21st birthday cards for twins

My friend's "identical" twin daughters will be 21 years old in a few days, so I decided to make them each a card.

I toyed with the idea of making cards that looked as if they had been split, like the egg that created them, but decided against it.

I wanted to indicate their "twinness", but also their uniqueness, and eventually decided to create something really simple - the same basic idea, different colourings.  I chose to use the letters of their names and 21.  

I chose different fonts, colours and sizes for the letters and numerals, and corrugated some backing papers in contrasting shades, but used the same card shape.

I'm quite pleased with the results, I hope the girls will be too!

Crocheted flowers

My friend has been making crochet flower brooches ready for the church sale.  Hers are big and blousey affairs, very dramatic and lovely.  I was inspired by her efforts, so I decided to make some a little smaller and more delicate, and came up with the following four after a little playing around.

I could only find a couple of balls of yarn, having given most of mine away to the charity shops when I moved house - I shall have to buy some more, because, whilst winter white is fine for practising and creating designs, it's just a little boring for selling!


Now I need to do a little more thinking and practising, it's a long time since I did any crocheting, but now I remember what fun it is:)

Christmas card from "freebies" number three

For the third mouse card I decided to make a square design.  I took my basic A5 piece of white card, but folded it a third of the way in, to give me a square card with only half a front.  You’ll see why at the end, it’s really not madness, honest!  I trimmed a quarter of an inch from the base of the card and it now fits into some square envelopes which I bought ages ago in a sale.

So here we are again with our mouse decoupage

and the matching backing paper, which I decided I really had to use at least once!

I covered the inside of the card, and the half front with the backing paper, ensuring that both sheets were the same way up.  It took one and a half sheets of the backing paper.

I matted the main mouse image on to the pale green to make the topper as before, predictably I suppose, but I really do think it sits well on the green.  I used foam pads to fix the star and candy canes, but opted not to use the spare apples and gifts. 

Nor did I use the matching greeting.  Instead I took a simple gold "confetti" phrase of "Merry Xmas", which I placed at an angle across the top left.  I took three tiny gold "confetti" stars and placed them on the tree with tiny dabs of PVA glue.  I didn't use any glitter glue this time - with all that busy background I wanted to keep the topper relatively simple and understated.  I was surprised at how much I actually liked the backing paper once I was using it!

I've propped open the card so that you can see the way the topper is fixed only at the left so that the other half overhangs the main body of the card for a totally different look - do be careful to place your foam pads or glue on the RIGHT hand side of the reverse of the topper - I admit I've applied them to the "wrong" side before now!!!  It's not the end of the world if you do, simply put foam pads on  the remaining side and use that topper on a full card later, and make a new topper for your original card, but it is mega frustrating!!!

So, there  you are, three quite different cards from one "freebie" decoupage design.  Do you have a preference?  amd why that one?

Christmas card from "freebies" number two

This card is similar to the first, well, it would be, using the same decoupage sheet, I suppose!!  Here it is again, to remind you of the raw material, so to speak.

I’ve matted the pink design on to green again as I think this really works well, and repeated the use of an A6 white card blank.  The dark green is the envelope.

I've placed the presents in more or less the same place as it seems logical, same with the greeting.

the candy canes I've applied with sticky fixers to add some depth, and one overhangs the base of the tree as that's what happens in "real life" isn't it?  I've also used a foam pad to elevate the star this time, which I think is an improvement.  I've repeated the use of the glitter glue on apples, garland and star - just a hint though, not too much as these are subtle, chalky colours and I don't want to overpower them.

The spare apples for the tree I have cut out as a block, and matted this on to the same pale green backing.  I've mounted this new topper at the top left which gives a very different feel to yesterday's card, in my opinion - what do you think?

Making Christmas Cards from "freebies"

I bought issue 84 of Cardmaking and Papercraft because I quite liked the look of the “freebie” on the front – a square wad of Chritmassy papers with cute designs.  I’m quite a traditionalist, really, loving the rich red, gold and deep greens of the season, but I realise that not everyone has the same tastes, and these looked quite subtle, so I thought “Why not?” and bought it.

There are three papers of each design comprising three decoupage topper sheets followed by three co-ordinating backing papers.  I thought you might find it interesting to see what I made with just four of the papers, so I'll show you design one a day and you can tell me which you prefer, if any, and why.

I decided to give this cute little mouse an airing first of all - she reminds me that it's almost time to start decorating.  I don't put up a tree any longer, but when Rachel was small we always erected the tree on December 1st so that we had 24 days as a run up to Christmas, then after Christmas day we began the countdown to her birthday which is quite soon afterwards.

This is the backing paper which accompanies her page, the apples echo those she'd decorating the tree with, but the orange seems a little harsh in tone to me, so I decided simply to stick to the decoupage sheet.  I decided to matt her onto a pale green paper to compliment the tree, and this went on to a plain white A6 card blank.  I cut out the greeting and matted that in the same way.

I cut out each of the accompanying pieces and arranged them as you can see, the gifts look good on the floor beside the tree, and you can see I've deliberately overlapped the frame; I used deep foam pads for this.  I used foam pads to stick one of the apples on the tree, one ready for her to pick up at her feet, and the other has rolled away, as round things often do!  The star and candy canes I stuck down with paper glue.

I placed the greeting centrally, overlapping the base of the main matting to break up the design a little more.

I thought the top left looked a little bare, so found some pearly pink "gems" and stuck them down with some red glitter glue for some extra 'oomph'.  I used a little of the same glue to highlight the apples.  I took some gold glitter glue and traced over the garland on the tree and the star.

So there you are, my first card using some of the "freebie" stash.  I'll show you another tomorrow.