A purr-fect birthday

We had another birthday party today and our friend told me last week he was expecting a hand-made card from me, lol. So there was no escape. I had to make a masculine birthday card, something I find very difficult, but I think I pulled it off this time. The cat and sentiment are from the Add-on Magnum set from Ladybug Crafts Ink and the fish is from a separate Add-ons set. I bought these stamps a couple of months ago so it was about time I inked them up.

The layout is based on this week's sketch over at Sketch n Stash.

I coloured the image with Spectrum Noir pens and matted it on a scalloped nestie of metallic cardstock that I have had for ages. The papers are from a huge stash that I bought several years ago (probably DCWV) and that I have finally started using. The eyelets and string are also from some very old stash. The buttons are from a large bag of buttons I bought last year.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Sketch n Stash – Sketch 75

Penny Black and More – All creatures great and small

Craft Your Days Away – #34 Buttons or bows

Tuesday Throwdown – #75 Lots of circles (2nd entry)

Meljen's Designs – Twine or string

Frosted Design Fabulous Friday – Metal (scalloped circle and eyelets)

Dutch Dare – #140 Recipe (image, pp, layers, buttons)
Some Odd Girl – Coloured cardstock, 2 PPs, buttons, punch/die cut (2nd entry)
Sweet Stampin' – Punches and dies

Dancing Matilda

For this card I used Ballet Matilda from the DigiStamp Boutique. This seemed the obvious choice for a birthday girl who did quite a bit of ballet dancing when she was even younger than she is today, lol. I coloured the image with Spectrum Noir pens and added a Papermania gem to the flower in her hair. IRL this is a very sparkly gem in vibrant turquoise green, a perfect match with the leaves on the PP, but unfortunatly this does not show in the picture.

The birthday sentiment in the punched circle is actually from a Raindrop Echo Design freebie that also includes an image in the middle, but I masked that part by drawing a circle over it in Word. I know how to make these circle sentiments myself, but this was much quicker, lol. The "lace" at the bottom came from a huge sheet that was wrapped around the roses my husband gave me for my birthday. I used my SN alcohol markers to change the colour from grass green to turquoise green to match the PP and applied some double-sided tape to be able to create the pleats. I also used a few circles cut from the same material as a background for my buttons.

Other materials used:

PP - First Edition, Spring Fling

Scalloped circle - Nestability

Number stickers

Papicolour cardstock

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Some Odd Girl - 2 pp + coloured cs + buttons + punch/die cut

Sweet Stampin' - Birthday (they're celebrating their 2nd birthday)

Tuesday Throwdown - #75 Lots of circles

Ooh La La - Bingo (buttons, die cut, lace; hope my "lace" qualifies)

Alphabet Challenge Blog - V for Vibrant

Warm winter wishes

I grew up at a time when hand-knitted clothes were very common, and if the garment didn't fit anymore, the wool would be recycled. As far as I can remember, the thread would be hauled through a bowl of water to straighten it somewhat and then rolled into new balls. My mother was an expert at rolling them, I have never quite mastered this skill.

When I saw this week's sketch over at Mojo Monday and the DT creations, I knew I wanted to use a real woolen scarf on my card. After going through my stash of wool, that's been stored away for years and years, I found these pale blues and greens, probably the result of many washings. They matched perfectly with the BasigGrey green and blue papers from the Eskimo Kisses collection.

Materials used:

Image - Angels Landing digi,

coloured with Spectrum Noir pens

Sentiment - Doodle Pantry digi

Papers - BasicGrey Eskimo Kisses

Brads - BasicGrey Marjolaine

Wool - from my stash ;-)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Mojo Monday - Sketch 214

Stampalot Challenge - November: Blue and green

BasicGrey - Mix 'n match (Eskimo Kisses & Marjolaine)

Charisma Cardz - #44 Cutesy

Paper Sundaes - #94 Rectangle card

Cuddly Buddly - #20 Double trouble (2 characters)

Adorn D. Yard, the cutest snowgirl around

This cute little snowgirl is called Adorn D. Yard. I thought she was the perfect image for a glittery card. I downloaded this Sweet November Stamps digital image (also available in rubber) yesterday so I could use it on this card.

Most of the other materials on this card are pretty new. The papers are from two Dutch paper pads (Art Talent from Evora – Kruidvat?) that my sister sent to me for my birthday. She certainly knows I love my blues and reds, lol. The sentiment is a Sweet November rubber stamp that was part of some candy that I won recently over at Amy's blog. The image and the snowflakes (cut with my Silhouette) were coloured with Spectrum Noir pens. The cardstock is Papicolor, and the ribbons, star gems and glitter glues (white on the snowflakes and gold on the string of popcorn) are from my stash. The image was cut out with a brand-new Nellie Snellen multi frames die.

The layout is based on this week's sketch over at Sketch 'n Stash:

TIP:

If you are using any type of markers, you can also use them to colour your embellishments, like I did with my snowflakes. That way you can create a perfect match with your coloured image. It also means you can create a stash of white embellishments (esp. if you're cutting them with a Silhouette machine or similar) that you can adapt if and when needed.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Winter Wonderland – Make your card sparkle
CSAYL – Use your favourite sketch
CHNC – #45 Bright colours and/or sparkles
Christmas Card Challenges – {optional sketch}
Crafter's Companion – Let it snow
Colour Create – Turquoise, deep pink and ivory
Pink Gem Designs – #83 Cold and frosty (2nd entry)
Sketch 'n Stash – Sketch 74
Papertake Weekly – Christmas card
Top Tip Tuesday – #59 Anything Christmas
Tuesday Throwdown – #74 Favourite colour combination
Catch the Bug – Anything goes (2nd entry)
Delightful Challenges – Snowflakes
SNSDC – Christmas/holiday theme (+ use digi)

Purple flowers

Over at Mojo Monday they had a great sketch this week, so I decided to play along. It's a fairly simple card, really, but I quite like how it turned out. The green touches of the leaves and flower heart totally liven up the purple, which might have become a bit dull otherwise.

The DPs and the white flower and leaves are from a digital set that I donwloaded from the Crafter's Companion website (member's section). The doily, flower die (purple flowers) and stamp are Marianne Design. The pearls were made with my Viva perlen-pen and the doily, nestie and purple flowers were inked with Ranger distress inks (Milled lavender and Dusty concord).

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Mojo Monday – Sketch 213

Marianne Design Divas – Dying to die cut (+ any MD product)

Simon Says Stamp – Button(s)

Paperplay – Button up

Catch the Bug – Anything goes

Crafty Catz – Anything goes