Dimensional Floral Birthday Card

I created this card for my Mum for her birthday using an assortment of docrafts products, focusing especially on the Xcut dies 'Flowers' (XCU 503195) and the 'Rectangular Parenthesis 2' (XCU 503045) designs. The papers used for the design are a  mix of two of the April Creativity Club printables 'Daisies' which I designed for docrafts.
 

 

You could create this card for any occasion, simply change the sentiment and lettering.

 

 

I love making dimensional, layered projects so the Xcut flower and leaf dies were perfect. I only had a Little Venice Cake Company modelling mat and ball tool to hand so I used these to curl the petals and create vein effects on the leaves.

 

 

I also adore making quilled paper roses - you can find a great tutorial for these here on

Nikki Smith's blog 'What Nikki Did Next'.

 

 

Thank you for looking!

 

Jill x

 

 

 

 

 

 

#docraftsmonday - Thank you to two special Dads

It's been a long couple of stressful weeks. My Dad has been in hospital twice, the most recent time was very serious; luckily, he is now through the worst. It puts everything in life into perspective and had made me re-focus on what is important; we should cherish every moment of every day.

 

I didn't have much time to pull together cards for Father's Day but I found a window yesterday and cobbled these together - it doesn't feel right buying cards for those special to me anymore!

 

My husband and I are each lucky enough to have great Dad's, so here are the designs I came up with using some docrafts Club printables from my stash...

The stamps were one of the free gifts from May's docrafts Creativity magazine. I used chocolate brown and dark blue ink to stamp and add a vintage effect around the edges of the Xcut die-cut shapes.

 

 I then added some buttons and string to finish off the designs.

 

Thank you for looking!

 

Jill x

 

#docraftsmonday Dimensional Butterfly Birthday Card

It's time for #docraftsmonday once again! My lovely Grandma is an amazing 94 this coming Thursday and over the weekend, we held a kind a crazy Easter/Birthday family party to celebrate. I have been so manic recently, I haven't had time to craft but this occasion definitely needed a handmade offering...

 



 I wasn't too sure where I wanted to go with the layout for this card, so I got all the elements

out I wanted to use and went from there.

 

This week's docrafts Creativity Club printables is a fab collection of brick and decking textures (photographed by Carly Barrett) in a monochrome colourway, so I started with that. The theory is a garden wall which has rambling flowers and butterflies climbing up it!



 

As usual, I went slightly mad on the dimensional side of things - my cards are not suitable for

posting unless you want to box them up! I used a mix of Xcut dies and punches as follows;

 

 Xcut Butterflies A5 Die Set - XCU 503196

Xcut Large Dies Leafy Flourishes - XCU 503189

Xcut Dimension Butterfly Punch Stamp - XCU 2701000

Xcut Daisy Palm Punch

Xcut Tags and Bookplate Dies - XCU 503066

Xcut Petal Posy Dies - XCU 503065

 

I have to say, the Leafy Flourishes look so much nicer once they have been die-cut. This is the first time I have used them and will definitely do so again!

 

 

Add in a touch of antiquing with dye ink and a few Papermania adhesive gems and there you have it!

 

Thank you for looking. If you would like to take part in #docraftsmonday, visit the docrafts facebook page and join in the fun every week!

 

Thank you for looking!

 

Jill x

Male themed Birthday card using docrafts Creativity Club printables

Well, it's #docraftsmonday (thank you Emma!) and I thought it was about time I got my craft stash out - you forget how good it can make you feel, simply being focused on one thing instead of ten for a change. Here's the result - a birthday card for my Father-in-Law (don't show him this yet Barb!), using the printables I designed for this week's Creativity Club download. There are flowers included in the collection, but I missed those out and converted the patterns into a more masculine card...

 

 

I love layers and dimension so I used lots of 3D foam squares and layers of paper

mounted onto card to created a sense of depth...

 

 

...I wrapped craft string around the card base randomly...

 

 

...and used lots of dark brown dye ink to get a vintage effect.

 

 

The inside of the card echoed the same design as the front...

...and I used red buttons to add that finishing touch!

 

Thank you for looking and don't forget to join in #docraftsmonday!

 

Jill x

 

#docraftsmonday is like a weekly crafty 'show and tell'.

To get involved on Facebook:

On Monday, post a photo on https://www.facebook.com/docrafts of your recent craft project

and add the hashtag #docraftsmonday.

You can see all #docraftsmonday projects by visiting the page and viewing the 'Posts by Others' section, clicking on the #docraftsmonday hashtag, or searching '#docraftsmonday'

in the Facebook search box. When you see a #docraftsmonday project you like,

make sure you comment or give it a Like!

 

Birthday Card - You are never too old to dream a new dream...

I made this card for my brother's birthday - he has just started sea swimming and has set himself some personal goals for this year!

I used a combination of the docrafts Creativity Club Sentiments Collections (1 & 2), Xcut Build-a-Scene dies XCU 503156 (for the waves), Xcut Dies Rectangle Parenthesis XCU 503045 (for the text panel), plus a mix of Papermania Capsule products and a blue wallaper which I got as a sample from a DIY store!

 

Thank you for looking!

Jill x

For a special friend - a birthday bottle card

I have known Kerry for around 32 years since we were at primary school. She is one amazing lady and we have accumulated loads of funny special memories between us over the decades! We have experienced love, laughter, heartbreak, marriage, careers and have been blessed with four beautiful girls between us who are carrying on the tradition of female bonding.

 

The sentiment on this bottle card has been taken from the docrafts Creativity Club sentiments collection I designed and it so says how I feel...

