Hey everyone. It’s New Years Eve, and I thought it would be fun (while I’m awake in the middle of the night with my newborn) to do a roundup of some of my favourite handmade cards from 2021. This is only a hobby I got into earlier this year, but it’s quickly become one of my favourite things to do and I’m finding it a lot more creative than sewing. It’s also a lot easier to do around two young kids so expect a lot more card making content in 2022 (really should have chosen a better blog name). Anyway, below are some of my favourite makes from this year. You can also find all of my makes from this year on my card making Instagram @Lauraplayswithpaper.
Go Daddy Go
I started my card making journey off with digital stamps and the Cricut. This is one of my earliest cards and one I’m still pretty happy with despite the terrible ink blended background. Dr Digi has some really fun stamps and I’ve used a few of these this year.
Long Time No Sea
It wasn’t long before I discovered traditional stamping and this was the first card I made using this technique. I used a mix of pattern paper for the background and the stamps were from a set by Heffy Doodle. Still love this card five months later.
Thinking of You Whatever the Weather
This was the first (and currently only) slimline card I made, again using stamps from Heffy Doodle. I also used one of their slimline dies, and made the card base myself – another first.
Graffiti Santa
I wanted to make a non traditional Christmas card for my father in law, and fell in love with this digital stamp from Dr Digi’s House of Cards. I used Tim Holtz Ideaology paper for the background and coloured everything with Ohuhu markers. This card also won me a free stamp via the Dr Digi Facebook page.
Pink Happy Holidays
It wasn’t long before I discovered Lawn Fawn and boy have I spent a lot of money on this brand. This is a simple card but still one of my favourites due to the colour scheme and the stitched edging which I actually did on my sewing machine.
Sometimes in the Morning
I absolutely adore the Tim Holtz and Vera Lane crafting supplies but find them so much harder to work with than the more cutesy stuff. This is terrible compared to what most people can do but it was nice to make something a bit more to my taste if that makes sense? Anyway, that’s why I’ve included it. I’ll definitely be trying to work more with these supplies in 2022.
Merry Christmas Neighbour
I made this Christmas card for our next door neighbour using some stamps from Simon Says Stamp. This is one of the first cards where I got the hang of ink blending (hint: oxides are way easier to work with), and I also used heat embossing for the sentiment.
Have a Crabulous Christmas
This is one of my favourite scene building Christmas cards – using the same Heffy Doodle set mentioned above. One of my favourite things about card making is that you can use the same stamp set to create so many different things. I’d also invested in stitched dies by this point to save me needing to use a sewing machine to create a similar effect.
Arctic Critters Christmas
Another one of my favourite Christmas cards using a mix of Lawn Fawn dies and stamps. This was sent to a friend of mine from Iceland.
Carol Singers
This card was made with a digital stamp from Vera Lane Studio. I used a ton of techniques on this card which was a lot of fun. You can’t really see it on the picture, but I also tried Glossy Accents for the first time, which made the street lamp super effective.
Happiness is Buying a Christmas Tree
This was another Christmas card made using Vera Lane Digital stamps. Everything was cut out using the Cricut, and then I used pattern paper for the background.
Don’t Worry Be Hoppy
I took a break from making Christmas Cards to create this. I love the Lawn Fawn background dies and how they’re so simple to use yet create something super effective.
Every Day I’m Shufflin’
I made this card while in labour – and it’s definitely one of my favourites from the year. The Mama Elephant sentiments crack me up so much.
Have an Out of This World 2022
This is my one and only New Year card for this year. It’s not something I traditionally send, but I made this for a Lawn Fawn competition. Again, it’s another example of how you can take a non-holiday stamp set and turn it into something different.
You Are Stinkin’ Sweet
And finally, my last card of the year. This was a recreation of a card made by Christy Gets Crafty and I love it so much. If you take a look at my Instagram, you can see how much my skills have improved over the last six months and this is an example of it.
So there we have it. I really hope I can continue making time for this hobby in 2022 and that I can start sharing more of my card making creations on this blog. Have a Happy New Year everyone.
