I made this card about a week ago for my sisters birthday. Its a very simple design and was very easy and quick to make

Click on the image to view it larger

What I Used

• A6 pearlescent blue card blank
• 12.5cm x 8cm Light Blue Mulberry Paper
• 10.5cm x 4cm White Mulberry Paper
• 0.5mm turquoise craft wire
• 1.02mm Ice blue Craft Wire
• Blue & Pink Beads
• Foam Butterflies & Flowers By Avec Colours Unlimited range
• Blue Check Ribbon from Anita’s Sticky Ribbon range
• Silver peel off letters
• Double sided sticky tape
• Strong Glue
• Glue Pen

The Wire Letters

I bent the blue craft wire into the shapes of the letters I needed a, n, g, e, l, a then threaded the pink and blue beads randomly onto the turquoise wire and carefully twisted the wire around the blue letters making sure to leave random gaps between some of the beads.

The Card

I fixed the blue paper to the card using double sided sticky tape and a glue pen around the edges. I then attached the ribbon to the top and bottom of the blue paper and attached the white paper to the centre. Using a strong glue carefully applied to the back of the wire letters I added them going through the centre of the card. Finally I added the butterflies and flowers using a strong glue and then placed peel off letters to the bottom centre of the card to spell out happy birthday.

I made this card for my nephew’s 20th birthday.

Men always seem the hardest to make cards for unless they have a hobby or enjoy drink. Thankfully for me Nathan does like his alcohol

"Haven't a clue what theme I'm going to come up with for his 21st"

This is actually the first creative project I’ve managed in a few months so I may have gone a little overboard as it did take me well over 6 hours in total to complete this.  For a quicker and easier solution I could have used a printed picture of the can of beer and glass but I couldn’t resist the chance to paint. I could have also used premade 3d letters but this way I got the exact effect I was after.

What I Used

• A5 White Card Blank
• Blue Sugar Paper
• Green Thin Card
• A5 Water Colour Paper
• Watercolour Paints
• Acrylic Paints
• Gold 3d Paint
• Thick Card (for the letters)
• Masking Tape (letters)
• Gold Ink Dabber (letters)
• Gold Embossing Powder  (letters)
• Gold Letter and Number Peel Offs 
• White Funky Foam
• Double Sided Sticky Tape
• Double Sided Sticky Tabs
• Strong Glue
• Glue Stick or Pen

The Beer Painting

Using watercolours I painted the background of the can and the beer glass onto the watercolour paper. Once dry I added the can details using acrylics and gold 3d paint.

The Letters

I sketched the letter designs directly onto a very thick cardboard in the style of the “Calligraph421 BT” font type. Had my printer been working at the time I probably would have just used a printed version and glued directly to the cardboard. Then using a craft knife I carefully cut around the edge of the letters. This was when I realised that the letters were pretty flimsy at certain points so I decided to strengthen them using masking tape which I had to cut into extremely small strips so I did not lose the letters style. I then painted the letters white. Once dry I dabbed gold ink around the edge of the letters “N”,”t” and “a” and completely covered the remaining. I used the gold embossing powder to cover all the letters and carefully tapped them to remove the excess. I used a small brush to remove any unwanted powder from the middles of “N”,”t” and “a” then used a heat gun to melt the powder. 

Putting the card together 

I covered the Card in the Blue sugar paper using the glue stick. Then I gently tore around the edges of the can/beer painting and backed it on the green card using double sided sticky tape. Which I then tore to leave a small green border around the edge and affixed it to the center of the card slightly lower to the bottom using tape. I cut the top of the card to match the curve of the can and glass. Finally I used peel off letters to spell out “Happy Birthday” affixing them to some white funky foam and cutting around the edge to make a rectangle and attached it to the card using a strong glue. Then just attached the foam letters to top and right of the card again using the strong glue.  Oh nearly forgot I also added my nephews age “20″ using peel off stickers attached to the lid off a bottle of Carlsberg and affixed it to the bottom left of the card using double sided sticky tabs.