Dad's Birthday card.

Hi there, apologies for being MIA lately, my brother and nephew were staying with us last week so I had a great time with them here. This week is chemo week, so not feeling the best right now. I needed to make a card for my Dad's birthday, which is tomorrow, so here 'tis! I've used this weeks sketch ABSC #050 from the Annabelle Stamps Blog.

I'm also entering this card for Stamp Smiles - Fathers Day/Graduation or Masculine card.

There's not a whole lot of stamping here, but the one's I have used are from Annabelle Stamps 'All Things Grow' set and I used a background stamp for stamping into the Opals (UTEE) on the bird's wing. I keep forgetting that I have a whole lot  of chipboard shapes, so I fished out this bird one by Collections that I've had for ages, and covered it with Opals (UTEE). The papers are from a 6 x 6 Crate Paper pad, the branch is a die-cut by Memory Box and the bling is from Annabelle Stamps

Thanks for stopping by today, hope your day is going well!

Have you missed me?

I know, I'm a bad blogger, I haven't posted anything for over a month now! There's been a lot going on around here, not all of it good, but I won't load you up with all of that right now. I haven't had much time or inclination to craft for ages, but I've finally managed to do a card at long last!

I've used 2 challenges for my card, the colour challenge of Say It I......Yellow, Lime and Chocolate from Annabelle Stamps Blog and I was in the mood for Oriental, so I used the Card Layout Challenge #141 from OSA.

The colour scheme was a little challenging, I really don't like yellow at all, but I sponged Scattered Straw TH Distress Ink for my image background, my Lime Greens don't quite match, but that's the best I could come up with! My image is the lovely Lynne Perrella's Acey Deucy stamp (now made by Stampington) called 'This Scented House', the Oriental script stamp is by Kaisercraft, I stamped it onto some green handmade rice paper. The chocolate card is embossed with a Cuttlebug Asian embossing folder.

I couldn't find a large brad in the colour I wanted so I used one of those big brass headed one's that you find in office supply stores and used several layers of Opals embossing powder to give it a new look. FYI, Opals is an Aussie brand of UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel).

Thanks for stopping by today!

Masculine Owl Card.

I totally forgot it was my Son-in-law's birthday until my daughter reminded me a couple of days ago.......my bad! I needed some inspiration in a hurry and had just copied the sketch of CPS #101 and had it sitting on my desk, so decided to use it!

I took a few liberties and used an oval instead of the round shape. I've used the Cuttlebug Argyle embossing folder with Cappucino Core'dinations cardstock, then sanded back the embossing to reveal the core colour.

I felt the design still needed something on the top half of the card so I used a small Collections chipboard owl . At the last Melbourne Paperific I went to I visited the Pipedreamink ladies and they had a make-and-take with the larger chipboard owls and using their fabulous Opals Embossing Enamels (UTEE which comes in the most gorgeous colours!).......so I've put what I learned to use and covered my small chipboard owl with The Nut (brown) Opals and embossed him with an Autumn Leaves swirly stamp- a better description of how to use Opals is in the FAQ section on the Pipedreamink website. The eyes and beak are also covered with Zeehan (silver) Opals, then when it's melted with the heat gun, dipped into Dazzling Diamonds glitter.I've added some amber coloured Kaiser rhinestone gems as eyes, and edged the owl with a gold Krylon pen. There's a close-up photo below.

Other supplies used :- Happy Birthday greeting by Penny Black, bronze coloured brads, blue satin ribbon and blue staples, Nestabilities ovals, metal cake embellishment (from the $2 shop). I did a little decorating on the inside of the card too (see below). The balloon and cake slice stamps are by Fiskars, the greeting stamp is unidentified.

Thanks for dropping by today!