Birthday card ....

... it's been a while - again!! There's so much going on here with the garage conversion that I'm not finding much time to get into my craft room.  However, I did grab a couple of hours last weekend when Kat asked me to make a birthday card for her friend, Melly.  Melly turned 18 years old a couple of days after Kat and she had her party on Saturday night.  Here's the card I made:

Stamps: Visible Image - Random Art of Kindness; Kindred Stamps - Nevertheless She Persisted; MFT - Bitty Birthday Wishes
Inks: Distress - Blueprint Sketch, Hickory Smoke; Gina K - Black Onyx; Memento - Summer Sky, Danube Blue
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Nuvo Aquashimmer Brush; Dina Wakley Stencil - Shape Mashup

I'm submitting this card to Colour Throwdown Challenge - CTD#562 and also to Seize the Birthday - STB#175.  This card is based on one I made last year when I was on the Uniko design team. I stamped the flower and stem images, masked them off and then stencilled a geometric pattern using grey, pale blue and bright blue.  I finished the card by adding sparkle to the flower with a clear shimmer brush.  The inside is very simple - a little feminist logo which works perfectly for both Kat and Melly.

Sadly you can't really see the sparkle on the flower - but it was so pretty in real-life!

That's all for now.  I'm off to go shopping for bits for mum's new flat!!

Alice goes Goth ....

... Hello again! I'm back with another card made for Kat's 18th birthday.  This is the one I made for my Mum to give to Kat.

Stamps: Visible Image - Alice in Wonderland, Rays of Light; MFT - Bitty Birthday Wishes; Uniko - Birthday Wishes
Inks: Distress - Hickory Smoke; Gina K - Powder Blue, Jelly Bean Green, Black Onyx; Versafine - Ony Black
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Night of Navy; Dylusions Shimmer Spray - Periwinkle Blue, Slate Grey; Nuvo - Aquashimmer Brush; Clear Embossing Powder; Copic Markers

As you can see there's a bit of a theme here.  Kat really loves Alice in Wonderland and when she saw the Visible Image stamps I was told that I had to get them.  This card is 5" x 7".  I created the background by randomly stamping several of the smaller stamps in blue and grey.  I had to add the large number as it's her 18th!! I stamped Alice on white card, coloured her with Copic markers, stamped again with Versafine and heat embossed with clear powder. I inked the edges of the card with soft grey and layered on navy blue card. On the inside, I cut a mat layer of navy card and on the white panel added a super birthday greeting from Uniko.

I'm submitting this card to several challenges.  The layout is based on the sketch from Fusion - FUSION#0509, as there's a number I'm playing at Seize the Birthday - STB#174, and also to Love to Craft - LTCCB#09 where anything goes.

Before I go, I want to share a few more photos of my gorgeous daughter - Kat:

The last one was taken on 4 September when Kat went back to school for her last year - her senior year in the UK!! That's all for now - see you again soon.

She's all grown up ....

.... I can't quite believe where the time has gone; it's simply flown by.  Today, our gorgeous daughter Kathryn, or Kat as she prefers, is 18 years old.  I know that I see her with a mother's bias, but she truly is a wonderful person - kind, caring, loving, bright, funny, intelligent, sassy, unconventional, confident, arty, curious, moody, supportive, fearless, and straight forward - I could go on 😊😉😍 Here's the card that I made for our girl:

Stamps: Visible Image - Queen of Hearts, Rays of Light, Alice in Wonderland, Music On World Off; MFT - Bitty Birthday Wishes; Uniko - Birthday Wishes
Inks: Distress - Hickory Smoke, Black Soot; Gina K - Jelly Bean Green, Dark Sage, Black Onyx; Versafine - Onyx Black
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Basic Grey; Visible Image Stencils - Dark Hearts, Count Me In; Dylusions Shimmer Spray - Slate Grey, Fresh Lime; Nuvo - Clear Aquashimmer Brush

Recently, Kat and I went to London for a girly weekend and saw Six. A fabulous fast-paced show based on the six wives of Henry VIII. I highly recommend it!!  Kat's favourite Queen was Anne Boylen, she wears a beautiful black and green costume, sings some very sassy songs and I used the character as the theme for this card.  Kat has been a bit of a goth princess since she was a little girl, and she still is.  This is a large 8" x 8" card.

I used the Dark Hearts stencil with Hickory Smoke ink to create the base card. I cut a panel of white card 6" x 6" to go on top. I created the age panel by using the small queen of hearts image and added numbers for her age.  I added the word queen in black and again slightly offset in green and above that used a number stencil for the background.  I randomly stamped musical notes, crowns and some keys, and finished the panel with some Dylusions shimmer spray in green and grey.  I used my Misti to stamp the queen image in a pale grey.  I added some squares to the queen's skirt and coloured them to match the costume from the show. I put the coloured image back into the Misti, stamped in Versafine onyx black and heat embossed with clear powder. I added some shimmer to the image with a clear aquabrush. I fussy cut the image and adhered it to the smaller panel.  I edged the panel with grey ink and used dimensional tape to adhere the panel to the base.  The inside of the card is quite simple with a grey mat layer and birthday greeting on the white panel.  I added the queen and a little green crown.  I took a close up to show the lovely shimmer of the ink spray. 

I based the layout of this card on the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch! - CTS#339, I added some numbers as per the topping theme at Seize the Birthday - STB#174.  As I used a couple of stencils on the card I'm going to submit to AAA Birthday - AAAB#05, and I'm also submitting to Time Out Challenge - TOC#144 - the photo gave me the idea of black, white and green.

The photo below was taken by Christine Long when we were living in Northville, Michigan.  One of the traditions that I did like about high school in the States was having photos taken in your senior year - such lovely memories.  Kat was one of Christine's models in 2019 school year and this is my favourite shot.

Happy Birthday Kat - have a wonderful day!!!

Birthday celebration ....

.... Afternoon!  I hope everyone is having a fun weekend.  My friend Heather came over yesterday and we spent the day catching up on news.  I showed her around my craft room and some of my new(ish) fountain pens and inks. It's so nice to have friends who share my love of all things stationery!!  Today has been a bit quieter and I've been able to spend some time actually crafting.  I made a very CAS birthday card:

Stamps: Happy Little Stampers - Born to be Wild; MFT - Bitty Birthday Wishes
Inks: Distress - Tea Dye, Brushed Corduroy, Pumice Stone; Gina K - Black Onyx; Versafine - Onyx Black
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Clear Embossing Powder; Joggles Stencil - Punchinella Quintet Stars; Staedtler Fine Line Pen

I'm still working on building up my stash of birthday cards concentrating on more masculine cards.  I'm submitting this one to AAA Cards - AAA#148 where they have a sketch with an option of animals, CAS on Friday - CASOF#162 where they want us to use a stencil, and Cardz 4 Guyz - C4G#227 where they have a theme of celebration.

I stamped the zebra directly on the card and heat embossed with clear powder. I then masked off the card to create a stripe and also the zebra.  I used a star stencil and distress inks to create the stripe. After removing the masks I added borders either side of the stripe. I finished with a simple sentiment. On the inside, I simply stamped the zebra again and added a fun greeting.

I woke up silly early this morning so I spent a while watching a couple of videos - the STAMPtember product release from Simon Says Stamp, and Jennifer's McGuire's video showing some lovely samples using the new release.  Today is a day when I wished I still lived in Michigan - my shopping basket would have been so full!! I'm going to try and post everyday this month to celebrate STAMPtember!!  That's all for now.

Birthday Wishes ....

... Hello, good afternoon!  After a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend we now have rain - it's still warm, but really damp!!  I'm here to share a birthday card:

Stamps: Waltzingmouse Stamps - Alpine Christmas, Teeny Trees, USA 1776
Inks: Gina K - Black Onyx, Innocent Pink, Sweet Mango, Red Velvet, Fresh Asparagus; Versafine Clair - Twilight, Morning Mist
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Nuvo Clear Aquashimmer Brush

A couple of days ago Kat asked me if I had an volcano stamps and sadly in my vast collection of stamps I didn't have a volcano, and I didn't have time to order one of the many cute volcano sets.  So, I checked through my catalogue and found some stamps from Waltzingmouse that I could use to create a volcano.  I stamped the mountains from Alpine Christmas in Versafine Clair ink. Then I masked the mountains and used the firework explosions from USA 1776 to make the exploding magma. I finished the card by adding some trees in the foreground and a simple birthday greeting.  On the inside, I kept it simple, just adding some more firework bursts.  I did add some sparkle to the "magma" with my clear aquashimmer brush, but you can't really see it in the photo.  And the reason for this request, Kat is going to a birthday party tonight and her friend loves volcanoes!!

I'm submitting this card to Addicted to CAS - ATCAS#166 where they want a one-layer card, and also to Seize the Birthday - STB#172 where they want birthday cards.

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post.  I've been busy spending time with the family.  Kat had her AS level results on 15th August, and I'm a very proud mum - she got 4 B grades.  This is excellent as Kat has coped with so much in the last year - a move from Michigan back to Northop Hall, settling back into the UK education system and making new friends - Kat is a star!  We had a long weekend in London to celebrate - such a fun time.  Work is continuing on the garage conversion. The new bathroom is going in, we've moved some plumbing and next week the underfloor electric heating goes in. Hopefully on a few more weeks and Mum can move into her new accommodation.

Anyway, that's all for now. 

Namaste ....

.... Morning! I was checking various challenges yesterday and was thrilled to see that my grunge musical guitarist was selected as one of the Top 3 cards over at Cardz for Guys. It was such a nice surprise as it's been a while!! Anyway, I was busy yesterday tidying some of my paperwork and late in the afternoon, I made this cute little card:

Stamps: Stampendous - Frog Yoga
Inks: Gina K - Black Onyx
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Stampin' Up! DP - Pear Pizzazz; Scan 'N' Cut; Copic Markers

I'm submitting this card to The Paper Players - PP#454, to Happy Little Stamers CAS Challenge - HLSCAS#08, and to Time Out Challenge - TOC#141.

This is a mini card, measuring 5" × 3½", know as 4 bar in the US. I got this set of stamps just before we moved back to Wales. This is the first time it's seen ink!! I stamped two of the cute frogs onto white card, coloured them with Copic markers and used my Scan 'N' Cut to cut them out. I cut a panel of green design paper for the bottom of the card and for a mat layer inside. I stamped a simple greeting on the front and, on the inside, I added a fun sentiment and another frog.

That's all for now. I'm off to Mold with Mum - it's market day so there should be lost of goodies about. See you soon.

Edited to add:  Looks like I'm not the only one to think that these cute frogs work well for the Paper Players challenge.  Check out Dena's card - so cute!!