Birthday Girl

Another person celebrating their birthday last Saturday was our Elaine and it was back to my favourite box of roses, but in a new colourway, for her card.

The patterned papers for Elaine's card are from a new Nitwit Collections digital kit called Romance and Roses which were a good match to Stampin' up's melon mambo and marina mist cardstock.  There are some lovely papers and elements in this collection.  The box of roses fits on an 8"x 8" scalloped card and is raised up on foam pads.  The parts of the lid which don't overlap the box are on double layer foam pads.

Rolled roses made using the Marianne die English rose are certainly my favourite embellishments to use at the moment and these ones were cut from card printed on both sides with two of the papers, one dark and one light patterned, from the Romance and Roses collection.  To hide the white cut edges Melon Mambo ink was sponged over the roses rolled to show the dark patterned paper on the inside. 

 

When the roses are added this makes quite a dimensional card as can be seen from this side view.

 

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The leaves for the roses were punched using an X-cut beech leaf embossing punch and then half had their edges sponged with VersaMagic chalk ink in sea breeze and the rest were sponged with Stampin' up's island indigo ink.  The scalloped edges of the main card were also sponged with the sea breeze ink.

  

An original Sizzix red die was used to cut the gift tags for the box and the top tag was embossed using one of Stampin' up's textured impressions designer frames.  The sentiment set in the middle of the frame was stamped on to white card using a stamp from their Sincere Salutations set and melon mambo ink. It was then punched out using their extra large oval punch and around the edge sea breeze ink was sponged.

On the inside there is a double layer insert using another patterned paper from the Romance and Roses kit for the back layer and a message created on the computer for the top layer.  Both layers had their corners rounded off using a Woodware corner punch and the edges of the top layer were sponged with sea breeze ink.

Other embellishments used were self adhesive pearls, Stampin' up's marina mist and rose red grosgrain ribbon, coiled gold beading wire attached amongst the roses and gold brads.

Elaine celebrated her birthday in Edinburgh with Andy and had a great weekend even if the weather didn't play ball. Here are a few pictures of the weekend.

Meeting the Conservation Girlies for a night out on Friday night.  It's hard to believe that ten years have passed since they started the course at Aberdeen University together.  Elaine's in the middle.

Although she wasn't at home to celebrate her birthday I was amused to see the tradition of setting out cards and presents ready for opening on the birthday morning was still carried on.

After a birthday breakfast cooked by Andy the pair of them spent the rest of the day shopping and meeting a friend for lunch.

Then out for dinner at night.

The next day was spent at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and attending a Seth Lakeman concert at night.  A busy but happy weekend. 

 

It's hard to believe we're supposed to be warming up for the summer months with the wind, low temperature and the snow threatening to fall yesterday morning but twenty seven years ago on the 28th of May, as we drove away from the hospital with our new baby, the hail was hitting the roof of the car so hard that we couldn't hear ourselves talk.  

Thanks for stopping past today and reading

Liz xx 

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges

Crafty Ribbons Challenge 46 - Anything Goes With Ribbon

MilkCoffee Challenge - Load on the Flowers

Crafts and Me Challenges 134 - Lots of Layers

Freshly Brewed Designs May Challenge - Flowers

Rhedd and Rosie's 7th Challenge - Blooming Lovely

Everybody Art Challenge 237 - Flowers

LEJ Designs Challenge 54 - Dee Cuts and/or Punches

Through the Craftroom Door Challenge 12th-27th May - Anything Goes

Craft-Dee Bowz May Challenge - Anything Goes with Hand Made Bows

My Craft Creations Floral Challenge 13/5 - 25/5

Songbird Challenges 20 - Flowers

Crafty Bloggers Network May Challenge - X's and O's (Die cut/Punch, Ribbon, Flowers)

Gingerloft Challenge - Happy Birthday

Joanna Sheen Challenge - Girls, Girls, Girls

My Sheri Crafts Challenge 110 - Flower Power

Birthday Time

There were birthday celebrations in the Campbell house on Saturday, as well as the engagement party on the Sunday, as it was their Iain's birthday.  Iain now lives and works in Reading but had travelled north to be home for his birthday and the engagement party.  It had been over two years since I'd last seen Iain so it was lovely to catch up again and especially to meet his lovely girlfriend Rachel.

On the Saturday Iain, his brother Niall and their Dad Philip set off to walk along The Gordon Way but got caught in the heavy rain which fell that afternoon.  From the stories we heard all three arrived back with soggy feet from the rain having dripped off their waterproofs and in to their boots.  One member of the group who had some enjoyment from the expedition was Eilidh's dog Rhylee who sourced out all the puddles. Fortunately they all dried off and polished up well for the party the next day.  Philip too works away from home and is shortly to be moving to Paris from Kazakhstan so times when they all come together at home are special and it was lovely to capture the three of them in this photo.

