Handmade Card for a 3 year old boy

Here is the beautiful card my mum made for Tom's 3rd birthday. As you can see, she is very talented at making handmade cards. There was even matching wrapping paper, it was so lovely.

handmade card for a 3 year old boy

inside the card

Handmade Christmas Card

Here is the handmade Christmas card my mum made, it's really cute as is the message inside.

handmade Christmas card made by my mum

inside the card is stamped with this special message

Birthday Card for a 2 year old boy

This is the gorgeous card my mother made for my son's 2nd birthday last month. All the cards she makes are beautiful, and this one is no exception.

a delightful birthday card handmade for a 2 year old boy

We celebrated Thomas's birthday twice this year, because it was on a Friday and family couldn't travel here on a week day. So we had a morning tea on the Friday for local friends and family. Then on Sunday we put on a BBQ lunch for family who had to drive a couple of hours to get here. David's father Brian was going to come, but he and his wife Freya couldn't because he was in hospital with a sore leg. But he is all better now, thank goodness.

inside the handmade birthday card

This year we did a cupcake birthday cake again. I find it so much easier to ice than a cake, and easier to store and serve. This time I tried some different designs, the yellow icing didn't work out but I disguised it well enough with h100s and 1000s! I must remember to make these a couple of times a year so I don't fall out of practice. You never know, maybe one day I'll get quite good at it!

one batch of 2012's attempt at birthday cupcakes

Patchwork Quilt Birthday Card

I asked my mum to make a birthday card for my friend who is a keen quilter, and this is what she came up with!

patchwork birthday card by Heather Sutton of Feather's Nest

This card is so pretty and perfect for my quilting friend, I hope she likes it!

inside detail of Patchwork card by Feather's Nest

Black & White Birthday Card

Today is my birthday so here is a photo of the beautiful card my mother sent me and I just got out of the mailbox!

Black & White Birthday Card by Feather's Nest

 On the front it has a cute pocket, inside is this quote you can pull out. Its so sweet! Thanks Mum <3

Winston Churchill quote

Pink Butterfly Birthday Card

pink butterfly birthday card

pink butterflies envelop

I really liked this beautiful pink butterfly card my mum made.

It has a special message inside "the world got a present the day you were born", I think its so sweet. On the front is the message "the time to be happy is now, the place to be happy is here", so true!

This card comes with a lovely matching envelop that is embellished with pink butterflies. Perfect for a special little girl on her first birthday!

Please check out all the pretty pinks at my favourite blog party Pink Saturday hosted by How Sweet the Sound!

No crochet from me today, but there are some excellent examples of crochet at today's Pink Saturday party, so check them out!

A gorgeous pink crochet tea cup and saucer @ Her Resplendent Lair
A finished granny square rug and African flowers @ Howling at the moon
Linen edged with some lovely pink crochet @ Protector of Vintage
How to fold crochet doilies with napkins for a pretty table scaping effect @ Nancy's Daily Dish
<3 <3 <3

Truck with Flowers Birthday Card

truck with flowers birthday card

I think this birthday card is so sweet, and just perfect for a special little boy on his first birthday!

I really like the handmade cards my mother makes, so I like featuring some on my blog. I really hope she sets up her own blog soon so I can redirect people there. I'll keep you posted!

Blue Flower Handmade Label

I've been needing some lovely handmade labels to attach to my crochet gifts, and this is what my mum came up with!

blue flower handmade label for crochet gifts

When I give someone a handmade crochet gift, I need a label tag to attach to it, saying what kind of fibre it is and the washing instructions. I also want to put my blog address so if anyone wants to learn more about the item I made for them, they could read more about it on my blog. Although I'm pretty sure most of them don't do that!

My mum has a special cutting machine that cut out these tags, I think they do the job very well as they fold onto themselves. That way there is more room to write washing instructions inside, but its still a cute little tag. I'll tie some pretty recycled ribbon to attach the label to the crochet gift. Very pretty I think!

