An Elegant Lady for an Elegant Lady

The card I have for today I made for my friend's birthday last year.  As it is her birthday again on Friday I thought it was time I posted the pics of last years.  Mind you, I still haven't put up the pics of my nephew's wedding card, and he's been married three years in March, lol.  For today though, here's Andrena's birthday card :-)

This is one of those cards that looked much nicer in real life, I'm sure you know the type I mean, lol.  The cream background paper has a lovely pearl sheen to it.  The "lady" is black velvet... and the black filigree and silver backing the ladies dress up is glittery, the sentiment is too.
The trellis die and the lady die I used were all bought from AliExpress.  The rhinestone trim is from my stash, one of my many "treasures" brought back from Malaysia by my Mum, many happy moons ago
I finished the inside of the card much the same as the outside, the flower dies are MFT Plentiful Petals and the leaves are Sue Wilson Faux Quilled Leaves

Here's a bit of a closeup of the velvet lady....  that velvet paper is all gone now, I only had a scrap and another pic showing the glittery goodness of the black glitter paper 

I added a foam dot and a piece of Card Candi (I have so MUCH of this stuff, lol) to the centre of the flower to finish it off.
That's it for today's card. 
As You Like It has the theme: What is Your Favourite CAS or FAFF, and why... I love "fully loaded" cards, but I just struggle to achieve the look myself.  I like SOME embellies, so this card represents "my" favourite... tending to the CAS, but not exactly CAS

CAS(E) this sketch has this sketch

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge Use Patterned Paper

Pixies Snippets Playground Snippets

Addicted to  Stamps For a Lady/Girl

Cute Card Thursday Sentimental

Aud Sentiments Anything Goes + a Sentiment

Simon Says Challenge, Through the Craftroom Door, Digi Choosday, Crafty  Creations, Creative Fingers, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Polkadoodles, Gem of a Challenge, Creatalicious Challenges, Crafting With Attitude and Corrosive Challenge Anything Goes

Happy crafting until next time, Donna

Beautiful Butterflies

The card I have for you today is one I made for my sister in law last year.  The "Eclipse" style was all the rage at the time and I made a couple of cards in this style, this was the first - and I learned a few things from it, not enough to make no mistakes on the next ones, but at least different mistakes :-)

The paper I used for this card is absolutely lush in real life, with a soft textured finish, really good quality printing and gold foil details... of course none of that shows up in the pics, lol

I made an easel card, I love them and my sister in law does too... and it's a good chance to show the "eclipse" effect off with it's different angles.  I cut the edge with a Sue Wilson border die, the pink card was a bit light to support the weight of the card front (with all the added layers under the letters) so I backed it up with some acetate, I cut the corners with a curved corner cutter - so it doesn't spike you!

The letters were from a die set I bought from AliExpress, they are 3" tall.  Here's a link to a tutorial showing the Eclipse technique, it's one of the (many, lol) videos I used to learn.  I used three layers of black card to raise the letters up.  

The pearl trim is from my stash, actually it's some my lovely Mum brought back from Malaysia on one of her many trips... I've been loathe to use anything she has given me, knowing that once it's gone it's gone, but my SiL absolutely loved my Mum, so it felt "right" to use it

I used sticky back pearls from my stash on the centres of each "medallion" on the border die too.  The inside of the card was finished very simply, with just a strip of the pearl "ribbon" as a prop for the front of the card.  The sentiment is a stamp from Kaisercraft

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

Cardz 4 Galz Wings

Crafty Cardmakers  Challenge #239 It's a Bug's Life

Double D Challenge Pearls, Gems or Rhinestones

As You Like It Favourite: Pink and Green or Blue and Orange and Why... I love all colour :-) I love Pink and Green together - perfect for pretty flowers AND butterflies

Cutie Pie Challenge My Favourite Colour... again, I love all colour.  Pink and teal green look so pretty together

Allsorts Challenges Feminine

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge Use Patterned Paper

Through the Craftroom Door, Digi Choosday, Crafty  Creations, Crafty  Creations,  Creative Fingers, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Polkadoodles, Gem of a Challenge, A Perfect Time to Craft, Creatalicious Challenges, Crafting With Attitude and Corrosive Challenge all have Anything Goes

That's it for today.  I have to make a Father's Day card (or two!) for next Sunday... my Dad is deep in the throes of Dementia now, and doesn't know me from a bar of soap, but we still celebrate all the events and I still like to make his cards.... and he still likes the chocolates I always give him, especially so now; the only things he'll eat are sweet - sweeter the better!

