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

Thanks Mum

The new challenge starting today at Di's Digis Challenge Blog has "Load on the Flowers" as it's theme.  As it's Mother's Day here in Australia tomorrow I thought I'd take the opportunity to make a card for my lovely Mum.  Happy Moither's Day to all those who celebrate this weekend too :-) 

The reference may be subtle, as to why I used this image, but the message I wrote on the back of the card says in essence thanks for showing me the right path, and for always being by my side.  I made a diorama card, Mum likes the cards I make that are a little bit different, and she doesn't like too much "stuff" on them, so I kept the flowers to a small "load" :-))  Another good thing about diorama cards is how they fold flat for postage... in this instance I made sure the flowers didn't protrude past the edge of the card when it was flattened, then thought about the fact that I won't be posting it anyway, lol

Both the images I've used are from Di's Digi Downloads... the background is Path and Fields and the little girl and her dogs is a new image called Daydream Izzy.  I inked the clouds and coloured the background image with Prismacolor pencils, Izzy was printed on textured card and coloured with Copics... with a few Prismacolor details.

It's hard to see, but I added another layer between the background and the front (which has acetate in it, I discovered last time I made a diorama that they're a bit wobbly with such a narrow frame, acetate helps a lot!) On the mid layer (which I just coloured green to look like low hills, I added small gemstone flowers.  The flowers on the front are Joycraft dies, the leaves are a new die I just got; Creative Expressions Faux Quilled Leaves.  I coloured some pearls from my stash with a Copic to add to the centres of the flowers and added some yellow ricrac from my stash.

The gorgeous patterned paper from a digital pack I got from My Memories... called Impressionists Canvas.  The back of the card is where I wrote my message, I just added a strip of the DP and some ricrac to jazz it up.  

Anyway that's it for today's card, hope you get a chance to check out the rest of the Design Team's flowery offerings.  Hope you enter the challenge too, great prize on offer as always, and an extra opportunity if you use one of Di's images too!!

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges: 

Hiding in my Craft Room	Let's Get Digital
Tuesday Throwdown	Flowers for Her
Great Impressions	Celebrate Spring
Pile It On	Mother's Day/For a Lady
Fab'n'funky Challenges	May Flowers
Addicted to  Stamps	Flowers
OSAAT	Anything Goes Special Lady
Craft Your Passion	Always Anything Goes
Art by Miran	Anything Goes
Catch The Bug	Anything Goes
Through the Craftroom Door	Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly	Anything Goes

Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

Fun Folds at Di's Digis

Yet another fortnight has flown by, meaning there's a new challenges starting over at Di's Digis Challenge Blog.  The theme this time around is no challenge at all for me... it's "Fun Folds"; I LOVE trying out different folds for cards, it's one of the things I stalk blogs for. ideas for something just a little bit different.  Having said that my card today uses a very straightforward fold :-))

It's a stepper card, of the simplest variety,  In fact I haven't seen one THIS simple I don't think... I just put a couple of folds along the long side of a sheet of A4 card and decorated it!  The bonus is that, when folded flat, it fits in a standard business size envelope (DL) so it will go for standard rate postage, yay!
It's a bit hard to see the stepper effect in the first pic, here's a pic from side on.
I made a Christmas card as that is the one type of card I NEVER have enough of... and my Mum will be super thrilled if I actually have a few spare this year... I think I managed to let her have one last year, even though she asks me in about September if I'll have any available for her to give her "special" friends... which is nice, and makes me feel "special" as I did when the daisies I picked for her when I was six made it to a proper vase :))
The cuter than cute image is "Not a Creature Was Stirring" and you can get it here .  I coloured with Copics, adding lashings of Star Dust Stickles to the snow, snowflakes and fur trim.
I followed the sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches

with the first step of my card being at the position of the ribbon... I added a diecut "Peace" (from a great set of Christmas word dies by Sizzix) that I slathered in Xmas Red Stickles ... and a bit of a Memory Box Snowflake Corner die on the "other" side of the image panel to add some interest to the edge of the step.
I matted the image panel and the patterned paper panel behind it with gold glittery cardstock from my stash... I've learned my lesson though after the last time I used this stuff and the glitter went EVERYWHERE; I sprayed it with Workable Fixative that I've had in art stash forever!! It hardly dropped a grain of glitter - meaning that despite getting a lot of handling the mats stayed nice and glittery too.  Hard to see in the pics... of course.