Purple Butterfly Birthday Card

purple butterfly birthday card

Here is a pretty purple butterfly birthday card my mother made. I'm giving it with the purple flower baby headband I made last week, and a white and purple cardigan I made when I was pregnant, as a gift to a one year old girl for her birthday.

purple butterly envelope

Before I found out I was having a boy, I crochet baby clothes and blankets in white, purple and green. My intention was these items would be ok for either a girl or boy, but I secretly thought I might be having a girl. Mainly because I assumed the chances were I would, because everyone I knew had boys! Surely a girl was due? That's why I think that purple and white cardigan has flower buttons, I must have subconsciously chose them. I noticed them recently and realised I wouldn't put it on my son, so needed to give it away or it would never be worn!

The birthday card comes with a special envelop embellished with purple butterflies. I hope the birthday girl likes her purple package!

A pair of pretty handmade birthday cards

a pair of birthday cards made by my mum

Here are two handmade birthday cards I commissioned for my mother to make for my friend's birthday, and also for my sister's birthday, which is today!

I think these two are really pretty, with delicate flowers and butterflies. They are very similar, the main difference is one has a green border and ribbon instead of the pink. I'm sure the recipients will love these! Thanks mum!

As usual, today I'm linking in with the only blog party I like to follow, and that's Pink Saturday at How Sweet the Sound. Be sure to check out all the pretty pink posts!
<3

A pretty pink card for a 1 year old girl

Here is a pretty pink cupcake card to celebrate our niece's first birthday! Inside my mother has personalised the card very nicely. I just love my mum's handmade greeting cards, don't you?

front of pink card for a 1 year old girl

My mother makes beautiful greeting cards, and I like to feature some of them on this blog. I was at her house last weekend, and she was showing me how she makes some of them. I'm now thinking maybe one day I will find time to try making my own! If you like my mother's greeting cards she can be contacted at Bead Supplies Australia (she also sells beads!).

inside pink card for a 1 year old girl

Lately I've been linking in with my favourite blog party Pink Saturday at How Sweet the Sound. There are countless blog parties around, but this one is my very favourite. Check it out! <3

A Very Pretty Birthday Card

When my mum was showing me some of her latest handmade greetings cards, this one really caught my eye. It's a very pretty printed paper, with a lovely ribbon embellishment. Hopefully my mum will have a website for her cards very soon, so you can see all of her card designs. I'll keep you posted!

Pretty Blue Hearts Handmade Card

a pretty blue heart card

Here is another pretty card my mother made. I really liked this one with its blue hearts, lace and chocolate colours. Inside was another special heart and a piece of printed paper. I'm in the process of talking my mum into having her own blog so people can look at all of her card designs. Hopefully I'll be able to link to her blog very soon!

inside a pretty heart card

Handmade Card for a 5 year old boy

Here is a cute handmade birthday card for my 5 year old nephew, made by my mum. At first I thought it was a typo, but no it really does say "Happy Dirtday"! Its very appropriate I think!


card for a 5 year old boy

If you're interested in the handmade cards my mother makes, she can be contacted at Bead Supplies Australia (she also sells beads!).

Handmade Green and Blue 1st Birthday Card

This is another simply gorgeous card made by my mother. This one is for Aiden, who turned one on Friday.

On Saturday afternoon we went to Aiden's grandparent's house for a party, it was lots of fun with lots of people there. I'm so happy to be able to give these special birthday cards, it's so much nicer than store bought cards I think.What do you think?

Handmade 1st Birthday Card for Thomas

Thomas turned one nearly a month ago, but we've been so busy catching our breath after a very busy Christmas season, this is the first chance I've had to blog about it!

This was our first 'proper' Christmas with Thomas, as his first Christmas was spent in the hospital nursery, and I was still in hospital that day myself. That's why we decided we should make an extra effort this season, and visit everyone in the family, which we managed to do, except for seeing my sister and her family in Darwin. We hadn't gone anywhere all year, with Thomas being so small I didn't feel confident enough. So Christmas was a very busy season for us indeed this year, and we've decided we should spread things out a bit better next year so it's not so overwhelming!

