Emily's First Birthday Card

Well I've finally found a bit of time to drag a card out of my Drafts Folder; it's the oldest I have in there... the card I made for my granddaughter Emily's first birthday; FIFTEEN months ago - ye gods and little fishes, where did the time go??  I was going to put both the twins' cards in one post, but decided to make two posts out of it, better value for money  Here's Miss Emily's card.

I don't know if this fold has a name... all it is is a piece of A4 card (in this case cream pearlised) with one end folded over to make a flap and the other end folded so the main front piece just fits under the flap when it's closed.  It's size is always determined for me by what punch I use to decorate the edge of the flap; if I use a shallow-ish punch (like the Martha Stewart Doily Lace Edge punch I've used here) the fold at the other end is made in one place, if I use a deep punch (like another Martha Stewart punch I use, Garden Trellis... which is being discontinued apparently, I'd better check out any I want before they go!!) it's made in another.  I usually then cut the "height" to make the card square, but as I have some rectangular envelopes in my stash I decided to cut it down to fit one of those.

I embossed the main part of the card with an Embossalicious Folder, Floral Frenzy, and inked all the edges with Orchid Versamark ink.  The letters making up Emily's name are self adhesive foam, from the kids section at a local craft shop (pack of a gazillion for $2) I coloured them with Copics then coated them with Ice Stickles... I did heat emboss one and it distorted a bit... not as much as I was expecting, but still wonky :-) .... so I defaulted to the ol' Stickles.  The inside of the card has a simple computer generated sentiment, mounted on gold foil card.... the embossing on the front of the main panel actually adds to the texture of the inside, I haven't bothered taking a pic though, you'll have to trust me on that one :-))

Now we get to that GORGEOUS image; it's one of Sylvia Zet's fabulous Wee Stamps images, I've had it for a while, saving it for a special occasion... my only granddaughter's first birthday qualifies, lol.  It's called simply Birthday Baby Girl and is a digi; imagine my horror when I popped over to Whimsy Stamps to grab a link and saw that the dreaded new European VAT laws have caused a (hopefully temporary!) closure of the digi section of the store... it is available as a rubber stamp so if you (unlike ME!!) "do" rubber you can still have it.  I SERIOUSLY hope it... and so many of my other favourite digi stores can find a way around these problems, I may have a LOT of digis, but there's still a LOT I'd like to get!

I coloured with some Copics and Prismacolor pencils (mainly the face with Copics, this is printed on linen card and I don't do a great job with pencils on faces with textured card!) I matted on gold mirror card, just for a little lift.

The flower is foam... can't remember the punch I used, coloured and Stickled, the pearl centre is from my stash as are the pearls

AAA Cards is celebrating their first birthday and have a birthday theme using this pic as inspiration (and CAS or Near CAS as an ongoing requirement) so Emily's First Birthday card is going to be entered there as well as in these challenges:

Little Red Wagon	Make an Impression (Dry embossing)
Gem of a Challenge	More Than One Fold
Send a Smile for Kids	Anything Goes for Kids
Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends	Anything Goes
Art by Miran	Anything Goes
Craft Your Passion	Always Anything Goes
Through the Craftroom Door	Anything Goes

I'll be back in a day or so with Nathan's FIRST Birthday in a day or so... truly!  Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna

Joy to the World

Well I've finally found a few minutes to "blog" one of my Christmas cards... it's probably one of my favourites for the year, (though I haven't finished making all I need yet!) so I'm giving it to my Mum and Dad :-)

I made a three-step card, I've seen these around blogland and always fancied making one, it being Christmas and having almost no time to spare seemed to be the right time to try one, lol.  I used this great template and tutorial, it really wasn't that hard :-)

Sketch Saturday wants us to use any of their sketches after # 215, I've used # 240 though ended up adding the corner element to all four corners; I can't help it, I'm a symmetrical kinda gal!  The super sweet image is Berry, a digi from Wee Stamps. I coloured with Prismacolor pencils, adding some gloss to the berries.  The sentiment is a freebie from The Desert Diva, thanks very much :-) I was going to colour the ornament but decided against it. 

The image panel and narrow gold mat was cut using Nestabilities Standard Ovals as a template, the Kraft mat was cut using Nestabilities Floral Ovals, one of my favourite Nesties.  I just find the difference in size between the Standard and Floral Ovals doesn't always suit, so freehanding is the way to go.

