Baby Boy Card Using Hand Stitched Felt

Baby Boy Card

Inspire
Inspiration comes in all shapes and sizes.  For this card I was inspired by a print for sale in a high street store, of an old vintage style baby pram.  As soon as I looked at it I thought to myself that the pram looked like it was a big bubble with a chunk cut away (just the kind of crazy random thoughts that go through my head!).  Of course this got me thinking – and mentally crafting.  I had the revelation that I could easily recreate the shape of a pram by using a circle punch to cut out some patterned card and then simply cut away one quarter.  So i tried it, and whilst digging through my stash to find my tub of buttons for wheels, I stumbled upon some felt and had another brainwave!

Although this card uses a variety of different products, it is very simple to make, however I think that this is what gives it an elegant appeal.  The white felt adds a touch of softness that makes this the perfect card for proud new parents to celebrate their new bundle of joy, and the glitter background gives this card a touch of glam.

The Process
To begin, I punched a circle from card using a circle punch and cut away one quarter, just as mentioned above.  Then, I used this shape as a template to cut out the basic pram shape form the white felt (although I couldn’t help thinking that it also looked a little like pac-man!).  Whilst watching TV, I sat patiently and hand sewed the details onto the felt to make it clear that this was in fact a pram shape (and not pac-man!), and then I sewed two buttons onto the felt for each wheel.

Upon inspecting the embellishment I had just made, I wasn’t totally happy as I felt there was something missing – a push handle.  I tried various different products in order to fashion a handle, paper, card, pipe cleaners, lollypop sticks; but the best result came from the flexibility of using wire.  So with a pair of needle nosed pliers, I curled one end of a piece of silver wire, and wrapped the other end around a small piece of cardstock.  By doing this, I could put a length of tape onto the cardstock to ensure that the wire would be stuck securely to the card and would not move or fall off the card.  This is a great tip when using wire but it’s a good idea to ensure that the piece of cardstock is small enough to fit underneath the felt design so it will remain hidden from sight.

Because I had chosen for the background of this card to be white, the fact that the white felt embellishment seemed to blend in too much with the white card bothered me a lot.  My first thought was to mount the pram on top of a square of patterned paper, but this didn’t seem to work for me as the patterned paper would draw the eye away from the felt pram.  I had spent so long sewing the little pram that I really did not want that to happen, so I needed a more subtle frame.  Yeay – Holographic embossing powder saves the day!

Embossing
Using a scrap piece of card, I cut out a template to the exact size that I wanted my frame to be, and stuck this to the card blank with lo-tack tape (masking tape).  Using a Versamark ink pad, I inked all over the template, making sure that I had got the embossing ink right up to the edge of the template.  This can sometimes be tricky to see, as the embossing ink is clear, but if you hold it up to the light then you can usually see the ink glistening.  The next step was to lavish on the holographic embossing powder, tip off the excess, remove the template to reveal the frame on the card, and heat the embossing powder until we are left with a lovely sparkling frame.

I hope you like the simplicity and elegance of this baby card, and perhaps you will give it a try yourself. Friends and family will be amazed at the how much this resembles a professional store bought card – I know that many people have commented that this is their favourite card from my many boxes that I have stashed away.

Just remember that no matter where you are, you can find inspiration and ideas for crafting, whether it is from a card or wrapping paper that you see in a shop, or even from advertisements in magazines. All you have to do is think outside the box a little.