Elephant and Horse theme birthday card

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I've said it before.....I'm not good at making cards for men. But I wanted to challenge myself when asked for the second time around from my customer to make a birthday card for her hubby that has an elephant and a horse in it. 

The elephant represents my customer and the horse represents her hubby. I was given full freedom to design the card. The time given to complete it was more than enough..... in fact, she gave me ample time to think it over and get it done. I took such a long long time to do it because the idea did not appear when it should have....if you know what I mean! hehe! 

At last I finally got it done. A lot of technique came to mind when thinking of how to do the animals.....but in the end I decided to go with felt as it is easy to draw on and form the shape of the animals.

I loved using distress ink to enhance the look of the card. It makes such a huge difference if the distress ink is used compared to when it's not. It's something that I can seem to let go of when making cards nowadays. I also fancy the designer papers that I chose for this card. I'll bet my friend Sandi Staley would recognize the papers since she was the one who gave them to me to play with! ehehe!

All in all I'm glad that my customer is so very patient with me.....I wish I am much more creative in thinking of new ideas for custom orders in future so that my customers wouldn't have to wait such a long time for me to get a card done. I'm so relieved that she loved the card so much. That really made my day! ;)

A combination of something old and new....

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Ok....I gotta admit.....I have used this purple floral pattern paper for my handmade cards more than once! In fact I've used it twice already. And now for the 3rd time I'm using the same ones. Have a look at the link HERE and HERE to view the older designs of tri-shutter cards that I have made using the purple floral pattern paper.

In this design I have actually combined some of the old designs from the other tri-shutter cards I've made and turned it into something new. Made some changes here and there and walla! It's done and I gotta say that this is my favourite among the three designs.

This is the first time I tried to make the double bow using a 1/8 inch satin ribbon. I saw a tutorial on how to make it on Youtube. I never knew how simple it is to make it until I saw the tutorial. Gosh, I've got a lot to learn! There's so many great tutorials on Youtube.....I just need to find time to view them all hehe!

Another part of the card that I thought was nice are the white polka dots on the dark purple textured paper. I punched out some white paper dots and glued them one by one on the dark purple textured paper. I love how the dots can make such a difference on the look of the card. It just changes everything don't you think so? :)

One other thing that I like about the card is the colour of the distress ink which I blended on all sides of the tri-shutter card to give a dark walnuty shade behind the pattern paper. I just love doing that for my tri-shutter cards these days.

You can have a look at the tri-shutter card and see how it opens up and closes from the video below:

Japanese motifs tri shutter card

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Someone requested me to make a card design months ago that is similar to my old card design which you can view HERE. It was an anniversary card that I made some time back but was very limited in stock because of it's pattern paper that I used for that design. I didn't have a lot of stock of that particular pattern paper therefore I was not able to remake it for customers who were interested in ordering it. But since so many liked it so much I decided to make a new design that is similar to it. But in this design, it will be a birthday card and not an anniversary card. But I can just simply change the wordings to fit the occasion because I feel that the design is suitable for both occasions :).

I had with me some pattern papers that I received from Wholeport which I thought would be suitable for this design. And sure enough, they fit really well together.....they compliment each other. Both pattern papers has Japanese motifs on them which I adore a lot.

I used the same type of flowers that I used for the earlier design. It's actually a die-cut flower which I embossed to get the 3D effect. I still maintained the foam hearts design except that the foam hearts which I used here are glittered ones. They are hand cut foam hearts by the way. I cut them myself using just plain scissors.

I gotta say I love the pop up heart that I made for this trishutter card. All because I used a die-cut heart patterns which I recently bought. I pasted 2 more die-cut heart pattern on the left and right side of the pop up heart for the sender to write special wishes on.

I'm so glad my customer loved it so much.....especially since she had to wait so long to get it.....thank you so much for your kind patience my dear ;).

You can view the trishutter card more closely at the video below:

Cherry blossom tri shutter card

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I was playing around with one of the the free origami paper I received from Wholeport the other day and I thought of cutting them up this way using the die cut machine and pasting them all over the tri shutter card. I've never done something like this before and I find it quite amusing :D. 

I wanted the tri shutter card to look like as if the card itself was originally with patterns even though it was not.....it's just a plain white cardstock. But now it is heavily embellished with pattern paper all over it. It looks a bit messy with the pattern paper all over it, which is not usually my style but I still gave it a try to see how it would look like in the end.

The yellowish scallop circles are for writing on personal wishes. I purposely made them in different sizes hehe.....so the personal wishes can be written in different sections of the card. :)

The pop up hearts I pasted at two different sections in the card is something I am excited about. I've never done it this way before.....usually I only make the heart pop in one section. It's new for me and I'm getting a few more ideas for new tri shutter cards to be done in a similar way.

Another thing I love about this design is the tiny cherry blossoms! I love embossing them this way and arranging them this way. It's simple and yet so cute because of their small size! hehe! I love making them! They suit the pattern paper a lot ;) You can view how the tri shutter card opens up and pops the hearts inside it at the video I prepared below....do check it out :).

Rich colour combination

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This design is a remake of a trishutter card I made in 2011. That 2011 trishutter card looks similar to this new design and it was the one and only design I made because the pattern paper that I used for that design was so limited that I was only able to make one card with those pattern paper. You can view that card HERE. 

So when I suddenly got a request to do that same design again, I knew that I had to remake it using new pattern papers and luckily I had some pattern papers that had a similar colour to the original design. And lucky also for me that my customer didn't mind me using a new pattern paper for the card. So I had complete freedom to create a new anniversary card design for my customer. 

Although this design seems new now, I still manage to maintain some of the original design in this new one.....for example like those foam hearts at the top and bottom of the card.....and also the tiny flower sequins.....I still maintain the same colour combination ....the colours are red, dark red, mustard yellow and dark pink. 

The differences that are pretty obvious are the pop up heart.....which I hand carved some designs on it....I loved doing that... :). The original design just had a simple curved line that I hand carved but this time around I carved out something that is a lot more complicated for me to do. I enjoyed doing it though.

Another new thing for me is making those embossed flowers for the front of the card. Those flowers and leaves were die cut and then embossed using embossing tools. I gotta say I really enjoyed making them for the first time. I'll consider embossing more flowers from now onwards instead of just cutting and pasting them straight on the card like that.....embossing them, gives the flowers and leaves a much better effect....gives them some dimension. :)

I die cut a couple of squarish shaped paper and pasted them inside the card for my customer to use as a space to write on personal wishes since he didn't asked me to print any wordings for him. Hope that there are enough space for him to write on. I had another idea for writing spaces on trishutter card, but will use that idea for my next design. :) Have a look at how the trishutter card opens up at the video below :).

Purple birthday trishutter card

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Another trishutter card for this year hehehe.......another full front view type which I like very much :). However, I'm still experimenting on the other types so that I would give it a try at least once to make it different from how I used to make them before. I wish that I am able to speed things up coz I work so slow these days. Trying my best though....

This particular one has purple colours all around the card and I'm making use of the paper I have available .....you might have seen this flower pattern paper before.....as I'm trying to finish up whatever pattern paper I have left  in my collection so that I can get new ones in future :). Almost all the areas in the card is filled up with pattern paper and other embellishments, so I left the pop up area to be used as a place to write personal wishes....so that the area where the giver of the card writes down his or her wishes would stand out once the receiver opens up the card. I like it that way :).

You can take a closer look at it and see how it opens up from the video I uploaded on Youtube below: 

 

My sweet love

 

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I was thinking and thinking last night of what to giveaway for the first month of the year....my first giveaway for this year.....and suddenly TING!!!! I immediately thought of a Thinking of You tri shutter card that I made in 2011....you can view it at the link HERE. It was not 100% completed at the time, but I blogged about it anyways because I wanted to show an example of a card I decorated using plain paper that was stamped with patterns made by clear stamps. It was all because at that time, I didn't have a lot of pattern paper to use as decorations on my handmade cards. So I had a lot of fun stamping all those clear stamps! hehehe. :D

So now it's 100% completed. I added a couple of white paper that was cut with scallops shape around it to be used as a space to write personal wishes.....and a soft pink pop up heart in between them.....and at the front of the card, I added some wordings with some felt rose flowers.