The paper is Kaisercraft's Twig and Berry - 1 sheet (it's red one side and green the other!) Delightful Challenges wants us to use Red and Green and Stampin' for the Weekend wants us to Use Some Red, so I'm entering there.  The banner is from my Christmas scraps folder.  I used gold stickers (peel offs) from my stash for the borders and the corners, the leaves are from Mulberry Crafts and the Dewdrop berries are from The Ribbon Girl, I used very fine gold wire from my stash to finish the arrangement. Clear It Out has an Anything Goes theme and we can use any Stash so I'm entering there.

Now, the really significant thing about a three-step card is, wait for it, the three-steps! which of course are on the inside of the card.

I finished them with more of the Twig and Berry paper, gold stickers and a flourish cut with a Memory Box Snowflake Corner die.  The oval on the left came from a Kaisercraft 6" pad and the mat behind the jotting panel was another of the Floral Ovals dies.  The "JOY" letters are wood, coloured with Chalk White ink then embossed with iridescent EP, they (of course) look much nicer IRL!

Pile It On has P is for... for it's challenge, I'm thinking P is for Pencils, Peel Offs, Patterned Paper and Pretty image - I know, bit desperate :-)

I don't usually list the challenges I'm entering but as there are so may Christmas challenges running at the moment I thought you'd forgive me.... so I'm entering all these:

Papertake Weekly Christmas Creatures (NOT Berry, the little furry friend she's holding, lol)

Moving Along With The Times Walking in a Winter Wonderland

My Mums Craft Shop Winter/Christmas

Crafty Hands Season's Greetings/Winter

Brown Sugar Challenge Christmas

Jingle Belles Christmas

That Craft Place Christmas

Crafty Calendar Christmas
Deep Ocean Challenge Santa Claus is Coming to Town (Anything Christmas related)

Card Makin' Mamas Christmas

Colour Me Copic Holiday Themed

Sweet Stampin' Last Minute Christmas (I do have some even-more-last-minute cards to enter here too!!)

Crafts 4 Eternity Christmas Chaos (goes without saying, lol)

Cute Card Thursday Christmas Catch Up (I may, catch up that is!)

Paper Crafting Journey Christmas

Cuttlebug Mania Anything Christmas

Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge Anything Goes

Corrosive Challenge Anything Goes

Gem of a Challenge Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations Free and Easy

Divas by Design Anything Goes

I hope you like my card, I really do (which doesn't always happen, lol) I've got quite a few more cards to show over the next week or so; mostly Christmas and CAS - some CAS because I thought Clean and Simple was appropriate and some less CAS and more SOT - Short Of Time!!!

We're in the middle of a heatwave here, we failed by 0.9 degrees today to reach a December record of five days in a row over 38C; instead of a record it was just HOT - though not as hot as yesterday at 40.4C It's forecast HOT again tomorrow, but we should have a balmy 29C on Tuesday.  Our hottest month is February, so it looks like it's going to be a long hot summer, sigh.

I'll be back with some cards soon, until then, Happy Crafting Donna

Here Come The (Baby) Boys

Well as the title suggests, the new challenge starting today over at  Here Come The Boys is Babies... Baby BOYS that is!  Here's my card

It's funny, some cards just seem to be more fun to make than others, this was one of the "fun" ones!  
I used the gorgeous Wee One from Wee Stamps, I've flipped it because I just prefer my image to be "looking" to the right (I dunno why!) and with digis it's so easy to make it happen :-) The Pink Elephant want us to use a digi image or digital papers, so I'm entering there.
I've coloured using Copics, adding some texture and highlights to the baby's hair with Prismacolor pencils.

I used coarse textured blue card for my matting, it was super thick and quite hard to cut with my lovely new border punch (one of eight my Mum and Dad got me when they were in Malaysia recently, thanks Mum xx) Bunny Zoes Crafts want us to use Something Blue, plenty of blue here, I'm in :-) The theme this time around at Clear It Out is: Men/boys and the Stash element is: Punches or die cuts - I've used both so I'm in there too.  I used one of the  punched out scrolls on the edge of the image panel, adding a baby bottle die cut I got in a set from Make It Crafty, painted white and embossed with Pastel White glitter.  The image is mounted on a mat cut using Nestabilities Lacey Squares which I also embossed with Pastel White Glitter (using Hot Set Powder and very fine glitter), it looks so nice and glittery IRL! The  Crafts-Too Challenge You challenge is Theme: Texture, Twist: Shiny/Glittery so I'm in.
The sentiments are from Bizzy Becs Digi Ticket Stubs, Little Boy. Totally Papercrafts has "Happy Birthday Baby"  (Birthday or New Baby) so I'm entering there, Crafts 4 Eternity has Cute Kids - this wee one definitely fits the bill so I'm in there too, Cutie Pie Challenge has A Cute one for the Boys so I'm there and 

My Mums Craft Shop has Boys Only, as does Eclectic Ellapu so in there as well.

The papers are from a pad I got in Spotlight, Totally Gorjuss has a "Dotty" challenge so I'm entering there.  The ribbon is from my stash as is the Card Candi and the little pearls on the scroll border; Addicted to Stamps has a 1 2 3 challenge... I've used 1image, 2 sentiment tickets and 3 embellishments (Card Candi, ribbon and pearls) so I'm entering there.

I finished the inside, as usual, to match the outside.  Through the Craftroom Door, Divas by Design and Colour Me Copic all have Anything Goes challenges, so I'm entering there.

I hope you get a chance to pop over to the Here Come The Boys blog and check out the rest of the Team's inspiration.  Hope you get a chance to enter the challenge too, a baby BOY card is always a handy thing to have on hand :-) 

Well that's it for today, I actually have a few cards that I've finished, taken pictures of and sent so I should be able to show you those soon - I just have to find the time to "blog" them, lol.

Either way I'll be back soon.  Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna

It'll be "All White" on the night

White on White is the theme over at Bizzy Becs Challenge this month, I'm honoured to be Guest Designer for February and this is the first of my "inspiration" cards.

You know how much I love my designer paper, so you can imagine what a challenge White on White was for me!  Actually the theme is "White on White (but you can use colour on the image) and at least one heart visible", and in the end it wasn't that hard! Moving Along With The Times has Have a heart (at least one visible heart) as its theme this time, so I'm entering there.
I've coloured the image, which is the gorgeous Silver Fairy from Wee Stamps (mine's a digi but it's available in rubber at Bizzy Becs Store) with Copics, using mainly R20's. The Make It Colourful challenge is to Shade with Reds, so I'm entering there. I heat embossed some areas of the wings with iridescent sparkle Embossing Powder.  Fab'n'funky Challenges has "Use a digi", easy peasy, Paper Crafting Journey has Fairies or Angels, Gem of a Challenge has Fairies and Crafty Emma's Store has Wings, so I'm entering those challenges too.
The white paper I used for the mat behind the image is sparkly too - very hard to capture in a photo though.  The background paper is flocked, it really is lovely in real life and came via my son Chris from Starfish Lane.
I used white flowers and pearls from my stash, Stamptacular Sunday Challenge has Diamonds or Pearls as their challenge; in real life I prefer diamonds, but they're so hard to photograph that I prefer to use pearls on my cards!!  Great way of adding a touch of colour too, though not in this case..."white on white", lol.

I punched the edge of the card with my Martha Stewart Heart edge punch, a bit of trial and error involved but once I got the measuring idea down, it wasn't difficult to get it (reasonably) even... I must say that punch around the page punches are easier, lol.  I punched the back flap of the card too, as you can see in the picture of  the inside.  I did it this way (making a sort of mini card inside) so that the punched hearts lined up when the card is shut.  To be honest I'd probably been just as well to have the back flap NOT punched as once it's open and standing you can't even tell that they do line up!  I used a white flower and pink pearl heart to finish the inside off - as well as the usual papers from the front :-)
Pollycraft has a Favourite Things challenge running, I've used a lot of favourite things on this card; I love digital stamps, especially beautiful ones like this! I love colouring with Copics, I love textured paper, punches, pearls and a simple layout.  Flutterby Wednesday has an Open challenge, as long as you use a butterfly, angel or fairy (tick) and Allsorts Challenges has Free and Easy, so I'm entering there.
Well, that's it for my Wee fairy on my White on White card.  I'll be back later in the month with another card for my GDT spot, why don't you give the challenge a go, I promise it wasn't difficult :-)
In the meantime, I'll be back later today with another post for my Here Come The Boys DT spot, hope to see you then, Happy Crafting, Donna