Age 70

Time for another age card, this time for my auntie who has just turned 70. Once again I wanted to try something different so I got out my new Crafters Companion Pop Up Card kit with the corresponding Happy Birthday elements. This was actually quite fun to make as I've wanted to do a pop up card for a while but didn't have the right kit to do it properly.

Following the instructions, I used 2 pieces of card to construct the box shape and cut out tiles of patterned paper to attach to the flaps of the box. I also cut out a couple of shapes to go on the front flap and two sides. 

From the elements kit, I cut and stamped out 4 of each of the balloons, cake and presents. I also cut out three sets of 70s,and stamped them in three colours - black, purple and red. Not sure why I did red but in my head that was okay to do... 

I got out the coloured pens and had a nice relaxing few minutes doing the colouring in before setting them to one side. 

On the example images for the pop up cards, a lot of them have bows on the front. I really liked this idea and one of the earlier dies I had bought was actually the bow. The bow kit has the option to have a lace overlay effect so I picked two shades of purple paper to make it pop.

I really like this die as its fun and you can layer it up or have it as either just lace or solid colours. Now that I had all the pieces cut and coloured I could begin sticking it together. I didn't use everything I cut and coloured just so I didn't overwhelm the card and make it look too busy. I also cut out a little happy birthday label to stick on the top, and used another lace die from another card/box kit.

Once again this is a first attempt at a card style but I'm happy and just have to create a panel on the back for the birthday message and to sign my name. I also have to make an envelope but I have better tools to do it now. Hopefully she likes it 😁

Age 4

It's been a busy few months and I actually started drafting this post at the beginning of May! Got myself so turned around that I just hadn't had time to finish it of and posting it until now and I've had to go through and tweak it a bit for the time lapse 😂

So in the middle of May my oldest nephew turned 4. I can't get over how quick the time has flown and how big he is now. We went to visit the weekend after his birthday for a family (socially distant) birthday party. He absolutely melted my heart when we were playing by saying "I love you". How adorable! 😍😭

Anyway the purpose of this post was to talk about his birthday card so on to the photo and what I did:

From conversations with L (nephew), and my sis-in-law, L is both Dino and superhero mad. Of course he had to have his own handmade dinosaur card. When L had told me names of dinosaurs, he said his favourite was a brachiosaurus. Talk about a big word, pronounced correctly from a 3-soon-to-be-4 year old 😲. Time for a bit of Google research to get the right dinosaur and make sure I didn't start with a stegosaurus as they are very similar until you get to the details of front leg height and shape of the head...

I downloaded an outline and traced it several times onto a piece of card. Knowing my luck the first would go wrong so I would need a spare! I used my Spectrum Noir Harmony water reactive  dyes in Friar Brown and Smoked Pearl, just dabbing the ink on with a sponge then using a paintbrush and a dab of water to blend the inks together giving it more of a realistic look rather than just splodges of colour layered on top of each other. This is the first time I've attempted colour blending so it did go a little patchy in places but this would be masked a little on the actual card.

With the dinosaur out of the way, I could start thinking about the rest of the card. As it is a child age card I wanted to incorporate the number 4 into it, and lots of leaves to simulate a tree top on the upper parts of the number. Luckily I have a variety of green coloured paper and card, and also a leaf shape die. Time for a lot of cutting to get the total number of leaves needed before laying it all out to see how it would fit together.

Nearly done now, just gluing it all down and adding in the "Happy Birthday" banner actoss the centre of the 4 the it is complete. I realised when I started gluing the leaves down that I didn't have enough so back to the cutter to make more and give a better tree effect at the top. The final details to add were the pencil markings o. The dino itself to show its legs, lower body shape and the eye. I had been considering a googly eye but on laying it out it just looked rediculous so I scrapped that idea. I did have to make a boxy envelope to fit it in which was probably more challenging than the card itself. 

I was really pleased with the results of this card. As far as I know L loved it and had a fantastic birthday which is all that really matters. ❤️