Happy Birthday Kat .....

.... Hello again!  Today our darling daughter Kat (as she has chosen to call herself) turns 14 years old!  I still can't quite believe just how fast the last 14 years have gone by, it really does only seem like yesterday that she was a tiny baby totally dependent on us.  And now, well, she's a wonderful young woman - confident, bright, funny, sometimes grumpy, but always our special girl.  Here's the card that I made for her:

Stamps: Dylusions - Endeavour, Quintessential Quotes, Which Way Up, Bits of This, Dy's Alphabet, Clearly Quotes, Clearly the Right Word, Clearly Alpha
Inks: Memento - Tuxedo Black, London Fog; Versafine - Onyx Black
Dies: Spellbinders - Glass Effects (S4-451)
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Stampin' Up! Card - Garden Green, Island Indigo, Pacific Point; Copic Markers; SU DP - Pacific Point

 This is a large card - I used a card blank that I brought over from the UK, it's 8" × 8".  Well, it's a special birthday.  I used a few challenges in the making of this card.  I used the sketch from MFT Wednesday Sketch Club - MFTWSC#241, although I did adapt it a bit.  The colours are from Colour Me! Card Challenge - CMCC#89.  And, as I've used a die, I'm submitting this card to Left of Centre - LOC#95.

Kat is very specific about her likes and dislikes, and she has a somewhat eclectic taste in music and fashion.  So I was quite pleased to find that she "lurves" my Dylusions stamps - so I had to use them on this card.  I stamped the image on white card.  I used my MISTI to stamp the image, it allowed me to stamp it three times to give a really black outline - love this tool!  I coloured her with Copic markers, cut her out and then edged the image with a black marker.  The MFT sketch gave me the idea to use my Glass Effect die - first time out!  It took a while to create the panel as I had to cut it five times, make sure I didn't lose any pieces and then inlay the individual bits!  I'm glad I made the effort - looks super.  I finished the front with a fun birthday greeting.

On the inside I cut a mat layer of blue design paper. On the white panel I had fun adding lots of Dyan's sentiments.  Dyan's stamps are available in lots of formats - red rubber, photo polymer, wooden - and the same images comes in a variety of sizes.  This is great, as the sentiments in pale grey are the small versions (photo polymer), while the large sentiment in the middle is a red rubber stamp.  I added a few decorative details too.  And to complete the package, I added some decoration to the envelope too.

I also added some decoration to the wrapping on Kat's birthday present.  All in keeping!

Beautiful steampunk style necklace, made by Valerie Brinchick.  

And the parcel - done in style!

Finally, here are a few photos to show my our lovely girl has changed!

Kat - taken at the end of August - our Goth Girl!!  Almost 14 years old.

Our very first visit to the States in Novi.  We came to check out the area and find a place to live!

Kat was 10½ years old in this photo.

Kat at school in Northop Hall, July 2006.

She's 5¾ years old here.

If you've made it this far, thank for reading.  I think you can gather that I'm very proud of our girl. She's given us so much joy and so much more to come!  Bye for now.