Happy Birthday Grandma

It's Paul's Grandma's birthday today. She's very guarded about her age but she is either 97 or 98 and still quite sprightly..... we're definitely holding out for the telegram for the Queen when she reaches 100 but she's not that bothered, she says she's been around long enough now!

She loves my cards and says they are getting better all the time. I wanted to make something a bit more unusual for her and decided on an easel card.

The staring pint was a great sketch from Friday Sketchers and I knew I wanted to put some Forever friends into it. Paul chose the decoupage and I had one of the already glittered 3D element stickers so decided to use that. The flower papers are from a FF QVC TSV and the coloured cards are from Sizzix DCWV pads which I have had for ages and never used.

After seeing some smashing examples I bought a pack of the Nellie Snellen frame dies and love the result. It is so pretty for a central panel and I can see me needing to buy loads of them. They are a good price and I think they will get a lot of use.

And for another first, please note that my flower ensemble features my very 1st crocheted flower!!! I had a go at making some and found it difficult to follow a pattern so kind of made them up as I went along. I'm sure I'll get better with practice but I'm really pleased with my 1st attempts.

Blog Challenges incorporated into this card are as follows :-

• Friday Sketchers #87 - Layout of Card
• Flutterby Wednesday #95 - Open theme must include wings
• One Stop Craft Challenge #65 - Make it personal (Grandma)
• Color Chef Challenge #36 - Light Pink, Dark pink plus white or cream
• Crafty Creations#53 - Wings
• Pollycraft #33 - Things with Wings

365 Cards Day 103, Stampin Chic, Spoonful of Sugar, Flutterby Wednesday & If The Shoe Fits

Now this is a bit more like me combining challenges into one card. I almost had withdrawal symptoms with only one challenge in my last post!

This card combines the following 5 challenges:-

• 365 Cards Day 103 - A recipe 4.25 x 5.5'' card, solid background, 2 patterned papers, stamped sentiment and 3 gems.
• Stampin Chic - Sketch for layout
• Spoonful of Sugar - #45 Butterflies
• Flutterby Wednesday - #61 Use ANY sketch and butterflies or fairies
• If the Shoe Fits - Colour Challenge Blue, Green & Yellow

The base card was cut to the correct size and I ran it through the swiss dots cuttlebug folder. I inked arounf the edges a little a it looked too stark. The green paper was a scrap in my offcuts box. The butterfly is from a sheet of paper in Clare Curd's Signature Range 'The Big One' by Papermania. I used the colours of blue, green & yellow from the colour challenge. The gems were added to the green paper in yellow to add a little more of that colour.

The stamped sentiment finishes the card off. I wasn't sure how well it would come out stamping on the embossed background but I think it's come out alright.

365 Day 87, Papertake 16 & Flutterby Wednesday

I am very proud of this card because the wordart on it was MADE BY ME !!! I have done my own digital wordart and I am really chuffed with how it came out.

For a long while now I have been downloading freebie digital scrapbooking kits but other than printing out a few elements to make cards I haven't really done much with them. I used a free kit called Cinnamon Spice designed by Stacey Towers over at Stacey's Scraps. She is one of a group of very talented designers who regularly give away full kits as freebies and this is still available (link are to her blog and the kit)

The original bracket was square and I changed the shape to fit the quote. The colour was terracotta but I just played about with it in PaintShop Pro to try and alter the colour and it worked! I changed the colour of the swirl in the background too. The hardest part was getting the wordart to look right, it always looks effortless when you download them, it may be to them but it wasn't to me!

The challenge over at 365 Card for day 87 was to use the word 'eye' on your card. I didn't think I had anything in my stash so decided to look on the tinterweb and find a quote. I came across a fabulous site called Quotes Daddy. They have a huge database which is searchable by keyword, I typed in eye and went from there. The quote I used is from Audrey Hepburn and I thought it was beautiful.

" For beautiful eyes look for the good in others

For beautiful lips speak only words of kindness

And for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone"

I thought it would be a great quote for a RAK card to cheer someone up who is going through a rough patch. Who knew Audrey Hepburn was so wise ??

The layout of the card is sketch # 16 at Papertake Weekly. All the papers on this card are scraps, the butterflies are from a Forever Friends pad by Papermania. The floral is a Creative Tones pad also by Papermania. The ribbon is cut from the same sheet. Sakura glear glitter has been added to all the spots on the butterflies and I have used Stickles for the centres of all the flowers.

Last but not least I have added a glittered butterfly diecut from Let's Make Cards. The butterflies have allowed me to enter it into Danni's Flutterby Wednesday challenge # 60 for this week.

365 day 83, Chocoholic, 2S4U & Flutterby Wednesday

The challenge for today Day 83 at 365 Cards was to make a card with a matching envelope. I didn't really know what I was going to do and was thinking about it whilst I was doing the grocery shopping. Whilst in Poundland I spotted a fab gift bag which had lots of lovely glittery flowers on one side and the same, but unglittered on the other. I bought it thinking they would be great decoupaged. Then this afternoon when I went onto the forum I am a member of the challenge set by Chocoholic was decoupage, well I had to use my pretty bag didn't I ?

The closeup photo shows the layers. The glitter was already on there except for the little Stickles dots that I added. I have found a new blog this week which has a challenge called Flutterby Wednesday.  You have to use either a butterfly or fairy and this week the challenge is to use 2 patterned papers. The layout is Laura's Sketch 26 at 2 Sketches 4 You. The butterfly paper is from a Papermania Forever Friends pad, the mottled paper is Basic Grey and the purple glimmer paper is HOTP with a bit of Martha Stewart punching.

The sentiment is a foiled one from my stash layered onto some bright pink card. The brad in the centre of the flower is by Papermania.

For the envelope I have just used the same elements and decorated it accordingly. I'm pretty sure this is the first time I have made a matching envelope for a card. I know there are many people who do that for each card they make but as the envelope gets thrown away I don't think it's something I'd do often - but it does make it look really special so would consider doing it for more cards in the future.