Life's a Circus

It's the first of the month so there's a new challenge starting at Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge, you know - the one where all you have to do is use some patterned paper on your creation!
Sometimes life is a circus... well mine is, lol.  This card however was not to celebrate that fact but to celebrate my son's 30th birthday; he had a circus/carnival theme party, I made this card with that circus theme and his cake along the same lines and colours, so I thought I'd share some pics of that too, first the card - easel of course, we all love 'emin this family!

The papers are from stash and Kaisercraft, the red stripe on the stripy paper is foil, it looks really nice IRL.
I printed the image (called Circus Tent, available from Make it Crafty, here) on linen card, coloured with Copics and Prismacolor pencils and added Ranger's Antique Gold Embossing details.  
The whole base is covered in red foil card.  The swirls are Memory Box and they and the fancy border trim (a die, Nellie Snellen I think) - which is actually a "stopper" made by sliding half a strip of card under the stripy paper and leaving half "free" for the front of the card to sit against when folded - are cut from the same red foil card. The tickets used for the sentiments are from Bizzy Becs (I think!), I cut the red mats around them freehand.
The rhinestones on the border and corners are from my stash.  I added the "Circus Chris" sentiment to the image before printing using a free font called Bingo Star for Circus and another for Chris.  That was basically it for the card..... the cake took a bit more work :-))

It was a "rainbow" cake, so first I baked six different coloured cakes, I stacked them (not dry like in this pic, but with yummy chocolate ganache between the layers) then put a layer of ganache over the whole thing before adding a thin layer of fondant before decorating as you can see.  
The big top roof was just cardboard covered in fondant :-) and the tent poles were straws with twine... but everything else was fondant, or in the case of the animals peeking out of the tent, royal icing.
The ringmaster took the most work, as usual I left my run a bit late and each element didn't really have time to set firm enough before I stuck it altogether... so he ended up a bit squashed looking :-)  
Chris takes his parties very seriously, this one was no exception; he hired space at a very nice park, hired oversized games such as Connect Four, Chess etc, he had face painters, balloon animal makers, gymnasts performing and a popcorn machine and chocolate fountain in the food tent - a real "kids" day that everyone seemed to really enjoy - I was surprised at how "into it" we all got; the tug of war and egg and spoon races were particularly competitive, and the average age was ... well, not kids! 

I shrunk down a copy of one of the invitations Chris had made for the ringmaster to hold in his hand.  The bottom cake was a rainbow cake too... I kept all the bits of different coloured cake mix I didn't use in the Big Top part of the cake and swirled them together (well three shades in each of two cakes) then gave them the gananche fondant treatment.  Even the board is covered in fondant - for a butter cake this thing weighed a LOT!!
Well that's about it for the cake too.  You don't have to do anything elaborate to enter Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper challenge... just use some Patterned Paper, any project...doesn't even have to be a card, why not give it a go?  Great prize on offer as always, and so easy!!
That's it for today, I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly Take Your Pick: (Technique,embossing)

Sweet Stampin' Use a Non-white base (Red Foil) 
Seize the Birthday Opt: Border punches or dies 
Polkadoodles Favourite card shape (any easel) 
Cute Card Thursday Masculine

Without Words For the Boys

Outlawz Friday Colouring Challenge Anything Goes

Art by Miran Anything Goes

Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends Anything Goes  
Craft Your Passion Anything Goes 
Simon Says Challenge Anything Goes 
Through the Craftroom Door Anything Goes

Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

Red, White and .....GREEN

The challenge over at Here Come The Boys this fortnight is: Red, White and Green.  It was nearly Red, White and Blue, but with Christmas looming this colour combo gives you the chance to make another of those Christmas cards... and enter a great challenge at the same time.

I used a sketch from Sketch Saturday, I've missed the deadline but thought I'd credit the sketch anyway as I think it's a beauty!  The image is Floppy (well his name is Floppy, lol) a digi from Make It Crafty, he's one of several super cute elves I just bought .... there's HEAPS of other fabby Christmas digis available too, and yup, I've bought some of them too. Christmas Stampin' All Year Long challenges us to use a stamp that's "Never Seen Ink", I'm hoping that unused digis count (to be honest, I could enter this challenge with any one of about sixty unused Christmas digis; "I see, I buy" - what can I say?)  Bearly Mine Challenges has One for the Boyz, this little lad IS one of the "boyz", so I'm in.

