A card for Alex

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. It's that time of year again that I both love and fear - no not the school holidays but the Cardmaker of the Year 2015 competition! Closing date isn't until mid September but  I'm determined to get my entry in early this year not that I'm expecting to win of course as there are hundreds of more talented and/or better equipped crafters out there than me but I do like to enter the comps anyway and I've had quite a few cards featured in Readers' Galleries. I love that double take I do when I realise the card I'm admiring is actually my own lol. Has that ever happened to you?

The card I'd like to share today is another pop up box card but this one is a flowery get well card for a man in the USA called Alex. He's about to have a second knee replacement op and fellow blogger Lydia http://understandblue.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/fresco-crack-corn-rock-star-and-derwent.html asked people to send him a card in return for being entered into a blog candy giveaway for some Derwent Inktense pencils which I'd really love to win. I don't have a stock of ready made get well cards as I like to make them to suit the recipient but I was fortunate enough to get "Simply Cards & Papercraft" magazine yesterday and it has a stitched balloon and flower die as it's free cover gift. I thought the flower would be perfect combined with my current favourite type of card blank.

Pop up Box card for Alex

I wanted to keep the box design fairly simple so I chose a pretty grey card stock to make the box with. I also rounded the corners of the flaps which I rather like. I die cut 12 flowers using 250gsm white card and coloured them using Flexmarkers and ProMakers. The centres of the flowers are die cut too and fell out when I removed them from the die so I added "Newsprint" Card Candi to replace them and used the leftover circles to cover the foam squares I used to stick the candi down. I staggered the heights of the flowers by adding the heads to different lengths of acetate, then added a silver get well soon peel off and roses as shown. The middle flower at the back had a tendency to flop about so I added a panel of white card to the back box flap and stamped a verse onto it. This has added much needed support to the back flowers.

Card with supported back panel

Close up of stitched flowers

I hope you like my latest card, I really love the stitched flower and balloon die that I got free and I know I'm going to get a lot of use out of it. I've made a card using the balloon element but don't want to share it just yet as it's for a friend's birthday and I don't want to spoil the surprise. I will be adding it to my blog on or after the 15th.

As always if you have any questions or comments relevant to this post or to craft in general, then please leave them in the usual places. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx