Happy Birthday Father In Law! (2010)

We went to a casual dinner at Sizzlers last night for my dear FIL's  birthday - which meant I had to whip up a quick card (though I should have had one already prepared, seeing as how his birthday is the same day every year!).    Because I was under some time pressure, I kept it very simple:

The background is from Circle Circus - I think it would look great on a scrapbook page too, must try that!

The main image is that good old standard, Party Hearty.  The image was coloured with Old Olive and Not Quite Navy Markers.  The matching eyelets are retired (boo hoo!) and I used my trusty Crop-A_Dile to set them.  Looks a bit crooked, now that I study the photo!    Finally to make the card a little more masculine, I distressed the edges with the tool from the cutter kit.  Love that nifty edge distresser!

More recycling!

Some friends came over last night for some stamping therapy - hi girls! - and I decided to re-purpose some more leftover M&T packets.

This M&T was originally supposed to look like this:

And this is what I did instead, as I need some more birthday cards.

I coloured each party hat with a blender pen dipped in ink from the lid of the ink pad directly to the rubber, and "huffed" as I would if I were using a marker.  That's because we don't have in-colour markers, and I wanted to use Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze, and Riding Hood Red.  A bit of glitter applied with 2 way glue and I was done.  I think this could be used for either a male or a female.

I love my monthly Stamp Nights!  I was having a grouchy day yesterday, but after a little stamp therapy and conversation, I felt so much better.
 :-D

And I've just invested in Photoshop Elements 6 - which explains my photos.  I'm playing with Photoshop but haven't worked out how to use it properly yet!

Happy Birthday Anita!

Just a quick one on a wet weekend between birthday parties for kids, and dancing lessons, and the school Walkathon (even in the rain!). I thought I'd show the card I made for my friend Anita - I used Makeesha's sketch challenge, which I found a bit tricky!

Here's the sketch:

And my card:

I used Party Hearty (such a cute cupcake image! ) which I stamped twice (once in Regal Rose and once in Pretty in Pink) and cut out so I could have a different coloured top on the cake. I mounted both cake parts with Dimensionals and used a little chunky glitter for the sprinkles. I used my markers to colour the candle, which I also cut out and popped up with dimensionals.

I used four punches in this card! First, I put the cake on a large punched circle (Marvy Giga Punch I think) and roughed the edges, then sponged them in Regal Rose. I used the scallop edge punch on the Regal Rose tag layer too. I used the horizontal slot punch up the top of the tags for the ribbon to slide through. Finally, punched out the smallest heart with the new three heart punch (name escapes me just now!).

Just as I finished I realised I'd forgotten the ribbon on the smaller tag layer from the sketch, so I improvised with some Sticky Strip and Supernova glitter. If you look closely you'll see it's a little crooked!

The card base is Pretty In Pink, and I used a bit of DSP (from the level 1 Hostess pack) which I put through the crimper horizontally and vertically to get a worn, soft seersucker look. The big tag is Regal Rose, the smaller tag is Pink Pirouette. My friend loves pink, which is why I kept it monochromatic. The sentiment is from Party Hearty, and the final touch at the top is some wide double stitched Regal Rose ribbon, which I tied off with linen thread and attached a (retired) pretty in pink button to.

Then I made a little bag-in-a-box, in which I gave her a few chocolates! The box is made from retired DSP (Berry Bliss). It is decorated with some choc chip and pink pirouette felt flowers and pretty in pink brads.

I have to fly now!

Some Birthday Love

Hello! I'm typing this officially a year older than when I last posted. Happy Birthday to Meeeeee!

I was lucky enough to receive some Stamping Love from some very talented people:

From Rebecca O'Gorman:

Isn't she clever? You can check out her blog HERE and see her gorgeous work.

Here's a card by Tanya Kitto - all the way from WA! Here is her blog.

And finally a card from the wonderful Jesse Claven from Caloundra. Her blog is here.

Wasn't I spoiled? I had a lovely birthday and managed to spread it out for about 4 days, I think!

And speaking of birthdays, here are a few cards I made for a friend (she wanted BOY cards) with my new favourite set (LOL, I say that about every set!) Party Hearty:

So versatile! And perfect for adults and kids alike - not too "babyish" or Cute. I think I'll get a lot of use our of this set. Again, night time photography, sorry about that! Also, the DSP I used here is retired stuff I'm still using up.

While I was at it, my eldest went to a birthday party for a young lad and I wanted to dress up the gift voucher we gave him. This is what I came up with (it uses retired DSP):

It's basically an envelope made of DSP with a gift card attached to a belly band you can slide off.

And finally, here is the card I made a gorgeous friend. I thought it had a "Sex in the City" vibe about it. I used Crystal Effects on a little detail in each image, plus some glitter. Not the best photo, I promise it looked really good in real life!

I'll be back later with details of this month's classes and specials from Stampin' Up!