I've used Copics to colour and I'm really happy with my colouring on this one... sometimes I struggle with the reds as they seem very "wet" and I tend to add too much colour, leaving the subtleties of the shading drowned in R27!!  Cute Card Thursday  has Red is for Remembrance as its theme this time, hopefully there's enough red here to qualify.

I used different shades of green (G's and YG's)  to bring out the different shades of green in the paper, which is from Kaisercrafts Silly Season collection.  The Secret Crafter wants us to use Spots and Stripes for their challenge, I've got both here, so I'm entering there!  and Bizzy Becs has Circles, I may be pushing it claiming my spots are circles, but they certainly aren't SQUARES so I'm entering there.  Totally Gorjuss' challenge theme is Christmas Traditions... so I'm in there too.

I've used more of that lovely green glittery cardstock to mat, I only bought one sheet and it's gone a long way... still, think I'll grab some more though now I know how well it cuts.  The red mat behind the image, cut with Nestabilities Labels Twelve... again... (that thing's getting a hammering, lol) is from my stash.  I used Martha Stewart's Modern Garland punch on the strip.  A computer generated sentiment finishes it off. 

I used paper from the front of the card to decorate the inside, and added the lovely felt trees, which I think are from Kaisercraft but as I've ditched the package, can't be sure :-)

  

Papertake Weekly  has (First) Christmas and  Digital Tuesday has Anything Goes for their challenge themes; this is a Christmas card and I do love an Anything Goes challenge, so he's entering there too.

Don't forget to head over to the Here Come The Boys blog to check out the rest of the Red, White and Green projects, and why not give the challenge a go - it doesn't have to be a Christmas card, but it IS easy to use that colour combination at this time of the year!

Until tomorrow, when I'll be posting some of the Sweet November digis in review at All That Scraps have yourself some Happy Crafting, Dee4Donna

Fairy Happy Birthday

Well, as "promised" here is the card I made for my Sister-in-law's birthday....bit of a long post 'coz I love this card and really want to share :-)
This beautiful fairy is "Ariana", she is a digi from Anita Be Stampin' who's challenge this fortnight is Show Us Your Layers.....loads of layers here!!  edited to add: Missed the cut off time!! Ariana is cut out and popped up on foam dots in front of the great background image "Whimsical Mushroom" from Make It Crafty, which is, in turn, foam-dotted over the horizontal panel.  I changed the colour of the sentiment, which is part of the ABS Fairies Sentiment set,  to purple then cut and embossed it with an oval Nestie in turn mounted on a Scalloped Oval Nestie.  Stamp Something has Something punched as it's challenge this time, so I'm in there.Digi Stamps 4 Joy has "On the Wings of..." as it's challenge theme and Ariana with her gorgeous sparkly wings is definitely in there!
I used the sketch from Sweet Sketch Wednesday, at first I thought the diamond shape would be too hard - turns out it wasn't!  
The papers are from Kaisercrafts Magic Happens 6½" pad, don't you just love all those flourishes?!  Conveniently, Creatalicious Challenges has "Flourishes" as its challenge theme...until tonight!! Craft Your Passion has "It's Magical" as its theme; with my fairy and paper by that name...you guessed it!!
Flutterby Wednesday has Polka Dots as its challenge theme so the combo of my fairy and my dotty paper means....I'm in!!  
I used watermelon colour pearl card for all the matting, mainly because the pale pink stockings my fairy started with just looked like skin so I had to brighten them up a bit leaving the pink hanging out on its own!! 

Copic Oz has this colour inspiration for its challenge, I've used BV00, RV13 and RV17, and G21 and G28 along with some other "Gs" and "YGs" hopefully it's close enough!   
The purple ribbon threaded through the lace is what my perfume and skin care supplies come wrapped in when I buy them online....as I buy all my family gifts from there as well, I have a LOT of purple ribbon (my three bottles of perfume a year probably wouldn't keep me in ribbon!!)  Bizzy Becs has Its All About Lace as its challenge this time, this card has lace inside and out (which is, for me, a lot of lace!) so I'm entering there.  
The Pink Gem Challenge this time around is "Bloomin' Charmin" Flowers and Charms, I don't know if the little flowers on Ariana are enough, but I do know that the little heart charm (which I glued metal numbers on, can you tell how old my SIL is? lol) is Charmin', so I'll enter there but be totally understanding if it doesn't qualify :-)  Whoopsi Daisy Challenge is Free and Easy and Papertake Weekly is Anything Goes, so no issues there! 
Totally Papercrafts has Summer and By the Cute and Girly has In the Garden/Outdoors, my lovely little fairy sitting out in "her" garden get her into those challenges.  I'm kicking myself that I missed another couple of "garden" challenges with this card, not a theme I use a lot!

The inside of the card is finished in the simplest way....or would have been had I not cut the paper short!  I used more of that great Kaisercraft paper - it doesn't show but the flourishes are shiny - and covered the join with some of the lace/ribbon from the front and glued a few tiny watermelon colour rhinestones on to bring the pink from the front.
Well I don't know how many of you survived the journey to the end of this post, if you did you get points for stamina, I made the most of my hubby going to work for the first time in a couple of weeks.  I really will make a "short" post one day (I am only 5'2" in old money, so I can DO short, ha ha). Until then, Happy Crafting, Dee

Not so Young Love

This is my last card as Guest DT for Cute Card Thursday, :-( this weeks theme is to have a couple on your card. Pop over and have a look at the other inspiration, why not enter while you're at it!   I've made this for my Aunty and Uncles Anniversary, we're going out to dinner with them tomorrow evening and I'm sure they'll get a chuckle out of it.  

It so suits them: They are always in their garden and, while my Aunty doesn't knit that much she does needlecraft, almost as relentlessly as I do "other" craft.  My Uncle looks (quite a!) bit like the gentleman in the image, which is "Flirty Seniors" from Make it Colourful, I love their images, so quirky!  
The background is from this (Aussie) site too, it's called Daffodil Dell, I'm entering their challenge; this time around the theme is to Colour a Background, this is the first time I've really done a background!  I used Prismacolor pencils to colour the "sky" and shadows, but chickened out and went with my lovely Copics for the rest!  You don't have to use Make it Colourful images, but c'mon, why wouldn't you....digis of course so readily and immediately available to all!  And, just so you know, I DON"T have any affiliation with MiC, I just like 'em!
I cut the image out, and popped it up on foam dots - my favourite way to get extra dimension, I used thicker-than-usual foam dots....it really stands out from the background.
The background paper is Fairie Florals by Prima, The lemon panel, which I embossed with Cuttlebugs Textile folder, the green panel and the stripy paper are from Kaisercraft's Lilac Avenue collection. I used Martha Stewart's Doily Lace border punch on the green panel.
The purple card for matting is from American Crafts Weave range. 
Lexis Creations has "Ribbon but no bows or knots" as it's theme this time around, my lovely orange polka dot ribbon, which has been "hanging around" - literally - my studio for months gets me entered there.

The sketch is from Friday Sketchers this week, I really liked it, and I got the colour inspiration from Cupcake Inspirations, so I'm entering their challenge too, how bright and cheery are those cute little cuppies?!  They have such a spring feeling to them.  I'm entering my card in the challenge at Stamp Something and Totally Gorjuss this week which both have Spring as their theme.  

Delicious Doodles has Floral Fantasy as it's theme, not only are there flowers aplenty in the background, there are flowers on the corners of the image panel, so my Flirty pair would have been going there, but one of the other challenges I'm entering limits you to entering six and that would be seven, so I'll give it a miss this time, but next time I'll only enter challenges without restrictions!!  
I just couldn't find the "right" flowers for these corners, in the end I cut up some that came as a sort of ribbon and coloured them with Copics.  I left the one at the top right without a centre: I thought it looked like the sun and the corner piece on the opposite side looks like a sun umbrella for my Oldies to sit under!  
Sweet Stampin' has "Weather" as it's challenge theme, so I'm entering there.
I finished the inside of the card really simply, using elements from the front.
I hope you liked my card, and I hope my Aunty likes it too....by the by, this Aunty is my mothers sister; my mum is unwell at the moment, she has just had Bronchial Pneumonia and now is suffering from two broken ribs - from coughing!! My Aunty, to go out in sympathy I'm sure, fell over a dog while out walking and has broken her wrist!!  Mmmm, yes it is a bit hereditary, my husband reckons I could trip over a leaf!
My niece (finally) had her baby, 9lbs 4oz - not bad for a first!  I'm off to visit, I've seen his picture and he is GORGEOUS!
 Hope you enjoyed this rather longwinded, not like me I know lol, post.  Until next time Happy Crafting, Dee