Window Gatefold Card

Another month and few more special birthday cards to make.  The first is for a friend's 70th birthday this week, so I thought I'd use one of my Lavinia stamps and enter it for this month's challenge 'Birthday Girl'.  I guess you're never too old to be a birthday girl!  I decided to make a gatefold card with an aperture to show off the lovely stamped image, which I coloured in with Promarkers. I used a silver Wink of Stella glitter brush pen to paint the wings to add a bit of sparkle. Although I've made gatefold cards before, I wanted to make it a little bit different and I was really pleased how it turned out. 

This is the card opened to stand up.

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

Lavinia Stamps ~ Birthday Girl

Stamping Sensations ~ Anything Goes

Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge ~ Anything Goes 

Penny Black and More ~ Anything Goes

Spring Colours

The theme for the Lavinia Stamps Challenge this month is 'Spring Colours', which has proved to be more of a challenge than I first thought!  I abandoned my first idea of an Easter gift bag as, after several attempts, I couldn't get the effect I wanted.  So I thought I'd use the lovely Lavinia unicorn stamp and make a card.  Originally I stamped the tree trunks in black, but it didn't look right for a Spring theme.  My next plan was to stamp the trunks in brown,  blow the dust of my embossing powders and add a white, embossed unicorn.  However, the brown tree trunk behind the unicorn left an pale brown stripe through the white unicorn!  Eventually, with my third attempt, this is what I came up with.

I used a tiny leaf stamp which came with a Lavinia "Fairy Door" stamp and added punched flowers and a die cut grass border.  The bonus of this challenge is that I'd forgotten how much fun heat embossing is, so I think I'll be using my heat gun much more in the near future!

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Lavinia Stamps ~ Spring Colours

Stamping Sensations ~ Use those Dies and/or Punches

Paper Crafting Challenges ~ No Patterned Paper

Footie Birthday Card

After a week away in very sunny Devon, we're back in time for Alan's birthday.  Coming up with new ideas for a football themed card is quite difficult, so I adapted a design I'd used for a recent friends' anniversary card. (BRFC stands for Bristol Rovers Football Club!)

I got the original idea for the design on this blog:
http://www.tracyercole.com/2011/08/less-is-more-challenge-week-27-colour.html

Special Occasions

A thank you card, a good luck card and a ruby wedding anniversary card were needed for this week. 

 I needed to make this thank you card with just yellow, blue and white, the colours of the Tangent Clubs logo, and decided to keep it clean and simple. 

Having recently purchased a pair of Stampin' Up fringe scissors, I was keen to use them!  I adapted a design from a card I made at a Stampin' Up evening to make this good luck card.