It’s this time of year again – I’ve officially completed all of my handmade cards for 2025, and I’m ready to share this year’s designs with you. From my traditional quilled cards to some acrylics and watercolour painted designs, there’s a good variety of techniques I managed to use this year. I’m particularly happy with some of my creative ideas, but let’s go through all of this year’s cards in chronological order. I hope they manage to inspire some of you!
Grandmother’s Day quilled card
The first occasion we celebrate each year is Grandmother’s Day, observed annually on January 21st in Poland. Technically, the card was made in 2024 – I made it when I was back home for Christmas and left it with my sister, knowing that I won’t be there on Grandmother’s Day. I went with a simple design, having limited tools and supplies available in my childhood home. When it comes to making cards for my Grandma, I always stick to quilling, as it’s her favourite technique. The card I made in 2025 included a silhouette of a large flower, with smaller flowers attached on the outside.
Painted car with balloons card – acrylics
Designing cards for my Dad is the hardest. Colourful, floral cards don’t really fit my dad. This time, my Dad’s birthday coincided with my parents getting a new car – another Volkswagen Golf, my Dad’s favourite. So, I decided to paint a car with balloons attached to the mirrors, for a birthday touch. I used acrylic paints for this design – I had painted with acrylics before, but never on a birthday card. I’m really happy with the final result! I’m particularly proud of the licence plate, which combines the standard format of licence plates in my hometown with my Dad’s birthday.
Quilled Mother’s Day card – rainbow butterfly
On May 26th, Poland celebrates Mother’s Day. This year, I decided to make a quilled card for my Mum and designed a rainbow butterfly. It took me quite a lot of time and effort to complete this card, but I’m really happy with how it turned out! I managed to keep it fairly symmetrical, and the colours blended nicely into a rainbow.
Watercolour Winnie the Pooh card
When it comes to cards for my sister’s birthday, I usually take inspiration from things she likes, memorable events we experienced together, or both. This year’s card was inspired by our trip to Brighton earlier this year. My sister is a big Winnie the Pooh fan, and when we saw Winnie the Pooh toys in a claw machine in the arcade on Brighton pier, we had to give it a go. We had little faith in actually getting a plushie out of the machine, but we decided to try anyway. And somehow, we were successful on just the second attempt. We couldn’t believe that! From that point, I knew I would make a reference to that miraculous event on my sister’s birthday card. I decided to use watercolours to paint Winnie the Pooh holding a bunch of flowers, swinging inside a claw machine. I also added a seagull, because Brighton is full of seagulls stealing food from tourists. In fact, another memorable event between my sister and I also happened in Brighton, and involved a seagull flying into the back of my head and causing my sandwich to fly out of my hands.
I’m not the best at watercolour painting, but I think the card turned out cute!
Quilled floral card
The next occasion to celebrate was my Grandma’s birthday. As always, I made a quilled card for her. This time, I used a brown card base and filled it with flowers in various shades of pink, purple and red. I also added a few flowers made with a different technique, which added another dimension to the card.
Stormtrooper with flowers – Father’s Day card
For Father’s Day, celebrated in Poland on June 23rd, I made a card featuring a Stormtrooper holding a bunch of quilled flowers. It may actually be my favourite design of the year! My Dad likes Star Wars and all the other TV series from that universum, and I’m happy with how I managed to combine a manly pop culture character with my traditional quilled flowers.
I sketched the silhouette of a Stormtrooper and cut it out from thick, white paper. Then, I used a thin black liner pen and soft pastel pencils to draw the details on the armour. I glued the Stormtrooper onto the card blank, then added a cluster of tiny quilled flowers. I used acrylic paint to add the stems of the flowers, and the card was complete.
Quilled card – basket with flowers
Finally, I made a quilled card for my Mum’s birthday. First, I decided to make a basket out of paper quilling strips. It wasn’t difficult to make, but the process was a bit fiddly and time-consuming. I weaved the paper strips, making sure to alternate them between the top and bottom layer. Once I had a large area covered, I slightly adjusted the strips to make sure they matched a cut out shape of a basket – I wanted the strips at the top and bottom of the basket to be right on the edge, and then evenly spaced out the rest of the strips.
To keep everything in place, I placed the weaved strips wrong side up and added a tiny drop of glue to each joint, then let it dry up. Once the strips were secured in place, I attached them to the base to create a basket shape. I then glued the basket to the card.
Then, I simply created lots of colourful quilled flowers in various shapes and arranged them on the card to fill the basket. I’m really happy with how the card turned out!
Another year of cardmaking gone
And that concludes my cardmaking of 2025. Yes, it’s only July, but all of the birthdays and other holidays in my family happen to be in the first half of the year. In fact, I’m the last person in my family to celebrate a birthday each year, and that was yesterday.
It was a strong year for cardmaking. I’m happy with the variety of techniques I used, and really proud of some of the designs. I also collected some ideas for future creations, which I’m looking forward to making next year. If you make birthday cards yourself too, I hope this post has given you some ideas and inspiration. And if not – well, I hope you at least found it interesting to see my handmade cards from this year. Make sure to come back next year, for the next annual cardmaking post!
Also see:
Alphe's Corner 