This is the card I made Iain for his birthday.  The post title sums up the card as it was based around these words - Birthday Time.

Blue cardstock from the Papeterie and two different patterned paper downloads were used for the layers on this card.  The gingham paper was from the Cuddly Buddly download A Patchwork of Papers Blue and the swirls paper was from Pink Petticoat's Little Swirls download in their Air Force Blue colourway.   

The layout involved making layers and toppers of large and small squares.  The three layers of the small letter toppers were cut using Spellbinders plain and scalloped square nestabilities.  Encore blue metallic ink was sponged around the small swirls squares.  After attaching the top two layers together silver metallic thread was wrapped around the corners before they were then mounted on to the backing layer using foam pads.  This added dimension to the card.  Small peel off crystal dots were added to the inside corners of the gingham squares.

 

Large lower case Quickutz alphabet dies in indigo font were were used to cut the letters and the little pocket watch was also cut using a Quickutz die.  Blue metallic ink was sponged around the face of the watch and also around the scalloped edges of the base card.  The TIME backing layer behind the pocket watch was created on the computer and printed on to the gingham paper.  A little piece of navy grosgrain ribbon was threaded through the fob.  

 

On the inside there was a double layer insert using the Little Swirls patterned paper for the back layer and a message created on the computer for the top layer.  The corners of both were rounded off using a Woodware corner punch.  

The final embellishments were silver brads added to the corners of the middle square and two of the outer corners and along with the silver metallic thread and crystal dot peel offs this added a little bit of bling.  Butcher's twine was wrapped around and tied in a bow at the fold of the card.

Of all the photos I took at the engagement party the one below is one of my favourites.  I managed to signal to Iain's Granny to sneak up and sit on his knee so I could capture them together.  Fortunately Iain took it in his stride and this was the end result.

 

Although this has been another lengthy post I'm hoping that having written a little bit about the recipient, and including some photos, this has made it more interesting too.

Thanks for reading today

Liz xx

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges

Artistic Inspirations Challenge 42 - Cards for Men

Crafty Boots Challenge - Celebrations

Gingerloft Challenge - Happy Birthday

Allsorts Challenge Week 207 - True Blue

Sparkles Monthly Challenge May - Monochromatic

Ruby's Rainbow Challenges 54 - Squares

Sarah Hurley Challenge 80 - Shades of Blue

That Craft Place Challenge - Makes for Men

The Sisterhood of Crafters Challenge - Say it Loud

Amour à Paris......part 2

This is the card I made for Niall and Steph whose engagement and surprise party I wrote about in the previous post "Amour à Paris.......part 1".

The theme for the card was based around the proposal at the top of the Eiffel Tower.  Whilst at the Papeterie last Saturday I was lucky enough to find two sheets of Kanban card from the Lavender Rose Collection called "From Paris with Love" and they then dictated the colour scheme.

This was an ideal opportunity to use the large Stampin' up French Script stamp to create backgrounds on two of the layers of the topper.  On the lavender layer it was stamped using Encore silver metallic ink and on the top layer the stamp was lightly inked with purple metallic ink to leave a faded impression.  Over the top of this the Eiffel Tower and Amour stamps from Stampin' up's Artistic Etchings set were stamped using silver metallic ink.  This isn't a set I own but I knew a friend who did, thank you Carol.  A little gem was added to the top of the Tower to symbolise where the proposal took place. The sentiment was also a Stampin' up stamp from the Petite Pairs set and it was punched out and layered using their oval and scalloped oval punches.

Spellbinders Curved Rectangle dies were used to cut out two of the layers of the topper with a faux layer added in between.  The faux layer was made by using the smallest die as a stencil to draw around before cutting it out by hand.  The edges were distressed and inked to disguise any uneven cutting.

The champagne flutes were cut using a Marianne die and were double layered using shiny and matt silver card and in the corners the Marianne die English Rose was used to cut the large rolled roses which are my crafting addiction at the moment.  Behind the roses are silver leaves punched using an X-cut embossing punch.

Layers of silver, purple, lilac and lavender card along with the patterned card from Kanban were used to decorate the panels of the z-fold card.  The picture below is of the back of the card.  The lilac card was embossed using the Regency Swirls Embossalicious folder and the Memory Box Precious Hearts die was used to cut the heart embellishments which were also double layered.  Peel offs were used to add Steph and Niall's initials to the small hearts and the date of their engagement to the large heart.

