Birthday Girl ....

...... Good morning! Half-way through December - time is going by so fast! Only a week until Christmas. But, before that my niece, Georgia, is celebrating her 16th birthday today. She's grown into a beautiful young woman, and this is the card that I made for her:

Stamps: Visible Image - Tomorrow Doesn't Exist, Rays of Light; Uniko - Simply Said Birthday; CAS-ual Friday Stamps - Whole Shebang; Stampin' Up! - 25 Days
Inks: SU - Rose Red, Sweet Sugar Plum, Pink Pirouette; Versafine - Onyx Black
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Sweet Sugar Plum; Clear Embossing Powder

I decided to make a one-layer card as it's so much easier to post. I know that teenagers today are so much more "with-it" than when I was 16, but they still get excited by turning 16. I used this wonderful girl jumping for joy as the main image. I stamped her and the word Happy in Versafine onyx black and heat embossed them with clear powder. I cut a mask to protect the girl and then stamped the fireworks. I stamped the number 16 over the palest of the firework burst and added the word birthday to finish the front of the card. Fairly clean and simple. On the inside I cut a mat layer of pale plum card and on the white panel added a fun greeting along with a few more firework bursts.
I'm submitting this card to Love to Craft Challenge Blog - LTCCB#5 where this month is ANYTHING GOES.

Hopefully this card will have arrived in Plymouth and Georgia has it on display along with the rest of her cards from family and friends. That's all for today.

Marvellous Mehndhi ...

.... Morning all! I'm taking a bit of a break from Christmas cards today. December and January are full of family and friend birthdays, so I thought I'd make a few for my stash. Here's the first:

Stamps: Uniko - Marvellous Mehndi, Simply Said; Cas-ual Friday Stamps - Whole Shebang
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black; Memento - Tuxedo Black
Dies: Memory Box - Contempo Circle Border
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Bazill Card - Lime Green; Vellum; Zig Real Brushes; Spectrum Noir - Sparkle Brush Clear; Clear Embossing Powder; Tim Holtz Water Colour Card

I stamped the mandala image twice - once on the card and once on watercolour card. I embossed the image on water colour card with clear powder and then coloured it with Zig Real Brushes. I also added some sparkle with my clear Spectrum Noir brush. I fussy cut the water colour image, edged it with a black marker and adhered it to the card with the green die cut border beneath it. I stamped the sentiment on a scrap of white card, attached it to a piece of die cut vellum and then adhered it over the flower. On the inside I cut a mat layer of green card and on the white panel added a fun greeting and a paisley pattern.

I used the colour from this week's Colour Throwdown - CTD#421 - love these colours. The layout is based on the sketch from this week's Freshly Made Sketches - FMS#265.

I've got a busy week coming up - I've got to finish sorting out my Christmas card list, get the labels printed, cards written and then posted. It's a fairly major job. And in between all my crafting fun, I also need to make sure that the house is clean and tidy. Oh yes, must get the Christmas tree up too! That's all for now! Do drop by again soon.

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!

CIC - Colours ....

.... Darn! This post is rather late - I got it all prepared yesterday and then forgot to set it to publish!  Silly me!!!

Morning all! It's time for our new challenge at Cupcake Inspirations - CIC#360 - we have some lovely colours to play with - BLUSH, RUBY AND GOLD. So lush, so rich and so pretty. I've made a birthday card:

Stamps: Uniko - Flower Power #34, I Love Coffee, Simply Said Birthday; CFS - Whole Shebang
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black; Versamark; Stampin' Up! - Blushing Bride, Rich Razzleberry
Dies: Lil Inkers - Stitched Mats
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Blushing Bride, Rich Razzleberry; SU DP - Blushing Bridge; Clear and Gold Embossing Powder; Vellum; Gems; Copics; Wink of Stella - Clear

I thought the colours would make a lovely feminine card for a very special lady - Bev of Uniko. It was Bev's birthday yesterday and this card is on its way to her but, as you can guess from the greeting, it's going to be rather late!

I used the sketch at this week's Freshly Made Sketches - FMS#236 for the layout. I cut panels of card in white, blush and ruby. I used Versmark to stamp the open outline flower and heat embossed them with clear powder; gives a lovely tone on tone look. Then I added some smaller flowers in blush and ruby. I die cut a panel of vellum for the sentiment. I stamped three large flowers - one solid which I embossed with gold tinsel powder, and two outline flowers on vellum. I coloured the reverse of the vellum flowers and added some sparkle to them with a clear Wink of Stella Brush. I attached them to the card with dimensional gel. I finished off with some gems for more sparkle. On the inside I cut a mat layer of blush design paper and on the white panel added a fun greeting and some more flowers.

Our challenge this week is sponsored by Altenew and they are very generously providing a prize of Way too Sweet stamps (see below) for the lucky winner of this week's challenge. Let them tell you about themselves:

Established in April 2014, Altenew strives to bring elegant, natural and versatile designs in paper crafting products. Altenew firmly believes in sharing happiness and comfort with our loved ones through creative expression of crafting. We know that personal, delicate touches of a hand-made card or scrapbook page can bring joy to people that are important in our lives and we are proud to create products that help inspire alluring projects/creations.

I don't have any Altenew stamps, but I think I may have to fix that!! For more inspiration using these lovely colours to visit the blog to check out more from the team.  Have fun!

A couple of cards ....

... Good evening, I hope you've all had a super day. Here in the States it's Mother's Day and I've had a super time - I spent virtually all day crafting and listening to music. I got a sweet card from Kat and they got dinner for me, a pizza from Jets, which tasted fab! I didn't have to cook - so all's good.

Anyway, I'm here this evening with a couple of cards for several challenges. The first card is for - CASology - CAS#196 where the cue word is MOVE and the colours are from Colour Q Challenge - cQc#340. Here's my card:

Stamps: Stampendous - Family Home, House & Home
Inks: Memento - Tuxedo Black, Grey Flannel; Versafine - Onyx Black
Dies: Spellbinders - Squares Lg (S4-126) #7; Lil Inkers - Dual Stitched Squares #3
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Stampin' Up! Card - Coastal Cabana; Copics; Wink of Stella - Clear

We've been in our new house for just over a month now, and I thought it was time to send some cards to let people know that we've moved - yes, I know it's very late! I stamped the main image on white card, cut it out with a die and coloured it with Copics. I stamped the image again and coloured the doors and home badge, cut them out and attached them to the main image. I used dimensional gel on the green home badge. I used a clear Wink of Stella brush to add some sparkle to the green badge and the red door inside. I layered the finished image on some pale aqua card and adhered it to the card base. I finished the front by adding a message and a post box. On the inside I cut a mat layer in aqua and on the white panel stamped the houses in grey and coloured the main door.

My next card is a birthday card:

Stamps: Stampin' Up! - Musical Manuscript; Uniko - All Occasion Sentiments #6; CFS - Whole Shebang
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black; Kaleidacolor - Blue Breeze; SU - Pacific Point
Dies: Spellbinders - Squares Lg (S4-126) #7; Lil Inkers - Dual Stitched Squares #3
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Pacific Point; SU DP - Pacific Point; SU Candy Dots; Vellum; Clear Embossing Powder

Our challenge at The Male Room - TMR#34 has the theme Shakespeare, and I've based this card on one of Shakespeare's many quotes based upon music. I've gone for a monochromatic theme in blue, so I'm submitting this card to Cardz 4 Guyz - C4G#118 and the layout is based on this week's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches - FMS#235. I stamped the music image on white card, cut it out with a die and layered it on some blue card and attached it to the card. I stamped the sentiment in versafine on vellum and heat embossed it with clear powder. I attached it to the card and hid the adhesive with some co-ordinating candy dots. On the inside I cut a mat of design paper and on the white panel added a greeting.

