Beautiful Birthdays

It doesn't matter quite how old you are, your birthday is always a cause of great excitement. The cake, the night out, the presents and hopefully also, the cards. A birthday is the one time of year to let your loved one know exactly how much they mean to you. It is their own day to be the centre of attention and focus of your thoughts. To me, a present and card should not be something that is just bought for the sake of it, it should be purchased with that one person in your mind-something special and bespoke to them.

Over the course of this month, we will be bringing you the very best of the beautiful gifts you are able to purchase locally in Bonnyrigg and surrounding areas. There will be suggestions for ladies, men and of course children too. You will recognise a few of these companies from our Wedding theme last month, but we are excited to welcome lots of new companies too who have some really fabulous products to share.

For many people, a birthday card is one of the last remaining items of stationery where they physically write a message in pen and sign it - we are in an age nowadays of email and text messages and I doubt many people could remember the last time they wrote a letter to a loved one! I am so determined that the tradition of sending cards is not one lost in the digital age.

Here are LE Designs, we have taken love and attention over each of our Birthday card designs. Each has a 'theme' in mind that will hopefully cater to lots of different types of people. Our cards can be personalised and of course colours can also be altered in order to fit with individual tastes. Here are a few examples, all of which can be found in our Etsy shop here.

Artistic Paint Splatter Butterfly Card £5

Hello Beautiful Butterfly Card £5

Paint Splatter Tree of Life Card (Summer Shades) £5

Paint Splatter Tree of Life Card (Autumn Shades) £5

Nautical Sailor Card £3

Blue Dandelion Card £3

Child's Age Birthday Card £3

Child's Die Cut Age Birthday Card £5

Of course, as I previously said, I feel a card should reflect the intended recipient. It could be that one of the above cards would work perfectly for this purpose or you may wish to choose our bespoke service, where we are able to create a card following a specific design brief. All you need to do is tell us as much about your indented recipient as possible (colours, patterns, hobbies, age etc) and we will do the rest. Here are some examples of cards we have previously made in this way.

A cycling fanatic husband

A Hearts mad 40 year old

A Hearts mad 40 year old with a new puppy

A pink and animal print loving sparkly 40 year old 

Card making is something that I have a really passion for and I love to see others learning this dying art. When I think back to when I first started card making, I really hadn't a clue where to even begin. I ended up buying an array of resources that I really had no clue how to use. Thankfully, with a lot of time, patience, trial and error and lots of hours spent watching youtube videos, I finally began to learn the ropes! One company that has remained very special to me from the very start of my card making is Uniko Studio - a stamp design company run by the wonderfully talented Beverley Brown. When I first started out, things just weren't working out for me. I purchased my very first set of stamps from Uniko Studio and all of a sudden, my creations started to come to life. The stamps were of superb quality which made my images sharp as they should be. I was still struggling with stamps I had bought elsewhere, but the wonderfully generous Beverley imparted some of her knowledge, which was to use an eraser over the surface of some of these other stamps to remove some residue that can often be left…..as if by magic, all my stamps were then useable.

I wanted to create something to help others learn the ropes quicker than I did - a DIY kit with all the necessary resources to create 12 beautiful cards and also to give the essentials for the start of a hobby of card making. I was delighted when Beverley agreed to be part of this exciting product, by way of providing the wonderful stamps for the sets.

Floral DIY Kit £18

Each of the DIY Kits include everything you need to create 12 cards, 6 of each design. The kits include pre-folded cards, inks, stamps, acrylic block and embellishments. The stamps included are a full set from Uniko Studio and the inks are high quality Memento dew drop pads. Full colour instructions are also included so you can follow step by step, what to do. These sets make a perfect gift for older girls who would enjoy getting crafty, or for anyone who would like to get started with a card making hobby. 

The kits are priced at £18 for the Floral Kits and £16 for the Butterfly Kits. This is a real bargain price as the stamps and inks alone have an RRP of around £14. 

Butterfly DIY Kit £16

Both of these sets are available from our Etsy shop.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this post and you have been given some inspiration for forthcoming birthday gifts and cards. If I can be of any help, please do not hesitate to get in touch via my Facebook Page or by emailing ledesignsboutique@icloud.com

Join me next week when I will be taking an inspiration and turning it into a card. This is one not to be missed as it includes water from the River Esk and Scotch Thistles!

Laura x