You're a Koala-ty Friend Koala Card

 

Here's another animal card made with the same set of stamps from Creative Stamping magazine that I used for this elephant card. The main stamped image is of a koala, with a separate stamp of a branch that I coloured brown with Promarkers, and finally a third stamp of the leaves which I used with green ink.

The sentiment, 'you're a koala-ty friend' is a cute pun and one that makes the card suitable for pretty much any occasion - a birthday or thank you or just a note. As a final touch I added a glitter heart sticker next to the sentiment.

I'm sharing these with the following challenges:

Simon Says where the theme is 'wild things'
Sweet Stampin' - CAS (clean and simple)
Moving along with the times - wild animals

Age is Irr-elephant Birthday Card

 

I couldn't resist buying a card making magazine recently when I saw the free cover gift was a sheet of zoo animal clear stamps, including an alpaca, as I love alpacas! The set included some great sentiments and phrases to go with the animals as well; here is a card I made using the elephant stamp, the 'tree in the savannah' stamp and a sentiment saying 'age is irr-elephant'.

I inked the background using a cotton wool ball and an ink pad which also came with the craft magazine, pressing more firmly on the bottom half of the card and lighter on the top half.

I'm sharing this with CCEE stampers where the theme is zoo animals for national zookeepers week and Moving along with the times where the theme is wild animal.

Pink Unicorn card - Be a Unicorn in a Field of Horses

Unicorns are a really big thing at the moment - I can't really remember when it started but suddenly they are everywhere, from toys to children's clothing to cakes to stationery. Late one night in between feeding the baby I was browsing the internet and decided to look for a rubber unicorn stamp for card making. I thought there would be loads but couldn't find any I liked until I came across this unmounted one from China. It's quite large so just right for the main element of a card.

The backing paper is from a set called Glitter Girl which was from Hobbycraft only a couple of months ago but they don't seem to stock it any more unfortunately. The frames and banner are die cuts I bought pre cut from Ebay (getting out my die cutting machine seems like hard work at the moment!). I stamped the unicorn and coloured it in with Promarker and stamped the sentmiment from a separate set of unicorn-related sentiment stamps.

I'm sharing this with Penny Black where the theme is 'things with wings' as unicorns are usually depicted with wings; Crafting with Dragonflies where the theme is animals; Crafty Friends which is fairy/fantasy; Send a Smile 4 Kids which is anything goes for kids; and the Fairy and Unicorn challenge where the theme is mythical.

Focus on the Journey, not the Destination handmade card

This card has an inspirational sentiment that would be suitable for a birthday or someone who is going travelling - though I actually gave it to my dad for Father's Day.

It's made from free gifts that came with a recent issue of Creative Stamping magazine. I stamped a white card blank with some of the clear stamps that came with this issue - one was a train ticket, one was a passport stamp, one was a postmark that you might get on a postcard and so on. I stamped them in different coloured inks randomly over the card, then cut a circle from a piece of paper that came with the magazine with a map design. I cut a border from the same paper and stuck it around the edge of the card.

I stamped the plane stamp onto brown paper and cut around it, and stamped the sentiment onto white card which I mounted onto brown card and added those to the card as well.

I'm sending this to My Time to Craft where the challenge is a stamped background, Simply Create Too where the theme is 'for a male' and Ellibelle's Craft Wednesday where the theme is 'make it masculine'; Always Fun Challenges - for a male/dad and Stamps and Fun where the theme is travel and holidays.                 

Relax It's Your Birthday Pineapple Stamped Card

I was really pleased when I found this set of pineapple rubber stamps and dies in a local charity shop for £2 - it's a bit quirky and something I would have hesitated to buy, as it's fairly niche - I'm sure there are various designs you can do with pineapples, but most of my stamp sets are more versatile. However, I'm often envious when I see cards people have made with unusual stamps that are perfect for a specific sentiment which is why I decided to add these to my stash.  Pineapples also seem to be really in at the moment!

 

I used two of the three large pineapple stamps - one has the outline of a pineapple on a clear stamp, so you get the pattern in the middle, and the other has a solid bottom so you still see the pattern but the sections of the skin are dark, and on the top half it says 'it's your birthday'.

I stamped both of them with blank ink onto yellow card, repeating the full pineapple once, and then separately stamped the greenery on top with green ink onto white card. I cut it out and stuck that on top of the pineapple.

The 'relax' sentiment is another stamp from this set and the 'best wishes' is from a different set.

I'm sharing this with CASology where they want a 'clean and simple' card with the theme 'juicy'. Clean and simple cards normally have one main image and I have stamped three pineapples, but together they form one image, and there is lots of white space around them.

Mums Are Like Buttons Box Frame with Buttons - Mother's Day Gift

I've been seeing the phrase 'mums are like buttons' everywhere recently - or at least in the run up to Mothers' Day, which in the UK was March 26 this year (it falls later in the year in other countries including the US).

The whole of that phrase is 'Mums are like buttons - they hold everything together'. I thought that sounded lovely and wanted to make my mum a Mothers' Day card with it on. In fact it started out as a card and turned into a gift!

I tracked down a rubber stamp with that exact sentiment which I stamped onto a square white card blank, and using glue dots stuck buttons in various shades of red and pink around it. I realised afterwards the quote was slightly off centre which was a shame but I'm sure my mum didn't mind too much.

The card looked too heavy with the buttons and I wanted it to be more of a keepsake, so I decided to make it into a framed picture instead.

The box frames sold in Hobbycraft are brilliant for this sort of thing and they are often in half price sales where you can get the smallest size for as little as 2 pounds, so I tend to stock up on a couple every now and then.

The frame made the perfect setting for my Mothers' Day gift.

I'm sharing this with the Addicted to Stamps challenge and Fab Funky Challenges

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.