Until next time (which may be after the next stage of my dental surgery, which is bringing it's own set of issues, tba) Happy Crafting, Donna

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

Forget Me Nots

Well, getting worse... over a month since my last blog post, sigh.  I still have over 50 projects in my Drafts folder, so here's a card I made for my Daughter in Law's birthday last year 

I used an image from Fairy Tangles called "Forget Me Nots", hence the Post Title, isn't she gorgeous?  I coloured with Copic Markers, adding shading and detail with Prismacolor pencils... my usual (and favourite) way of colouring.  I added some glitter with Stickles and Viva Liquid Pearl "pearls" to her hair.

The image was cut with a Spellbinders oval die, the gold frame cut using Spellbinders Oval Florals die.  The sentiment was computer generated, printed on my laser printer then foil-embossed using my laminator and Deco Foil.
The lovely background paper is actually left over from the wrapping paper I used to wrap my DIL's present - it is really good quality and worked well... so well I went back to the stall I bought it from and bought some more!
I finished the inside of the card along the same lines as the outside, as I usually do :-) 
I would like to enter the following challenges:

The Paper Shelter Birthday Card
Crafty Cardmakers Birthday Card

As You Like It Favourite Colouring Medium, Copics and Prismacolor pencils... love the blending properties of the Copics and the detail the pencils add

Simon Says Challenge Sparkle and Shine

Allsorts Challenges Use Pearls... hope Liquid Pearls count!

Pixies Snippets Playground Snippets- the wrapping paper DP

Hanna and Friends Bingo Flowers/Dies/Pearls

Card Mania Challenges Spring - spring colours

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge Use Patterned Paper

Cutie Pie Challenge Delightful Digis

Card Mania Challenges Spring

Create and Inspire Anything Goes, option: Dies or Stencils

Creatalicious Challenges Anything Goes option: Dies or Punches

Little Miss Muffet, Through the Craftroom Door, Digi Choosday, Crafting With Friends Challenge # 65, Creative Fingers, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Polkadoodles, A Perfect Time to Craft, Simply Papercrafts, Crafting With Attitude, Corrosive Challenge all have Anything Goes challenges

Well, that's it for today, I hope to be back soon with another offering - wish me luck!

Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna

One For the Girls at DigiDesigns

Not even going to go to the "yet another two weeks has passed" place (or did I just go there? lol) Anyway.... it's time for a new challenge at the DigiDesigns challenge blog, this time we'd like to see you make something "For the Girls".  I made a birthday card, coz you can never have too many cute birthday cards :-)  I'm having a bit of trouble with my camera giving a slightly grey cast on my pics... I don't want to edit them too much so you'll have to believe me when I say it's a bit more 'defined' in real life.  I'll have to work out why it's happening

Once again I've gone with a large format, A5, I like this size as it  means I can print the image up nice and big (one of the many reasons I love digis!) which makes the colouring easy... and in this case add a big sentiment too... without losing all that lovely patterned paper.  This too-cute image (I LOVE Di's mice images!) is Doughnuts and Sprinkles and you can get it here at Di's Digi Stamps store.  I coloured with Prismacolor pencils, I've been practicising and it's a shame the photo isn't clear as I'm really pleased with how much detail I got with just pencils.  Polkadoodles has Cream and Sugar as it's theme, this fits the "Ivory, pink, sugar" idea so I'm in!

