Summer Brights Birthday Cards

I recently went through a pile of Craftseller magazines from a couple of years ago, and found in them a whole selection of craft papers I had forgotten about! It's lead to some experimenting of mixing patterns and colours I wouldn't normally use, inspired by the graphics provided. It's been a lot of fun :)

This gorgeous tag with the red polka dot balloon was included in the range. I was even more impressed that I had a pink paper in my stash that (nearly!) perfectly matched the pink edge of the tag. I raised the tag with 3D dots, and added a little ribbon bow so it would appear tied on.

I loved this Birthday Wishes graphic, and how it had matching floral papers. I stuck with the red and white theme, mounting it on some hammered white card and red paper. I'm not used to using a graphic as bold as the red and white zig zags (or chevrons, as they're called these days!) but I think I made the balance of pattern work, and raising the graphic off the background helped.

I used some of the floral papers in this card too, for a friend who has a sweet tooth! The colour combination is so bright and fresh, but the empty space balances out the amount of pattern. Although I have to admit to finding these off shaped graphics awkward to work with!

I love this polka dot balloon, and used it to make a smaller card. The graphic uses off white rather than pure white, so I reflected this in the hammered ivory paper, and then picked up the red again in the "gingham" paper. I love the turquoise and red together!

Rainbow Crochet Blanket

If you follow me on Facebook, you will have seen lots of progress shots of this blanket as I've worked on it! It took me less than 6 weeks to make a single bed sized blanket, which I am so proud of! I also made a matching granny rabbit using this pattern. She's called Fizzy, and she has every colour from the blanket on her somewhere!

I used this pattern, Stylecraft's Blanket 9091. But... I changed it up a bit! Firstly, I kept it to single stripes of each colour all the way through, instead of switching to double width stripes part way through, as the pattern suggests. I also added an extra 2 and a bit balls of grey wool to take it up to a bigger blanket size - I think mine is wider than the pattern as well as longer! There are two colour options for this blanket, and I went for the cheaper Stylecraft DK. It's not the same as the one pictured in the pattern, but I love it :)

I may have caught the blanket making bug, which my wallet really cannot afford!