On the inside of the card messages were created on the computer and die cut using Spellbinders heart nestabilites dies and their grand nestabilities circle dies.  More of the heart embellishments were added too.  You can see from the pictures below how appropriate the Kanban card was to the occasion.

 

There was even enough card left to decorate the lid of the box.

The only other additions to the card were small paper roses and rosebuds in contrasting colours, a few more sparkly gems and lots of bows and ribbons to match the backing card not that I ever need an excuse to use ribbon.

It was lovely to be able to create a personalised card for Niall and Steph and hopefully it will be a reminder of their romantic weekend in Paris.

Thanks for reading today
Liz xx

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
The Ribbon Girl May Colour Challenge - Lilac and Lavender
Marianne Design Diva's Monthly Challenge - Get Your Dies Out
Craft-Dee Bowz May Challenge - Anything Goes With Hand Made Bows
Crafty Boots Challenge - Celebrations
Crafty Bloggers Network Challenge - O's and X's Challenge (Ribbon/Stamps/Gems)
Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Use your favourite ink - Encore purple metallic ink which was used to stamp the French script background, the sentiment, and was sponged around the scalloped edges of the base card the edges of the curved rectangles and the rolled roses on the topper and also the heart in the inside.
Challenges 4 Everybody Challenge 20 - Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations May Challenge - Embossing and Texture 
Emerald Faerie Challenge 43 - Ribbons 
Delightful Challenges - Bingo (Patterned Paper/Punches or Dies/Flowers)
Fab'n'Funky Challenge 171 - Your Favourite Embellishment ( Rolled roses made using the Marianne English Rose die)
The Ribbon Carousel Monthly Challenge 81 - Celebrations
My Craft Spot Challenge 98 - Ribbon and Twine
LEJ Designs Challenge 54 - Die Cuts and/or Punches

Amour à Paris....part 1

On Sunday we attended the surprise engagement party of my friend's son and his girlfriend.  Two weeks ago Niall took Steph on a surprise weekend to Paris and proposed to her at the top of the Eiffel Tower.  Niall put a lot of thought, planning and preparation in to making the event perfect and here are the happy couple showing off the ring following the proposal.

 

We had a lovely time celebrating with them and their family and friends and Kathleen (Niall's Mum) had put on a huge hot and cold spread of savouries and sweets along with garnishes and breads.  It had been a hectic morning for them trying to get the happy couple out of the way so that they could prepare and decorate but all was perfect and even the sun shone.   Here are a few pictures of the day.

Niall and Steph with their beautiful engagement cake.

The figurines decorating this cupcake stand were supposed to represent how long Niall kept Steph waiting before proposing to her.  There's a little diamond ring dangling on the end of the fishing rod.

The theme for the decorations was pretty vintage with a French flavour and I think you'll agree that it was indeed very pretty.

As well as the beautiful cake there were cupcakes with matching toppers and I was fortunate enough to be given this one to take home for me

and this one for Elaine.

I've taken out my best china to photograph the cupcakes with.  Before getting married I collected a tea set and a dinner set in this pattern and apart from the salt and pepper both sets have remained unused.  I think I'll need to christen this cup and saucer before putting them back in the cupboard again.  The little doily was cut using an X-cut die.

This post has ended up so full of photos of the day that I'll start a new post with the engagement card I made for them.

Thanks for reading

Liz xx

Twenty-one today.

Saturday was a busy time for birthday's amongst family and friends. Ian's friend Ben, who moved away to Blackpool four years ago, celebrated his twenty-first and this is the card I made for him.

The previous Saturday I'd been to see Nicky Hall demonstrating at the Papeterie and whilst there bought a 21 stamp set by Woodware.  The 21 was stamped on to the positive silver Little Swirls paper from Pink Petticoat using VersaMark ink and embossed using disco black embossing powder from Stampendous.  Once this had set then the twenty one was die cut using a square Spellbinders die and the inside of the numbers were filled with art glitter glue and silver glitter.  It's ages since I've used this technique and I used to love watching Jane Nestorenko demonstrating it on Create and Craft.  A Woodware corner notch punch was used on each corner and a silver and black metallic thread wrapped around the topper.  A few stray flecks of embossing powder had escaped and to camouflage this I spritzed over the topper with black and silver metallic pens.

The card was put together in three tiers.  On the bottom one there are layers of black and silver mirri card and the positive silver Little Swirls patterned paper.  The corners of the patterned paper were either stitched or had corners added on top made from Happy Birthday paper printed from the Cuddly Buddly download A Patchwork of Papers Blue in greyscale.  

The second tier has a scalloped square cut from the negative silver Little Swirls patterned paper. Layered on top of this is black card, Happy Birthday paper and another layer of the negative silver Little Swirls paper.  Corners of silver mirri card embossed with a Darice keys embossing folder were added to this layer.

