Dino Baby

Today's card is one I made for my nephew's little boy's first birthday.  He loves dinosaurs, andI loved making this card in a box!

The image is from Cute as a Button, coloured with Prismacolor pencils.  The paper is from a pad I bought in Spotlight … it was as cheap as chips and is REALLY heavy, well printed.  Of course, I bought one pad, and I'm not sure they do it any more, sigh

I cut the balloons from snippets of blue and yellow cardstock - I really do keep the smallest bits, they do come in handy for these "little" embellishments - using a die from Paper Smooches, I added some coloured pencil shading and Glossy Accents for that shine and some baker's twine "strings"

The numeral "1" is a wooden one, coloured up with Star Dust Stickles added.  I had to use a heavier weight acetate to hold it up as it was quite heavy, but it still managed to bob around quite nicely :-)

The grass is cut with Lawn Fawn's Grassy Borders die, the banner is cut with (I think) a MFT die, the little flower is a punch and the pearl in the middle was white, I coloured it with a Copic marker to suit.  The Happy Birthday Sentiment is from Elizabeth Crafts, I beliive.  The gold cord and tiny blue dragonfly are from my stash.

I added a jotting panel to the rear of the card, and the piece of patterned paper at the bottom served as a pocket for the gift voucher we gave him

That's it for today.  I would like to enter in the following challenges:

Tuesday Throwdown Pile it On

Give a Crafter a Cookie

Pixies Snippets Playground Use Snippets (balloons)

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge Use Patterned Paper

Cupcake Inspirations Blue and Yellow

Give a Crafter A Cookie Picture to left... bunting and "Happy Birthday"

Send a Smile for Kids Anything Goes for Kids

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, Creatalicious Challenges, Crafting With Attitude and Corrosive Challenge Anything Goes

I'll try and get back soon... I have had my implant done now, accompanied by my normal EXTREME pre-op anxiety... and the meltdown immediately after when the surgeon told me I could not wear my plate for a week until I had the stitches out and he could look at adjusting it to not interfere with the implant.  
I did not set foot out of the house for the entire week, I found the whole thing distressing and am so glad I am on this side of it.  The pain was minimal (unlike the block graft, which was pretty uncomfortable and the swelling and bruising were quite heavy) but the blow to my self-esteem was surprising even to me, I was completely miserable and felt very low.  Ah well, done now, just got to wait for the final stage of healing... it looks good so far... and in 60 - 90 days I can get the crown made and be done once and for all.  At least I've got my magic plastic back in as of yesterday... soooooo glad about that!
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna 

Happy New... Baby!

Hello everyone... hope you're all settling into 2019, I know I am; it's like the Holidays never happened, lol.
The card I have to share today celebrates a New Beginning too... one of our work colleagues (a scheduler for one of the companies we contract for) had a beautiful bub called Ryker and I made this card in a box to celebrate the event

I love this style of card, they fit flat for posting (and/or...hopefully... storing as a keepsake!) yet provide a "lot" of card for your buck when open.  
I used this gorgeous Lee Holland digi called Elephant with Flower, available here, coloured with Prismacolor pencils... I love the soft pastel effect pencils give for baby images.  There's a little bit of glittery goodness in the flower centre.... just because :-)
I fussy cut the image and mounted it on little grassy mounds made using a Dienamics border die (Grassy Edges, I think)
I cut the letters of Ryker's name from the same blue card used for all the matting (sorry can't remember the die set, think it's Cottage Cutz) and added them to acetate "stalks" at the back of one of the "cross bars", leaving them dancing merrily away behind the image to the left.  On the other side I added a cute little acrylic blue dragonfly to balance it out.
I used multicoloured cube beads to spell out the word Welcome and strung that up on twine on the back upright panel.
The Ten Little Fingers verse on the front flap is from a Kaisercraft 6" pad "Lullaby"

The rest of the papers are just gorgeous in real life... they're from First Edition's It's a Boy pad, there's lots of fine detail and plenty of foil.  I actually used five different patterns of this paper, but that was because I only had a few snippets left of the butterfly pattern, they all go together so well though that it doesn't look like you've run out of one pattern!  It does mean I can enter the challenge at Pixies Snippets Playground, always a bonus :-)
 I added a velcro closer to the bellyband covered that with a rectangular panel and decorated that with a cute laser cut wooden rocking horse.
I added little silver flatbacks to every corner of every panel... which took a surprisingly long time!
As I do with all these cards I put the jotting panel on the back, I added a small panel of patterned paper at the bottom trimmed with some spotty gros grain ribbon from my stash
 .... and THAT's it for Ryker's card.  I'd like to enter in the following challenges

The Paper Shelter and Fab'n'Funky Challenges have New Beginnings

Cuttlebug Mania, Die Cut Divas and Cute Card Thursday have Something New

Crazy 4 Challenges has Favourite Type of Card (shape, theme etc) I LOVE cards in a box

