Cards

As I've given myself a spending ban (see this post) I've decided to throw myself into my other passion which is crafting. I've posted a couple of cards on here before but crafting is something which I have to be in the mood for and I don't do it all the time because sometimes I find it tedious and boring. Which it really isn't.

I try to sell my cards at work to make a few extra pounds but I can't say I sell enough for it to make a massive different on my income :-( This is a shame because sometimes I spend 30 + minutes on a card and they just sit in a box in my spare bedroom.

The first card is one I did for my boyfriend's friends birthday.

It's a Daisy and Dandelion decoupage image which I layered onto the matching backing paper (all one kit) and put onto a square card. I love square cards as I think they look more contemporary and more expensive! I then simply put a red, contrasting, brand in each corner and then layered a Daisy and Dandelion sentiment onto a piece of gold card and put in the top right hand corner.

The next card is for my boyfriends birthday. I was way ahead of the ball on this one as his birthday isn't until the 15th December!

Again this card was already pre-printed and I used the car decoupage from the kit to add dimension. But then I really found it hard what to do. This kit was really uninspiring and I found that I lacked inspiration. It did come with an ideas sheet but that wasn't very helpful so I decided to use a 'Happy Birthday' sentiment to put in the bottom left hand corner and took a larger 'You never outgrow a classic (just like you)' sentiment and layered in onto silver card. I used my corner punch to round off the corners on the silver card so it matched the sentiment and stuck it on the top right hand corner. I then got four red brads and put one in each of the corners.

Finally this card is for my dad for fathers day. My mum and dad have been on holiday and only got back yesterday so I couldn't give this to him on time which is why I'm posting it now.

As my dad is a fisherman I try to make fishing related cards for him as in the shops fishing cards usually look dated and seem to be aimed for old men, something which my dad isn't. Well he's getting on a bit but I don't think anyone would call him old!

I used products from a range called Smirk for this card. Smirk is a fun and quirky brand which I think only came out last year. I used a fisherman shaker sticker (shakers are products which have beads or something inside so you can shake them) and layered it onto a piece of stripy Smirk paper which was layer onto a piece of gold card. I then used some Smirk fish paper which I cut to the size of my card (A5) and stuck it on. I then stuck on my topper and used a Daisy and Dandelion 'Happy Fathers Day' sentiment and layered this up on the same card & paper as the sticker and stuck below it. To finish it off I used some black gems and used them as fish eyes on the background paper.

Does anyone else do anything crafty? What do you take your inspiration from?