I used Kaisercraft Paper, from the Christmas Carol pad.  I actually forgot to mat the background papers so I added some gold peel off sticker borders to make them look more finished, and some peel off corners on the largest panel too.  I had already distressed the edges of everything with gold ink, the only other thing I added were some red rhinestones from my stash (on the largest panel at the back, in case you can't spot them, lol)

I finished the inside of the card in the simplest manner... no point in overdoing the inside of a Christmas card; that said, I'll probably stamp an appropriate Christmas message on it before sending it - for standard postage of course, lol
So that's it for my card... another one for my Christmas card stash - it's better than last year when I had about two done by November, lol.
Hope you get a chance to check out my teamies fabulous work... you can pick up some ideas for Fun Folds of your own, and of course you could then enter your card in the challenge.  There's a fab prize on offer from Crafty Ribbons and of course as always if you use one of Di's sweet images you go in an extra draw!
I would like to enter this card in the following challenges, and hope to be back soon (then, I always do intend to be back "soon", life just gets in the way, lol) with something from my draft folder.  Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna

Crafty Creations	Seeing Spots
Little Red Wagon	Seeing Spots
Crafty Cardmakers	Dots
Allsorts Challenges	Bring on the Bling (stickles & rhinestones)
Simon Says Challenge	Clean and Simple (there's hardly any embellies, hope it's CAS enough!)
The Paper Shelter	It's a Celebration
Hiding in my Craft Room	Any Holiday
Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge	Trees (The meeces are IN a tree, lol)
Winter Wonderland	Twinkle Twinkle -All Sparkly and Bright (The Stickles and rhinestones)
Outlawz Friday Colouring Challenge	Anything Goes: Christmas Twist
Craft Your Passion	Always Anything Goes
Art by Miran	Anything Goes
Through the Craftroom Door	Anything Goes

Di's Digis Latest Challenge... Include an Animal

New challenge starting today at Di's Digis Challenge Blog - geez those fortnight's go fast don't they?!  The theme this time around is to "Include an Animal".  Di has so many cute images of Animals so the "challenge" was to pick one :-))  Here's what I came up with

The colours are not 100% accurate on the picture, but it's a lot closer than the pic that's up on the challenge blog... I took that one in my light tent and this one outside next morning; all I can think is that my (photographer) son Chris has changed a setting on my camera when he used it to take pics at the Twins' birthday last week... ah well, close enough is what we have today :-))
The image I've used is "You're Beary Special"... available here, cute or what?! Sparkles Monthly Challenge has a Teddy Bears theme, so I'm entering there.  I've coloured with Copics, with a bit of Prismacolor pencil shading and some Stickles on the presents and Glossy Accents on the noses and wheel.  As You Like It want to know if we like Alcohol Markers or Distress Inks, and why; I have only done a bit of "inking" and had trouble with the paper I used (user error more like, lol) so I prefer Alcohol Markers as they are so easy/reliable to use and blend... no special papers required; that said Distress Inks are a "one day" challenge for me :-))
Once again I've used a sketch from Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2... love their sketches!  I've turned it 90 degrees, but apart from that left it "as is"... why mess with perfection :-)
So the card could be suitable for a gal or a guy I've tied the cord (which is sparkly IRL) in a knot rather than a bow.  I added faux stitching with gel pen, Inky Chicks has a "Stitching Real or Faux" challenge so I'm entering there. 
The papers are from Kaisercraft's Fine and Sunny pad and Echo Park's "Walk in the Park" pad.... I think!  Nice "Spring" feel to it, I'll be entering the Spring themed challenges at Hiding in my Craft Room,  Gem of a Challenge, Little Red Wagon and Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge too.

The brown Pearls are from my stash... as is the brown card for matting.  I used a Memory Box die to cut the clouds, which I mounted at different levels with foam squares, so I'm entering Pile It On and Whimsy Inspirations Challenges which have Die Cuts as their themes, and the sentiment on one of those clouds (cut down from an oval sentiment from Craftworks Cards) means I'll be entering Crafty Calendar's "Add a Sentiment" challenge and Aud Sentiments "Add a Birthday Sentiment" challenge too!
I finished the inside of the card with more of the same from the front :-)  I'll be entering Creatalicious Challenges, Through the Craftroom Door, Clear It Out, Crafty Creations, Art by Miran, Papertake Weekly and Catch The Bug's "Anything Goes" challenges as well, why not??
That's it for today's card.  Hope you get a chance to join in with the challenge, nice and easy as usual.  Great prize on offer too... as well as the usual "extra" chance to win if you use one of Di's cute images :-)
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

Another Draft-ee From Craft-Dee

Well I've managed to drag another card out of my drafts.  This one's a birthday card for our friend Dave... and as we celebrated his 52nd birthday in Feb, I'm guessing it's over a year old!!  Pretty "uncluttered", well it IS for a man, lol.  Arranging the letters for the sentiment took long enough, there wasn't much time for anything else anyway!

