Butterfly Birthday Card

I know this card is not dynamic, but what I like about it is that it was made from recycled items.

The flowery card was part of a lovely gift box from John Lewis that my mother's day gift came in.

The pink butterfly was off a greetings card I had received, and used little diamante from something else.  The cream butterfly was one I made myself just to have a play with the new die cutter I had bought some time ago and not used.

I don't always have time to spend lots of it making cards, and so this quick simple one was just the ticket for a week in which I need to produce three.

Anyone for a Cuppa?

This is a genuine re-cycled birthday card.

I had the idea of wanting to create a birthday card for Chris on the theme of cups and saucers. I went online to see what I could find for inspiration.
Well I came across a cup and saucer quite similar to this and decided to have a go.

I used a birthday card that someone had made for me. I cut out the shapes for the cup, edged it in blanket stitch and then sewed them together, and repeated this process for the base of the cup and the saucer.

Apart from the white card of the saucer, everything else came from the card that Val had made and sent me.  I did not make the flower, Val did. The doily in the saucer was also on the original card.  Cheers!

Ivy Wedding Cake

This three tier wedding cake was unusal... well I thought it was!

It was a fruit cake, covered with marzipan and icing and where the pillars normally go, I put a band of cardboard around the supports and covered it with beautiful organza gold ribbon.

The very plain cake was decorated around the sides with a simple narrow gold ribbon.

The top tier had full size gold candles with a cascade of gold dusted ivy trailing down the cake.

The Grooms Birthday Cake

The Groom had his birthday on the day of his wedding.

Not being keen on fruit cake, which the wedding cake was, it was decided that he could have his very own chocolate sponge cake.... it was his birthday after all !!!!!

Brian's Birthday Card

This is a card I made for my brother. He had just had a new shed in the garden and so thought this card would be a bit of fun.

I bought wood patterned card and cut it up to make the shed and the fence.
The door opened and you could see tools lined up inside.

The scenery came from a photo I took in Wales, I just thought it suited the card.

If you look carefully, you can see my brother inside the shed peering out.

Val's Birthday Card

I was at Chris's house crafting and sat watching her cut flower shapes out.

When I saw the piece of paper that was left, I came up with the idea of putting it on top of a pretty spotted paper and adding flower shapes on top with little diamante.

Chris's Birthday Card

I made this card for Chris for her birthday.

How do you make a birthday card for such an accomplished card maker?  Her blog is amazing!

Well it isn't by trying to compete, so I tried to come up with a different idea.

So I used a pretty paper, added a silhouette and then threaded a fine chain and a bead through the card so it looked like it was hanging around the neck of this lady.

Baby Ivy's Birth Card

My daughter asked me to make a birth card for a friend who had just had a baby girl and called her Ivy.

Isn't she just simply gorgeous?

Aunty Pat's Birthday Card

I can't forget Aunty Pat's birthday, she shares it with me. Pat really likes decoupage so when I saw this paper, I decided to use it because it had a repetitive pattern, a lovely ridged feel to the paper and was ideal to add layers.

I have to say this photograph does not really show up the various layers and doesn't show it in its best light, but it was a nice kind of old fashioned looking card and very feminine.

Graham's Birthday Card

This birthday card was a design I was shown at a card making workshop at a card making shop.

The band around the card on the right hand side holds the card together.

Once the band is removed, the card can be opened up with extra flaps inside showing photo's and various design elements.

Dorothy's Birthday Card

This is a birthday card I made for Dorothy and was created by stamping the flowers and the 'Happy Birthday'.

John's 80th Birthday Card

Getting ideas for men when it comes to birthday cards, can be quite tricky.

John's family were originally from Scotland, something he is clearly very proud of, so I decided to pick up on that to create this 80th birthday card for him.

Mick's 60th Football Birthday Card

Well I played safe again making a keen football fan a birthday card relating to his life long love of a football team.

It was a shame I couldn't show a win for the match on the day he was born.... but hey ho... I can't do the impossible.

I did however put the league table inside the card which showed a very healthy position in the league, so it wasn't all bad.

Mick laughed when he saw the card and said, 'No wonder I have never liked Man U !'  Sorry Man U fans.

My son-in-law made the two bottom badges in 'Photo Shop' for me to match the style of the Charlton badges. It was a good thing he didn't know what Mick was going to say because he is a Man U fan!!!!!!

I laminated the badges and stuck them on with sticky fixers.

Helen's Wedding Cake

This is an oval three tier wedding cake I made for the daughter of someone at Church.

It is a fruit cake covered in marzipan and Regalice and I bought a reel of pre-embossed icing bands to wrap around the cake to create an interesting different look to this cake.

Of course today you can buy rolling pins that have patterns on them so you can make your own embossed band, but I had not seen anything like that prior to making this cake.

Rory's Birth Card

This was a simple card to make and came about because I saw this lovely paper in the card making shop and fell in love with it.  I really liked the old fashioned style pram and the shape of the paper. I also came across the ribbon which I thought so cute.

So it was one of those times when the card was inspired by the materials rather than having an idea and then getting the materials to make it.