Shamrock 60th Birthday

A good choir friend of mine turns 60 later this month and she's also retiring.  She's having a big party and the whole choir is invited so I've made up this A5 sized card so everyone can sign!  She's Irish, and despite living in Luxembourg for many decades now and speaking multiple languages, her Irish heritage is still very much part of her identity, so shamrocks seemed an obvious starting point - especially with St Patrick's Day approaching and the plethora of challenges at the moment from which to draw inspiration.   

 I originally had a cleaner card in mind and cut a shamrock cut from this paper which I was going to use as a spinner element but I was daunted by so much white space - it's an A5 card front so none of my background dies or embossing folders were large enough.   So I changed it to a patterned background and my plan was to cut a golden shamrock but honestly it looked a little too gimmicky for such an important birthday celebration!

So I thought I'd use a butterfly as the spinner element - she loves butterflies!  The first butterfly I cut was a Tim Holtz Brushstroke Butterfly - an NBUS item I'd been dying (excuse the pun) to use!   It looked lovely but it had an awkward centre of gravity and didn't spin very well!  It will have to wait for another day - another St Patrick's Day perhaps because it was cut in green and gold!  Instead, I used this old favourite Tattered Lace Oriental Butterfly die. 

Since I didn't have any gold card stock strong enough to cut it from, I went with green.   A spinning element really needs to be sturdy but I didn't relish the idea of layering a die cut this intricate (and big)! This green card stock is quite thick, so sturdy enough to withstand the rigours of spinning backwards and forwards across a card front.  I then added gilding wax to the butterfly!  Previous attempts with gilding wax were unsuccessful - I had underestimated how light your touch needs to be!  Watching a recent Chrissie Stokes video I realized where I was going wrong and was much happier with this effort! 

 I did look like a Bond villain afterwards through, with my gold finger! 🤣 

Then it was just a matter of sorting out where to put Happy Birthday, her name and a "60" using dies from my stash (the shamrock I used in place of the 0 was a really old punch).  I added a "sweet" (Deco Time) before the 60 - she is after all pretty excited about her upcoming retirement!  I added gilding wax to all these and then glossy accents - I love how the gilding wax has highlighted the embossing on the letters in her name.

The inside is an A4 sheet folded attached to the right side of the card base.  I've added a good luck sentiment and a potted plant - for luck!  I might also add another folded sheet on the other side (with perhaps some school items because she's retiring from teaching) - there will need to be space for 20 + people to sign! 

Here's a video of the butterfly in flight

I would like to enter the following challenges

The Card Concept Challenge #190

Colour Hues Challenge #59

Traumfabrik Challenge #113 which has the movie Luck as its inspiration this month

Double D Challenges which has this brilliant inspiration photo

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments always brighten my day!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Hip Hip Hooray!

Challenge #232 has just gone live at Time Out and it's a special one - we challenge you to Celebrate our 9th Birthday!

It's 9 years Sandie and Nonni started this fabulous challenge and to celebrate Sandie is joining us as our very special birthday guest, so do pop over and say hello to Sandie and leave her some love!

We also have the desert diva herself Hannelie joining us as our guest designer.  At the top of Hannelie's blog, she has a quote from Milton Glaser "There are three responses to a piece of design - yes, no and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for."  Prepare to be WOWed!

Last week I was reminded that I had bought the magnificent Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms Die Set as a birthday present last year but hadn't actually used yet!  As soon as I saw this die set used in a card, I just "had to have it" and then promptly forgot about it - to be fair I did have six weeks in Australia just after it arrived followed by Christmas!  

Anyway, I sat down this week and cut and assembled a bunch of blooms in various pinks and purples.  I raided my snippets for the blooms and foliage and added distress inks for depth and variegation. 

My choir director turns 50 next month and she loves flowers .... and her piano of course!  I thought the flowers would look stunning against the black and white of piano keys (Memory Box Piano Border).   I also thought the Bohemian Detail Plate would add just the right amount of detail in the background.  I laid the panel above the border die on a folded A4 card base and trimmed it down - I needed a larger than usual card because everyone in the choir will want to add their own wishes for our beloved leader and these magnificent blooms deserved the space this afforded!  As a result, it's an odd-sized card but it doesn't have to go in the post and I'll just deliver it in an A5 envelope or make one to fit!

This challenge is being sponsored by Newton's Nook Designs.

There's a very generous $25 Store Credit being offered to our winner as voted by the DT plus an invitation to guest design with us in a future challenge!   

How will you our 9th Birthday Celebration theme inspire you - I'm looking forward to viewing your lovely creations in the gallery - you have until March 1st to come play cards with us!  Pop over to Time Out where my team mates and two special guests have some lovely designs waiting to inspire you!

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges (the link is under each of the photos)!

NBUS Challenge #47

Snippets Playground Challenge #447

Flower Challenge #77

Seize the Birthday Challenge #255 
My initials are K and L
Keys (Piano) and Leaves

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments always brighten my day!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Sweet 60!

 

As You See It Challenge #256 has a "Fill in the Blank" Challenge - What Is Your Favourite Animal?   Birds of course!  Such beautiful and majestic animals and my first pet was a bird - a little budgie called Billy Boy!  I was petrified of him at first but gradually fell in love with him.  He was so clever - talked, danced and came when you called!  Though he did have an annoying habit of biting my nose if I slept in!  Yes he had the run of the unit and only had his cage shut when we had visitors and that was mostly for his safety as budgies are bush birds - they love to spend time on the ground!

I cut my bird from pink card stock and distressed the edges with Faded Jeans DI.  I went around the eye and throat with blue alcohol markers because I saw a "Mask" prompt at CASology Week 394.  However  this card is definitely not CAS so I won't be entering there but I thought I should give them some credit!  The eye was a drop of black Ranger Enamel Accents - which worked perfectly! 

Inspiration for this card also came from the Alphabet Challenge which has the prompt "J is for Just One Word"!  This seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out this tongue in cheek sentiment I've been considering for a while!  And this little bird (TH Feathered Friends) is just soooo sweet isn't he?

The Sisterhood of Crafters has a "Leaf it to Chance" challenge at the moment so I added a few sprigs to make my little bird feel at home.

Just the one snippet of teal card stock used here for the foliage (unless you count the snippets I had left over from cutting the bird which I used for the flowers and sentiment) so I'll be entering Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge #409!  I wish I could say my stash(es) of snippets is going down but sadly it's not true.  I just can't throw anything out!  Fortunately, there are plenty of ideas in the playground for using them up!

I'm also entering my card in the August Anything Goes with Dies Challenge at Happy Little Stampers.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit.  If you leave a comment, I’ll be thrilled!  I’ll also know you were here, so I can check out what you’ve been up to and we can get better acquainted!

Kate

Twofer Sunshine

Firstly I have to apologise, these two cards weren't in the same room at the same time so I had to cobble together a photo of the two together.   They're both new (though the second is almost identical to one I made back in March) it's just that the first was needed before I had a chance to finish the second.

I'd also like to apologise for not posting very often lately, I just haven't had much time for blogging.  I'm nearing €1000 raised for the orphanage program I support in Tanzania.  The last few weeks have been pretty manic - word has been getting around and I've had more orders than I can really cope with but I know that will die down soon when everyone in Luxembourg goes back to their home countries for the summer - particularly as almost everyone is now fully vaccinated.  

Not that I can go home - Australia isn't too keen on letting anyone in as they try to keep their Covid numbers as close to zero as possible.  I really had hoped to see my poor old mum and if I kicked up enough stink (and paid enough money) I could probably get there but when there are so many Australians in much worse circumstances than mine trying to return, I'd feel a little guilty - only a few thousand are allowed in each week.

I really love the Twofer challenge - to use the same die or stamp differently!  It makes me look at all my dies and stamps in a different way.   This month the challenge prompt is is 'Sunshine' - either Sun or Sunrays.  My common element is this cute little sun die from a dinky little set called Village Sky from the Frantic Stamper.  When making the first Vintage Champers card back in March, I found the sun die was perfect for creating the wax seal you might find on the neck of a champagne bottle.  I have other suns, and initially I was weighing up various options, but then an order came in for another Vintage Champers card so that made my mind up for me.  

Here's a closer look at the first card - Vintage Champers Cheers.   The champagne bottle die I used is  a very basic outline die only.  But I found by selectively cutting just the neck from another textured card stock, wrapping a strip of black around the neck to hide the join and placing the sun die over the strip to bind it together, the champagne bottle starts to come to life.  The glossy accents also helped!  The first time I made this card, it was for a friend and I wanted to downplay her age but the person who ordered this card had no qualms about declaring her friend's age very boldly so I added two balloons with gold letters to match the gold accents in the patterned paper.  Cheers seemed more appropriate than Happy Birthday - and the fit was better!

 Here's a closeup of the label which I mocked up using Wordart within Microsoft Word.  I looked at various bottles of Champagne (hic!) to get ideas for what to put on the label.   The name, place of birth and year of birth were included to make it really personal.  

The second card was much simpler, again another order.  This was for a friend of mine for her son who is stepping out into the big wide world.  Apparently he loves fast cars so we thought the Vespa would be a wee joke. 

The scooter is from Taylored Expressions.  When I pulled out the set, I found I had cut several white ones on a previous occasion (must be about four years ago) so I went with that and cut the little parts from some blue card stock I had lying on my desk (from a project I'd just finished) with a coat of glossy accents once assembled for dimension and shine!  I grounded it on a sentiment banner carrying the a line from one of his favourite songs (Have it All from Jason Mraz).  A little grass (Crealies On the Edge Grass) separates the spotty road from the blue sky, with the sun and some clouds from the same set finishing off the scene.

I'd also like to enter this card in the Pixie's Snippets Challenge for June.  The clouds, sun and blue bits on the scooter were all snippets.  These tiny die pieces are a great excuse for hanging onto even the smallest pieces of card stock.  This month the challenge is honouring the memory of Ruby.

I'd also like to enter my cards in the Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit.  If you leave a comment, I’ll be over the moon!  I’ll also know you were here, so I can check out what you’ve been up to and we can get better acquainted!

Kate

Game On Philip

 

I finally got a card done for  {Pin}spirational Challenge #277 and there are only a few hours left till it closes so I'll be brief!  These electronic gaming accessories are from Yvonne Creations.  The card isn't quite finished yet, I need to give everything another coat of glossy accents.  And the photo is terrible so I'll take some other photos later with some closeups of the buttons.  This particular lad loves his Minecraft but for my son's birthday in July I'll probably make up a Plants vs Zombies theme - that's the only Zombie game that I approve of him playing.  And I also have another order from one of my friends for her son so this set will get plenty of use I suspect!

Here's the {Pin}spirational photo so you can see how I was inspired - Headphone, Playstation Logo on the Cup and of course the iconic Playstation Buttons (which unfortunately aren't very clear in this photo and they were devilishly tricky)!

Here are the other Challenges I'm also entering

Papercraft Challenge #70 - Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Krafty Chicks Challenge #561 - All Occasions

Seize the Birthday - Wheel Buttons on the Controller

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit.  If you leave a comment, I’ll be over the moon!  I’ll also know you were here, so I can check out what you’ve been up to and we can get better acquainted!

Kate

Rockin' Rockstar

I just finished this card for a budding musician who turns 18 in a few weeks - green was chosen as a nod to his Irish ancestry!  As I was working on the sentiment, I thought why not make the card really "rock" and attached the guitar to the card front with a "spring" - a strip of acetate folded several times (from recycled acetate packaging)!

It's an easel card and I've used a "keyboard" to prop open the card.

I used this sentiment from a very old Inkadinkado Rock Star stamp set to finish off the inside!

Happily, there are loads of Challenges which have happily coincided with my Rockstar Card.  

Challenge #71 in the Library has the following title for inspiration!

Challenge #174 at Timeout has the prompt Festivals which made me think of Music Festivals!

Challenge #134 at Make my Monday wants us to make a masculine card!

Challenge #147 at Retro Rubber is Anything Goes as long as an old stamp sees some ink and this old Inkadinkado Rockstar set hasn't seen ink since 2014!

My box of snippets came in handy for creating all the little "bits" on the electric guitar so I'm entering in  Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge # 390 

Challenge #257 at Cardz for Guys is to make an Adult Birthday Card and 18 is the year a young man in Britain is considered an adult.

The prompt for Challenge #144 at the Male Room is Toys and musical instruments could be considered Toys!

The guitar die is brand spanking new so I'm entering it in NBUS Challenge # 20

Allsorts Challenge Week 596 wants us to make a card for a child or teen.  18 is still a teenager!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit.  If you leave a comment, I'll know where to find you and can return the favour!

Kate

18th Birthday card - not too girly

My son asked me to make a card for a female friend of his.  Apparently she is not very girly and he didn't want anything sugary and definitely not pink.  Also her boyfriend can get quite jealous so had to be careful with the sentiment as well !!!

I ended up making a background using various blue alcohol inks and a touch of pearl.  The Calligraphy panel from Clearly Impressed Writing set was stamped with Memento Tuxedo.  I normally use Archival Ink to overstamp these backgrounds, but I was pleasantly surprised how clearly the Memento stamps.  I made the mistake of stamping with Versafine once - it stamped beautifully but no amount of heat setting would do the trick and I ended up abandoning it.   

I was following Mojo Monday Sketch 348, but had to rotate it half way through as the Congrats die cut sentiment wouldn't fit.  I'm not quite happy with it but I don't have time to start again so hope he likes it.

Thanks for stopping by,

Kate

Ed. 

I increased the size of the flower as a quick fix.  I think it looks a little more balanced now and I'm a little happier with it !!!

50th Birthday Greeting for a Celtic Couple

This was a commissioned card for my friend Ruth. Friends of hers (a couple) are both turning 50 soon and she wanted a special card to mark the event.
The recipients are a Scotsman and an Irish lass, so I thought I'd go with a celtic theme.  I already had quite a few celtic stamps as I've always been attracted to celtic design (they're great for male cards and although he's a 4th generation  Australian, my father still considers himself Irish).
So loaded with a couple of mismatched celtic stamps and a thistle stamp and the idea of including a photo or a pocket for a photo, I had no idea how I was going to fill an A5 card front.  I turned to my favourite sources of inspiration these days - the WMS blog (always good for a laugh as well - Claire has a wicked sense of humour) and the WMS Gallery, and was promptly reminded that WMS have several stunning celtic stamp sets.  In fact one of them Celtic Heritage had both a stylised thistle and shamrock, as well as loads of other celtic elements and plenty of sentiments in an Uncial font.  So yes even though I did already have quite a few celtic stamps, I just couldn't resist.
The design came together really quickly once I decided to drop orange from the colour mix and just stick with a green, navy and white - I even found this great tartan to match in a Basic Grey Marjolaine 6x6 paper pad, and my sewing machine was behaving itself for once.
I lined the inside with white sheets stamped with the same celtic squiggle border stamp I used on the front pocket.
I used Chipped Sapphire and Peeled Paint Distress Inks - don't forget to ink your clear stamps with Versamark first before using dye-based inks such as these Distress Inks if you want a clear crisp image.
The "50th" I created using an EK Success Loopy Numbers set for the "th" - these are rubber and almost impossible to line up perfectly so I stamped this first and then added the die cut 5 and 0 (Tim Holtz Chip Block alphabet) afterwards.
Ruth seemed to like it when she picked it up this evening - I hope her friends like it too.

Getting my Crafting Mojo into Gear, Finally !

I started this project with an idea of a time theme, plus I wanted to use this Vintage Numbers rubber stamp set which the recipient gave me for my birthday last year. I borrowed the Tim Holtz Gadget Gears from my good friend Lena because they were masculine and were the closest thing I could think of to clock mechanisms. Before long I was turning the gears to represent "turning 60" and had a little swing out mechanism for the sentiment.

If you want to see how the gear mechanism works, I took some "work in progress" shots as well. The top gear only needs to spin around so it only needs a small hole (ignore the fact that there are 2 small holes the lower was a mistake - the gears were too close together and wouldn't mesh), however the bottom gear needs to move the sentiment out so needed to be a bigger hole so a bigger lug could be used to increase contact between the gear on the top and the sleeve underneath bearing the hidden sentiment.

The larger hole in the card top was cut using a spellbinders circle. Because the lug which joined the top gear and the bottom mechanism needed to be cut from a thicker material I searched through all my bigz and original dies to find a circle which would fit and cut this from foam board.

One other thing - the whole in the gears were too big so I replaced the centre piece in the gear and drilled a smaller hole in this with my Crop-a-Dile.

To facilitate the turning mechanism, I mounted the whole card top onto the card base with mounting tape, being careful to leave a gap for the swing out mechanism.

I was really happy with the background which I created using Red Pepper, Caramel, Butterscotch and Gold Ranger alcohol inks and overstamped with the clocks collage from Non-Sequitur Time and Space, so you can imagine my dismay when I reached for what I thought was the Glossy Accents to glue something down and picked up the alcohol blending solution by mistake. Instead of pouring a small amount of glossy accents onto an embellishment, a flood of alcohol solution came out all over my beautiful background.

Note to self - don't keep the alcohol blending solution out and certainly don't put it next to the glossy accents bottle as they are exactly the same sized and shaped bottles.

Even so I was pleased with my "To Turn 60 is Time to Celebrate" Card and hope my friend will be too !