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 

Guest Designer at Cute as a Button Challenge Blog

I recently won a challenge over at the Cute as a Button Challenge Blog, WooHoo!  They asked if I'd like to do a Guest spot on the DT... of course I jumped at the opportunity :-)  I got to use this cuter than cute digi to make a card for the challenge starting today with the theme "Summer".

The image is called "Surfing USA" and you can get it in the Etsy store, here.  I am SO pleased with my colouring on this one, it's hard to see the detail in the pics because the quality of the pic reduces so much when you reduce the size of the file for uploading... you know how it goes! Either way, I'm happy with it :-) 
I coloured with Copic markers and Prismacolor pencils... and added absolutely NO shine or glitter, which is unusual :-)  The sky was inked in using a home-made stencil and Versamark ink.

I used papers from Kaisercraft's Seaside Collection.  The floral paper has gloss detail, the top of it is cut with Memory Box's Nottingham Border Die... I thought the flowers matched the hibiscus on the surfboard and patterned paper.  I inked the edges of all panels with a bit of brown ink to tone it all down a bit.

The sentiment tag "Life is a Beach" was from the same pad, I attached it with a brad - my thinking being that I can more easily change it out for a more celebration-appropriate sentiment if I want to later.  The image panel is popped up on foam dots so it's easy to access the brad.
The horizontal scalloped border is from the same pad again, and the blue twine is in fact paper string... I got a couple of packs in different colours in my local $2 shop, the enamel dots (well acrylic, but enamel-look, lol) are either from the same place or my Mum and Dad bought them back from Malaysia.
As usual I decorated the inside of the card to suit the front, using more of the same papers and elements.
I'd like to enter the following challenges:

Cuttlebug Mania Midsummer (Flowers and or Wreaths)

Addicted to  Stamps Anything Summer

As You Like It Favourite Markers, Inks or Pencils (I like 'em all... well, I haven't really tried inks, but I use Markers AND Pencils on practically every card, love the smooth blending of markers and the fine detail you can add with pencils!)

Polkadoodles Use a Diecut

OSAAT Flowers

Craft Your Passion, Simply Papercrafts, Create and Inspire, 4 Crafty Chicks, Crafty Creations, Simon Says Challenge, Crafting With Friends Challenge 24, Creative Fingers, Through the Craftroom Door and Art by Miran all have Anything Goes themes

So that's it for now, check out the Cute as a Button Blog , fab inspiration!  I hope you get a chance to enter the challenge too - you could win some of Francesca's fab digis!  Thnaks for having me as your Guest this time around, 

I'll be back later with another DT card, Until then... Happy Crafting :-)