January is always a busy month, birthday wise. We’ve got a bunch of friends and family who celebrate their birthdays in January and the beginning of February, then it’s sort of quiet all the way to September. Last year I started making personalized cards for everyone’s birthday and I loved doing it! So even though it’s kinda hectic in January with so many birthdays, I made everyone a personalized card.

The first one is for my friend Nikki. She loves the Gorjuss girls as much as I do, so it needed to be something with a Gorjuss stamp. This was the first time I tried paper patching, I stamped the image again on a patterned paper and cut out the dress and boots, which I then glued on top of the image stamped on white paper. I loved the effect! I need a bit of a busier pattern next time though…

The next one is for my friend Marlon. She loooooooves to crochet and makes the coolest things! A while ago I picked up the Marianne Design cutting die with yarn, crochet hooks and knitting needles and knew I wanted to do something fun with that one. This quote is one I knew she loved, so I thought, why not make the yarn and needles into a sort of skull-and-bones? The background is stamping ink through a masking stencil and the quote is a combination of stamping and hand lettering. I adore this one and she absolutely loved it!

Mum was up next. She has a washi tape addiction {like me…} so card needed to be something with washi tape. Through Pinterest I found a washi tape and stamp card which design I adored and blatantly copied… {sorry not sorry} But then I needed a fun quote, which proved a bit more difficult. I came across an artwork with this quote and absolutely loved it in combination with the already rainbow colours. The tiny unicorn is a hand-embroidery design from Urban Threads that I picked up a while back. Check out her site and sign up for the newsletter, not only are the hand-embroidery design amazing and cheap digital stamps, she has awesome sales that make the designs even cheaper!

Last one {for now} is the card I made for my Grandpa. He loves birds and when I was younger we used to spend entire afternoons just sitting in the garden and watching the birds flit by. I made the little birdhouse by taking a normal A6 sized card and cutting the corners off of the top. The heart was taken out with a cutting die, strips of scrapbook paper for the roof and bottom et viola! We have a tiny birdhouse. The little birds are cut from jute paper using a cutting die and embellished with promarkers. I doodled the hearts and swirls and added a ‘happy birthday’ sentiment inside. He loved it!

Okay fine, one more then {hihihi} Although this one is a little bit older, from the end of November. My amazing friend Chantal had her birthday. We both share the same passion for literature, writing and all things dark and Gothic. I wanted to make an awesome birthday card for her that show all these things. The card is in ‘her’ colours: black and bloodred, with one of our favourite poems, the Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. {seriously, you need to listen to this version, told by the amazing Christopher Lee} The ravens and the quote were handdrawn on vintage style paper. I added the feathers last minute, feeling that the card was missing something. They complement the card perfectly! I absolutely loved it and it’s still on her dresser, so I must have done something right *grin*

See you in about two weeks with another batch of birthday cards!