Another Birdy-Themed Handmade Card

It's that time of year again. Between November and March I am always crazy-busy making handmade cards for family members. Don't get me wrong, I love doing it, I just tend to spend too long making the cards, and before I know it the whole day has gone. This latest one is for my mum, who has turned 21 again! (You're only as old as you feel right?!).

I love birds, and most of my artwork tends to centre around a bird of some kind, intentional or not.  Last year I made the Rain Bird card for my mum. This year she is getting an owl. Speaking of birds, I just found out that my little parakeet, Pippin, is a girl and not the boy we thought s/he was*... no wonder she never replied to "who's a good boy?" But I digress...here's a pic of my handmade effort

I used various cardstock I have collected over the years, with the patterned card coming from different Dovecraft packs. This design just came from a doodle I had scribbled a few weeks ago. Doodling is the best way to let the ideas flow!

I took another pic with the flash on so you can see the lovely sparkly card (and also the manky glue blobs).

So that's one card down...


 * You're probably thinking 'how the heck did you not know he was a girl?! It's hard to tell when they are babies, the colour of their cere often changes, especially through hormone imbalance which is what we thought had caused the change.. Pippin also has the body shape of a boy. S/he is effectively a parakeet Keira Knightley.


  

Back again! With cake, a card and a scarf!

It's been a while since I blogged I know. I have a habit of getting carried away with little projects, and once I've started something I don't like to stop!

So what have I been up to? Well in my last post I mentioned it was my mum's birthday and I was going to visit her. I did indeed bake her a cake (pics below) and travel up north to visit her for a few days. The cake is a coffee cake which I know to be my mum's favourite. I grabbed a recipe from the BBC as they usually turn out great, however this one just turned out 'ok' (recipe here) To be honest if I were to use this recipe again I would increase the coffee strength (personal taste!) and definately use one less egg. The cake was a wee bit stodgy and hardened faster than it should have.

Yummy cake decorated with chocolate stars (from Tesco), gold balls (from Asda), walnuts halves and
a little dusting of cocoa powder :)

 

I made plenty of frosting while trying to get the coffee strength right.
Of course it meant I had to lick the bowl clean. What a hard life! :P

While I was up we had a lovely time looking round the local gift shops for Christmas present ideas (and of course a little present to bring baclk to AJ). We popped into a wool shop (I don't know the proper name for this kind of shop...) and I bought some colourful chunky wool for my next project. My mum had taught me a new knitting stitch while I was home, as I am a complete novice, and I spent some time practising before I went mad on my new wool. Literally. I didn't put it down and in less than a week I had finished my scarf :) Pics to come soon.


And finally I've been at card crafting again. Not as advanced this time as I only had a day start to finish to get it designed, printed, cut, glued and posted out. It's for my wee baby cousin,Callan, who had his first birthday last month.

I stuck the wings and flag on sepeately so they could 'flap' out a little bit

I need to get some proper paper for these cards, using normal printer paper is
just causing wrinkling when glued.

The obligatory logo I have used on the back of the card since I was very small
(although the owl is a new addition!) It started off as a little joke - pretending I
had my own card designing business as a kid, but now it's just a habit, and I
quite like it :)

That's all for now! I'll remerge again sometime soon. Promise!

Card Making

It's my mum's birthday in a few days and I've been working away on a card for her. Ever since I was old enough to hold a pencil I have been making home-made cards for my family. As the years went on and the workload piled up - be it homework, high school portfolio, uni dissertation or design overtime - I started to whittle down on the amount of cards I made. Now I reserve the 'honor' for new arrivals in the family and for my mother who keeps every card I make and displays it proudly until the event the card was created to celebrate has long passed. Sweet. (With the exception of last year, when for the first time in years I sent her a shop-bought card. Poor health + heavy workload = no time management. Sorry mum!)

A few Saturdays ago my good friend Mark and I wandered around Fred Aldous in Manchester to get some inspiration and gather materials. This shop has really come on since I first stepped foot in it 2 years ago. It's so refreshing to see a traditional arts & craft shop keep up with current trends. There were so many vintage style pieces alongside kitsch gifts and oddities. I was really impressed and must have spent close to an hour in there. Seeing the quirky nature of some of the items I then decided to go recreate my own quirky piece.

Here's my latest handywork. You might recognise it...

The beautiful pearlised and laced effect craft pieces from Fred Aldous,
the little silver raindrops reminded me of my Rain Bird illustration.

The templates: My Rain Bird infuriatingly but lovingly printed from Illustrator

The finished product! I cut the artwork out in layers and built up the images piece by piece.
Difficult to see the decoupage effect and 3D raindrops due to my ancient camera
refusing to accept there is any light source in the room and insisting on using a flash at all times.

The silver raindrops and 3D hearts were painted with Chroma acrylic paints to match the graphic,then glued
on to the background. I decided not to add the lacy edging and the pearl drops - less is more!

The inside graphic :)

Does it meet my perfectionist standards? No. This is actually the third attempt at making this card. But I'm sure my mum will love it for what it is.

That's all for now... for tomorrow I bake the cake!! :D