It's Your 60th... Make a Scene!

The card I have today was a commission... well, one of the ladies I meet up with at the park when I walk the dog asked if I could make a card for her friend Vicki's 60th birthday, so "commission" sounds a bit posh :-)  There were quite a few "elements" of Vicki's life my friend wanted to be incorporated, a scene seemed the most appropriate form... picture heavy LOOOOONG post, sorry;-)

The birthday girl is "not a twig" :-) has bought a campervan to use in her retirement with her hubby, their name is "Read" their kids names are Belinda and Mark - she loves a cocktail (or three, lol) and is a FANATICAL supporter of  "our" Footy team The West Coast Eagles...  whose colours are Blue and Gold. The card was for her friends to sign so it had to have plenty of room for signatures - PHEW, that's a lot of details to squash into one li'l ol' card, lol. It's an easel card, I just love easel cards :-)

There are several images used here; the caravan is the same one I used for my son's birthday card in 2016, which is when this card was made, it's from (the sadly now defunct) The Stamp Fairy and called "Lenny Camping".

I erased Lenny from the front of the van and drew in a drawbar and jockey wheel, as well as adding the spending-kids-inheritance logo on the side of the van and giving the door the appropriate number, one of the reasons I love digis, so easy to mask off and add personalisation :-) I fussy cut the caravan and popped it up on foam dots.
Another little "feature" is the West Coast Eagles flag flying proudly on the back of the caravan.  I downloaded a pic from the WCE Homepage, shrank it down to as small as I could still having it recognisable, wrapped it around a toothpick and glued it in behind the van - of course, it looks so much better IRL

"Vicki", seen here in her cocktail glass is, in fact, Martini Bianca from Dr Digi's House of Stamps... I DID slim her down a little - and fussy cut her & popped her up on foam dots too.  I've added her hubby to the window of the van, he is also from Dr Digi's (Weekend Walter), I've used him for one of my Hubby's cards - bonus here is... he actually looks like Vicki's husband!

I coloured the images with Copics, adding Glossy Accents to the glass and the window of the van.  The grassy hills were cut with Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillsides using some green spotty paper from my stash, I added some shadows to accentuate the layers.  
The "hill" with the pine trees is Poppy Dies Freemont Pine Landscape, the Grassy Border, signpost with "Work" and "Life" on and Picket Fence are all My Favorite Things dies,  the clouds (popped up on foam dots) are Memory Box and the flowers are punches - with gems as centres on the larger and Stickles as centres on the smaller  

I love the arched border... it's MFT as well, "Fanfare Scalloped Border".  I added it in yellow on the blue card (which has a lovely texture called Pebble, and a pearl finish that shifts blue to black that I can't do justice to in photos) that I added the computer generated sentiment panel to... and in blue - though plain blue as the Pebble paper looks nice, but cuts like a dog! - on the jotting panel

As the jotting panel was going to get a lot of signatures it had to be BIG, so I added an "extra" fold and tada... there we have an A4 panel for all to sign - hopefully the pics show what I (obviously!) am having difficulty describing :-)
I added some gems to the Fanfare border on the sentiment panel but left them plain inside so the card stayed pretty flat.
And that, finally, is that!!  I actually REALLY enjoyed creating this card, and the recipient LOVED it, so that was very satisfying too :-)  
I'd like to share it in the following challenges:

Tuesday Throwdown Add Some Texture, The Paper Shelter Use a Sentiment, Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge Use Patterned Paper, Pixies Snippets Playground Use snippets (the green paper), Die Cut Divas Use Yellow, Little Miss Muffet, Through the Craftroom Door, Digi Choosday, Crafty  Creations, 4 Crafty Chicks, Crafting With Friends Challenge 73, Creative Fingers,Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Polkadoodles A Perfect Time to Craft, Create and Inspire, Creatalicious Challenges, Crafting With Attitude and Corrosive Challenge Anything Goes

Well, that's it for today... this card was one I found on an a camera card.. I'm still trying to resurrect my laptop from the Great OneDrive Fiasco.  I am "getting there", I've found 47 cards from my Drafts- I know I had 52 or 53, so I haven't lost TOO many.  Can't say the same for all my photos sadly, but I am still looking, loading, sorting and labelling so it's not over yet
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

Couples.... and a Couple of Computer Issues

I am (finally) back today with a card.  I've been absent for the last three weeks (though I'm sure no-one noticed, lol) because of MAJOR computer issues, which I will describe, as a way of venting some of my frustration, later.  Here's today's card, which I found hidden during these computer woes; it was for my Mum and Dad's Anniversary in 2016, which turned out to be their last Anniversary

I used an image from Crafty Sentiments (Benson Bear) called Couples, available here.... unfortunately it is a victim of my computer problems, so I no longer own it, it's coloured with Prismacolor pencils, which I didn't do much in 2016, so a fairly early example :-)  
The background paper is from Kaisercraft, the tan strip is a scrap die cut with Spellbinders A2 Scalloped Borders 2 die.  The little pink hearts were from a batch of goodies my Mum bought for me on one of their holidays in Malaysia... it was "our little thing" and I miss it.  Thankfully I still have a LOT of stuff she sourced for me over the years, so it's not gone forever just yet

