Happy Birthday Aunty

One of my Aunties is turning another year older tomorrow and so I made a card to send up to her. I used my die-cutting machine to emboss the background card and used some paper flowers that I bought from Hobbycraft aaaaages ago and have been in a craft drawer for too long. (You can read about my gorgeous die cutting machine in this post.)

I printed the greeting onto white card and stuck it onto the embossed card. I used glue dots to attach the flowers. I really hope she likes it! It is quite simple but quite elegant I think. 

Happy Birthday future Mother in Law!

This month saw the birthday of my fiance's Mum and so I had two cards to make - one from us and one for my Parents to send up. Now, Cathy is a wizz in the kitchen and makes her own jams, chutneys and tablet. (Incase you don't know what that is, it is a bit like fudge. It is delicious! Find out more here.)

The first picture is the card my parents ordered. I put a mason jar topper on to represent Cathy's love of jam. The second picture is the card from my fiance and I. It is a long-standing joke!

I love when I can make really personal cards for people - it is really satisfying.

x

My 100th post!!!

I cannot believe it! This post right here is my 100th post on Purrfect Papercraft! That's 100 posts worth of updates and photos of cards I have made and other randomness that occurs and calls itself my life :) It is a lot and yet it doesn't seem like enough. I am always banging on about making more time to post but I just never get around to doing it, and it is such a shame because I really enjoy it, even though I am not really sure many people see it.

So, for this magical post I thought I would post some photos of cards I have made recently.

First up we have Mother's Day - a day to celebrate mothers everywhere for all of their hard work and commitment.

All of the cards above were orders. Most of the cards I make these days are for customers, it's rare that I sit down and spend a large amount of time just making cards for the sheer pleasure of it. Most of these cards contain decoupage elements and 3D foam pads - I was clearly going through a phase!

Next are a batch of recent birthday orders - again, all for customers and not for stock. 

Again, all of these cards were personalised orders and all made their way into expectant homes. I enjoy making cards for people, especially when I know who they are intended for as I can make them that extra bit more personal. 

I wish I had planned something special for my 100th post but I am greatly in need of an update haha! x

Big news!!

So yesterday I went on a very exciting mission to begin something very exciting at Purrfect Papercraft! I went into town and I took a selection of 10 birthday cards and 10 Christmas cards and I sold them to the owner of a shop called Upside Down Presents at 61 Side. :D I can't even put into words how excited I feel about having my cards in a local shop, or how strange it feels knowing someone else will be selling them to people I will never meet!

Hopefully this will be the beginning of something amazing :)

Happy 30th Birthday, Tracey!

This morning I had some free time on my hands so I finally got round to making a card for my friend who reaches the big 3-0 milestone next week! She's an avid baker and makes delicious cupcakes, so I thought I would use that as the theme for her card. I chose my main feature and built up around that.

The card itself and the pearl embellishments are Hobbycraft own brand. The yellow spotty paper is Dear Lizzy Neapolitan paper pad for American Crafts. All other pieces are from Party Day paper par by Crate Paper. This pad was really good value for money as there are sheets with all kinds of different pieces that can be cut out and used individually.

I'm really happy with how this card turned out. It's pretty and bright, and is grown up but still fun. I really hope she likes it.

xx

My Latest Designs

I have made good use of some of my time off and finally got my crafting table back out. It felt so good :) I got out all of my goodies that I haven't really used yet and set to work. I made quite a few cards and am planning another craft-a-thon in the next few days.

First, I used my 'Woodland Folk' papers and brads and I used a sentiment from a Popcorn the Bear stamp set. Then I moved onto my 'Bazoo' papers and flower embellishments. I wanted to match them up with my Kanban zoo animals stamps, I think I will do that on my next craft day! Finally I got out my rather plentiful supply of Tea House papers, stickers, brads and embellishments. I absolutely love this range! I've been keeping it for best which seems a bit silly now. Last but not least, I bought some toppers from Hobbycraft a while ago as they realy caught my eye and best of all - they were on offer!! This is such a sweet range. I used a topper of a woam in a bath full of bubbles on a card for my Mam as she is always in the bath!

I'm planning a special project at the moment too. It's hard for me to keep it under wraps I just want to talk about it all the time! I really hope it works out :)

Special 1st birthday card

My friend's baby turns one on the 12th of this month - I can't believe he is a year old already! I remember her being pregnant and getting bigger each time I saw her, and I remember the day I got a text message with a picture of a new-born baby boy in it. Ive watched him grow and change and he's quite the little boy now! And he's got a gorgeous smile!! =D

Anyway, I've just made time to sit and make him a card so I thought I'd share it with you.

There's a monkey in the bottom right as Linsey always calls him Monkey so I thought it was cute :) I've bought him a Raa Raa the Noisey Lion little library because last time we went out Linsey bought him a Raa Raa rucksack to hang on the buggy with all his bits and pieces in and she got waaaaaaaaay too excited when she saw it lol! And I've got him a nice little shirt which I know he will look lovely in. I'm going to the shops a bit later to get a little something for her to congratulate her on her first year of motherhood :)

I've just text her to tell her I've got some presents to bring over and she's invited me to his birthday tea party so I'm chuffed! That's my Tuesday night sorted =D x

Extra special birthday cards

I've had a really productive morning so far. I've completely finished two birthday cards for my Grandma, one from my parents and one from my brother and I. I think they're two of my favourite cards! And they just sort of happened, without loads of time thinking about what to use or planning a design. Sometimes I think cards that are made this way are the best. Anyway, here is how they turned out:

I feel so proud of these haha! My parents love them and I know my Grandma will just adore them. You can't really tell in these photos, but the Grandma card has "generations of love" and "hugs and kisses" written on it, and on the Mam card it has the definition of 'cherish'.

I love it when I have a lot of nice things to use that match so well! It makes life much easier =)

xx

Craft-a-thon

I was on a roll yesterday! I'd left my craft table out and decided the night before last to get up and spend as much time as possible making cards and anything else that took my fancy. And boy, did I get crafty! I decided to throw in the towel at 6pm when I was stiff from sitting and had a big mess to clean!! I made 12 of my small cards and one large card. I used up a lot of pieces I'd had hanging around and I felt great =)

I had a lot of fun putting these together and felt so proud when I looked across and saw them all standing on the desk looking all colourful and nice =) Planning on another day like yesterday in the VERY near future!

xx

Saturday = crafty day

After lunch I decided to get my craft stuff out since I haven't made anything in ages! I knew I wanted to make a couple of cards with my Dovecraft "Tea House" goodies and then just generally mess about a bit. For some reason I seemed to be struggling with ideas (maybe because I'm tired?) so only made 1 additional card. I have discovered I need more practice with stamps though, so that's something I will work on next time =)

Tea themed card

Cupcake themed card

And a cute little lamb card made with my Kanban stamps.

As well as realising I need more stamping practice, I realised something about brads and my crop-a-dile = You can only punch so far into the card! I had to pierce the card with a pair of scissors so now it looks a little messy on the inside =( Hey, it's a learning curve!!

xx

Craft time =)

Yesterday I got all my craft stuff out and set to making some bookmarks and cards. When my parents were away I spent FAR too much time on Ebay looking at crafty things to purchase and looking for new ideas to try out. I bought heaps of charms and little phone charm straps (and didn't really spend a lot of money - chuffed!) and decided to use them instead of, or even as well as, the ribbon on my bookmarks. I'll attach them to cards as well as I love cards with wee charms on. So, here are the fruits of my labour;

A thank you card with one of my newest stamps

A cute giraffe card with another new stamp I couldn't resist from Hobbycraft. (Bought the paper a few weeks ago on Ebay - perfect match!!)

And a "hugs n fishes" card I made with some stamps I received with Papercraft magazine!

Handbag bookmarks with little handbag charms attached.

A custom made, 2-sided bookmark with a little teapot charm, made for one of my Mam's friends

A little woodland bookmark with an Owl charm

And another custom order for my Mam's best friend. This also has an owl on it!

What do you think? It felt good to have a bit of a creative streak again =)