I used an image from Tiddly Inks... actually it's several images from the same set... "For the Birds" available here, I've flipped a couple and cropped some out of the group to add a bit of variety to the sizes and shapes of the birdies :-)  I added the letters by using Text Boxes in Microsoft Word and just rotating and moving them until they fit on the placards... I'm secretly very pleased with the result... but it was surprisingly time consuming!  As You Like It, for their current challenge, want to know if we like "lines" or "no lines" and why... I like "lines", especially for this sort of image; it adds to the 'cartoon' effect.

The background clouds paper is digital; from Passion Fruits Night and Day Skies collection, I love this set of papers!  It's printed on linen card, looks really nice IRL.  I coloured the chicks with Copics and Prismacolor pencils and added some shadows around them digitally... just by using the formatting options in Word, too easy!

The starry paper is from a Baby Boy pad i got in Spotlight and the blue and the yellow card for matting is Kaisercraft.  There are NO embellies on this card, not one!

I used the same font and papers on the inside of the card... the sentiment is an "in joke" as Dave is in IT and signed me up to Twitter on about Day 2 of its existence... I've made exactly zero tweets, but he's a major twitterer :-))  It looks like the centre panel is crooked, but it really wasn't, I dunno! 

Well that's it for my CraftDee Draftee.  I've listed the challenges I'm entering this card in... bit slack but there's only so much conversation you can have with such a simple card so it's the most efficient way of including them.

I'll be back on Saturday with a new card for my Di's Digis gig.  Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna

Here's that list of challenges:

Top Tip Tuesday	Mellow Yellow (Use yellow)
Corrosive Challenge Little Miss Muffet	Hop Into Spring Spring Colours
Addicted to  Stamps	Stars
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge	Use Patterned Paper
Simon Says Challenge	Happy Birthday
Craft Your Passion	Anything Goes
Tiddly Tuesdays	Anything Goes
Through the Craftroom Door	Anything Goes
Crafty Creations	Anything Goes
Catch The Bug	Anything Goes
Art by Miran	Anything Goes
Creatalicious Challenges	Anything Goes
Clear It Out	Theme: Anything Goes Stash: Anything Goes

Lifelong Friends

Well I have finally started tackling some of the cards in my Drafts Folder.  I've decided to go with the 'oldest' one first.  It is a sympathy card I made for family friends on the  loss of their lovely Joan... my "Aunty" Joan.  I knew Joan all my life (well from the age of 18 months) when she was a young mother living near us (my Mum was a young mother then too) in England.  We moved to Wales, they stayed in England but the friendship remained. They followed us out to Australia - we came in 1972 they came in 1975 and still the friendship endured... over 53 years!  Joan was "fabulous"; glamorous and gracious and a good friend to my folks, always,  I can't believe it is a whole year since she passed away, I made what I hope was an elegant card, it had to have pink and it had to have a butterfly on as they were Joan's favourite :-)

I used a Delicious Doodles image "Lily and Butterfly", sadly Delicious Doodles is now defunct.... BU-UT, I've just found Teri's artwork in her Etsy Store "Arti Doodles", this image isn't available there yet but she is apparently adding more images all the time, so I'm sure it will be, yay !!.  
I coloured  with pencils adding some Stickles to the butterfly and mounting the image panel on some silver mirror card, then popping that up on some foam dots.  The card base was embossed with an embossing folder (Couture Creations, Hedged Maze -I think) and that was it.
I would like to enter my card in the following challenges.

The Crazy Challenge	Floral
Paper Creator Crafts	Flowers
OSAAT	Anything Goes with Nature
Craft Your Passion	Anything Goes
Through the Craftroom Door	Anything Goes
Creatalicious Challenges	Anything Goes
Crafty Creations	Anything Goes

That's it for today.  I'll be back with some more "old" cards very soon... it's quite cathartic, lol.  Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna