For our Goth Girl ....

.... Good morning! I can't quite believe that it's been just over 15 years since I gave birth to the most wonderful girl in the world! And yes, I do know that I'm more than a bit biased!! Kat is bold, bright, supportive, assertive, creative, caring, intelligent, honest, generous, kind, and I could go on, but I think you get the picture. She's also something of a Goth Girl. Kat loves Halloween, black, alternative music, being with her friends, singing, photography and she's hooked on Glee! I wanted to try and incorporate as much of that in Kat's birthday card as possible:

Stamps: Stampotique - Prom Queen; Casual Friday Stamps - Love Notes, Exclamations, Whole Shebang; Clearly Besotted - A Little Sentimental; My Favourite Things - Sheet Music Background; Stampers Anonymous Brett Weldele - The Presenters
Inks: Memento - Tuxedo Black, London Fog; Distress - Pumice Stone, Milled Lavender, Peeled Paint, Twisted Citron; Versafine - Onyx Black; Stampin' Up! - Wisteria Wonder
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Smoky Slate; Clear Embossing Powder; Copics; Wink of Stella - Clear, Orange; Gems; Dylusions Stencil - Skulls Sm

I love the Prom Queen stamp - she's very Goth, very glam and just a bit moody - kind of like a teenage girl! I stamped her on white card, coloured her with Copics and then carefully cut her out with a scalpel. I edged the image with a black pen to hide the white edges. I used Kat's favourite Halloween colours of green, orange and purple. The background is very mixed media with some musical background stamped and then inked over to reveal white music. I added some small skulls with a stencil and randomly stamped musical notes, and little flowers. I stamped the bar of music at the bottom of the card to ground the image. I stamped the Prom Queen directly on the card and added some wings and then adhered the coloured image on top. I added lots of sparkle to the card with little gems sprinkled around the card and used clear Wink of Stella on her wings and dress. I also added some orange sparkle to the treble clef. I think this card really captures Kat. On the inside I cut a mat layer of grey card and kept the white panel fairly simple. I stamped a bold birthday greeting and added another Prom Queen in the corner. I also decorated the envelope.

I'm submitting this card to CAS-ual Fridays Challenge - CFC#156 where the team would like to see Dimension and Bling, and also to Addicted to Stamps and More! - ATSM#211 where it's Anything Goes. Before I go, here's a close up of the sparkle on the Prom Queen - the photo is out of focus as I find it shows the shimmer and sparkle so much better:

Kat had a really fun day yesterday. Breakfast with us and then out with her friends for the afternoon and evening. Just the way she wanted it! Here's a photo of Kat doing "the Kathryn" taken at Detroit Zoo earlier this year.

That's all for now - thanks for allowing me to be the proud Mum!

TMR - Theme ...

.... Good afternoon! I knew it was too good to last - I'm running late with my DT card for our new challenge over at The Male Room - TMR#43. We have a theme for you to use on your masculine projects - we want to see

MUSIC

You can interpret it any way you like, but your project must be masculine. I actually ended up making two cards!! Here they are:

Stamps: Clearly Besotted - A Little Sentimental
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Green Galore
Dies: Die-namics - Wonky Stitched Circles #4
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Basic Black; Kanban Toppers - Apple Beat, Adhesive Ribbons

Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Dandelion Dreams
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Cajun Craze
Dies: Cas-ual Friday Stamps - Treble Clef
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Basic Black; Kanban Toppers - All That Jazz, Adhesive Ribbons; Wink of Stella - Clear

I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to use up some of my large vast collection of toppers from Kanban Card.

The first card has a 1960s feel and is based on this week's layout from Freshly Made Sketches - FMS#252 - it just seemed to work perfectly with the simple images. I cut the main Beatles image using a stitched die so I'm also going to submit to CASology - CAS#213 where the cue word is Stitch. I used some self-adhesive ribbon from Kanban that looks like the frets on a guitar and edged the bottom of the card. I adhered the picture image and the little apple circle flat to the card. I used dimensional tape to attached the two small birthday circles. I finished the front with a greeting from the same topper sheet. On the inside I cut a mat layer of black card and on the white panel added some more of the self-adhesive ribbon, a little road sign and a greeting.

The second card has a more 1920s feel with a Jazz theme. Once again I used self-adhesive ribbon to edge the top and bottom of the card. I layered the image and birthday greeting on black card and adhered them to the card. On the inside I cut a mat layer of black card and on the white panel added a simple greeting and a sparkly treble clef! I'm submitting this card to City Crafter Challenge Blog - CCCB#327 where they want to see Birthday Wishes.

Do visit our blog to see more masculine style projects from the rest of the team - they are all just fabulous!! That's all for now!

CIC - Colours ....

... Hello! I'm here with my card for this week's challenge at Cupcake Inspirations - CIC#370. This week we have some pretty colours for you to use in your projects - Eggplant, Petal and Jade. Our sponsor is The Stamping Boutique and they have kindly provided us with some images for our cards.

Stamps: The Stamping Boutique Digi - Alice in Wonderland Teacups; Clearly Besotted - A Little Sentimental; Stampin' Up! - Watercolour Wishes
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Costal Cabana, Flirty Flamingo
Dies: Lil Inkers - Dual Stitched Rectangles #3
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Copics; Wink of Stella - Clear

I printed the image on white card, cut it out with a die and then coloured the image with Copics. I added clear Wink of Stella to the hearts, flowers and the purple mushrooms. I added a grey border with a Copic marker. I attached the image slightly to one side and finished by adding a sentiment and heart. The inside hasn't been finished yet.

Do visit our blog to see more inspiration cards from the rest of the team.

TMR - Theme ....

.... Morning! I'm just a bit late today with my card for our new challenge at The Male Room - TMR#41. We have a theme for you, and it's one that I think works perfectly for a guy challenge:

OLYMPICS/SPORTS

You can interpret the theme in many ways - pick a sport, use the logo colours, pick a city that's hosted the games, just explain your take. I decided to use up some of my stash and focused on some of the sports as well as the logo:

Stamps: Clearly Besotted - A Little Sentimental
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black
Dies: Sizzix - Tim Holtz Scribbles & Splat
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Stampin' Up! Card - Pacific Point, Basic Black, Real Red, Crushed Curry, Garden Green; Kanban Images

In my stash I have a large huge pile of Kanban images and papers that were part of a big Masculine pack on sale via QVC. I have used some of the images, but still have so much more to go and this was the perfect opportunity to use some of the sporting images. I've used tennis, cycling, running and football (soccer to my American friends) images - all games played at the Olympics. I also created a stylized Olympic logo using the circle scribble die - I did cut out the centre section of each circle. I finished the front with a couple of good luck greetings. I've not decorated the inside.

Do visit our blog to see more inspiration from the rest of the team. You've got plenty of time to play along - submission deadline is midnight (BST) Tuesday 16th August (7.00pm EDT). Have fun and do enjoy the Olympic Games!

CIC - Colours ...

.... Hello and good morning! It's time for our new challenge at Cupcake Inspirations - CIC#364 and we have some really lovely colours for you to play with - Grass, Black and Goldenrod. Here's my take on the colours:

Stamps: Impression Obsession - Damask Flower; Clearly Besotted - A Little Sentimental
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black; Memento - Tuxedo Black, Grey Flannel
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Stampin' Up! Card - Crushed Curry; Copics; Wink of Stella - Clear; Clear Embossing Powder; SU Circle punches

I stamped the image on some white card and coloured it with Copic markers. I stamped it again on the card and heat embossed it with clear powder to give a crisp, bold image. I used several circle punches to select parts of the image which I then adhered to the card - spotlighting certain areas. Over at Just Us Girls - JUGS#347 - they want to see the spotlight technique, so I'm playing along with them. I used a clear Wink of Stella brush on all the coloured areas. I finished the front of the card by stamping a simple sentiment and added a hand drawn border. On the inside I cut a piece of dark yellow card for the mat layer and stamped a portion of the image in grey on the white panel.

You can see the sparkle on this photo:

For more inspiration using these colours, do visit our blog to see more from the Design Team. Our sponsor this week is Pickled Potpourri Designs and the winner of the challenge will receive a $7 gift certificate for use in their shop.

The Cupcake Inspirations Design Team is taking a two week summer break - we'll be back on 3rd July with more fun challenges for you! Thanks for stopping by!

TMR - Theme ....

.... Hello!  I'm running late with my DT card for the new challenge at The Male Room - TMR#26.  I don't quite now how, but I lost track of the day and thought that today was Tuesday!!!!  Heyho, better late than never.  For the next couple of weeks our challenge at The Male Room is ANYTHING GOES, but it must have a masculine style.  Here's my card:

Stamps: Waffle Flower - Calendar; Happy Little Stampers - Fun Birthday Sentiments; Clearly Besotted - A Little Sentimental
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Crumb Cake, Soft Suede; Tip Top Taupe
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Crumb Cake; Kaisercraft DP - Attitude!; Snap Stickers - Carpe Diem; Project Life - Corner Punch; Copic Markers

I used a couple of challenges to make this card:

• Freshly Made Sketches - FMS#218
• The Paper Players - PP#276 - to include numbers on your card

I made the base from kraft card and cut a panel of white card slightly smaller to go on the front.  I used papers from Attitude! - a very masculine pack of papers - cutting stripes to go at the top of the card.  I rounded the corners with my Project Life corner punch.  I stamped the calendar frame on the lighter design paper and realised that I needed to make the smaller stripe darker, so I added some colour with a neutral Copic marker.  I stamped the month of January on white card and used the little circle stamp go highlight the important date.  I stamped a birthday greeting above the horizontal stripes and finished with some transparent stickers that emphasis the day.  On the inside I cut a panel of white card, added stripes of the design paper at top and bottom, and finished with a birthday greeting.  

This card is already in the post to the UK - I do hope that Ben likes it.  He'll be 20 on 13th January - but it only seems like yesterday that he was my sweet little blond haired boy!  Do drop by The Male Room to see more inspiration for the team.  Bye for now.