Lemon and Lime Birthday Time

I'm back today with a card I made for my lovely Daughter in Law's birthday

... I coloured it to match the birthday cake I made for her, which was lemon and lime flavour - her fave :-) and decorated with stripes.  I made an easel card - my fave (or one of them, lol)

The image is Stampin' Bella Brittany Birthday Girl.  I stamped on Linen card, using my stamping platform... so much better, but still room for improvement :-)
I had a little strip of stripey lemon-ish card that I thought was perfect for across the fold of the easel, I would have used that as the mat for the image but I didn't have enough, so I used some green stripy paper from my stash instead, could be Echo Park, but don't hold me to it!  
I die cut the edge with a tiny scalloped border die I got in a set from Ali Express.
I've coloured with Copics, adding shadows (and highlights, long story) with Prismacolor pencils.  There's a nice bit of glittery goodness on the image too, I used Stickles and Glitter Glue but I can't remember the flavours :-)  
The citrus paper is from DCWV, it's very glittery too.

I used the last scrap of the yellow paper with the scalloped edge on the top edge of the pocket inside the card, made to hold the gift card that was my DiL's gift and a little tag for the sentiment.  
The strip of rhinestone bling finishing the edge of the pocket helps make the "stopper" of the easel stronger, it is some of the (loads of, lol) such bling my lovely Mum bought me over the years... no doubt this came from one of their many trips to Malaysia, my DiL is very aware of such things and even commented on me "sharing" some with her, which I thought was very sweet indeed.  
The organza ribbon on the tag was from a present from my son (not my DiL's husband, t'other one) who loves to wrap gifts elaborately... and I love him doing so too as I get a lot of lovely ribbon and "bits" out of it, lol.
That's it for my card, oh here's a (iPhone, so not that great) pic of the cake that inspired the citrus them -it was YUM btw :-)
I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:
Crafty Cardmakers  For Someone Special (my DiL is Special to all of us)

Fab'n'Funky Challenges Just Add Ink

As You Like It Favourite Colouring and Why I love Copics, they blend so well, have a good range of shades and are refillable (so cost effective)  I used Prismacolor pencils too, because I find them excellent for adding very small detail

Pixies Snippets Playground Snippets That yellow stripey bit :-)

Sweet Stampin' Anything Goes, Opt: Mellow Yellow Ooh yeah, we've got yellow
Catch The Bug, Cute Card Thursday, Through the Craftroom Door, Digi Choosday, Crafty  Creations, Crafting With Friends Challenge #2, Creative Fingers, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Polkadoodles, Gem of a Challenge, A Perfect Time to Craft and Creatalicious Challenges All have Anything Goes

I'll be back soon, I really do have to get through my Drafts folder :-)  Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna 

Kazi's All Grown Up

The card I have today was made for a "girl" I have known all her life, in fact, I made her christening cake over thirty years ago, and I've known her dad for over 45 years! Kazi is indeed all grown up now and when she married her lovely husband Jon I couldn't wait to make them a card and wish them every happiness

My pics are a little dark again, I'm sorry... don't know why, I've undoubtedly fiddled with some settings on the camera, lol.  I've brightened them up with Photoshop but that has washed some of the detail out, never mind, sigh
I love this image, After the Vows, from Tiddly Inks.  
I coloured with Copics, adding some Prismacolor shading and Ice Stickles to the bride's dress... and a layer of Ice White Viva Pearls to the veil - hard to see in the pic I admit 
The patterned paper is from Kaisercraft, I cut the top with a Spellbinders Borderbilities die (A2 Scalloped Borders 1 I think - I've got three different sets and only labelled two of them)  The mat behind the patterned paper is actually a textured brown/black card, very nice IRL
Similar problem with the straight scalloped border on the bottom... I'm pretty sure it's a Lawn Fawn Stitched Borders die :-)
The baker's twine at the top actually came on a gift I received a couple of years ago, I squirrel away everything like that, lol.  I cut the little tags with the happy couple's names printed on and tied them on - I love personalising cards :-)
The "Congratulations" is a Kaisercraft stamp, stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black, it's nice and straight... courtesy of my lovely stamping platform, what a difference that thing has made - I used to avoid stamping now? woohoo!!
I finished the inside of the card along the same lines as the outside.  Lovely straight stamping... you guessed it, don't know the name of the stamp set, lol
That's it for my card, I'd like to enter into the following challenges:

As You Like It Favourite: Dies or Stencils, and Why... I prefer dies, because they're a quick and easy way to add a bit of pizazz - as opposed to the messy fun-ness of stencils :-)

Die Cut Divas Love

Daring Cardmakers Recycle It - the baker's twine came from a gift I received

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge Use Patterned Paper

Crafty  Creations, Crafting With Friends  Challenge #1, 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

It's my lovely grandtwins birthday on Thursday... they're 6, already!  I am busy making birthday cards for them and decorating their cakes, yup two cakes... no getting away with the shared cake any more, lol.  The party is not until Saturday so I have a few days yet, and they've both chosen pretty straightforward cakes... it's just having two, large, fresh cakes to be ready for the same day does involve a bit of logistic juggling so there's not much time to do much else. 

Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna

Farewell to 'Poldo...and a Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Bone Graft

I have a card today that I made for my dear friend on the occasion of her lovely Dad Leopoldo's passing.  He was a really lovely man and is sadly missed

I tend to keep sympathy cards on the simple side, especially those for men.  This time around I used heavy linen card, stamped the trees from Stampin' Up's "Lovely as a Tree" stamp set (I LOVE this set, it was expensive but it stamps so well and I think the images great) with Stazon Timber Brown ink.  I used sponge daubers to colour the background, the linen texture really grabs the ink, looks nice IRL
The (computer generated) sentiment was done using my laser printer, deco foil and a laminator.  I matted the image and the sentiment panel on textured brown/black metallic card and added gold brads to the corners to finish them off.
I used the largest of the stamps to stamp a scene inside the card, masking off one end to extend the scene out to the edge of the card.  There are a couple of "ghost" trees in the background too, though I was nervous, so they are very light, lol
Obviously more colouring with the sponge daubers and Versacolour inks to complete the scene.  The advantage of this technique is that you can write over the top of it... so even though the sky was creeping up the page a bit it really didn't matter - there was plenty of room to write my message
That's it for just about the simplest card you can get!  It did look more impressive in real life... honest :-)  I would like to enter in the following challenges:

As You Like It Favourite: Layers, One or Many and Why... I like patterned paper and like to layer up my cards, but I also love One Layer cards... I just find them "hard", so this is the sort of compromise, lol
Simon Says Challenge Make a Scene

Pile It On Your Favourite Colour - I love "autumn colours", always have :-)

Catch The Bug, Through the Craftroom Door, Digi Choosday, Crafty  Creations, Crafting with Friends Current Challenge, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Polkadoodles, Gem of a Challenge, A Perfect Time to Craft, Creatalicious Challenges and Crafting With Attitude All have Anything Goes

.... and now to the "funny" thing that happened on the way to the bone graft
I was due to get the block bone graft done to my upper central RIGHT incisor on Wed last week.  
When I had the Cone Beam scan done that determined the extent of the bone loss, it picked up a small "bubble" at the top of my top LEFT eye tooth... nothing to worry about says the Maxofacilliary specialist, your dentist can resolve that with a root canal.... okay, not great but I'll get it done. When I had my hip replaced the surgeons were VERY keen to get any areas of inflammation removed if possible; I had my gallbladder out because I had gallstones (which were not pleasant), but I was dallying on getting it removed until it's potential to cause problems for the bone surgery were pointed out.  That it mind, I thought I'd get the root canal done on the Thursday BEFORE the bone graft so it was all done and dusted before going for the bone graft... about which I was (and now AM) very nervous about, after hearing some horror stories about facial swelling, pain etc

I had the root canal done, as soon as the anaesthetic wore off it didn't feel right.  I've had them before and this was WAY more painful.  The pain increased overnight, I got little sleep.  Went to the dentist on Friday got antibiotics, still in pain.  Went to the dentist Saturday morning as I was still in pain and my face had started swelling... she didn't see me but had left me Codalgin Forté - codeine based, didn't touch it.  Ibobrufen helped but not for long at a time, swelling continued.  I went to the after-hours GP clinic at the hospital on Saturday evening, he was a little concerned, thought the dentist had pierced the sinus cavity and infected that, said the next best thing to IV antibiotics is a needle in the bum, okay, he gave me Tramadol for the pain and a course of strong oral antibiotics - after the injection.  
Got no sleep again (third night in a row) with the pain
Sunday the swelling kept going up.  I was going to go back to the clinic but my sons both thought the time had come to go to Emergency.  I (reluctantly as I loathe waiting for hours anywhere!) went, they actually took me straight through even though they were very busy (Joondalup has the busiest Emergency Department in Australia, so when it's busy for them it's BUSY, lol)
They were not happy that the swelling and redness had started to go down my neck... I was worried about my eye closing and the proximity to my brain, they were not, lol.  It was facial cellulitis and there was "involvement of the lymph" no degree detailed just that term "involvement"... the worry apparently is sepsis, and not helped by my RA. 
They admitted me, I had three lots of two different IV antibiotics over a day and a half .... and had to ring my surgeon to cancel the bone graft.
I'm all good now, even the discolouration has gone... my dentist is jittery though :-))  She's never seen anything like this, I told her she's just too young to have!  She wanted me to go to an Endodontist to check it out, but I'm sick of shelling out for dental so just went back to her yesterday - she was amazed at how recovered I am... though I DID tell her that I have lots of practice at getting "unusual" things and heal pretty quick from most of them.
So, I thought I'd have time to "blog", but I haven't.  The couple of days I was completely out of the work loop (should have taken my laptop up, didn't think of it and hubby was pressed as it was) made three days extra work when I got home!  All caught up now :-)
Still, I hope to get back on here soon..I have so many cards to blog.  Until then, Happy Crafting, Donna x

Fairy 5th Birthday

The card I have today was the one I made for my darling granddaughter Emily for her 5th birthday... I haven't blogged her 4th birthday card yet, but this one jumped out at me from my drafts so this is 'it" :-)  It is a combination shaker and hidden-sentiment card... a real "mover and shaker" lol.  The photos are a little dark, not much I can do about it now though!

Here is the "hidden" element NOT "hidden" :-)  and Here's a link to the tutorial I used to help make the Pull Tab for the sentiment, thanks to Jenny McGuire :-) I typed the sentiment using Fiolex Girls font... the little hearts were a hit with Miss Em :-)

The gorgeous image is a digi from (sadly now defunct) Anita Be Stampin', her name is Meadow.  She fit the bill perfectly for Emily, being a fairy, that I could add copious amounts of pink, purple and shiny stuff to :-))

Her wings are quite heavily "black" so I printed her using my laser printer and added some Gold Decofoil to them using my laminator... it looks REALLY good IRL
I coloured the image with Copics and added some detail with  Prismacolor pencils, then fussy cut itand popped it up on some foam dots.
I cut the shaker window with a set of heart shaped dies I've had for years, can't remember the brand... X something, lol.
I backed it with some glittery white card and filled the shaker with all sorts of glittery gemstones and heart and flower-shaped "bits".  I added some double sided ribbon around the base of the shaker, to cover all the foam used to build up the receptacle part  I added two strips of the same ribbon to the bottom of the card and a bow to the heart.

The paper is digital from Nitwit Collections (it's from the Fairytale Dreams FQB, or possibly "Fairytale Too" which are additional papers for the same set.  
The inside of the card has one of the borders from the set on as well
The number 5 on the front is wooden, coloured with Jo Sonja's acrylic paint then embossed with Bridal Tinsel EP.  I used foam letters to make the "Emily" on the inside, colouring them with a Copic marker before adding Ice Stickles for that essential sparkle.  I added a little pink acrylic butterfly... to cover a smudge actually :-)
That's it for Emily's 5th Birthday card.  I'd like to enter in the following challenges: 

Addicted to  Stamps Anything But a Square

As You Like It Favourite: "Birthday or Christmas and Why" - I like making Christmas cards because, well it's CHRISTMAS, but I like making birthday cards because you can personalise them.. and make them for the special little peeps in your life like in this case :-)

Tuesday Throwdown Hearts

Sasayaki Glitter Hearts and Stars

The Paper Shelter Letters and/or Numbers

Fab'n'Funky Challenges With a Number

Little Red Wagon Move On ( have a moveable element)

Cute Card Thursday Wings

Pile It On Pretty in Pink

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge Use Patterned Paper

Send a Smile for Kids Anything Goes for Kids
Through the Craftroom Door, Digi Choosday, Crafty  Creations, Crafting With Friends Challenge #80, 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

I will be back soon... I have to have more surgery on my mouth next week (a block bone graft this time) and anticipate having to spend time home... I am SO nervous about the recovery from this one!  I don't "have" to go any further with the implant process, but the bone graft is necessary so I suppose I just have to suck it up this go round!

Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna x

The Last of The Foiled Brigade

Hi I'm back with the last of the cards I made for Christmas 2017... finally and hooray I hear you say.  

The first one today uses a lovely background die cut. 
I cannot remember the name or supplier of it... I have had it for a few years and this is the first time I've ever used it (unfortunately it is no orphan in that department!); if you know the supplier let me know and I'll note it on the cover sheet of my die storage

I used gold foiled card as a background and mat for the image and gold Deco Foil to foil the image... which is a sentiment :-)  Again I've included a pic for shine demonstration purposes, lol
I popped the centre panel up on foam dots for a bit of dimension

The very last card of this batch is one I was quite pleased with... especially considering how quickly it came together!

The patterned paper is a scrap from a really old pad, Basic Grey "Jovial", the red mat was cut with Nestabliities Scalloped Ovals, the "image" (again doing double duty as the sentiment) was yet another fabulous freebie from the equally fabulous Paulette at Create with TLC  printed on linen card
I added the shadow to the words (so easily done using Word) and foiled with Gold Deco Foil - the shadow doesn't "grab" the foil, so the sentiment looks pretty clean.... that said I sponged some ink around the edge of the image panel to help it tie in with the grungy style of the patterned paper.  I added dimension by once again layering the oval on some foam dots
... and that is IT for 2017's Christmas cards, promise!
I won't put up a Christmas card for a while, and I won't leave it until more than a year after the event either!  At least that way we won't get Christmas card overload :-)
I am entering these cards in the following challenges:

The Paper Shelter Dies and/or Punches

Pixies Snippets Playground Snippets (that Basic Gray paper, sadly now all gone, sob)

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge Use Patterned Paper

Jingle Belles Look What Santa Brought Me - Use New Stash (the snowflake background die is on its first outing)

Winter Wonderland Snowtime (Snowmen or Snowflakes)

Sweet Stampin' Christmas and Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge have Anything Christmas, Aud Sentiments has Anything (plus a sentiment) Goes and Tuesday Throwdown, Gem of a Challenge, Through the Craftroom Door,Digi Choosday,  Crafty  Creations, Crafting With Friends  Challenge #78, Creative Fingers, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Polkadoodles, Creatalicious Challenges and Corrosive Challenge All have Anything Goes

 I will - if I stick to the "plan" - be back in a few days.  The "plan" is to post at least once a week.  Of course, I've already fallen behind, and there are no excuses as I have over a year's worth of projects on hand ALREADY - AND I had this post typed up and ready to go weeks ago, sigh.  
I am also spending a bit of time at the vet... Rocky has had his ACL surgery and is doing really quite well - with his general health taken into consideration... of course, because of the medications he is on for his doggy-lupus he has developed alopecia... with all the shaved spots from various tests, infusions and surgeries now not growing back the poor little chap looks like a very boring, very low-quality quilt!  and now he has developed yet another problem (ruptured anal gland) so he's on MORE medications, such a sweet little boy he really doesn't deserve any of this, and he takes it all with such good grace, still happily wagging to greet us
Anyways, until I do get back, Happy Crafting, Donna

Happy New... Baby!

Hello everyone... hope you're all settling into 2019, I know I am; it's like the Holidays never happened, lol.
The card I have to share today celebrates a New Beginning too... one of our work colleagues (a scheduler for one of the companies we contract for) had a beautiful bub called Ryker and I made this card in a box to celebrate the event

I love this style of card, they fit flat for posting (and/or...hopefully... storing as a keepsake!) yet provide a "lot" of card for your buck when open.  
I used this gorgeous Lee Holland digi called Elephant with Flower, available here, coloured with Prismacolor pencils... I love the soft pastel effect pencils give for baby images.  There's a little bit of glittery goodness in the flower centre.... just because :-)
I fussy cut the image and mounted it on little grassy mounds made using a Dienamics border die (Grassy Edges, I think)
I cut the letters of Ryker's name from the same blue card used for all the matting (sorry can't remember the die set, think it's Cottage Cutz) and added them to acetate "stalks" at the back of one of the "cross bars", leaving them dancing merrily away behind the image to the left.  On the other side I added a cute little acrylic blue dragonfly to balance it out.
I used multicoloured cube beads to spell out the word Welcome and strung that up on twine on the back upright panel.
The Ten Little Fingers verse on the front flap is from a Kaisercraft 6" pad "Lullaby"

The rest of the papers are just gorgeous in real life... they're from First Edition's It's a Boy pad, there's lots of fine detail and plenty of foil.  I actually used five different patterns of this paper, but that was because I only had a few snippets left of the butterfly pattern, they all go together so well though that it doesn't look like you've run out of one pattern!  It does mean I can enter the challenge at Pixies Snippets Playground, always a bonus :-)
 I added a velcro closer to the bellyband covered that with a rectangular panel and decorated that with a cute laser cut wooden rocking horse.
I added little silver flatbacks to every corner of every panel... which took a surprisingly long time!
As I do with all these cards I put the jotting panel on the back, I added a small panel of patterned paper at the bottom trimmed with some spotty gros grain ribbon from my stash
 .... and THAT's it for Ryker's card.  I'd like to enter in the following challenges

The Paper Shelter and Fab'n'Funky Challenges have New Beginnings

Cuttlebug Mania, Die Cut Divas and Cute Card Thursday have Something New

Crazy 4 Challenges has Favourite Type of Card (shape, theme etc) I LOVE cards in a box

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge Use Patterned Paper

As You Like It,  Through the Craftroom Door, Digi Choosday, Crafty  Creations, Crafting With Friends Challenge #77, Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends, Polkadoodles, A Perfect Time to Craft, Creatalicious Challenges, Crafting With Attitude and Corrosive Challenge All have Anything Goes

Ona personal note, thanks to those who left me best wishes regarding my little friend Rocky... he is still with us; he had surgery last week and came through it really well; we did do an assessment re quality of life with the vet and he scored surprisingly high - a long way off euthenasia being "the" only answer.  Of course it may eventually come to that, but for the time being he is ticking along quite nicely (about which I am very happy and much relieved!) 

Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna