Pumpkin Pie, you are my, my Pumpkin Pie

There's a new challenge starting today at Di's Digis Challenge Blog... the theme is "Add a Pumpkin".  I didn't want a Halloween card (I've got a load in my stash and we just don't celebrate it here) so I've made a birthday card and simply added some pumpkins to the little picnic scene.  For some reason my pics are a bit "grainy"... I think a setting has been changed on my camera, I'll have to get my son to check it out for me... suffice to say it's "fresher" looking in real life!

I've made a big card... it measures 21cm x 15cm; it fits a standard large envelope so pretty straightforward from a postage point of view :-)

The image is Daisy Cupcake Time, though on the "original" image there are flowers where the pumpkins are... I scaled down some pumpkins from CC Designs and put them over the top of the flowers; one way to fit the Add a Pumpkin brief, lol.

I coloured with Copics, adding some extra shadows with Prismacolor pencils and loads of gloss to the pumpkins, puppy's nose and of course the cherry on top of the cupcake.

The patterned paper is from Die Cuts With a View... from the very first pad I ever bought: the Far East Mat Stack; The matting is gold foil - bottom panel is cut with a number of Spellbinders A2 Curved Borders dies, the Happy Birthday is a Memory Box Grand die.  I didn't have any ribbon matching the image or paper, so I coloured up some ivory ribbon with an E08 Copic I've got about a kilometre of this stuff left from my Son and DIL's (2009) wedding cake, to say I "over calculated" is an understatement of the century, lol. I made the bow using my new Bow maker; I looked up a couple of tutorials on YouTube, one made better bows... or perhaps it just made more sense to me.  I wasn't convinced the first couple of efforts, but I'm pretty glad I've got it now - at least the bows are consistent in size.

The inside of the card is finished in similar fashion, as usual.  I used Memory Box's Nottingham Border at the top of the card in place of the sentiment. In fact that's what I intended to do on the front; I didn't intend having the bottom panel on the front cut down so far, I've been drooling over Netty's cards for a while and was gong to shamelessly CASE one; having a large image panel with a fancy top edge... but the Nottingham border I was going to use on the top edge of the image panel just wouldn't cut, so the damn panel just kept getting shorter and shorter... in the end there was just too much patterned paper showing, it looked out of balance so I introduced the curved borders - at least I don't feel like it's a copy of Annette's now :-))

Anyhow, hope you get a chance to enter the challenge this fortnight; if you're into Halloween it shouldn't present any challenge at all.. but even if you're not, it's not that difficult to get a pumpkin into the mix - just add it to a picnic scene like I did, it's only "odd" if you think about it :-)  Great prize on offer as always, with extra opportunities if you use one of Di's oh-so-cute images.

Just by coincidence, it's my pet name for the grandkids... hence the title of this post; I sing to them "Pumpkin Pie, you are my, my Pumpkin Pie", they smile indulgently at me... they know they're not pies of any kind, but it makes Nanna happy to call them that, so they let me :-))

I'm entering the following challenges with this card:

Crazy 4 Challenges Autumn Colours

Crafty CardmakersAutumn Colours

Whimsy Inspirations Challenge Autumn Colours or Christmas (Autumn colours, obviously!)

Crafty Creations Don't be Blue (Don't use blue or a cheer me up card) (No blue here, even the sky is Warm Grey)

Aud Sentiments Birthday Sentiment

As You Like It  Pastels or Bright Colours and Why (Bright colours I suppose... I LOVE pastels, just can't seem to get them - I always add "just a bit more", pastel gone!)

The Crazy Challenge Orange and Green

Pile It On Fabric, Lace or Ribbon (Ribbon)

Addicted to  Stamps Bling Bling Glitter and Shine (All that gold foil, shines baby!)

Craft Your Passion Anything Goes

Through the Craftroom Door Anything Goes

Cute Card Thursday Anything Goes

Art by Miran Anything Goes

Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends Anything Goes 

Well I still haven't managed to drag anything out of my draft folder... maybe this week.  I've done all the End of Financial Year stuff, and the Quarterly returns - even for my son's business, and he's usually the last-minute-pull-your-hair-out client from hell.... but he's gone on holiday for a couple of weeks and they're due while he's away so he HAD to get the numbers to me before he went; it'll be the first one of his returns sent on time for quite a while, not sure what the Tax Office will make of that, lol.  
Until next time, happy crafting, Donna

To Halloween or not to Halloween....?

We have a new challenge starting today at Di's Digis Challenge blog... the theme is "Too Cute to Spook" but you're not required to use a Halloween image.... you can use Halloween or Harvest themed images, or (like me) Halloween or Harvest related colours.  I chose not to use a Halloween image as I don't really have use for Halloween projects (we don't celebrate Halloween here, well there ARE celebrations, but none that we personally are really involved in) but I can always combine Green, Purple and Gold :-))  I've made a Post-It note holder with space for two mini pens. 

I think this image is really sweet, it's "Girl's Best Friend" and is on sale here.  I coloured with my usual mix of Copics and Prismacolor pencils... no shine/glitter/pearl or anything else on this one :-))  Oh, unless you count the gold mirror card I used as the outer mat for the image.

Cutting down an existing box and making a "flap" lid seemed like a good idea at the time, in truth it would have been quicker to make something up from scratch, ah well live and learn. 
I have just about come to the end of my Kaisercraft Lilac Avenue pad... all the combos of purple and green in it made paper choice easy for Halloween projects :-) 
The purple pattern on the main paper covering the box has a gloss finish, the lilac coloured 'flap' at the top is in fact one of the border elements included in the pad.
I've used the same pattern paper  in the inside of the box, it is a scaled down version and doesn't have the gloss, but it keeps it all nice and matching without being too "matchy" - if you know what I mean. Making the little troughs for the pens took the longest time, like I said I'd do it different next time.  The sticky notes came with the little silver butterfly on, I added some purple ink to the edge of the first couple of sheets just to tie it in.
I lined the inside of the lid with more paper from the same pad and taped some polka dot gros grain ribbon around the outside of the box to finish it off, a sliver of velcro keeps the lid shut.
That's it really ;-)  Pop over to the Di's Digis Challenge Blog and check out the rest of the team's inspiration - it's a lot more "in theme" than mine, for sure.  Hope you get a chance to enter the challenge too, great prize on offer as always and don't forget there's extra opportunities if you use one of Di's cute images :-)
I'd like to enter my note pad holder thingy in the following challenges:

Without Words Purple and Green but not Halloween

Hiding in my Craft Room Super Scraps Saturday

Whimsy Inspirations Challenge Anything Goes

Craft Your Passion Anything Goes

Through the Craftroom Door Anything Goes

Papertake Weekly Anything Goes

Art by Miran Anything Goes

Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends Anything Goes

I'll be back in a few days with something out of my drafts... I am DETERMINED to clear it all out before the end of the year, lol!  Until then, happy crafting, Donna

Life's a Circus

It's the first of the month so there's a new challenge starting at Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge, you know - the one where all you have to do is use some patterned paper on your creation!
Sometimes life is a circus... well mine is, lol.  This card however was not to celebrate that fact but to celebrate my son's 30th birthday; he had a circus/carnival theme party, I made this card with that circus theme and his cake along the same lines and colours, so I thought I'd share some pics of that too, first the card - easel of course, we all love 'emin this family!

The papers are from stash and Kaisercraft, the red stripe on the stripy paper is foil, it looks really nice IRL.
I printed the image (called Circus Tent, available from Make it Crafty, here) on linen card, coloured with Copics and Prismacolor pencils and added Ranger's Antique Gold Embossing details.  
The whole base is covered in red foil card.  The swirls are Memory Box and they and the fancy border trim (a die, Nellie Snellen I think) - which is actually a "stopper" made by sliding half a strip of card under the stripy paper and leaving half "free" for the front of the card to sit against when folded - are cut from the same red foil card. The tickets used for the sentiments are from Bizzy Becs (I think!), I cut the red mats around them freehand.
The rhinestones on the border and corners are from my stash.  I added the "Circus Chris" sentiment to the image before printing using a free font called Bingo Star for Circus and another for Chris.  That was basically it for the card..... the cake took a bit more work :-))

It was a "rainbow" cake, so first I baked six different coloured cakes, I stacked them (not dry like in this pic, but with yummy chocolate ganache between the layers) then put a layer of ganache over the whole thing before adding a thin layer of fondant before decorating as you can see.  
The big top roof was just cardboard covered in fondant :-) and the tent poles were straws with twine... but everything else was fondant, or in the case of the animals peeking out of the tent, royal icing.
The ringmaster took the most work, as usual I left my run a bit late and each element didn't really have time to set firm enough before I stuck it altogether... so he ended up a bit squashed looking :-)  
Chris takes his parties very seriously, this one was no exception; he hired space at a very nice park, hired oversized games such as Connect Four, Chess etc, he had face painters, balloon animal makers, gymnasts performing and a popcorn machine and chocolate fountain in the food tent - a real "kids" day that everyone seemed to really enjoy - I was surprised at how "into it" we all got; the tug of war and egg and spoon races were particularly competitive, and the average age was ... well, not kids! 

I shrunk down a copy of one of the invitations Chris had made for the ringmaster to hold in his hand.  The bottom cake was a rainbow cake too... I kept all the bits of different coloured cake mix I didn't use in the Big Top part of the cake and swirled them together (well three shades in each of two cakes) then gave them the gananche fondant treatment.  Even the board is covered in fondant - for a butter cake this thing weighed a LOT!!
Well that's about it for the cake too.  You don't have to do anything elaborate to enter Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper challenge... just use some Patterned Paper, any project...doesn't even have to be a card, why not give it a go?  Great prize on offer as always, and so easy!!
That's it for today, I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly Take Your Pick: (Technique,embossing)

Sweet Stampin' Use a Non-white base (Red Foil) 
Seize the Birthday Opt: Border punches or dies 
Polkadoodles Favourite card shape (any easel) 
Cute Card Thursday Masculine

Without Words For the Boys

Outlawz Friday Colouring Challenge Anything Goes

Art by Miran Anything Goes

Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends Anything Goes  
Craft Your Passion Anything Goes 
Simon Says Challenge Anything Goes 
Through the Craftroom Door Anything Goes

Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna