My boyfriend's Homemade Valentine's Card

This year I decided to make my boyfriend's valentine's card instead of buying him one someone else designed.

A lot of the materials were things I found or leftovers like the jeans pocket which was in my box of bits and pieces that I like to save in case I can make something with them in the future.

The jeans pocket used to be on a skirt I no longer fitted in.  The heart a little piece of leftover fabric.  The metal "Love" piece I found on a pavement in January (you'd be surprised what little trinkets you can find dropped on pavements!)

The backing card I bought from an art shop for under a £1 (but you can get at least 3 greeting cards from 1 piece of card) and the glittery hearts I put on the inside were from a £2 pack of stickers (but I still have some left over for future projects)

I sewed on the heart and embroidered the "my" on the train to Brighton for the Seedy Sunday Seed Swap.  A few people om the train had a nose at what I was up to when I was making that.

And of course using a jeans pocket I had to pop a little present for him in the pocket.  Teamed up with a red envelope! 

He was chuffed.  It took a little while to put together but it was definitely worth it and so many little bits and bobs were upcycled - some people would even think it rubbish!!

Did you make your other half's Valentine Card this year?

Home made Birthday Card

I made this card for my friend Paul so another card for a boy.

Materials:
Lettering (Art Shop)
Pattern Backing Card (Art shop)
Cupcake Picture (cut out from an old birthday card)

Teamed up with a lime green envelope.

A Birthday Card for Him

Men can be so difficult to find suitable cards for.

I made this card for my boyfriend's birthday.  We're a bit strapped at the moment so all he wanted for his birthday was a homemade card and a chocolate birthday cake.

Last year I did a gouache painting, so he knows I like to create things, but this time I wanted to do something really special.

I looked on some websites for inspiration and in the midst of my online research there was a you tube video I found which mentioned "have a really good think of what are the recipients interests or hobbies?  What do they like doing in their spare time?"

For Matt, that was easy, his car!  He bought it about a week before he met me and never really got to pull in the car!  He fondly calls it the rollerskate.

To start to make the card I printed a colour image of the car on our home colour printer.  I just used bog standard paper but very carefully cut around the edges so I could add my own background.

The red back ground was from an offcut of material I bought to make a cushion for him for Christmas (he really likes red).

For the background, originally I was going to go for a shabby chic background of some brown packing paper glued onto a bit of card but then I had the idea of using patterned wrapping paper.  I like bright colours and patterns and felt that there needed to be a bit of me in the card too.  I was browsing round my local art shop and stumbled across these printed cards.  They range from about 50p to £1.00 and you can make about 2 cards out of each sheet.

And there you have the full combinations for my boyfriend's birthday card.  He thinks it has a kind of a retro look to it.