I added lashings of Ranger Glossy Accents to the glass cake cover, then decided to step away from the gloss/shine/glitter so it could be a focal point... again, it looks heaps better IRL.
The patterned paper is from The Paper Mill, I just bought this pad, and couldn't believe that the ribbon I've had in my stash for YEARS matched it so well!  It's nice and "girly" which means as well as "our" challenge I'll be entering Sparkles Monthly Challenge with the same theme and The Crazy Challenge which has a Floral theme
The pearl/metal embellies on the corner of the image panel are brads, the pearls were cream but my trusty Copics soon changed THAT, lol.
The fabulous sentiment is from Created with TLC, I got it as a freebie (from the ever-generous Paulette) but I have since bought the Birthday Mega Bundle from the store and it came in that too - along with loads of other great sentiments.
I finished the inside of the card very simply with elements from the front, nothing unusual in that :-)  Craft Your Passion.  Through the Craftroom Door, Simply Papercrafts,  Crafting With Friends (#17), Creative Fingers, Art by Miran, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, That Craft Place and Corrosive Challenge all have Anything Goes Challenges so I'm entering there.
All in all this is a very simple card, very reliant on the super cute image (have I said how much I love Di's meeces? lol)  
Pop over to the challenge blog and check out the rest of the team's girly inspiration... you'll see it doesn't have to be pink to be girly!  I hope you get a chance to enter the challenge this time around, great prize on offer - this time we have two sponsors: SVG Attic and Dies R Us... Woot WOOT!!  and as always if you use one of Di's images (digi or a Candibean stamp) there's an extra opportunity to win.
I'll be back.... SOON I hope!  Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna

Layer It Up

Time for a new challenge at Di's Digis... the theme this time is "Layer It Up", no challenge at all really; I love adding a few layers even if I don't add a lot in the way of embellishments.  I thought I'd add another baby card to my collection, here it is

The image I've used is called  "Cute Cradle" and it's available here.  This is one of the images I coloured when we were "Down South" recently, as i had left my Copics at home it's coloured completely with Prismacolor pencils... I'm getting happier with the results I'm getting with my pencils - and as I've got another half a dozen ready coloured you may be seeing more in the near future.  Then again I've got LOAD of cards in my drafts so they may get an airing first.

I followed the sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches, I don't "do" asymmetrical as a rule, this is the closest I get, lol.
The theme for this challenge is "Layers", and I've got plenty on here; the cardstock is from my stash, it has a lovely texture.  The papers are all Kaisercraft, from various pads.  I love embossing - the dry variety! - I think it adds interest without the "noise" that another pattern would bring.  I used a swirls folder on the background paper and the purple feature panel... it embosses really well... a little TOO well, it practically cut through this paper, card would be better as it is sturdier!
I used my newest acquisition to cut the mats with those gorgeous borders; this was the Sue Wilson Mini Gemini "Aquila" die... actually it's a set of three dies, very clever as you can cut into the border, have the border as an "outie" (like I have for the mats on the front) or cut the whole shape out to use as a die cut... like I have on the inside of my card.
The flowers were cut with the textured card using a Joy Crafts die, the centres are from the batch of melted pony beads I made a while back.
I just found the "baby girl" embellishments in my LSS, I found "baby boy" as well so of course two packets (well four actually, pink and blue versions of each) found their way into my little basket.  These were actually much paler so I used a RV Copic to match them up with my papers... I thought I'd lose the sparkle on them by colouring them over, but they still sparkle nicely
That's it for my card today, really quite simple, layering isn't difficult - hope to see your efforts in the challenge.  Pop over to the blog and check out the rest of the team's work, we've got some new team members so there's a real variety of inspiration there for sure!  There's a fab prize on offer from Magnolia-licious, and don't forget if you use one of Di's cute digis, or one of the Candi-Bean rubber stamps you get to go in an extra draw with an additional prize of two digis, Woo HOO!!
I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges: 

Clear It Out Theme: Anything Goes Stash: Paper more than a year old (try more than 5 years old, lol)
As You Like It Favourite Type of Embossing and Why (Dry, less mess, more user-friendly!)
Moving Along With The Times Purple Haze
4 Crafty Chicks 7 Layers (I have 7 plus embellishments)
OSAAT Fancy Borders
Card Mania Challenges Polka Dots and/or Stripes 
Whimsy Inspirations Challenge, Hanna and Friends, Simply Papercrafts, Creative Fingers, Art by Miran, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Craft Your Passion and Through the Craftroom Door all have Anything Goes

