat on a plain blue circle.

 

I'd cut the words 'happy birthday' out of the same patterned flag paper but realised this wasn't going to show up on the patterned background, so I mounted it on blue paper and cut around that. I like the effect it gives - rather than flags it now looks to me a little more like rope which is also linked to the sailing theme.

 

 

I'm sharing this with Cardz for Guyz as their theme this week is methods of transport.

Superhero birthday card

I've been too busy for card making for months now so have had to start sending people shop-bought cards.  But when it came to my fiancé's birthday I wanted to do something special; or at least, a quick and simple make that at least showed I had made an effort.

I gave him a selection of birthday presents related to Marvel superheros - as well as films like Avengers and Captain America, we've been watching all the Marvel and DC universe television series together, and I'm currently really hooked on Arrow.

A while ago I got a couple of rolls of Marvel wrapping paper from Primark of all places and used this to wrap his gifts. I also decided to use this as the background to his birthday card to create a comic book card, so cut out a piece of wrapping paper and stuck it onto a large A5 card blank.

I printed out the words 'have a super birthday' from the computer and mounted the strip of paper onto a yellow and red polka dot backing paper and placed the middle of the card. I cut out the words 'bang' and 'pow' freehand - the sort of thing that would appear on screen in the very old Batman TV show if anyone remembers that? I used red and yellow polka dot paper for that and mounted it on the reverse print backing paper.

Celebrate Martini Glass Stamped Birthday Card

I made this birthday card for my friend Al. The starting point was a rubber stamp of a martini glass and the word 'celebrate' which I hadn't used before. I stamped it onto a small oval die-cut with a decorative edge and decided to use a tall thin card blank and centre this in the middle.

As the die-cut was blue I found a blue polka dot backing paper to cover the card. I also used a rubber stamp to stamp the word happy birthday onto another piece of blue card which I stuck across the bottom. The card still needed something at the top and I had the right letters to spell Al's name from a pack of silver stick letters for which there was just enough room at the top.

This card ties in perfectly with the theme for the Cards 4 Guyz challenge this week, food and drink.

Cow Valentine's Card

A few days ago I shared the Valentine's card I made for my boyfriend last year; as I'm pretty sure he doesn't actually look at my blog much I thought I'd put up the one I made for him this year! It's on a similar theme - cows - which I'm sure I will stop doing at some point but as we are getting marred this year I'm really excited about becoming a cow! Also, I had some cow-related craft bits to use up I'd bought to do with the wedding....

I had some small rectangles of cow print tissue paper that I decided to place in the middle of a square white card blank, leaving white space at each side. I then took a piece of cow print ribbon (which I bought for my wedding invitations then decided not to use) and tied a bow in it and stuck it across the front of the card.

I had a pack of 5 card toppers saying "for my wonderful fiancé" which I'm not going to be able to use again - I put one on his Christmas card and will use one for his birthday card as well! You can't see it too well in this photo due to the silver colour. As it's Valentine's day I put a 'happy Valentine' red outline sticker on the bottom of the card with two sets of lips on either side. I wanted to introduce a little more colour into the card as well so dotted a few mini red heart stickers across the cow print paper. I hope my fiancé doesn't get fed up with cow related things as I certainly haven't yet!

I'm sharing this with the Cardz for Guys challenge as their theme is Valentine's Day.

Love Cows Valentine's Card

This is the Valentine's card I made for my boyfriend last year; I didn't want to share it at the time as he hadn't seen the card and by the time Feb 14th had passed I decided it was too late to post this.

The cow motif is because his last name is Cowe - which will be my name too from June!

I started with a square white card blank which I covered with pink paper that had swirly patterns. I cut out a large heart from another patterned pink paper and stuck that on top. The 'love' stickers all come from one sticker pack and the little hearts from another; the 'to my Valentine' sentiment in the top left is from a sheet of outline stickers, which are red rather than the more common silver or gold.

Finally the layered paper cow is a decoupage sticker which I bought in a little pack from Ebay; I often wonder how people make these sorts of thing to sell!

I'm sharing this with the Cardz for Guys challenge as their theme is Valentine's Day.

Gardening Grandad Birthday Card

I made this birthday card for my granddad as he enjoyed gardening though does find it more difficult these days. The section down the centre of the card is all one sticker, and the shape lent itself to a tall thin card in my opinion. The two round stickers of the chicken and bird came from the same set and I thought were very appropriate for my granddad as he used to keep chickens. The leaves also came from the same set and I added a 'grandfather' outline sticker from a sheet that had names of various relatives, and a 'happy birthday' from another outline sheet. Unfortunately the last part of the word went a bit wonky when I put it on the card but it was too fragile to take off and start again!

Robot Birthday Card for a Teenage Boy

I didn't actually make this birthday card for a teenage boy, I sent it to a 30-something friend, but I imagine it must be hard making cards for teenagers so this is quite a good one! The backing paper simply came from a pack of printed papers and I wasn't sure what to do with it before as it's a busy pattern. When I came across a pack of stickers with cartoon-style messages like 'pow' and 'splosh' I thought the two would work well together. There were also some speech bubble stickers but they were blank so I added the words happy birthday to them.

Snowboarder Birthday Card

I made this card for a friend who likes skiing and snowboarding; I bought an A4 page which had circles in varying sizes of the same picture, but with a smaller circle showing only part of the picture each time. The idea is to layer these up with sticky pads to give a 3D effect. I mounted them on a piece of blue swirl backing paper which I thought gave the idea of snowboarding and the finishing touch was a 'happy birthday' label from the same set.

Stripey Sticker Name Birthday Card

I haven't had time to any crafts for the best part of this year - I put my house on the market in February and we wanted to declutter for the estate agent photographs so all my card making and craft supplies went into storage. I secured a sale on my house quite quickly and we found our dream home almost right away - it was only the second house we looked at! But as regular readers will know, what should have been a straightforward process was held up by our council taking 10 weeks to do the local searches because they were short staffed (they normally take a week to ten days) and our vendors dithering, changing their minds about the place they were buying and 'forgetting' to do any of the necessary paperwork, so in the end we didn't move in until August 28.

We then redecorated the entire house, from getting new wood floors to repainting to buying and building new furniture, so while I have unpacked my craft stuff, I still haven't got time to use any of it! I am very excited though that I have a 'craft room' - a spare room with a futon, desk, and cupboard for my craft supplies, plus a whole wall of bookcases, my dressmaker's dummy and sewing machine. Unfortunately I can't fit all my craft supplies in the cupboard so will have to rationalise them down, or sneak them into the garage and hope my boyfriend doesn't notice!

So while I haven't made any cards in a long time there are still a few I haven't posted on here. This one was very quick to make but I quite like the jazzy style. I used a pre-printed card from a mixed box and some alphabet stickers I got very cheaply from the Works; the pack had letters and numbers so I decided to spell out the recipient's name, the word 'birthday' and his age. It's hardly the most sophisticated looking card but I think it looks quite fun, and this style might be a good idea if you are struggling for ideas for cards for men!

Do Not Disturb Birthday Card

This card was put together from a decoupage card pack but you could also cut out the shapes yourself from different coloured card. I made it for a birthday but it would also work really well for Fathers' Day this weekend!
The backing paper was part of the set and I simply had to cut out the different shapes and build them up using sticky pads so the image of the man snoozing on the armchair stands out. I added a happy birthday sticker at the top.

Psychedelic Swirls Birthday Card

This birthday card was made for a male friend who is very stylish and a snazzy dresser; I thought he would like the pattern and the colours. I simply used stickers from a pack I bought in Paperchase, which had circles of different sizes and different colours and a few swirls, and arranged them on the card in what I thought was a nice design. I then added a 'happy birthday' silver outline sticker at the bottom.