I stamped on the edges of the jotting panel inside the card, I liked the effect.... then promptly have never done it again :-)  I'll have to give it another go.
So that's it for my card today, I'd like to enter in the following challenges: 
Sketch Saturday Have this great Sketch, which my card fits to a "T"... well a sideways "T", lol

Aud Sentiments Has a Bingo Challenge, I have used the "Die Cut/Flowers/2 Patterned Papers" line

The Paper Shelter Has Make it Bloom (flowers on paper, and stamp on the inside)

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge Has Use Patterned Paper

Pixies Snippets Playground Has "Snippets" (the tan strip)

Simon Says Challenge Has "Stamp on it" (if the digistamps on the front don't count, I've stamped inside)

Crafty Cardmakers  Has All Creatures Great and Small - bears are creatures, and so are butterflies :-)

Hiding in- my Craft Room Has a Pastels theme

Creatalicious Challenges Has Anything Goes, Option: Pastels

Little Miss Muffet, Cute Card Thursday, Give a Crafter A Cookie, Catch The Bug, Through the Craftroom Door, Digi Choosday, Crafty  Creations, Creative Fingers, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Polkadoodles, A Perfect Time to Craft and Crafting With Attitude All have Anything Goes Challenges

If you'd like to leave me there, I'll be back when I can with another card, until then Happy Crafting, if you'd like to hear a sorry tale read on...

The *&**ing computer saga

I decided to save ALL my Crafting stuff, images, papers, photos of finished projects, mmm, ALL my crafting stuff to Microsoft OneDrive as I have had (reasonable) success with iCloud for my business backups (to my Time Machine Backups, work's well covered!) and have just had (those backups I had) for my craft stuff, on discs, USBs etc
Well!  Microsoft OneDrive then proceeded to DELETE ALL my crafting files - well not all, but over 200GB -  yes, GIGAbytes.  Including my family photos back to 2004, (not many between 2004 and 2009 to be honest, but LOADS from since the twins were born) Holidays to New Zealand, birthdays, loads.  
It has done this by deleting the contents of folders... so the folders are still there, looking at first glance like a legitimate backup of a drive, but they're EMPTY.  So, a purchased set of twenty digital papers would look like it looked on my Hard Drive... until you go to use one of the files in the folder, and it's not there.  Rinse, repeat for HUNDREDS of folders.  Including 250+Mb scrapbooking kits
I spent EVERY spare minute, and some that weren't spare, lol, rebuilding the Drive - got to three quarters done, checked progress.... and it was all deleted AGAIN.  The folders were there, but empty.  No, the info is NOT in the Recycle Bin, it's just GONE.  And no, Microsoft doesn't care when you contact them about it. 
I have had to rebuild my drive AGAIN - on the Hard Drive this time, from the individual camera cards I have used over the years, luckily a lot of the pics I have "liked" I kept on those discs when overwriting for more recent projects.  Of course some I haven't, and from our iPhones.  Also, my old laptop had some files on, and my last laptop is having the hard drive removed and mounted so I can see what's on THAT tomorrow.  Of course all of this info includes the stuff I have edited out (you know all those random pics you take on your phones!) once, and now it's all got to be trawled through again, time, time, time.  
One good thing (you've got to look for the silver lining!) is that I have sorted and tagged EVERY file I have put back on my computer so far.... so they are easier to find, and I found this ONE card in a folder on my old lappy that I had missed copying over.
Of course when I went to see where I got the sentiment for this card, I realized I no longer HAVE the sentiment, so I don't know where it was from, I also don't have the image (I remembered where IT was from) and it makes me realize there are probably hundreds of image and sentiment files gone for good - many purchased, many generous "freebies" and some prizes for challenges.  
Some purchased scrapbooking kits and image files are unfortunately gone forever, but I must give a shout out to Nitwits who (for only $10) reactivated ALL the links for products I have bought there over the years, well over $100, and to My Memories Suite where I could access my purchases for nothing.  I still have to check some of the companies I know I've made a lot of purchases from and a couple of USB sticks where I save zipped image files, hoping to find some more there.
I would say that the moral to the story is "Backup" - but that is where this whole drama started!!  Well, not really.  I should have just had a Time Machine hooked up to my craft lappy as I have to my work one - I have a spare drive that WAS on my last laptop but played up (turns out that was the laptop not the drive, so I could have used it - and obviously SHOULD have!!)  I am trying to be brave, it IS a "first world problem" for sure.  But I am really p1$$3D off with Microsoft.... and what I hate most of all that it is taking up all my "crafting" time
I have re-found 40 of the 57 cards I hadn't posted on my blog yet, so I do have some offerings in the works... once I get time to sort out the best pics - digital photography does make you a bit "snap-happy", lol
Be safe, BACKUP and Happy Crafting, Donna