I really hope to be back in a few days with something from my drafts; I have been adding regularly to it and not getting the opportunity to get anything OUT, it's getting a little crowded in there.  
That said, my nephew is getting married on Friday and I have to get their card made, my sister (his Mum) is up from the country for the week so we "do" stuff while she's up and hubby has got a super quiet week at work, more stuff lol... along with the twins' 3rd birthday (yup, 3... where did THAT three years go huh?) coming up in two weeks with a cake to consider, I'm not sure how much time blogging is going to get!!
Either way, until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

Time for a New Challenge at Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge

Yup, it's the first of the month... time for a new challenge at Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge... you know the one where all you have to do is use Patterned Paper on your project - too easy!!  
I made a card for my friend Jenny who turned 50 - she loved it, I hope you do too. 

 It's a stair step card, well I think that's what the fold is called, which looks like a "normal" square card on the front - the "fancy" bit's inside; here's the great template and tutorial I followed and here's a pic of that all important inside before I go into detail

The papers are all from Kaisercraft's Hey Birdie collection, the green detail on the leaves is foiled, it really gives it a lift that's hard to see in the pic :-)

I've used an image by Teri Sherman I've had for a while called Beautiful Blossom... I bought it from Delicious Doodles, before the stoopid EU laws that shouldn't affect me, living in Australia shut down that and many more of my favourite digi stores - fortunately you can now get Delicious Doodles images in Teri's Etsy shop here.  
It's printed on Versa Linen card, giving a nice texture.  I rounded two of the corners on all of the panels I used, inside and out using a 1" corner rounder.
I coloured, as usual with Copics and Prismacolor pencils, added glitter to the butterflies, her nails and some Viva Liquid Pearls to her bracelet.
I used brown cardstock as the base for the card and pink cardstock for the matting, embossing the small squares on the steps with Cuttlebug's Swiss Dots embossing folder and inking the edges with some brown ink.
The "Happy" and "Birthday are Spellbinders dies, cut in brown cardstock then covered (carefully!) with Glossy Accents, the "5" and "0" are wood painted with Acrylic paint then lashings of Gloss - I just cut the "th" from the middle of another "birthday" die cut :-)
The ribbon on the front is from my stash, the pink scroll underneath is Memory Box's Ivy Tendril die.  
I used a couple more of the Ivy Tendrils in brown to the inside of the card.  The pearl and rhinestone embellie on the front was from ebay, the gold flatbacks are from my stash.
That's it for the workings of this card... I thought it was a good card to use for a Patterned Paper Challenge with the amount of patterned paper on it! - but you don't have to use anything LIKE as much pp as I have, you just need to have SOME on your project to join in.
Pop over to the blog, check out the rest of the team's work and join in, great prize on offer and always such an easy theme!
I'd like to enter my "stair step or whatever the fold's called" card in the following challenges:

Crafty Creations Colourful 
As You Like It  Pastels or Brights and why (I like pastels, but end up "Bright", lol)

Cuttlebug Mania Trees

Moving Along With The Times Leaves and/or Trees (Both!)

Cute Card Thursday Sparkles

Polkadoodles Sparkle, bling or glitter

Sparkles Monthly Challenge Pearls or Lace (Pearls on embellie, and gold flatback "pearls")

Addicted to  Stamps Things with Wings (Butterfly)

Papertake Weekly Take Your Pick (product: Score Board)

Seize the Birthday Birthday

Aud Sentiments Birthday Sentiment

Craft Your Passion Anything Goes

Through the Craftroom Door Anything Goes

Simon Says Challenge Anything Goes

Art by Miran Anything Goes

Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends Anything Goes
Until next time (still got to get something out of my drafts folder!!) Happy Crafting, Donna

Di's Digis Monochromatic Challenge and /or Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper; take your pick or do 'em both

Well time has flown AGAIN, and not in a good way AGAIN... but so I don't get a reputation for being a misery guts I'll leave it at that... until the end of the post at least, lol.  It does mean that I haven't had a lot of Crafting Time, so today's card is doing "double duty" as my DT card for the challenges starting today at Di's Digis Challenge - where the theme is Monochromatic - and Crafty Hazelnut's monthly Patterned Paper challenge

I wonder if you can guess what colour I chose for my Monochromatic card, lol.  I used papers from Kaisercraft's Lullaby collection, the white detail on the background paper is flocked - it feels really nice.  I used one of the "sets" of stripes from the other patterned paper to paper piece the shelf, I added some shading "under" and on the ends of the shelf to emphasize the 3D effect
The cuter than cute image is called Animal Shelf and it's available here
for only $2.50.  I coloured, as usual, with Copics and Prismacolor pencils, adding some Ranger Glossy Accents to the balloon and some Sakura Glaze pen to the noses.  I inked around the image panel with Kaisercraft Orchid ink. 
I used Papertake Weekly's Sketch #64 - I love symmetry :-) The lace is from my stash, as are the tiny buttons and pearls.  The Baby Girl dies cuts are Spellbinders, as is the "Congratulations" on the inside of the card.  I added a layer of Icicle Stickles to the die cuts... I was going to heat emboss them with Bridal Tinsel EP, but did that to one of the "spare" die cuts I'd made and they were a different shade of pink... so in the interests of matching... they got the Stickles treattment.
That's it for today's card.  Really simple, best approach with a monochromatic card IMO, otherwise you spend (substitute "I spend") ages trying to match all the embellies.

Hope you get a chance to enter both Di's challenge and Hazel's... both have great prizes on offer - a nice paper pack from Hazel and Di has TWO sponsors; Crafters Companion UK and SVG Attic...also don't forget if you use one of Di's images - one of her digis or a Candibean stamp - you go into an extra draw with an additional prize of two digis.  That cant' be bad can it?
Pop over to  Di's Digis Challenge and Crafty Hazelnut's monthly Patterned Paper challenge and check out the rest of the DT's work... I'm sure you'll find it very inspiring :-) 
I'll be entering my card in the following challenges: 

The Crazy Challenge Monochromatic

Crafty Creations Use Four of Something (four critters, four buttons)

Gem of a Challenge Animals or Birds

Crazy 4 Challenges Include a Critter

As You Like It Fur or Feathers (Fur… I love colourful birds, but fur is FURRY :-)

Papertake Weekly Take Your Pick (Sketch, Product Lace

Paper Creator Crafts Dies or Punches

Hanna and Friends Lace and Pearls (four little pearls inside)

Cutie Pie Challenge Cute as a Button (four tiny ones)

OSAAT Anything Goes with Children

Craft Your Passion Anything Goes

Through the Craftroom Door Anything Goes

Outlawz Friday Colouring Challenge Anything Goes

Simon Says Challenge Anything Goes

4 Crafty Chicks Anything Goes

Crafts 4 Eternity Anything Goes

Art by Miran Anything Goes
Well I've managed to get this post out, bit later in the day than anticipated as we've been babysitting the kids again while their poor parents try and reassemble their house.  They moved back in on Monday after staying the weekend with us (their nine weeks having turned to 14 weeks meant their "holiday house" was no longer available)  but it's a long way from finished: The carpets got wrecked during removal, half have been replaced the rest come on the 12th August, the blinds also got wrecked during storage so they're being replaced not sure when, the main bathroom floor = wrecked during the plaster replacement fiasco, that's getting redone "whenever", the walls in the bathroom have to be redone, the spa same, the bench in the ensuite same.... on and on it goes. Stressful doesn't START to describe it.  and 104 boxes to be sorted, they were stored by the removal company but some got damp, some got dusty (how you can manage both I've no idea!) so a lot of washing of linen's been going on there and here.
My chest infection (while not unusual, I'm asthmatic and do get one most winters, though not at all for the last couple of years) just won't go.  It's been draining.  I changed from Windows to Mac for my business, had the hard drive fail (after I'd uploaded and sorted all my data, of course) downloaded Office 2016 for Mac onto the new hard drive - disastrous at this stage, no functionality and crashing constantly, then couldn't get the old version back - I spent over 50 hours THIS WEEK, trying to resolve (mainly email) issues, finally got the clunky-by-comparison-to-Windows-but-OH-so-much-better-than-the-new-version of Office back on my machine, and access to all my contacts back.  Let me tell you, when I just signed in to my laptop and they're pushing hard for me to take up Windows 10, I couldn't hit the "not now" button hard or fast enough
Everyone send a wish that things get boring for Donna, ta
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

My First DT Card For Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge

Well, as I said the other day... not that anyone was probably listening - 'tis the story of my life, lol - Hazel has decided to gather a Design Team for her Patterned Paper Challenge. 
As she gets a HUGE number of entries (it's so easy to enter, all you have to do is use some patterned paper on your creation!) I can see why she needs a DT!!  Here's my offering; not as "uncluttered" as my usual, it was in fact my first Criss Cross Card, I made it for my Mum's birthday last August (geez, we're nearly there again!) and it's been sitting in my Drafts waiting for a special occassion - which I've deemed this is :-)
My Mum LOVES these sweet images from Sugar Nellie.  This is one of the Vintage Adorable Collection (Digital of course, I'm a Digi Kinda Gal!) available here.  I printed the image on linen card, it just seems to say "vintage" to me better than smooth card, and coloured with some Copics and mainly Prismacolor pencils.  I've coloured her with "my" hair and eye colour... well when I was this age my hair was naturally this colour... now I have a little help :-))
I made the card base with Kraft... for its vintage feel... The all important papers (and there's a LOT of paper on this creation, trust me) are from Kaisercraft's Vintage Timeless pad and a Digital set "Basic Vintage", there's this and lots of goodies at Michelle R Designs I bought the matching insert set, but ended up just mix and matching my papers instead.  I can't believe how many times the word "vintage" is coming up in this post... so NOT me, lol.
The scalloped mats are Nestabilities Scalloped Circles, the rest of the mats are all cut from Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Circles dies.. there's so many in the set you can get very narrow mats - but it is a a lot of cutting (it was for my lovely Mum, so it didn't matter) 
The lace is from my stash, as are the pearls.  I used Viva Pearl Pen to add the "pearls" around the scalloped circle... I didn't have that many pearls left - and the pen is QUICK!

The gold embellishments are chipboard, from Make It Crafty... but Zoe doesn't sell them anymore, lucky I stocked up! - I embossed them with some Vintage Gold EP from Ranger
I added a sheer bow with a pearl brad to the insert, so you could pull it out (it was a bit snug, lol) I put a smaller version at the bottom of the image to tie it in.

I added a die cut from the Kaisercraft pad to some more of the nested circles and stamped Happy Birthday on it (ancient stamp of unknown origin) more of the Pearl pen... then I added MORE circles to the back of the insert and a jotting panel, finished the scalloped circle with, you guessed it, more Pearl pen.  There are "only" 12 circles cut for this card, but I kept trying to get more out of my coloured cardstock so I was cutting middles out and all sorts... like I said, a lot of cutting - glad it wasn't by hand!!

I added a stand to the back of the card to help it stand up "nicely", I didn't take a pic but it's the same as the one I used on the last Criss Cross card I posted here (which was actually made AFTER this one - I used the stand from this card as a template)

Well that's it for my inaugural Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge DT card.  Pop over to the blog and check out the rest of the new team... plenty of talent there, I am honoured to be in such "good company".  I hope you get a chance to enter the challenge as well... it runs for the whole month and all you have to do is use Patterned Paper... TOO EASY!!  As a bonus, there's always a great prize on offer too, woohoo!! 
I am entering the following challenges:

Sparkles Monthly Challenge Vintage or Shabby Chic

Cuttlebug Mania Use a Sentiment

Crafty Cardmakers Sentiment

Whimsy Inspirations Challenge Ribbon, Lace or Twine

Creatalicious Challenges Ribbon and Pearls

That Craft Place Layers

Papertake Weekly Take Your Pick (Product: Pearls)

Sugar Bowl Challenges Anything Goes (with a SN image)

Through the Craftroom Door Anything Goes

Art by Miran Anything Goes

Simon Says Challenge Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps Bingo Board:I've used Lace Sentiment/Ribbon, or Ribbon/Punches or Dies/Layers or Lace/Stamped Image/Layers ... depending on whether a digi is a "stamped image" or not :-) and/or if the two bows and a loop qualify as "ribbonrow Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna