Lobster Birthday Card

This birthday card was made for my little brother - he loves fish and anything to do with the sea so I thought this card would be great for him (I also thought he'd enjoy the daft joke!). I started out with a kraft notecard from Hobbycraft. The striped patterned paper in the background is from Crate Paper. I stamped ink splotches using an old Kaisercraft stamp set and clear emobossed them using Versamark ink and Papermania clear embossing powder, for a distressed effect. I tore one edge to create a sea foam effect next to the seablue paper. The wood effect paper is from the Crate Paper DIY Shop collection. I cut several pieces and distressed the edges with my Stampin' Up distress tool - I hoped to create the look of driftwood you might find on the beach. The wave effect on the right edge of the card was created using my Cricut Explore and the First Few Years. It was cut from blue and cream solid smooth cardstock from Papermania. The lobster was also cut on the Cricut, this time from the Brooklyn Iron-on cartridge. I matted and layered cream and yellow polka-dot scraps from my stash and adhered the lobster over the top. I only applied glue to the centre of the lobster, allowing the pincers and tendrils to move freely, creating texture and dimension. I stamped the sentiment with Dovecraft mini alphabet stamps and Stampin' Up Pacific Point and Early Espresso inks - I love how inexpensive these mini stamp sets are but they're a bit fiddly and I managed to smudge a couple of letters. As luck would have it, I really liked how this turned out, even stamping a few letters back-to-front, inkeeping with the distressed overall look of the card.

lobster card

There isn't much to show you on the inside, just some more stamping and that great Crate Paper wood effect patterned paper - but I couldn't tell you half the joke and leave you without the punchline now could I ? :-)

Savanna Pop-Up Birthday Card

This has to be my favourite card I've made so far. I used a yellow chevron card blank from Pebbles. I wanted to keep the front quite simple so I could really go to town on the pop-up on the inside. I used a lion stamp from Lawn Fawn's Critters on the Savanna and backed it on a stitched circle of white card die-cut using the Stitched Party Banners die, also from Lawn Fawn. The sentiment is also from Critters on the Savanna and I completed the front of the card using a few sequins from my stash.

I had so much fun making the centre of this card. I used patterned paper from #Summer by American Crafts (I also used a couple of scraps from other collections but I'm afraid I can't recall where they came from). I created three layers of scenery to act as the main pop-up mechanicm, using the Mama Elephant Landscape Trio and Lawn Fawn Grassy Border dies. The trees, animals, birds and rocks all come from the Lawn Fawn Critters on the Savanna stamp set. They were stamped with Momento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured with Spectrum Noir pencils and blending fluid. I added white accents with a Uniball white gel pen and fussy cut them. I created the bunting in the background using a Stampin' Up banner punch and green bakers twine from the Dovecraft Riverbank Revels collection. The 'birthday wishes' sentiemnt was stamped and die cut using the Wplus9 Basic Banner set and Hero Arts Green Hills ink. I completed the card using sequins from my stash.

Washing Line Birthday Card

I really love how pretty and feminine this card I made for a close girlfriend, turned out to be. The card base is a 6x6 kraft card from Hobbycraft. For the background to my card I used blue-grey paper from a DoCraft Home to Nest decoupage Kit, overlayed with photo-real grass paper from Kaisercraft. The rainbow border at the bottom of the card uses paper from the Cosmo Cricket Summer Love mini deck, punched with a Tonic Simplicity Dotty Border punch. The clothing and 'happy' word were cut on my Cricut Explore using the First Few Years cartridge. I cut 'Birthday' using the font from the Noah's ABC Animals cartridge. I used various patterned paper scraps from my stash including paper from Maggie Holmes and Dear Lizzy collections. I strung a peice of pink bakers twine from the Dovecraft Riverbank Revels collection, across the front of the card and clipped the clothes to it using mini clothes pegs from Hobbycraft. Finally, I created a hand-drawn border using my Uniball white gel pen.

Retro Gaming Birthday Card

This fun card was made for a friend of mine who's a massive computer geek - sorry Matt, but it's true   ;-p It was really simple to put together. First I mat and layered red and brown Papermania solid smooth cardstock onto a 6x6 kraft card blank from Hobbycraft. I rounded the corners on each layer using a Tonic 5mm corner rounder. The 'joystick junkie' sentiment was cut into the brown cardstock using my Cricut Explore and the Brooklyn Iron-on cartridge, prior to adhering it, allowing the red cardstock below to show through. The joystick image was also die-cut from the Brooklyn Iron-on cartridge. The Zap! image I created myself using Cricut Font and Basic Shapes. The rest of the sentiment was embossed onto black Dymo tape using the Dymo label-maker.

On the inside I used more dymo tape and another die cut from the Brooklyn Iron-on cartridge. I stamped the letters on the keyboard die cut using a Dovecraft mini alphabet stamp set.