 

"A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself."

 

Happy Birthday Hon!

 

 

I made the origami heart by following the fabulous Beckie Dreyer's origami heart

template which can be found here. Once you have had a play and mastered the technique it is

quite addictive, so much so, my Christmas cards are being designed around them!

 

 

I used the Owl collection printables I designed for the Creativity Club to create the

theme and embellished the heart with Papermania Adhesive Stones and Bow.

 

 

I am a little addicted to my die-cut machine and antiquing with inks, so once again,

these techniques have found their way in!

 

To finish the back, I added a blank die-cut heart so that I can write my message.

A Papermania Ribbon and Baker's Twine completes the design.

 

 

Thank you for looking!

 

I hope you enjoy the wine Kerry!

 

Jill x

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Mum Booklet Card

Well, it's July 13th and today we celebrate both my daughter's 6th and my Mum's (something!) birthday, so a busy day all round! It seems like only yesterday Mum was urging me to 'Hurry Up!"

as her birthday was nearly over and baby still had to make its entrance - luckily, I was able to

 give her the best birthday present ever, a healthy Granddaughter, the delightfully lovely

(sometimes tricky!) Evie Mae.

Here's the booklet card I made for Mum, designed to contain her gift vouchers. I created it using a mix of  Floral and Paisley papers I designed for the docrafts Creativity Club along with a mix of

Papermania Vintage Notes and Capsule Pastels collections.

The heart is the gorgeous Papermania Vintage Notes Filigree Heart die.

The 3D flowers on the front were made by rolling and scrunching a length

of burgundy paper, then securing the base before attaching to the

card with silicone glue.

I made the letter templates by printing them out from my pc then cutting

the shapes from the Floral rose papers. I love the dimensional look so I have used

loads of 3D sticky pads and layers to create depth.

The vintage effect was made by swiping a dark pink

dye pad over all the card edges. 

On the last page of the booklet, I created a mini open envelope

to house  the vouchers.

Thanks for taking the time to look!

Jill x 

Father's Day Bottle 'All Tooled Up' Card

Hi! With Father's Day imminent on Sunday, here is a card I have designed to wrap around a bottle of wine - specifically designed for my hubby using the docrafts Creativity Club 'All Tooled Up' printables which I designed last month.

 

The concept is simple - create a wrap, then decorate it! For this card, I have made an opening card, secured with a large washer and craft string, which hides the sentiment...

 

I am going to get Beth and Evie to write their messages on the inside of the 'doors' (I thought it best to photograph the card first in case it gets covered in felt pen drawings!).

I made a simple ring of paper (mounted onto card), to sit around the bottle neck and 

added a Father's Day sentiment to finish.

I hope this has given you some ideas! 

Thank you for looking

Jill x

Happy Father's Day Booklet Card

I have had this idea in my head for a while and finally got a chance to have a play 

(just in time for father's Day!).

Photograph by Louise Jolley

 The card has been created using the collection of papers I designed for the docrafts Creativity Club called 'All Tooled Up Father's Day Printables', which can be downloaded by Club members for free!

Photograph by Louise Jolley

The card is created using three different length pages and bound together using Papermania Brown String. I mounted all the cut out elements onto card first to give the booklet strength and stuck them on using Stick it! 3D Adhesive Foam Pads for dimension. 

The following shots show each page from front to back (excuse the quality of the photography, I was taking these late last night on my ipad and my lighting is shocking at home!)

 

 

I have uploaded this project into my docrafts gallery with more detailed step by steps so 

pop on over if you fancy reading more.

I want to try and make a card for my hubby by the weekend using my bottle holder 

card idea so watch this space!

Thank you for looking

Jill x

Best Dad in the World Card & Papers

This week, the docrafts Creativity Club have part 2 of my ‘All Tooled Up Father’s Day' printables collection available to members to download. My Dad is due to go in for a back operation today, so I used a selection of them to create this card to wish him luck…

 

I used a Papermania recycled A6 Kraft card blank as a base them added a series of layered die-cut shapes (mounted onto card for strength). The top rectangle was created by running the distressed cream paper through my die-cutting machine with a lovely little dotted embossing folder I found in my craft bag!

  

I created a distressed effect by dragging a Papermania brown die ink across all the edges, then assembled the pieces onto the card using Stick it 3D foam pads for dimension. To finish, I wound some Papermania string around the card, then used a blob of silicone glue to attach the 

sentiment on the top.

I loved creating this collection of papers – it was a refreshing change to design something out if my comfort zone. The initial sketch were done when my kids were zooming around at a soft play – all the other Mums were gossiping or reading their kindles, I was sketching from a box of mixed nuts and bolts! I had a few funny looks! Here are the initial sketches…

I scanned them into my pc and worked them up before converting some of them into 

paper designs in illustrator using this colour palette...

I used last week’s blue collection to make this digital card layout...

  

I would love to hear your comments - it is such a help when designing papers to hear 

other people's opinions. Thank you for looking! 

                     Jill x

A friend is someone who can touch your heart...

Finally I have managed to post! This week has been chaotic but along the way I have had time to reflect on how lucky I am to have such good friends...it's so lovely to know that you can pick the phone up and they are there for you (Mum, I'm also including you in this, you are amazing).

With this in mind, here's a card I made using docrafts Creativity Club downloads 'Spring Blossom' and 'Over the Hill' and the Xcut Bird Cage die - not sure why the birdcage features, I was just inspired by it!

 

 

 

 

Thank you for looking!

 

Jill x