New Hovel, Graduation, Ribbons, New Home

Hidely-ho, carddiddlyardmakers. This month I've made a couple of 'Welcome to Your New Home' cards; the first is for my best mate Neil, who's moving in just down the road. Hurrah! His new hovel is about eight minutes hobble from mine, which is excellent. As we were both big fans of the Simpsons back when it was good, he got this Flanders-themed card. It's just an image of Ned cut from my tv guide, stuck to a load of Flanders quotes (which continue inside and on the back), with some illusion yarn scraps stuck down with brads round the edge. Very simple, but the idea is to make Neil chuckle, as he's very stressed at the moment.

My niece Laura graduated from Hull with a 2:2 in Psychology - very impressive considering she's had her father's leukaemia to deal with in her final year. I made her a scroll card. Use any suitable paper scrap for the scroll - I had a bit with latin words on it, so it looked suitably scholarly. Then I nicked a bit of red and gold ribbon from my Xmas stash to tie it with. As the backing paper had gold swirls on it, I cut similar gold swirls down the edge, and added Laura's name in gold lettering. A very textural card which doesn't show up well in 2D, but there you are. Pleasantly posh in the flesh, I promise.
A word about ribbons. Hopefully you'll get plenty from birthday and Christmas presents; but if you're recycling clothes, there may well be good ribbon to save there too, along with buttons, zips etc. Also when buying new underwear, it often seems to come these days with long ribbons, as if you're going to hang it up. I can't imagine ever being the sort of person who hangs up underwear, so I cut it off, wash it and stick it in the ribbon bag before I ever wear the items. You may wish to erase this thought from your minds if ever I send you a card with ribbon on, but I promise it hasn't touched me anywhere it shouldn't.

The other Welcome to Your New Home card is for my brother, who has moved to a different part of New Zealand and bought a beach house, so he has a beach hut sort of card. Remember the Capital One vellum-type envelopes? They are here as the sea! Then some yellowy, glittery stuff that was part of packaging makes a good sandy beach. A friend had given me an old craft magazine that had a page of 'the ten best beach papers' on it, so I cut shapes from those to make the hut roofs and doors, the sun and message. If you have shaped scissors then you can make fake lace/edging easily - cut plain white paper up both sides and punch little holes in the middle (I use a Victorian awl - good for putting holes in belt buckles and so forth - but you can use any poky tool, eg a used biro, small hole punch).
That's all for now folks, much love,
Jehanine