One thing we can't change though is Thomas' birthday, which is on December 14th, right when things start to get busy. We had to have a party of course, in fact we celebrated all week with visits from family and friends spread out so our small home would not be too crowded in case it rained. Thankfully it didn't rain! My mum came to visit Thomas on the day though, and brought gifts and this very special handmade 1st birthday card.

I just adore my mum's handmade greeting cards, don't you? They are so special. I'm trying to convince her to try and sell some, I think they might be popular!

Freiya's Flower Handbag

Today is the second 1st birthday in our mother's group so we have a party to go to, it's very exciting! I made this small striped bag with a flower as a gift, I hope she likes it!

small drawstring bag with flower

I used 5 colours from my batch of cotton blend, it's a thick yarn so I used my 4mm hook. It's a simple bag, changing colours every row of sc using orange, yellow, green, purple and white. I didn't follow a pattern for the flower either, just did a couple of rounds in yellow ending up with 16 sc, then changed to orange and did 8 petals. Each petals started as 3 ch in every 2nd sc, then the second row is 5 sc into the sp with a sl st to start a new petal.

detail of coloured stripes on the handbag

I used fine cotton and needle to do a simple running stitch to attach the flower to the front. For the bag, a sc ch lip for a ch handle to be threaded through, and a larger ch handle with a second row of sc in orange. The one thing I'm unhappy with is this cotton is too thick to thread through my needle so I couldn't finish off the ends very neatly. Instead I have to weave them in with my crochet hook which means the ends can poke through easily. Eventually there will be some loose ends visible in this bag which will make it look a little rough. Hopefully that will add to the home made character of it!

cupcake birthday card made by my mum

To go with this gift my mum made a special home made birthday card, which is very nice! I'll also include a small Fisher-Price little people car inside the bag, and of course a book which I always love to give children! Children can never have too many books!

the one of a kind detail on the back of the card

Homemade 40th Birthday Card

It's been so long since I've blogged! The last few months have been full of looking after baby, he's been having trouble with his sleeping, but he's asleep in his cot right now so I finally have a chance to post!

It was months ago when I celebrated my 40th birthday in July with my family, my parents came to visit the day before and we all went to a local Chinese restaurant, the Landmark, for Yum Cha. It's definitely one of the best Yum Cha places in Brisbane, if not the best. David and I like to go often, we first took Thomas when he was about 5 months old and able to sit up in the high chair. But we don't have him sitting in the high chair the whole time, sometimes we hold him on our lap. For my birthday we didn't have a high chair at all, and we all took turns to hold him. A special surprise (I hate surprises, by the way!) from my sister was she organised to send her eldest son Deegan down from Darwin to come to my special birthday lunch! Now, that was a surprise! Mum and dad had to go to the airport on the way to pick him up, which made them late, but of course they couldn't tell my why they were late because it was a surprise! We ended up waiting an hour for our table, in future I must remember to go early on a Sunday, or make a reservation.

Once again mum gave me a special hand made card. This one looks very unique and tricky. It's so unusual I wasn't sure how to open it, but the message was hidden on the back. My mum is very talented, don't you think?

Two Handmade Birthday Cards

Two good friends from high school celebrated their 40th birthdays last month. A special occasion like this required a special something sent in the mail!

My mother has started making more greeting cards and I must say they are rather good! I chose these two to send to my old friends, and I've since heard they both reached their destinations safely! And that was despite rainy weather - there's always a danger that snail mail will get waterlogged! You don't get that problem with emails over the internet!

My friend Karen has always kept birds, usually cockatiels, so I thought the pretty card with the caged birds would be nice for her. The owls look rather cute and thoughtful so I sent them to Marina. She has since told me that owls are one of her favourite things, possibly due to being a librarian, but I'm not sure!

Homemade Wedding Card

I think this is really special - it's a hand made card my mum gave us for our wedding.

Both David and I thought this was a store bought card at first, but when I looked closer I knew it was my mum's handiwork. Her skills with this are really coming along and looking very polished.

I really appreciate these things more if they are home made. It gives it that extra personal touch, encourages creativity and resourcefulness in our culture, and anything that challenges the artificial guilt we have been brainwashed into wearing so we buy gift cards, wrapping paper and presents from the shops, I'm all for it!