Back on the Horse

Well, you've probably assumed I've fallen off the face of the planet or something, eh?  Rightly so - I realised last weekend just before going on holiday for the Easter break that I'd forgotten to post my WIP Wednesday - or anything else, for that matter.

Enjoying some tall, dark and handsome...

So where did I go, you ask?  Why, Ireland!  Dublin mostly but I also did a day trip up to Belfast; a great holiday and very relaxing.  Among the highlights included:

• official certification for whiskey tasting at the Jameson distillery (yum!)
• a pint of Guinness atop the Gravity Bar
• a private canal boat tour along the Liffey
• Irish music/dancing dinner & show
• Irish fairies and folklore dinner & storytelling
• touring the Titanic museum

Okay, I won't bore you with further holiday gushing (that's for subjecting to Facebook friends - mwhahahahaa!).

Now since having set up my adorable little sewing corner, I've been totally infatuated with getting back in touch with sewing and quilting - which is good and no complaints there.  However, it has meant that I've not done any scrapbooking or papercrafting for a whole two months!  Can you believe it?

Two months!

To say that I'm a wee bit behind in card-making is something of an understatement.  (I'm never behind in scrapbooking; I refuse to look at it that way.  Or you could argue that I'm always behind in scrapbooking and that's okay with me.)  So since I need to wait until the shops are open to buy more Aurifil thread to continue sewing, I decided today would be a card-making catch-up day.  I made a list and realised I have at least six cards that need making - mostly birthdays (some now much belated - eek!), some thank yous and a wedding (!) card.

Thank You (So So Much)

First off the press was this thank you card for my friend who came around while I was on holiday to take care of Oskar for me (even though she's allergic to cats - now that's a true friend!).  I'm still crushing on using Pebbles' From Me to You for card-making; it's just so versatile and has beautiful colours.  I paired it with some Dear Lizzy anchor paper and layered up different elements until it felt balanced.  I really liked the little pops of yellow that worked their way in, too.

Celebrate No. 4

Next I worked on a belated birthday card for a friend's daughter who turned 4 end of March (yes, I know, don't judge me).  I decided to go with super girlie and thus the copious amounts of pink, the Dear Lizzy horses paper, the puffy hearts and silver glitter, etc.  Incidentally, I liked how this card still conveys the 'happy birthday' idea without using that exact phrase.  I even finally boxed up the card and gift and packaged them all up for posting tomorrow - go me!

Thank You

And finally for today, a super quick and dirty thank you card made with some free gifts from Papercraft Inspirations - the card base was pre-printed and came with these pretty coloured and 3D acetate butterfly embellishments.  A quick stamped sentiment and some rhinestones finishes it off.  This is going to the gal who runs the Stash Busters challenges over on 2Peas, along with a ziplock bag of goodies for all her hard work, time and money she spends on making the challenges and providing prizes and postage costs, etc.  Another item I've been meaning to post for ages and that will finally be going out tomorrow - whew!

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.