Before I go, I'd like to remind everyone that we're having a DT Call over at The Male Room. You need to play along with our current Shakespeare challenge and also with our next challenge - full details are on the blog.

That's all for now - I'm off to have a coffee, chat to Jonathan and then settle in for the fastest hour of TV - Games of Thrones! See you all soon.

Happy Birthday Sandie ....

.... Hello again.  If you're looking for my 52 {Christmas} Card post click here. 

This post is to wish a special person a great day.  I think many of us know and work with Sandie (London Days) - she's busy on the admin of several challenges and Kylie thought it would be a great idea for us all to wish Sandie a Happy Birthday.  So, I hope this comes as a big surprise:

Sandie - have a wonderful day and here's the card I made for you:

Stamps: CAS-ual Fridays Stamps - Whole Shebang
Inks: Kaleidacolour - Caribbean Sea
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Stampin' Up! DP - Bermuda Bay; Sequins; Crafter's Companion - Spray 'n' Sparkle Silver

Sandie is a Queen of CAS, so I made a clean, simple card for her.  I used this fabulous bold sentiment and stamped it in the cool shades of green and teal.  I stamped it first in the corner of the card and then repeated the image with second and third generation images.  I sprayed the white panel with silver for some shimmer and added a few sequins.  I layered the finished panel on some patterned paper and adhered the lot to the card base.  On the inside I cut a mat layer of the design paper and added a coordinating greeting.  I like the words on this one.

I'll be adding this card to the link that Kylie has on her blog - if you want to join the fun and wish Sandie a wonderful birthday you can add your link too.

Sandie - I've got a bit of an apology to make to you - this card is going to be late.  Very late!!!  I made it and posted it (it was going to be a bit late), but I got the cards back yesterday as I forgot to put on a stamp!!!!  Sorry!

At the time this post goes live, Kathryn and I will be on a plane on our way to Washington DC.  Kathryn's 8th Grade school trip is a weekend in the capital.  We had to be up silly early to get the 6.00am flight.  We have three very full days ahead of us and the weather forecast is for hot, humid days - ugh!  However, it should be a fantastic trip and I hope to get lots of photos.

Whatever your plans are for the weekend - have a great time.  Sandie - have a fun day and party on!!!

ASM - CAS .....

.... Hello, good evening.  It's time for our very popular CAS challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More!  Our sponsor this week is Sweet Pea Stamps and I've used a digital image from one of their artists - Concetta Kilmer.  The winner of this challenge will get 4 digis from their store!  The rules for clean, simple cards is to have clean, crisp lines, minimal embellishments and lots of 'white' space (can be coloured).  And I have to own up that I forgot it was a CAS challenge when I made my card (sorry guys!!).  Although, it is still quite clean and simple:

Stamps: Sweet Pea Stamps - Concetta Kilmer's Cupcake Cutie; CAS-ual Friday Stamps - Whole Shebang
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Lost Lagoon, Pistachio Pudding
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU DP - Sahara Sand; SU Card - Sahara Sand, Copic Markers; Wink of Stella - Clear

I've used the colours from The Paper Players - PP#244, I love them - they would work equally well for a masculine style card.  I printed the image on white card, coloured it with Copic markers and used a scalpel to cut it out.  I used my clear Wink of Stella brush to add sparkle to her wing, hair band, icing and rose.  I got some new stamps from CAS-ual Friday stamps and I think this bold birthday greeting works perfectly with the image - they both have attitude!  On the inside I cut a mat layer of kraft card and stamped one of the co-ordinating greetings - such fun!!

I've taken a close up of the image so that you can see the sparkle.  The Wink of Stella brushes give a wonderful sparkle, but it's so tough taking a photo of it!!

Don't forget to visit the blog and check out the inspiration cards from the rest of the team.  Enjoy!!