Mother's Day Craft Makes - Part 3 The Handmade Card

A little late in the day as by now I would assume most of you have visited your Mum today and given her her Mother's Day gifts and/or card.  Apologies the schedule didn't go as planned this week but hey, what can I say, my little arrival (two weeks to go now!) is making me very tired! That's my excuse anyway! On with the show, today is the handmade card, the not so grand finale.  As we go through, I will give you ideas on how to adapt this same design for a friend or loved one so if you wanted to try it out yourself, you still can.  Equally, you can use exactly the same design for say your Mum's birthday, just change the sentiment on the inside accordingly. ('Giving thanks on your birthday' for example).  Design copyright is all my own, Just Creative Julia 2014.  I don't mind if you want to copy this card or the mug design as previously posted, to make for friends and family but please do not use for a commercial basis (in terms of using my designs for selling), thanks.  Craft materials at the ready, here's your step by step.

DIY Tutorial - Handmade Mother's Day Card

What to do:

1. First off, print your sentiments on the computer to gauge how big your heart needs to be.  If completely copying my design, I used the same font as on the label for the biscuit - Amienne.  'Mum' was in font size 40 and 'Your Love has BLOSSOMED me' was in font size 30.  If you choose a different font, do experiment first on plain paper to check your sizing as it could well be different.  I printed mine on the bright pink stiff paper.

2. Next arrange the sentiments with 'Mum' at the top left hand corner and 'Your Love..' at the bottom right hand corner.  Double check again the size fits and how big your heart needs to be.  Don't glue them yet.

You will need:

• A square card blank, mine was 13.5 cm.
• Some light blue and bright pink stiff paper or cardstock.
• Some pretty/patterned paper flowers/blossoms.
• Brads (optional).
• Buttons in assorted colours to match your scheme.
• Some floral patterned craft/background paper.
• Glue fixings of your choice (again I've used foam pads, small glue dots and good old Pritt Stick).
• Scissors or scalpel, metal ruler and protective mat.
• Your computer for printing the sentiments.

3. Draw your heart free hand on your blue stiff paper or cardstock.  If this doesn't appeal, just do a Google search for a heart template in the right dimensions for your card and use accordingly.  Cut the heart out.

4. I used brads with my paper blossoms and if using, simply attach them in the middle of each set of blossoms.  I also used the brads to secure the blossoms to the heart.  If not using, you can simply fix them with glue dots, Pritt Stick etc.  Arrange and glue them on the heart for best fit and coverage.

5. In each corner of the card, glue a square sized piece of your floral patterned craft/background paper, so that you have a blank cross shape in the middle.  It doesn't have to be accurate, mine isn't because I realised after I'd glued the heart down it needed a bit more! So had to carefully add my patterned paper under the already glued heart!

6. Arrange the heart onto the card, placing the sentiments as described but still don't glue them.  Once satisfied with where your heart is going, glue to the card.  Glue your buttons around the heart so that they overlap the outline onto the card blank.

7. Finally, glue the two sentiments, top and bottom using foam pads.

8. If you want to add a sentiment to the inside, simply print off and glue.  I've used 'Giving thanks on Mother's Day' and printed off on the bright pink stiff paper to match the front.

Here's my finished card.  I've had some paper flowers in my craft stash I've been wanting to use for ages.  I thought I'd finally use them for this project and the idea of flowers got my creative juices flowing for the sentiments.  First of all I thought of 'Mum, you're BLOOMING marvellous, because...' and then the second one of 'Your Love has BLOSSOMED me'.  On second thoughts, I thought two flower themed sentiments was a bit much and preferred the second one.  You could just use the first one on its own also (without the 'because...').  The second one then gave me the idea to use the heart shape.  Buttons are so popular at the moment and I love them too, so that was easy to use those to finish off as an outline.

For the inside, originally I was just going to do a very simple 'Happy Mother's Day' for the sentiment.  But today the sermon at Church was all about honouring each other.  Even if you're not a Christian or follow a faith, this is such a great principle to live by.  Anyone can be kind to others but truly honouring someone for who they are and accepting them, no matter what (so that means forgiving them too when they offend you or rub you up the wrong way!) just goes that little bit further.  Hence I changed the sentiment to 'Giving thanks on Mother's Day' as it was so much more fitting with everything I heard today.  Because, what is Mother's Day for if not honouring your Mum for who she is?Thanking them for what they do for you, that's a big part of it.

And to adapt the design, as already stated, you could still use the exact same design for your Mum for her birthday and just change the inside sentiment for your preference.  For a friend, here's a few sentiments you could use that revolve around the flower theme:

'Friends are like flowers in the garden of life'

'Life is the flower for which love is the honey'

'A single rose can be my garden; A single friend my world'

Instead of a heart shape, just use a circle or say, a diamond shape.  Then add a 'Happy Birthday' sentiment inside or for whatever occasion it's for.  Simples!

That concludes the crafty makes for this week.  I definitely gave myself a bit too much work, hence why the schedule didn't go as planned! As much as I've enjoyed it all, it's quite a relief to have finished it.  Next week I will do more of a writing article.  Enough craft stuff for now! Hope you enjoyed it too, please get in touch and show me your makes if you have a go yourself.  Always nice to hear from you.