Happy Birthday Explosion Card

Just a quick post to share this Birthday card made using my Cricut! The design is available in Cricut Design Space as 'Happy Birthday Explosion Card' and it was quick and easy to work up! I used some beautiful shimmery dark blue card from my stash and my favourite marble background papers. I did however realise I could do with a pen other than black that fits in my Cricut! Will add it to the wishlist...

Art Journal Flowers + Bonus Card

If you follow me on Instragram, you will have seen the inspiration behind this page and a sneaky peek of it finished. I received a beautiful bouquet of roses for my birthday and the colours just screamed at me to be captured on a page! I splashed some watercolour paint down and when it was dry I quickly sketched the lines of the flowers on top. It came out so well!

I was feeling inspired, so I scanned the image in and was able to quickly make up some notelets to send to family. I added some pearl paint to the yellow roses just to add some interest. I really enjoyed this project - I must remember to experiment more with painting flowers like this, and also to play around with making notelets - there is so much potential!

Butterfly Card with Pop-Up Wings

Believe it or not, this card was made with just freebies! I love it! The template is by Bird's Cards, and can be found here. The beautifully patterned paper is by Far Far Hill and can be found here. I simply cut the layers out using my Cricut, and stuck them together! The original design is meant to have an extra layer of wings, but I may have got a bit carried away with the glue... I like it like this though :) I followed the suggestion in the original design to add a panel on the inside of the card to help balance the weight out too. I also arranged the SVGs so the inner butterfly was cut from inside the outer butterfly (my machine automatically located it separately) which means the pattern matches up perfectly! I loved that I could take the butterfly shape and cut it out in different sizes to decorate the envelope too. It's not a fancy card covered in embellishments, but I think it's beautiful in it's simplicity.

Pop-Up Sea Monster Card!

Yes - another Cricut card! In my wanders through the Cricut Design Space (their platform of designs linked with their machines) I found a collection called "Simple Pop-Up Cards". Some of them are more simple than others, though I probably didn't help myself by not having a scoring tool! But this design stood out to me as appropriate for my nephew's 11th Birthday...

It's called the "Sea Monster Pop-Up Card", and it has so much excitement and movement. To create such interesting tentacles, I took a free printable paper I had found online and manipulated it in Photoshop to fit this orange/green colour scheme. I then printed it out on white card, and my Cricut cut it into these amazing shapes! There is some freedom with where you place the tentacles too, depending on how much you want them to stick outside the card. The blue cut out from the back panel also made a nice feature on the envelope. I added an extra strip of paper at the front base of the card with the words "Happy Birthday!" because the card felt visually out of balance, but I'm pleased with the end result!

Congratulations Bear Card

Have I mentioned how much I love Lili of the Valley?! They just create such adorable characters. One of my recent competition winnings with them including James the Bear "peeping" as a simply print, and I thought it would make a lovely card to welcome a new baby to the world (yes, I have another nephew!)

I printed the image out on watercolour paper so that it looked more like a drawing, and lightly coloured it in with pencils. I mounted it on some crinkly gold paper and an offset cream card. Before mounting, I put the cream card in my Cricut to have the perfectly written "Congratulations" - I love that I can add words so easily!

Plane Card

I don't blame you if you've lost track of all my nieces and nephews, I think I do sometimes too! I think I can count nine of them these days, and one of them celebrated his third Birthday last month! I spent a while trawling through the Cricut Design Space to see if anything caught my eye... Well actually, a dragon caught my eye first. But it was just one of those Cricut disasters - I think I was trying to cut too intricate an image from too thin a paper on too small a scale! But then I found this little plane, and I fell in love. OK, slight exageration, but it is adorable! This design is number #M3F228 from the Wild Card 2 cartridge. I cut the base out of plane white card, and the clouds out of a hammered white card because I love the additional texture! The plane is cut out of various cards I had in my stash - it's not a standard colour combination but I think it's funky. I added some final detail with gold Liquid Pearls - it reminded me of little rivets holding the plane together! :) I love how this design stands up with the clouds pushed back, giving it greater depth, and it has such clean lines.

Sparkly Elephant Card

I recently made this super cute and sparkly elephant card for a little girl in my life who was turning 1! The polka dot elephant is a free SVG from Cutting for Business. I cut it out in lilac and two shades of turquoise, and I just think it is adorable! I drew the eye in, as I just wanted a small dot. I attached the elephant using foam pads and layered him on various bits from my stash, including this amazing sparkly purple paper and some pearly purple paper. I was able to use some offcuts from making the card to decorate the envelope, which I always think is a cute addition :) I can see myself using this elephant more in the future!

'Happy Birthday to You' Papercut Card

I know, it's shocking, I have another Birthday card made on my Cricut! I think the excitement of having the machine is contributing to the amount I use it. I consider making a card in another way, and then I think, I could Cricut it! So I do. This was a simple cut out from black card with my favourite marble background papers! And some mini silver gems and silver stars to bling it up, it is a Birthday card afterall!

Pink Art Deco Card

Believe it or not, I've made another birthday card using my Cricut! I made this using the design #M379C9 from the Art Deco cartridge, although you can tell I didn't quite get everything lined up perfectly! I used a textured cream card base and various pink papers/cards from my stash. This was a bit fiddly to put together, but I do like it, especially with the addition of the Cricut-written text. Finally, I added some pink Liquid Pearls for highlights.

Papercut Thank You Card

I made this card quite early in my Cricut adventure-ing. Hence the tiny crease where it shouldn't be...! The papercut is done in this amazing dark blue/gold card my Dad gave me - you can see how much it changes depending upon the light. The colourful background is from my favourite collection of marble printable papers, and there's some gold liquid pearls for accents :)

Oriental Fan Card

I wouldn't say that this card fits my typical style aesthetic, but the recipient was really pleased with it! The background has a piece of tan coloured fine fibre paper (I'm sure there's a proper name for it?!) The fan is cut using the pattern "Japanese Fan" which is available in the Cricut design space, using card from my stash and some free printable floral paper. I added accents using raffia, golden beads, and golden Liquid Pearls! It is on a textured cream card stock rather than my usual smooth white, as I thought it worked better with this colour scheme.

LOTV Snow Bears Card

Have I mentioned my Lily of the Valley obsession?! It was helped by a recent win on their Facebook page allowing me to get even more of their beautiful Simply Prints, including this one, Snow Bears! I made it into a Christmas card for my husband, as we're both a bit bear-crazy! I added glitter to the falling snow and round the base of the snowman so that it catches the light. The maroon corrugated card and the cream card came from my stash, and the lovely beige tartan was a free printable I found online. I really love the colour scheme for this card!

Christmassy Cat Card

I made this card for a recent Secret Santa I was involved in, for a guy who had a cute black cat! I found the SVG for this card over at LoveSVG, and I altered it a little bit to fit what I wanted. I based it on the grey cat in the file, but changed it's colouring to black, changed the eyes, skipped the whiskers (though this was partly an accident!) and simplified the sweater a lot. I also cut out a nice big gold star to make it all a little more festive :) This was quite quick to make - I love the abundance of SVGs out there!

LOTV James the Bear Christmas Cards

And so my obsession with Lily of the Valley continues. I bought these Merry Beary Christmas card toppers for my Christmas cards this year. I just fell in love with James the Bear, he is SO gorgeous. I realised a flaw though - I'm sending these to hang in other people's houses, but I want some beary goodness in our house! I will have to see if I can make some Christmas decs. Maybe bunting?!

I spent a while trawling the internet for free printable papers, specifically red and Christmassy. I found lots, and printed my few favourites out to pair up as appropriate. (A Google search will lead you to plenty!) I've organised all my free printable papers on my computer now, so I can search for what I want by colour/texture/theme - really useful!

I also pulled some cream card and various different gold cards from my stash. Confession: I used to really dislike the colour gold, but this year I've really come round to it. I think I even like it.

And of course, it's me, so the cards needed some extra sparkle! The top card, with the yellow star, got some pearly paint. Most of the cards got Stickles glitter on the furry trim and pom pom of the hat - so cute! And this little one above got lots of red glitter all over his tinsel.

Oh, and I mounted the James the Bear toppers with 3D foam, just so he stood out a little bit more. Doesn't he look cute all wrapped up in the snow?

Purple Butterfly Card

Yikes. I made this card so many months ago that I barely remember anything about it! Saying that, blog posts for my cards are never the most exciting, but I do like to use this little blog to have all the cards I make in one place. The butterfly stamp and flower embossing folder came from someone who was destashing - I believe they were originally free with a magazine! They're very pretty :)

What I do remember, is who this card was for. A wonderful girl who fought chronic illnesses until her last minute on earth. <3 br="">

Industrial Birthday Card

When I inherited a large craft stash a couple of years ago, included were a wonderful collection of industrial themed papers and toppers - great for masculine cards! I particularly love this wood texture - it would actually look great on my doll's house renovation... Paired with the metallic/chalkboard style topper it made for a quick but awesome Birthday card, and I added some metallic silver pen to the bolts for a bit of sparkle - I just couldn't resist!

Star Wars BB-8 Card

I made this card months ago for a friend's son who likes Star Wars. I found some free printable BB-8 paper on Google, which meant I could print it out in different scales as both the background and the feature! I wish I could give you a link to it, but I can't seem to find my bookmark... If you recognise it, feel free to comment and I'll update this post with the source :) I added some Glossy Accents to his central "eye" - it's basically a liquid which sets completely clear in a slightly domed form - it's great for things like this!

LOTV Kitty Card

I received a few sheets of Lili of the Valley's die cut characters when I inherited a stash a couple of years ago. These cute kitty cats don't seem to be available for purchase anymore, even on their eBay store, but the sheet includes this cat celebrating his birthday, feeling a bit poorly, and other such occasions. I used this die cut for a birthday card earlier this year, paired with some lovely purple striped paper, and purple pearlescent papers from my stash. And of course, I added some sparkle to the bow!

"Thanks a Bunch" Cards

I made these card several months ago to say thank you to a couple of people. I used these free printables from Cardmaking and Papercraft, and they came together into quick cards. I added hammered ivory card from my stash, and some interest using my favourite Liquid Pearls. I was really pleased with how pretty these turned out, especially for a quick make.

Forever Friends Baby Card II

A family friend welcomed another gorgeous little girl to the world recently, so I put together this little card for them. I coloured in the stamped Forever Friends teddy bear using Whisper Strokes pens, before cutting it out with a circular punch and mounting it on one of these gorgeous marble papers and some brown parcel paper. I added a pink paper flower and small silver gem from my stash too :)

You can see the previous card I made with this stamp here.