Birthday wishes and thanks .....

....  I've got two cards to share with you today.  The first I made for Ben's 16th birthday - today!!!  He was such a sweet little baby and now he's a hulking great 6 foot tall teenager!!  Oh! where has the time gone?

Gosh, I'd forgotten just how blonde Ben was when he was little.  I think he was about 2 years old in this picture.  And I've got no idea why he's looking so sad!! 

The one of the right was taken by Ben on his mobile last week when he'd had his hair cut.  I like the short cut - at least I can see his face!!

Ben is so grown up now - I don't think he understands that he'll always be my baby - no matter how old he gets!

I think I've told you that Ben likes cards with lots of layers - so that's what I made for him.  I've used inspiration photo from this week's Runway Inspired - RIC#3 for the colours, and the layout is the current sketch from Clean 'n' Simple - FTL172.

I've gone for a completely black and white card - although I was tempted to put in a touch of red (she's got red lips).  I folded some black card in half to make a large A5 card.  I cut a mat from plain white card and stamped the chevron pattern in black and heat embossed it with clear powder.  Then I used the largest lattice rectangle nestie to make the bottom layer of the topper.  I made a couple of mats - one in dark grey metallic card and the top in white.  At the bottom of this layer I stamped the chevrons and birthday sentiment.  At the top I wound some black twine around the card.  Finally, I attached the top layer made up of a couple of circles with Ben's age as the feature!  I hope Ben likes it.

Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Off Beat Backgrounds; Stampin' Up! - Occasional Greetings
Inks:  Versafine - Onyx Black; Distress - Black Soot
Spellbinders:  Lacey Circles (S4-293) #3, Standard Circles Lg (S4-114) #4, Lattice Rectangles (S4-319) #4 (I made the rectangle longer)
Accessories:  Cuttlebug - Olivia Alphabet; Card from stash

Edited:  I spoke to Ben this evening - he was absolutely delighted with both his cards (and the surprised inside the one from Nanna).  I checked to make sure that there were enough layers - and Ben told me that his mates thought that the "16" one was "Cool!".  So, that's a great result.


I've made the next card for a special blog buddy - Charmaine Stack of Tweedcurtain Productions.  I've used the current Waltzingmouse Sketch - WMSC79 for the layout and the colours (yummy colours!) are from this week's Colour Q - cQc119. 


I started off by stamping the daisy trellis pattern in grey directly onto the card base.  I cut a broad piece of pink card and shadow stamped the trellis pattern again.  Next I cut a piece of melon mambo and used this pretty border punch to make the bottom layer.  I used my stamp-a-ma-jig to position the thanks sentiment correctly.  To make the topper I cut the bottom layer in pumpkin pie and the next in white to which I added some colour.   I stamped the rose onto watercolour paper, using versafine ink and clear embossing.  Then I wet the images and added drops of Stampin' Up! reinkers allowing the colours to blend.  Once dry, I cut the roses out and layered them onto the topper base.

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Pic-Nic Patterns, Say It Loud, Roses In Bloom
Inks:  Stampin' Up! - Melon Mambo, Pretty in Pink, Pumpkin Pie; Memento - London Fog
Spellbinders:  Octagons Lg (S4-185) #4, Scalloped Octagons Lg (S4-187) #3
Accessories:  EK border punch; SU card

I had a spare rose left after making the card, so I made a matching envelope.

This is going to Charmaine to say thank you so much for the wonderful comment she left on the "Nice List" competition over at Waltzingmouse just before Christmas.  This is what Charmaine had to say:

"I really enjoy WMS, the forum, the gallery, the amazing design team. I have been made aware of so many wonderful people as a result of the community that has sprung up around Claire. One person stands out, though - a fellow fan. Deb Frings is always ready with a sweet, kind word, a generous compliment, and a willingness to cheer a fellow stamper on. I enjoy her blog and all her creations, most of which feature WMS in some fashion. The WMS world is a bit better place for her enthusiastic support. So ths year, my Nice List has a shining star atop it named Deb. :-) 19 December 2011 20:54 "

Thank you Charmaine - you made my day! 

And with that, I'll say bye for now - see you all again tomorrow.