Tuesday 31 December 2013

Saaaaaayyyyuuuuuul!!!


My dad likes his rugby. I've been to a couple of matches as well. For his birthday, I decided to make him a card in the theme of his team: Sale Sharks. 
It's one of my more simple cards, using a stepper base, I paper cut the Sharks logo from some white card to put on the front. I like the dimension that the stepper card creates, I used this to my advantage with a set of posts and a rugby ball, giving the impression that the ball is about to be kicked half way down the pitch.
I finished is simply with a peel off sentiment.

Monday 30 December 2013

A Card for a Potterhead

Having just blogged about my hiking birthday card, and my Wicked birthday card for that matter, I realised that I completely forgot to write about my sister's birthday card back in October. To call her a bit of a Potterhead would be the understatement of 2013.



Some of the inspiration for this card came from a small business called Paper Panda who makes the most intricate paper cuttings and I thought I'd give it a go. 
I used a zig-zag card again, with the back of the card a silhouette of Hogwarts. I used my sneaky powers of detection to find out which house she was in and made this the colour scheme of the card, as well as providing the design for the central fold. 
Like with my Wicked card, I was running short of ideas so for the front, along with the sorting hat and a birthday sentiment, I went crazy with a few stars.

My favourite bit is definitely the silhouette. I'm really pleased with it but it was hard going although I can now say that I've done it and I really do know how much work goes into what Paper Panda produces - and mine isn't even anywhere near the scale her work is on! I may do more paper cutting in the future but I definitely think that paper piecing is my thing.

Hiking + Card making = Very Happy Emma

I'm really falling behind with these cards! This one dates back to the beginning of November. One of my best friends is really into hiking. I'm also really into hiking but he's REALLY into hiking. So a hiking themed card had to be done. The zig-zag card was perfect for this because is meant that I could create different levels of the card, in the same way that the land changes when you're climbing a mountain.

We had climbed Helvellyn (for me, it was the first time) a couple of weeks prior to his birthday so Swirral Edge was still fresh in my mind and this is what I based it on, complete with trig point. Impressively (or obsessively) on his part or mine, he guessed that it was Helvellyn. I added a paper person scrambling along the edge and as he loves his German Shepherd, she had to go in somewhere as well.
The compass was an afterthought. I wasn't sure whether it would be too much but I think it works well and helps to get rid of some of the grey. This was simply drawn on with pen and finished with a paper needle. To complete the card, I just added a birthday sentiment.

I loved making this card although I did get a little bit obsessive about it and spent most of an evening making it but I had never combined my two hobbies before (I don't think card making on top of a mountain is ever going to happen!) so I think I'm allowed to. 

He loved the card (although I think a lot of it was due to it having his dog on the front!) and a few weeks back, he commissioned me a couple of other cards, one of which based on this one, but those will have to wait a little while longer . . .