So I will be giving this card away to one of my lucky readers after the giveaway ends. I shall blog about the giveaway soon. ;) Don't forget to participate!! hehe! ;)

Do view a video of the card below :)  

Pink and white rose tri shutter card

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After so long of not designing cards due to my ill health, it feels great being able to do so now. And even better when I get to try something new for myself this year. I'm happy that finally I can post a card design here today on the first day of the year, yay!!

I've always loved making tri shutter cards but something about making them sometimes stops me from making more. Probably because I am not comfortable decorating the front view of the card with less space on it. So I opted to make the full front type of tri shutter card instead. Besides the reason that I could also make use of the pop up part inside it when I make them this way. Since I love making pop up so much, so it was a win win thing for me. I'm definitely more comfortable making them this way.

I also love the fact that this year I get to use some die cut patterns I made using the die cut machine. It's something new for me to try out and I gotta say it's really an awesome experience. I really loved it a lot. I hope to make more craft products using the die cut patterns. I don't have a lot though since I'm just a beginner....plus it's pretty darn expensive to buy.....so I'm collecting them bit by bit hehehe.

I can only make about 4-5 of this design because of the pattern paper I used for this card was given to me by my dear friend and I don't have a lot of it.....hehehe....perhaps I can find a substitute pattern paper for it someday that would suit the design. I really love making those cute rose felt flowers and the pop up inside the card. The white space area on the right and left side of the card is for writing personal wishes.

You can view more of the card at the video below:

Purple theme tri shutter card

Been thinking about what to giveaway for my readers in July since June's blog giveaway has come to an end...gosh....I can't believe how fast June flew huhuhu.....it's just has been such a crazy hectic month for me....so as I was thinking about it....I thought of this tri shutter card I made some time ago. It was not fully completed...it was just 50% done. It was abandoned because I didn't have the time to finish it back then. So decided to complete it once and for all and give it away for one lucky winner. 

Since I've never given away a tri shutter card before, this card was perfect for such an occasion. Even though the decoration is simple but it was made from the heart :). All the pattern paper you see on the card was sponsored by Miss Sandi Staley.....a dear friend of mine who has helped encourage me and supported my work from the very beginning. I love all the purple and lilac pattern paper I used here. Thank you Sandi! ;) 

The plain lilac colored paper here is for writing on some personal wishes :). Not much space to write even though the card has a lot of space hehe....I practically used up all the other space for decoration. ;) I'm glad I get to use the MS doily craft punch for this card. Somehow it seems to suit the pattern paper I used.

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A tri-shutter card with pop up!

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At last......it's done. And I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. :) I never thought that what my customer suggested to me would actually work out in the end. I think sometimes my own customer has more faith in me that I do with myself. She actually believed that I could do it even though I didn't in the beginning. And sure enough I did it. And I have her to thank for this. If it wasn't for her, I don't think I would have done it at all. So, thank you so much Sharifah, for believing in me ;).

If you are wondering what I'm talking about, I was actually referring to the pop up inside the tri-shutter card. It's a simple pop up. Much simpler than the one my customer requested in the beginning. When I told her I couldn't deliver what she requested, she then told me to just make simple one as long as there is a pop up inside it. So, I did a simple pop up, with a slight difference from my usual heart shape pop up. I did a cut out at the heart shape itself and added a couple of small hand cut heart shapes on it. All the heart shapes inside the tri-shutter card are hand cut by yours truly, including the foam hearts. :)

My customer loved my AC007 card, especially the foam hearts on it, so that's why I added them to this card but I chose a different colour for each foam heart and added gold and silver glitter glue on them to make them look fancy :).

This card has an Indian influence in it. That's why the I've chosen the these types of colour and patterned paper for it. It suits the occasion and gives it the touch of Indian fashion and design to it. I added those gold coloured sequins on the patterned paper. It seems to fit just nicely on it. I love the effect it gives. :)

I would have thank my dear friend Sandi for these patterned paper. She gave them to me for my birthday and I just had to use them for this custom order that I thought suited it perfectly. So, looks like I can't make the exact same design anymore because this paper is limited. Thus making this card a one of a kind. I won't be able to make another one just like it......... :)