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge Use Patterned Paper

As You Like It,  Through the Craftroom Door, Digi Choosday, Crafty  Creations, Crafting With Friends Challenge #77, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Polkadoodles, A Perfect Time to Craft, Creatalicious Challenges, Crafting With Attitude and Corrosive Challenge All have Anything Goes

Ona personal note, thanks to those who left me best wishes regarding my little friend Rocky... he is still with us; he had surgery last week and came through it really well; we did do an assessment re quality of life with the vet and he scored surprisingly high - a long way off euthenasia being "the" only answer.  Of course it may eventually come to that, but for the time being he is ticking along quite nicely (about which I am very happy and much relieved!) 

Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

Welcome Jett Mark 1

Recently the lovely Di from Pixie's Snippets Playground contacted me to see if I would like to GD for her snippets challenge - which of course I DID, lol - and I thought I'd share a card-in-a-box I made to welcome a friend's baby "Jett"... I made the christening cake for Jett's mum nearly thirty years ago so I like the synergy here :-)  The bonus, from The Playground's point of view is that these cards can (and in this case does) use a LOT of snippets!

I have made a metric version template of this card if you'd like to grab it from my Tutorials, Templates and Other Freebies Page, here's a direct link
The cute image, fussy cut but as one piece, is from Di's Digis... it's called Animal Crew and you can get it here. I coloured Copic markers, with a lot of detail added (like the lion's mane) using Prismacolor pencils. Glossy Accents to the balloon and a die cut sun... from Lawn Fawn's Spring Showers set
The papers I used were snippets from Die Cuts With a View's Animal Crackers pad - it has loads of glitter and, bonus to me, matching chipboard die cuts... these are what I have jiggling around on their acetate stalks.  I didn't realize until I was looking for the name of the pad that I've used this image/paper combo before here  - I obviously like it :-)


The chipboard corners came in the chipboard pack too, the tag with "Jett" on also, the letters for bub's name are wooden ones from my stash.
Like I said there's a lot of snippets on this card, the "frame" around the background (which I actually stencilled clouds onto, though you can hardly see them) IS a frame because I needed a bit more of the dark blue patterned paper to fit one of the outside panels.  I fetched the piece out of the waste basket to make the belly band, can't believe I threw it away tbh, I keep some very small snippets :-)
The little monkey die cut is from that embellie pack too, I have a velcro closure under it to hold the band together
The other side of the outside on these types of cards is where I usually put the jotting panel, as I didn't have a piece of the dark blue card left big enough to make a frame I thought I'd make a pocket to put a tag in instead... that itself is made up of two snippets as I didn't have a big enough piece left of any of the patterns I'd used to do it in one piece :-)  I added a brass eyelet and some baker's twine from my stash and used the plain side to jot my message
That was it for this card, thanks again to Di for asking me to be a Guest in the Playground.  I actually made two cards for this baby, one for my sister and her partner to give... the baby is her partner's daughter's first grandchild - when I did the christening card my sister wasn't his partner... and to make things even MORE interesting, we all met when I went out with him (met through a school friend) when I was 16!!
I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Tuesday Throwdown Tag It - The tag on the front, or the lift-out tag in the back

Cuttlebug Mania, Simon Says Challenge Frame It - The frame behind the image

Fab'n'Funky Challenges Bring me Sunshine

Crafty Cardmakers  For a Man or Boy

As You Like It Favourite Card Base Shape or Fold - I love "different" folds, that add a design element, this is one "favourite" - though I actually make square cards the most!

Die Cut Divas Animals or Pets

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge Use Patterned Paper

Little Miss Muffet, Digi Choosday, Crafty  Creations, Through the Craftroom Door, Crafting With Friends Challenge # 84, Creative Fingers , Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Polkadoodles, A Perfect Time to Craft, Simply Papercrafts, Crafting With Attitude and Corrosive Challenge Anything Goes

I hope you get a chance to join in Di's Snippets challenge... it really is no challenge at all, and a great way to clear out those Bits :-)
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

BBQ in a Box

G'day from WA :-)  The project I have today is a card-in-a-box I made for my son Chris's birthday... in 2015! (Well his birthday IS at the end of November so it's not as dire as it sounds, lol)  We bought him a barbecue as his gift so I thought I'd make a card that went with it

I thought the black and silver was "manly", and the papers I used were, in fact, part of the box of goodies said son bought me for MY birthday - he likes to know what he has chosen is "useful" to me so it gives him a buzz when he sees it "in action".  The black with silver glitter on it is a tissue sort of paper, the snippet of grey and white stripe is flocked and the silver and white on top is foil; all the food groups covered there :-)  The black and white polka dot strip is also paper, though I could just as easily have used ribbon.  The stars (MFT Die-Namics Stacking Stars) on the top are attached to acetate strips, 
I made the whole box from silver card, the decorative strip around the middle is cut using a die.  Of course the real feature of a "card-in-a-box" is what's IN the box... so here it is

Obviously, all the same elements used on the inside as on the outside... plus black leathergrain card. The barbecue is made from that card, the legs are black straws with an eyelet joining them and the wheels are Card Candi I've had in my stash for years.  
The controls on the bbq are silver flat back "pearls" and the red "light" is a hole-less pearl.  I used a jewellery finding (the type that you use to have a multiple string necklace) as a handle for the bbq lid.
Having a son called Chris is handy sometimes... the "Chris" on the right-hand panel was cut from a "Christmas" die, Memory Box I think, the Happy Birthday is an Elizabeth Crafts die and the 31 are Kaisercraft
The lid of the barbie opens too: I wish the plate of MY barbecue was as clean and shiny as it is on THIS one, lol

That's about it for my bbq in a box.  I would like to enter it into the following challenges:

As You Like It: Favourite Die and Why - "Chris", from the "Christmas" die... I love it because I love Christmas, use it a lot ... and the die cuts nicely too :-))

Card Mania Challenges Monochromatic
Crazy 4 Challenges #419 "Opposites" - black and white

Fab'n'Funky Challenges With a Number

Allsorts Challenges Old Favourites - the Christmas die, and those silver "pearls"

Pixies Snippets Playground Snippets (striped paper)
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge Use Patterned Paper
Tuesday Throwdown, Aud Sentiments, Through the Craftroom Door, Digi Choosday, Creatalicious Challenges, Paper Creator Crafts, 4 Crafty Chicks, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Polkadoodles, Crafting With Friends Challenge 59, Corrosive Challenge, Little Miss Muffet, Create and Inspire, Crafty  Creations, Creative Fingers and Simply Papercrafts all have Anything Goes Challenges

I'll be back soon (hopefully) with another offering, quite likely from my drafts... though I have been adding to THAT recently so it may not be an "old" make.  Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna

Butterflies, Boxes and Back on the Horse

Hello everyone.  Things have finally settled down enough in my "real life" for me to get back, at least in a small way, into my crafting.  I have dragged one of my makes out of my Drafts Folder, it's an "exploding box" card I made for my friend Andrena's 50th birthday, I really like them - she loved it, I hope you like it too.

It is made of quite heavy gold card, the patterned paper is Graphic 45.  I've also used a handmade paper as a mat and there's a ton of embossed velour paper involved too, oh and the trim is ribbon.  

The border on the lid was cut with a die cut, I think it's a Magnolia one... frankly I can't be bothered going to my craft room to check!  It works great as a border of the lid... just bends a bit when you stand it up! 
I used a Memory Box butterfly die cut in gold and trimmed with Swarovski diamantes on the top.  Stripy pink and plain green ribbon from my stash.

You all know how these things work; here's a picture with the lid "off"

The inside butterflies were cut from the Graphic 45 paper and jazzed up with some pearl and iridescent paints before being cut out and stuck to acetate strips to make them "float"  Photos never do these cards justice, it was really lovely in real life, with loads of texture.  The flowers are from my stash, the green ribbon on the inside is SO lush, yum yum. Wooden numerals painted with the same paints and a Happy Birthday die cut from gold (Sissix I think) complete the card

I always find it hard to find a place to write on these box cards... in this instance I made a mini card using some gold card and a scrap of the Graphic 45 paper, embellished it with a border and some bling then stuck it inside the lid of the box; worked really well :-)
That's about it for today's offering.  I hope to be back fairly soon... I do have a LOT in my drafts still, and I have made a few cards in the last year, most of which I photographed though not all :-(
I'd like to enter in the following challenges: 

As You Like It	Fave…Ribbons or Flowers, and Why - loads of flowers here, but I actually prefer ribbon because it's so user-friendly, comes in so many patterns and sits flat - which suits "my" style of card
The Paper Shelter	Border Punches or Border Dies (used a die)
Crafty Cardmakers edit: ineligible... my card/box is entered in more than 15 challenges, whoops. sorry ladies!	Fancy Folds
My Time to Craft	Die Cuts Only (no image, but yes to sentiment) even my sentiment is die-cut, lol
Sweet Stampin'	Autumn - I've used Autumn colours... my favourite!
Cute Card Thursday	Anything Goes
Hanna and Friends	#283 Anything but a Card - if you count this as a box!
Polkadoodles	Anything Goes
Hiding in- my Craft Room	Freestyle
Pixies Snippets Playground	Snippets -I've used snippets of card AND ribbon
Cute As A Button	#Anything Goes opt: Fall - used Autumn colours
Inky Chicks	Anything but a Square - well it IS square, but not a "square card"... I think that's in the spirit of the challenge
Little Miss Muffet	Anything Goes
Through the Craftroom Door	Anything Goes (Always)
Crafty  Creations	Anything Goes (Always)
Crafting With FriendsCrafting with Friends #52	Anything Goes (Always)
Creative Fingers	Anything Goes (Always)
Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends	Anything Goes (Always)
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge	Use Patterned Paper
Create and Inspire	Anything Goes
Creatalicious Challenges	#123Anything Goes, opt: Leaves
Simply Papercrafts	#51 Anything Goes
Crafting With Attitude	Anything Goes (Always)

On a personal note: My Dad has gone into permanent care, which is a hard thing for a family to come to as any of you that have done it would know, but we just couldn't keep him safe at home anymore.  It is a lovely place and he is settling as best as we could hope.
I have sold his house (emptying it first!), very stressful in a buyers market when we had a lower limit on what we "needed" to pay the bond for the home; we nearly made it, and have enough to come up with the shortfall.  Not having to pay $1200 a fortnight INTEREST on the bond (which hubby and I have been coming up with) is going to relieve the stress a lot - this is the first fortnight it won't apply, so we'll see :-)
I have managed to keep only six (albeit large-ish) boxes of "stuff" from Mum and Dad to sort and/or store... they bought a Royal Albert Old Country Roses full dinner and tea set each for us, I have emptied one of the display cabinets in my craft room (which is next to our family room) and installed lighting to display it and SOME of the gazillion matching crystal glasses my son eventually wants as his heirloom - it looks really nice, even though it was never my cup of tea, pardon the pun 
Anyway, until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna                         

My First Card in a Box

Today I'm sharing a "Card in a Box" ... it's the first one I've made, and I'm using it as my DT inspiration for the new challenge starting today at Di's Digis Challenge Blog.  Warning: this is a "Photo Heavy" post, the darned thing was hard to capture in pics, lol

I absolutely loved making this card, the young lady from across the road (I've known here since she was four!!) had a "little" boy last week, his name is Alakae and he weighed in at 8lbs 4oz -I met him today and he is GORGEOUS! Congrats to Hayley and Dave :-)

I found a few templates and tutorials on the web, here's a good tutorial, but I ended up making my own template because I wanted one in metric (hard to find) that folds down to a 15cm or 6" square (even harder to find!) here's a link to my template, it's on my freebies page.  I added a belly band to keep it from springing open too readily - these cards really do go amazingly flat for posting, if that's a consideration and still have the multiple layers we all love!  Bunny Zoes Crafts and Divas by Design have "layers" challenges running so I'm entering there.

The image I've used is Butterfly Baby Ted, he's gorgeous too, isn't he? I coloured with Copics then fussy cut him (and the butterflies!) and mounted them on strips of acetate of differing lengths to give a more "floaty" feel.  Corrosive Challenge is Cut it or Crop it, so I'm definitely in!  I smothered some die cuts from Make It Crafty (they no longer stock them, sadly) in Stickles and added some butterflies to acetate strips behind the teddy and some baby themed ones to the different layers inside the box and to the flaps as well.  Ladybug Crafts Challenge has a For the Boys or Use Die Cuts challenge, I'm in on both fronts, lol.  The die cut on the front flap was cut using a Nestabilities Standard Circle die from the Kaisercraft Lullaby pad, I put the baby's birth details on this flap and stuck a plain panel on the back of the card to use as a sentiment panel.  Card Mania Challenges, Gem of a Challenge, Tuesday Throwdown and The Crazy Challenge all have "baby" challenges so I'm entering there while Bearly Mine Challenges has for the boys, so in there too.
The "welcome" is made from beads I've had in my stash for-eva! and the gold pearls and Card Candi are from stash too.  The patterned paper is from a pack I got in Spotlight, it's so lovely and fresh, I'll be entering Hazel's Patterned Paper Challenge for the first, but I doubt last, time :-)  The Paper Shelter wants to see Anything But a Card, so I'm classing this as a box to enter, lol, and Fab'n'funky Challenges wants to see shaped cards, so I'm hoping this is in the spirit of that challenge and entering there too.  Through the Craftroom Door, Paper Crafting Journey, Little Miss Muffet, Stampin' for the Weekend and Clear It Out have Anything Goes challenges so I'm entering them as well.
Well that's it for today's card-in-a-box, check out the rest of my teamies inspiration... hope you get a chance to enter the challenge too; we have a FABULOUS prize from Little Darlings Rubber Stamps, and if you use one of Di's lovely digis you go in an extra draw... win/win I say :-)  
 Sorry about all the photos today.... here's another one in an effort to show the layers, lol, I LOVE these cards and have already started making a couple more - and I saw the recipient's reaction when they opened it today (which of course you don't always see) and it was truly worth the work... they loved it too :-)
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna