For our son ...

... I made a very special card.  I like to make the children and my husband special cards.  I found the perfect sketch for this card, but realised that I couldn't enter the challenge as I didn't want Ben to see the card before he actually received it!!  Ben's one of my followers, so I had to leave my post until after Christmas.  The sketch was from the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #27 - and something about the sketch really appealed to me and I thought it was just perfect for Ben.  Here's the sketch:

I also knew just what stamps I was going to use on the card.  In Claire's last stamp release she designed some fabulous round images - Around Christmastime - and there's a large image of Santa's head in this set that I thought was perfect for the large circle in the sketch.  But instead of doing traditional colours for Santa - I opted for a blue look!!  I stamped the image and embossed it with detail silver, then I coloured Santa's hat using Memento Paris Dusk - I wanted a dark blue hat - and then added glitter to the edge of his hat.  I used Polar White Flower Soft to make Santa's beard.  I added some colour to the words and flourish using a Sakura stardust pen.  The backing paper is from the Smirk Men paper set - just love those stripes!  And finally, instead of a button, in the same stamp set there is a lovely stamp that says "Nice Person" - which I stamped twice and embossed once in silver and once in blue; I cut out the centre in blue and raised up it.  Finally, I added some peeloffs, which I coloured to match, to our special son.  I'm really pleased how the card turned out and hope that Ben likes it too.  So here it is:

This one's for Ben - our very special son, whom we love very much!!

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Around Christmastime

Paper:  Smirk - Men set

Ink:  Memento - Paris Dusk

Spellbinders:  Circles - plain and inverted circles

Embossing Powder:  Stampendous - Detail Silver; Cosmic Shimmer - Steel Blue Aurora Black

Accessories:  Glitter; Flower Soft - Polar White; Sakura Stardust pen; Peeloffs - Dawn Bibby; Promarkers

As you may well have realised, this is a scheduled post, as we're having Christmas at my parents-in-law!!  We always have a huge Christmas with them.  Do drop by again tomorrow, when I have another card scheduled to see.  Hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas.

Thinking cap on ...

... because I really have to finalise my OU assignment.  It's really interesting - I'm doing an astronomy course.  It's only an introduction, but there's a lot to read - and the picutres of stars, galaxies, planets are so beautiful.  The use of computers and colour enhanced images really makes it as lovely to look at, as it is interesting to read.  Sorry, tend to waffle on about the course :)))

So, I thought I'd show you a few more cards that I made earlier in the year.

I made this for my sister-in-law, Charlotte.  I'd already made her a card - see 4th October post - but that was from Kathryn.  This one was from Jonathan and me.  It was reasonably quick to make.  I used the Spellbinders star dies to cut out stars in various colours and sizes, I then ran them through the cuttlebug to give a rose impression.  The flourishes were made using some holographic card from my stash and two different Marianne dies.  The backing paper came from a pad of pink paper from Papermania; I used the Doily Lace punch to make the borders.  Finally, I added the Craftworkcards greetings and some ribbon.

I like this layout - it's a nice simple design and can be adapted for all occasions.  This time I needed to make a card for a little boy who'd just had a new baby sister.  Obviously, there would be lots of cards in the house welcoming the new baby, and I thought that Ewan should have a card just for him - as the "Big Brother".  The image is from Pink Petticoat and is coloured with pencils - I added some glitter to the mane.  I used Spellbinders Labels 3 to cut the layers; the papers were free from craft magazines.  Finally, I used a Sakura stardust pen to add the hand drawn borders.

As I said - this is a good layout!  This time it's a card that I made for my brother-in-law.  I couldn't decide what to do.  Then I found these wonderful Smirk men!!  And I found "Superman" - I just had to do it.  I used Labels 3 to cut the layers and Waltzingmouse Stamps to add the dotty frame.  I coloured the image with Prisma pencils and used peel offs for the greeting.

That's all for now, as I'd better get back to my assignment.  I'll be back tomorrow.