The 21 topper layered on to black and silver mirri card was the third layer.  My usual embellishments of ribbon and brads were used with the addition of two silver keys.

A double insert was made for the inside of the card using Little Swirls patterned paper for one layer and a message created on the computer for the second.

We gave Ben a voucher to spend on Amazon and used their print a gift card with your own photo option.  After printing it out I chopped it up and made my own gift card with it.  The photo used is one Ben posted on his Facebook page recently of himself and his girlfriend Abbey.  The photo had already been manipulated and I thought using it would amuse them both.  The caption was printed on the computer and die cut using an X-cut speech bubble die.

The card and gift card

The card, gift card and gift tag

 

Ben on his birthday with Abbey

Ben made my day on Saturday as he took time out from his birthday activities to phone from Blackpool to say thank you for his card and present.  That made the time and effort taken all the more worthwhile.

Thanks for reading today

Liz xx

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
Challenges 4 Everybody Challenge 20 - Anything Goes
Great Impressions May Challenge - Celebration
Stamping Sensations May Challenge - Embossing and Texture
Chocolate, Coffee and Cards Challenge 39 - Use a Number
Sparkles Monthly Challenge May - Monochromatic
Delightful Challenges - Bingo (stitching, ribbon and patterned paper)
Ruby's Rainbow Challenges 54 - Squares
Ribbon Carousel May Challenge - Celebrations
Crafty Boots Challenge - Celebrations
Lexi's Creations Challenge 90 - Black, White and one other - Silver
Make it Monday - Anything Goes

Sail Boat

It was a brother-in-law's birthday on Sunday and it was back to a nautical theme for a quick and easy card.

The main image was from a PSX stamp and stamped using blue Encore metallic ink.  The same ink was used to stamp and sponge around the sentiment from Stampin' up and also around the scalloped edges of the base card.  Spellbinders circle dies were used to create a frame for the image and circle dot peel offs were added around the edge to give the appearance of a porthole.

As well as blue card from the Papeterie the patterned card used was printed from the Pink Petticoat download Little Swirls in the Air Force Blue colourway.  Corners cut using Quickutz dies were added and the final embellishment was the addition of butcher's twine tied around the side of the card.

This card zipped together in no time and was a bit of light relief from some of the more elaborate cards I've made recently.

Thanks for reading today

Liz xx

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges

The Pink Elephant Challenge 199 - Masculine Birthday Theme

That Craft Place - Makes for Men

Paper Creator's Craft Challenge 8 - For the Boys
Crafty Creations Challenge 222 - Keep It Simple
Woodware Challenge - Cards For Men
Sparkles Monthly Challenge - Monochromatic

Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Ring of Golden Roses

Along with the Golden Wedding Cake card I made for an Auntie and Uncle I made this card for Elaine and Ian to give them.  Ever since they were little, and visited Orkney with us each summer to see family, it was never a chore to go and visit Esther and Barry.  Esther has a knack of dealing with young ones which is why she is probably such a successful BB leader.

Back to making those rolled roses again withe the Marianne English Rose die and also paper pricking using an Ornare template.

 

Lemon card stock was used for the roses and the leaves were punched from Stampin' up's certainly celery card stock using the X-cut birch leaf embossing punch.  Old olive ink from Stampin' up was sponged around the leaves.  Cream pearlescent card was used for the paper pricked layer and this was layered on to matt cream and then gold pearlescent card.  The topper was attached to the front using foam pads.  

The patterned paper behind the topper was printed from the Pink Petticoat Little Swirls download in the gold colourway and this was also layered on to gold pearlescent card.

The sentiment on the front, and the verse on the inside, was created on the computer and die cut using Spellbinders circle and scalloped circle dies.  Layers of contrasting card were added behind.  The usual additions of ribbon, pearls and brads were the final touches. 

 

Here are the two Golden Wedding cards together.

Thanks for reading today and thank you to those of you who have recently become followers of my blog.

Liz xx

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
My Sheri Crafts Challenge 110 - Flower Power
Ribbon Carousel Challenge - Celebrations
Make It Monday - Anything Goes
Great Impressions May Challenge - Celebrations 
Through the Craftroom Door May Challenge - Anything Goes
Tuesday Throwdown Challenge 147 - Smell the Roses
Card Mania Challenge 20 - Flowers
Craft-Dee Bowz May Challenge - Hand Made BowZ
Crafty Boots Challenge - Celebrations
Cupcake Craft Challenge 242 - Lots of Layers
Love to Create Challenge 65 - Many Pretty Flower
Marianne's Design Divas May Challenge - Get Your Dies Out