Dotty Bloke Birthday card

Hi there! Well I'm on a role with these masculine cards....the designs seem to be coming to me easier these days, and dare I say it - I'm actually beginning to ENJOY making men cards (gasp!) or at least not dread them half as much as I used to.

I decided to stick to 1 colour, but using various shades, as I'm still experiementing with adding colour to my designs. I'm not at all trained in design or use of colour, so this doesn't always come as easily as I'd like. Plus, I'm on a budget, which means I haven't got a zillion packs of designer paper that all tie in with each other (more's the pity) I simply have to make do with what I've got and dream of winning the lottery to pay for my craft addiction. ;0)
Below is the video tutorial of me making this card. When I did the voice-over I was R-E-A-L-L-Y tired, so I apologise if I sound like I was about to fall asleep - I was completely shattered. My new video is already recorded and in the pipeline, so keep checking back for next next post....enjoy!!

PS: If you follow this link over to YouTube, and click on the little 'HD' icon in the bottom right hand corner of the video, you can watch this in higher quality (recommended).

The World's Greatest Dad

And once again, the time came to create a masculine card for my dad. Now my dad is also THE MOST difficult person to buy presents for. So he's super awkward at birthday's and Christmas. Typical man ;-) And it got to the night before his birthday (eek!) and I still hadn't thought of a design for his card or a present. 

Then I just sat down, and made this. No plan. No idea. Just a hope that something usable would stem from it, without forcing my creative flow...

....and I really liked it! Must wing it more often, lol!!!

The DAD cutouts are simply hand-drawn on the black core-dinations card, then mounted on the reverse side of the core-dinations cardstock for definition. The background is the same cardstock, that has been 'bugged and sanded to reveal the coloured inner core of the card.

I did try to record a video tutorial of this for you guys, but my camera batteries died out 5 minutes into the process and I had no spare batteries with enough charge - I'm sorry! But I have a few designs I've been pondering over in the last week, so I plan on making them and doing them as video tutorials and posting them over the weekend. 

Mother's day cards

I made two of these cards because now I have two mother's; a mom (my mom) and a mum (my husbands' mum). I wanted to use butterflies in the design because they are bang on trend at the moment, but I didn't have a butterfly stamp.....so I made one! 

I also spotted this post for a competition for some blog candy (72 FREE copic markers) so I'm going to use this post as my entry ;-) as I stamped and watercoloured the image (in the absence of copic marker pens!).

I made the butterfly stamp using ImagePac, which is a wonderful way we crafters can make our own stamps at home, simply using this weird gel sachets and a 60W bulb! You pretty much simply choose a design (or draw yourself), print out on transparency, then clamp it between some magnetic plates (supplied with kit) stick it under a desk lamp for a time...then viola! a new stamp has been born! And they really are as good as your standard acrylic stamp, except they're slightly off white (but who cares?).

These Mother's day cards we the simplest cards I could think of in the half hour I had to make them (on the morning before work on the day I posted them). I almost resorted to a shop-bought card (shock!! horror!!) cos I was so strapped for time. But you can't get shop bought for the most important ladies in your life, can you? So they weren't quite as 'finished' as I'd have liked, but then I'm always super-critical about my designs, however thought-out they are (or not). No video, cos my batteries had ran out on my web cam, and I was mega rushed!

Have a FUN birthday!!

I had no idea about the final design for this card when I started making it, I just felt like winging it...many of my designs I've thought about as I fall asleep at night (typical, cos then you have to fight to remember it, or get up and jot it down!) but this one I just had a go at on the spot creativity,
As I explain in the video, I used these stick on letters, and tried to colour them in with my ink pad, but unfortunately, the stickers were quite shiny, and the ink just didn't dry for ages, despite force-drying them with my heat gun (I couldn't do this for too long cos it would potentially damage its sticking ability). But they dried overnight so it was fine.

So, below is the video, I hope you enjoy it. If you do, please rate it over at YouTube - it's always nice to get some feedback on my work, especially as these videos take quite a while to film and edit, so I want to know if people are getting something useful from them, or suggestions about what you would like to see on future videos! Thanks for watching and reading my blog xx

Simple masculine card

Well, we all know how hard masculine cards are to make, so I took a bit of time to think about what would look good as a card for a man, but still be pleasing enough on the eye for me to enjoy making ;-)

I decided that a simple, classic design is what I needed - a no frills man-card!! I've always found it really frustrating that us cardmakers have to resort to sport/hobby images to make a card for the men in our life. Whereas for women, we just do something 'pretty' but with a sentiment to show what it's all about. So I thought I'd apply the same logic and just go for something 'handsome'...

Easier said than done though, because most of my craft stash is tailored toward the feminine market, but this is what I landed on (after about 5 trial cards centred around a similar theme). Here's the video tutorial for you to have a look to see how it was made - ENJOY!

Es tüt mir leid - Belated Birthday

This was a very quick card I rustled up nearly a month too late *blush* for my friend in Germany - I completely forgot about her birthday and felt awful, so I tried to make it up to her by making a card and using a German sentiment.

The sentiment reads "Es tüt mir leid" (I'm sorry) and it's just handwritten.

The flowers were hand-sketched on patterned paper, cut out, the edges inked and attached to the card using a brad. I also lifted some petals using 3d stickers. Overall, I like the card, but I did feel it was over-simplified and missing something, but I had no time to faff - I was already late enough with this card!!