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)