Marbled Thank You Cards

Having failed to post about the thank you cards we made after Christmas (which were inspired by a punched paper thank you card I saw on the Hobbycraft blog) we are now onto the production of thank you cards for the kind and generous people who have spoilt Jessica rotten for her fourth birthday.

This afternoon we opted to do some marbling on our cards, which we haven't done for a while. Unfortunately my marbling inks are past their best by some margin so our colour palette was very restricted and I don't think we'll be able to use the red again either but hey ho. Jess enjoys the marbling process very much so these were both fun and fast to make. Once the cards had dried she stamped the message on each one.

I wonder what she'll decide to do on the remaining cards we need to make...

DIY Stamps

If, like me, you have a huge number of wooden blocks lying around the house you could try making your own stamps to use with paint or ink pads. Cut out some shapes from foam and glue them onto your wooden blocks. Allow them to dry completely and off you go with your printing. This one is ready for our mixed media bluebell art at Toddler group tomorrow...

Good Luck Cards Batch 3

I finished the second batch of good luck cards on Monday and then made a start on the third and final set. These ones are for my Year 13 form so I need to make eleven for those members of my form that I don’t teach.

I first stamped and embossed all of the cards with gold embossing powder…

I then painted each one using watercolours. They took quite a long time to dry so by the end of the day I’d only managed to mount and finish four cards but that part doesn’t take long anyway.

Tonight I’m busy writing the first set of good luck cards for my Year 11s who have their last lesson tomorrow. That’s undoubtedly the most difficult part of this whole process!

Good luck Year 13

I’ve spent the whole weekend making cards and presents for my 22 Year 13 students and tutees. The cards are just one of my simple stamp designs and the presents are simple designs burned using pyrography. I just hope they appreciate two solid days work!

Other favourite Christmas cards

As mentioned last time, I’ve made and sold many Christmas cards. Here are some of my favourite non-stitched designs…

   

Most of them are made using stamping and embossing techniques. In the vast majority you can see what has become my signature – mounting on multiple different sized and coloured rectangles. I just love the effect. Most of my stitched and beading cards are also mounted these days because I really like the added dimension and personalisation.

Some very simple cards

These are some of my simplest designs but they’re nice quick ones and are suitable for all kinds of occasions…

This one’s made using sticky-backed plastic tiles with some really funky designs on them.

The daisies are stamped and embossed and then painted with watercolours.

I made 30 of these good luck cards when my first form group went on study leave to do their GCSEs. It took me ages to cut the apertures out by hand!

A very simple yet effective flamingo.

This was my first attempt at iris paper folding. Look out for many more designs in future posts.

For my cousin’s 16th birthday, nothing too fussy for the boys!

This pyramid is creating by cutting out the same image several times and cropping it before using foam pads to assemble the pyramid.