Birthday Banner & Cake Card

Welcome back!

Today I'm sharing a recent card make for a friend's little girl, who turned six in March.  I love the colour-saturated Simple Stories birthday kits so I whipped up a quick little colourful card to put in with her gift.

Some fun polka dots and stripes, a little doily to soften some of the bold colours and hard edges and some die-cuts in the form of the cake and banner.  I popped some left-over red pearls from my Christmas cards onto the cake for a little embellishment and then stamped 'celebrate' across the bottom.

Next challenge is getting it into the post before summer hits!

Posh Birthday Cake Card

So after a month long break from crafting over the holidays, I finally made the first few tentative steps back into creating.  I have to admit that I was helped along by two fabulous treats in the post:

1. A new set of clear stamps featuring awesome build-your-own posh birthday cake pieces, decorations and sentiments, courtesy of the January issue of Papercraft Inspirations.

2. A box of prize goodies from a Stash Busters challenge I won a few months ago over on 2Peas.  Goodies included a 6x6 paper pad of Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm (awesome!), an Amy Tan phrase roller stamp, ribbon, puffy stickers and some decorations.

So I got to work playing with my new stamps, some watercolour paints and one of the papers from the Dear Lizzy pad as my card background.  And here we go:

 Posh Birthday Card

How cute is that cake?  There were some unfortunate imperfections with the cake stand and flower stamps where the acrylic had gaps but I was able to colour them in with a black fine liner pen.  I actually stamped the cake onto the back of some old single-sided patterned paper that I'm no longer particularly fond of - a great way to use up old scraps.  And since I still don't have any Pro Markers (really must get around to investing in some), I used watercolour paints to colour the cake and the edging of the circle to define the edge from that of the doily underneath.

The little pennants I made from a wash of the same watercolours and paper, which I then free hand cut into little triangles and stamped the recipient's name.  The piano key ribbon was part of a set of black and white prize winnings I received from a summer contest - even though there is nothing musical about the rest of the card, the occasion or the recipient, I think it works really well together.

Then I decided that I wanted to bring more of the pink onto the inside of the card so I made a quick wash of colour and stamped the sentiment over top of it.  It makes for a fun surprise when you open it up.

Pinspiration Sunday

Hello, everyone!  It's been a fabulous summer day today - clear skies and warm temperature with a breeze so I've been enjoying it embroidering out on the balcony.  Sheer bliss!  So go grab your hot beverage of choice and enjoy some photo love.

Currently:
watching - Heart of Dixie
making - embroidery quilt blocks
wearing - jeans and a tank top
weather - sunny, clear and 22C
feeling - fidgety
wanting - to eat popcorn
needing - to go grocery shopping tomorrow
planning - another set of coasters
thinking - I should buy that second hand bicycle from Blocket.se
enjoying - the weather; hope it lasts!

Taking Turns quilt - I just love the cleanness and graphic design of this quilt and the white sashing.  It sort of reminds me of an interesting cobblestone pathway.

These Flip Flap bags are so lovely!  I have a weakness for handbag patterns, although I'm sort of rubbish at actually getting around to sewing them...  But since I'm a cyclist, I prefer message bags and extra pockets are always a bonus.  I also just love the buttons - I have some giant buttons that could really work with these.  Pattern is also available as a download so no shipping charges!

I really enjoy a lot of Corrie Jones' work and this page, Me - May 8, is no exception.  I like the idea of choosing one day each month when you can just stop and take stock - just for a few minutes - and reflect on yourself and your life.  I also love the stripes of washi tape, the black and white photo, the typed vellum, the embellishments - so, pretty much everything.

And by extension, I also love what Amanda has done with Corrie's prompts for her own version, About Me Right Now.  Her choice of The Pier 6x6 papers is awesome (love those bold, bright colours) and the retro 'squares', the frame, the arrows, the wood veneers.

Over on the 2Peas discussion board, you might have seen this great idea to use washi tape to cover buttons - brilliant!  Wooden buttons have been suggested but flat plastic ones would work well, too.  I might try this with some clear plastic ones I have laying around.  I love how flexible washi tape is for DIY embellishments and design.

And following on the washi love, some ridiculously simple washi tape paper clips.  I like doing this with ribbon but haven't tried it with tape - yet!

OMG - I *have* to make some of these!  How awesome would it be to send not just a card but a slice of CAKE to a loved one for his/her birthday?!  A very simple DIY involving a sponge, caulking, spray paint and a postcard - awesome!  And you can really post it (photo evidence included in the tutorial).

And finally...

I have never tried quilling but how unbelievably amazing is this wall-sized quilled map of the world?!  It really is a must-see.

What's been inspiring you this week?  Cheers!