Well you can do this easily by crafting a card using a Card Topper, and with a couple of quick additions the card can look really special.

For this card I covered a 12cm x 12cm (approximately 4½" x 4½") card blank with a mottled green paper. This was a piece of  loose paper I had floating around - remember never get rid of your off cuts - they will always come in handy!

I thought the paper complemented the card topper well.  The card topper is one from a sheet from E - Z Stick On Embellishments.

I tend to buy sheets of these card making embellishments when they are in a sale. I just choose ones I really like and then pop them in my embellishments drawer ready for when I need them.

This topper has a blank space on it for you to write a message but I opted instead to put a small clear "Happy Birthday" sticker onto it.

If I hadn't bothered to do anything else the card would have looked a little plain so I added a rose pink chiffon bow to it. This complements the lilac on the topper. I experimented with some peel off corners and thought about punching the edge, but in the end decided this was fine.  On a small card I do think you can overdo the decoration sometimes.

For the inside of the card I decided to use a pink card making insert . I chose pink because it is a nice contrast to the green background paper and also matches the ribbon nicely.

To give some interest to the insert I used a small thumbnail punch to punch a butterfly in the bottom right hand corner. Obviously the white of the card blank shows through - a simple and effective way to make your card that bit special!

This card only took a few minutes to make once I had decided what I was going to use but I hope you'll agree with me that the end result is a pretty Handmade Birthday card!

Susan from Cardmaking-Companion.

Technorati Tags: card making embellishments, Card Making Insert, Card Topper, Hnadmade Birthday Card

Now this type of card making is different from making cards for personal use or as a business proposition.

It costs £1 GBP to feed and school one child in Uganda for one day so when we first started this venture that is what we priced the cards at. The dilemma we face is that although we want to make the cards as attractive as possible we cannot make them too elaborate as they would cost more to make than what we sell them for.

The above two Mother's Day cards are perfect examples of what people get for their £1.

The blank cards are plain white 6"x6". The front of the card has been covered with embossed wrapping paper. The blue card has been matt and layered onto silver mirror card and the lilac card has been matt and layered onto purple pearlescent card and silver mirror card.

The Mother's Day sentiments are silver peel-offs stuck to a pearlescent tag mounted onto the silver mirror card. These are fixed to the cards using 3D double sided sticky pads to give some diemnsion to the card.

Finishing card making embellishments are a blue chiffon bow and a lovely lilac spotted fabric butterfly on the respective cards.

I think they are really good value for £1 but would love to hear what you think!

Susan from Cardmaking-Companion

Technorati Tags: card making, card making embellishments, Mothers Day Cards

 This Home Made Birthday Card would make a great card for  a young teenage girl.

The card developed around the rubber embellishment which was another of the ones I got from the Manchester Show.

I decided to glue the embellishment to the inside back of the card - obviously in normal circumstances this wouldn't be seen but I used a Zig Zag Circle Nestability to cut an aperture in the front of the card.

 The front of the card has been covered with a Red and Pink Small Checks paper from Cardmaking Ideas.

I've had a sheet of pale pink peel offs for absolutely ages and never seem to have found the right card for them but I thought they might be just right for this one.

I used the Happy Birthday sentiment and then decided that the card looked a little bare so I stuck stars from the same peel off sheet around the embellishment on the inside of the card.

In the photgraph on the right you can see what the card looks like when opened up.

Anyway I hope you like this one - it's easy to make and just that bit different.

Susan

Technorati Tags: card making, card making embellishments, home made birthday card, peel offs

As you can see from the photgraph it was reallly busy and everyone was busy hunting for either a bargain or something just that little bit different.

I normally go to 3 or 4 exhibitions a year and I really enjoy them. Normally I'm there when the doors open and stay until they close!

Yesterday I wanted to replenish my stock of Card Making Embellishments and especially get some new ribbon.

A great stall which I always look out for at exhibitions is MeiFlower as they have some really different embellishments.

I stocked up on the new ribbon, fabric butterflies, chiffon flowers, metal charms, and rubber moulded images. Now I just can't wait to get started using them and hopefully you'll see some of the results on future posts.

By the time I got home, after having got caught in rush hour traffic, I spent the night doing what I'm sure many of the day's visitors would have been doing - I lovingly unpacked all my items and spread them all around me and gazed at them fondly!

So I'm off to get on with some card making - I'll let you know how I get on soon.

Susan from Cardmaking-Companion.

Technorati Tags: card making, card making embellishments, cardmaking, cardmaking embellishments

I suppose at heart I'm just an incurable romantic and the latest range of Vintage Valentine Card Toppers from Cardmaking-Ideas captures the feeling perfectly.

Valentine's Day as we know it dates from the 19th Century and it is a tradition that shows no sign of dying out. Infact each year there seems to be more and more cards sent.

I love these vintage images for a number of reasons - for me they just ooze romance and some of them are very sensual; and you can make a card with them very quickly and easily. This is a definite plus point if you are making a number of cards for sale.

This particular image is in the running to be my favourite - I love the Art Deco feel to it and the colour scheme.

The image comes with a choice of 2 different colour borders and I have chosen to use the one wth the purple frame. I have then matt and layered it onto a lilac and then burgundy card.

These are not normally colours you would think work well together but they fit perfectly with this image. To set off the intense colours I have used a white pearlised base card.

The set comes with 2 different coloured sentiments and I have used the purple one and have again matt and layered it onto the lilac and burgundy card. I have mounted it using the 3D foam pads to raise it off the base of the card.

You could dress this card up with other card making embellishments but I feel that the image is powerful enough to carry the card.

Now the only decision is who do I send it to? Should I send it to my husband, or tease one of my sons and send it to him?

Technorati Tags: card making embellishments, handmade Valentine's Day card, vintage Valentine's images

Cardmaking-Ideas is packed full of wonderful downloadable printables suitable for both card making and scrapbooking. There are wonderful background papers, card toppers and card making embellishments.

The vast majority of the papers on the site are exclusive to us so you won't find them on anyone else's web site.

Using digital downloads is a cost effective way to build up a library of versatile papers and images which you can have at hand whenever you're in the mood for card making!

New items are being added to the site almost daily at present so don't forget to bookmark the site and keep checking out all the different ranges.

Happy crafting!

Technorati Tags: card making, card making embellishments, card toppers, Cardmaking Ideas, digital papers, downloadable papers

I've just issued January's copy of "News and Views" which is Cardmaking-Companion's free newsletter and I thought I'd share with you one of the cards I've featured in it.

Each month with "News and Views" you get free digital downloads and an example of what you can make with them.

This card uses 3 of the free elements - the mottled lilac background paper, the lilac middle sized dotty paper and the "Sister" sentiment. The flowers are from my stash of card making embellishments.

These papers are exclusive to Cardmaking-Companion and will shortly be available from our sister site Cardmaking-Ideas which is due to be launched this month.

If you haven't already signed up for "News and Views" all you need to do is complete the name and e-mail address box at Cardmaking-Companion and we'll do the rest.

So 2010 has arrived, the start of a new decade - let's make it a wonderful Card Making year!

Technorati Tags: background paper, card making, card making embellishments, free digital downloads

Well Christmas has come and gone and for once we had a white one!

Here's a photo of my 6 year old Dalmatian, Jazz, exploring snow for the first time! After these few tentative steps and sniffs he decided the white stuff was fun and started running around like the dappy dog he is!

I had a really good Christmas - my only complaint was that it went too quickly. If I could I'd make Christmas last for at least a week! Although I couldn't manage being away from cardmaking for a whole week.

In fact on Boxing day night I sat in front of the TV watching my umpteenth soppy Christmas movie and opened up a card making kit which I've had for a while.

 I signed up for an annual subscription to a card making magazine and the kit was the free gift.

I thought you might like to see some of the results. These were really easy to make but I think they look really effective. I like the colour combination of pink and coffee, with just a hint of chocolate for the card making embellishments.

So far I've made about 12 cards and I've still got quite a few elements left. Let's hope the soppy movies continue until New Year!

Technorati Tags: card making embellishments, card making kits, card making magazines, cardmaking