90th Birthday Wishes

Well, I finally made it back to Blogland... lots going on - like my 60th birthday (eeeek!) and a little holiday with all my family - which was not eek, lol.  The card I have today is the one I made for my Mother-in-Law's 90th last July.  It, as is usual with the difficult-to-photograph (courtesy, in this case, of the iridescence) nicer in real life.  I've added loads of pics in an effort to show the effect

I saw some of these iridescent finished cards on Pinterest, and worked out you need to use a very detailed embossing folder to get full effect.... so, despite REALLY not needing another embossing folder to add to my collection I bought this beauty from Crafters Companion "Ornate Lace"... of course now I've seen how delicious they are... suffice to say I've added some to my Wish List

I used a pearl finished cream coloured card for the base, it took the deep embossing very well.  I used mica powders I bought in a set from Ali Express, they're pretty good... but as I've never used them before it was a bit of a learning curve to get them to stick; I found that mixing them with aloe vera gel worked really well (bit pricy) and hair gel worked pretty well too... and not as pricy :-)

There are about 12 different colours on the card, I'll be more efficient next time, lol
I cut the butterfly using a die that was in a set of three I bought from ebay.  I added some purple iridescent to it - though that was using Jo Sonja's Violet iridescent paint, it is transparent so not "heavy" but gives a bit more coverage... I added some to the edges of the mulberry cherry blossoms I added to the corner.  I got those, and the small rose leaves, and "filler" flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts... a while ago.  I added a few spirals of green wire cut from the stems
I used some Swarowski crystals to the body of the butterfly, and a smattering to the flower arrangement.  They throw different colours and are beautiful in real life
The numbers are big dies (Ali Express), I cut them using glitter card bit of a nightmare... next time I'll add the glitter later!  Then popped them up on foam dots
I finished the inside of the card very simply, adding another iridescent butterfly and a computer generated sentiment
I really liked the effect and I've made a couple more cards using it, black card looks really nice... it's a stronger look so I think it works for masculine cards
I also made the cake for the occasion,  but that's a set of pics for another day ;-)
I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges

As You Like It Flowers or Ribbon (and why) ... I don't use a lot of embellies on my cards, when I do a "special" card, like this one for my MIL, I like to add flowers because they are not found on commercial cards very often.  If the card is being handed to the recipient you don't have to worry about making it "post friendly" 

Moving Along With The Times Floral

Little Red Wagon, Floral

My Time to Craft Spring Flowers
Simon Says Challenge, Through the Craftroom Door, Digi Choosday, Crafty  Creations, Creative Fingers, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Polkadoodles, Gem of a Challenge, Corrosive Challenge, A Perfect Time to Craft and Crafting With Attitude Anything Goes

Just thought I'd add a few pics from my birthday celebrations (that spread over a week!)  We hired a stretch limo to take us to the revolving restaurant in town and took a pic of the kids dressed to the nines - how grown up they are!  and also a pic I took with my phone yesterday evening when we went for a walk down by the river - the restaurant we went to for my birthday is in one of the office towers in the pic, the view from there is  of the river and city... and when you have a lovely sunset it's really quite gorgeous

The black blobs on the water in the foreground are actually black swans... our State fauna emblem
Until next time, Happy Crafting Donna

Lemon and Lime Birthday Time

I'm back today with a card I made for my lovely Daughter in Law's birthday

... I coloured it to match the birthday cake I made for her, which was lemon and lime flavour - her fave :-) and decorated with stripes.  I made an easel card - my fave (or one of them, lol)

The image is Stampin' Bella Brittany Birthday Girl.  I stamped on Linen card, using my stamping platform... so much better, but still room for improvement :-)
I had a little strip of stripey lemon-ish card that I thought was perfect for across the fold of the easel, I would have used that as the mat for the image but I didn't have enough, so I used some green stripy paper from my stash instead, could be Echo Park, but don't hold me to it!  
I die cut the edge with a tiny scalloped border die I got in a set from Ali Express.
I've coloured with Copics, adding shadows (and highlights, long story) with Prismacolor pencils.  There's a nice bit of glittery goodness on the image too, I used Stickles and Glitter Glue but I can't remember the flavours :-)  
The citrus paper is from DCWV, it's very glittery too.

I used the last scrap of the yellow paper with the scalloped edge on the top edge of the pocket inside the card, made to hold the gift card that was my DiL's gift and a little tag for the sentiment.  
The strip of rhinestone bling finishing the edge of the pocket helps make the "stopper" of the easel stronger, it is some of the (loads of, lol) such bling my lovely Mum bought me over the years... no doubt this came from one of their many trips to Malaysia, my DiL is very aware of such things and even commented on me "sharing" some with her, which I thought was very sweet indeed.  
The organza ribbon on the tag was from a present from my son (not my DiL's husband, t'other one) who loves to wrap gifts elaborately... and I love him doing so too as I get a lot of lovely ribbon and "bits" out of it, lol.
That's it for my card, oh here's a (iPhone, so not that great) pic of the cake that inspired the citrus them -it was YUM btw :-)
I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:
Crafty Cardmakers  For Someone Special (my DiL is Special to all of us)

Fab'n'Funky Challenges Just Add Ink

As You Like It Favourite Colouring and Why I love Copics, they blend so well, have a good range of shades and are refillable (so cost effective)  I used Prismacolor pencils too, because I find them excellent for adding very small detail

Pixies Snippets Playground Snippets That yellow stripey bit :-)

Sweet Stampin' Anything Goes, Opt: Mellow Yellow Ooh yeah, we've got yellow
Catch The Bug, Cute Card Thursday, Through the Craftroom Door, Digi Choosday, Crafty  Creations, Crafting With Friends Challenge #2, Creative Fingers, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Polkadoodles, Gem of a Challenge, A Perfect Time to Craft and Creatalicious Challenges All have Anything Goes

I'll be back soon, I really do have to get through my Drafts folder :-)  Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna