Handmade cards and other crafts, templates & tips

If like me you struggle to come up with ideas for male cards here are a few suggestions. These simple designs can be adapted to any occasion by adding the appropriate sentiment or personal message.

These are very simple cards made with die cut shapes or stamped images and torn paper/cardstock. Little details like the sewing and the buttons add a nice touch.

By the way, don't forget Father's Day is June 21st.

 

This is a needle case I made for the Button Swap over at Kool Crafts and Arts. The aim of the swap was for us to choose 5 buttons and send them to our partner who then had the task of creating a little handmade gift for us incorporating the buttons received.

The buttons I received from my partner, Jen, were perfect for this project. This needle case is a great gift for anyone who does a little bit of sewing and it's very quick to make too.

The templates below were made by me and you can use them to create your needle case or you can also draw your own templates.

To make a needle case like this you'll need to cut 2 cover pieces either of the same fabric/felt or one each in matching material (I chose felt for the outside and cotton fabric for the inside). You'll also need to cut 1 inside piece using preferably felt so it's easier to stick the sewing needles and 1 front piece which will be embellish.

Once you have all your pieces cut you can start assembling them:

1 - Place the cover fabric on the cover felt piece making sure the right side of the fabric is showing. Sew and trim with pinking scissors. If you want to use ribbon to help keep your needle case closed, insert it between both layers of material before sewing. As you can see, I made a button loop with ribbon.

2 - Place the inside piece of felt centrally on the cover and sew along the middle.

3 - Embellish the front piece of felt and sew it onto the cover either by hand or by machine.

Below is my own needle case made sometime ago, it's slightly larger than the one above but made in the same way.

Sometimes I post crochet charts and receive requests for some sort of written instructions. While I wouldn't mind doing that the problem is that I'm used to the Continental way of crocheting with charts and although I've tried writing the instructions to some of my own crochet designs I don't think anyone could actually make something by following them.

So, I've been looking on the Internet and found some really helpful sites that teach you how to read a crochet chart. Here are some of them, I hope you find them useful

Smart Knitting-Crocheting
DMC
Needlepointers

If you want more info on the abbreviations used in crochet and their meanings you can refer to the Needlepointers web site where you'll find plenty of links to crochet glossaries in several languages.

This is a scarf I knitted recently, I chose a basketweave pattern and used roughly 3 x 50g balls of Rowan's handknit cotton. I love this green but found it a little dull on its own so added the crochet flowers and small buttons to liven it up. I love my new scarf 

You can find instructions for the basketweave pattern by following the links below:

About.com:Knitting
Lion Brand Yarn

I also made these 2 neck warmers using just a little over 50 g of Wendy Fusion yarn (50% wool and 50% acrylic) for each. I bought the yarn on sale at Hobbycraft for half the usual price. The reason why I made these now is because I thought it would take me until Winter to have them finished but as you can see they were very quick to knit.

 

Shaker cards are so much fun both to make and to receive and contrary to what you might think they're actually quite easy to create. Also they stand out from standard cards because of the use of loose elements inside a "window".

This is how I make my shaker windows to use on cards.

Supplies:

Cardstock ( I used a piece of thick cardboard from a wine box)
Foam pads
Double-sided tape
Acetate

1 - Begin by cutting your window choosing the shape and size that will best suit your card.

2 - Put double-sided tape all the way around the reverse side of the window. This will hold the acetate in place and is a much quicker and cleaner way of attaching the acetate to the cardstock window frame. Place the acetate over the double-sided tape.

3 - Again, on the reverse side of the window, put foam pads all around making sure there are no gaps. This is important because you don't want your loose elements to come out when you shake the card.

4 - Choose the items you're going to put inside the window. They should not be too bulky as otherwise they might become stuck and not shake. You can use sequins, very small beads or even punched shapes.

5 - Choose the place on the card where you want your window to be and place your shakeable items there. Carefully, place the window you made on the card and make sure it's properly attached without any openings or gaps from where things might come out.

Depending on how you planned your card layout, your window can be used plain or embellished. If you're using stamps to embellish your window it might be a good idea to do the stamping before attaching the acetate so you don't get ink on it. Below you can see a few examples of shaker cards.