Digital Card for Amanda

Most of the cards I've made recently have used backing papers from various Nitwit Collections.  The collections are designed with matching papers and elements so that you can create digital scrapbook pages and so far I haven't used the kits in this way until I put together a birthday card for Amanda, my cousin's daughter.  Amanda loves animals and is particularly fond of the two dogs they have at home.  Earlier this year she had work experience with a local vet and took all the jobs, including getting hands on, in her stride.  Using this as a theme plus the Nitwit Collection Tail Wags I made up a scrapbook page topper for her birthday card.

The My Craft Studio Professional graphics programme was used to manipulate the different papers and elements of the Tail Wags Collection and also to add a sentiment to the tag.  To personlise it further I chose two photos of their family dogs Ruby and Buster to add to the layout.  

 

The topper was sized and layered to fit on to an 8"x 8" scalloped card and was printed on to canvas photo paper I bought from our local Lidl shop and although pleased with the print out I wasn't happy with the first version of the layout but used it to cut out a bone, a paw, love my dog sign and a button to layer on to the final version later.  After a little tweaking I was happy with the second version and also printed out an extra button and the letters for the dogs' names.  Stampin' up's half inch circle punch was used to punch out the letters.

 

As well as layering up some of the elements an orange border was stitched around the edge to add a contrasting frame and Stampin' up's Old Olive grosgrain ribbon and  orange brads were added as extra embellishments.  The edges of the topper were also distressed to add texture

 

There was a little more experimenting with the double layered insert for the card.  After printing out a message from the computer I masked it off, chose the same backing paper from the Tail Wags Collection as was used on the topper and put it through the printer again.  A frame cut using Spellbinders Grand Nestabilities rectangle dies was then set over the messagae and a bow and  paw print cut using a Quickutz die were added as embellishments.

On the other side of the insert a stamp from Stampin' up's French Foilage stamp set was used to create a mud splatter effect using their Chocolate Chip ink.

I really enjoyed making this card and experimenting with the digital kit to create a peronalised card.  Hopefully Amanda will like it too.

Thanks for reading today

Liz xx

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
Dream Valley Challenge 67 - Buttons
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge 227 - Cats and Dog/Pets/Animals
Make It Monday - Anything Goes

Floral Purple Squares

Today is Gracie's birthday.  Gracie is my friend's Mum and as our Elaine and Ian have been growing up she has remembered them on their birthdays so it's nice to remember her one too.  Recently she has had a lovely trip away with her daughter. The first stage of the trip was to London to visit Buckingham Palace and they also attended the recordings of two Christmas Songs of Praise  television programmes in the Royal Albert Hall.  The second stage was to visit her son-in-law in Paris where he lives and works.  She loved Paris so much that she's left her dressing gown there so she can come back.

It was back to the larger nine square layout for Gracie's card with more stamping to decorate the squares.  Patterned papers from the Nitwit Collection Promises and the Pink Petticoat Colour Collection Little Swirls were used as backing layers along with purple and lilac cardstock. 

The floral stamp from the Sizzix Hero Arts framelits die set Butterflies #3 was used to stamp the squares and also create the decoupaged flowers. 

Encore Purple metallic ink was used to stamp the images on to white and lilac card and Spellbinders plain and scalloped squares were used to cut out the topper layers.

The white stamped squares were embossed using a random dots folder before being attached to the scalloped lilac squares and then purple thread was wrapped around the corners.  A shaped punched purple circle was added to the centre of one of the flowers using a foam pad and a pearl was added to one of the corners.

The lilac stamped squares had two smaller die cut squares cut from white and purple cardstock added on top.  Flowers which had been stamped, cut out, shaped and layered were then added along with purple leaves punched using an X-cut embossing punch.  Purple ink was sponged on to the tips of the leaves.  Shaped circles were also added to the centres of these flowers and pearls were added to two of the corners.

The toppers were then place on to a stitched square grid of nine 5cm squares using foam pads. This topper base was then attached to the base layers using foam pads so that there were three tiers to the card.  Purple ribbon was used to wrap around two of the corners of the base layer and to make a bow.

The sentiment was created on the computer and die cut and layered using Spellbinders plain circle nestabilities dies. 

The verse on the insert was also created on the computer and the side edge masked off and decorated using the floral stamp.  A Woodware corner punch was used to round of the corners of the insert.

This is a picture I took earlier this year of Gracie with three of her grandchildren.

Thanks for reading today

Liz xx

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges
Chocolate, Coffee and Cards Challenge 49 - Flowers
Crafty Ribbons Challenge 64 - Anything Goes with Ribbon
Happy Campers Challenge 22 - Show us your Flowers
Top Tip Tuesday Challenge 111 - Flowers

Evie's Mum's Birthday

In the last post I wrote about baby Evie's arrival, and the card I made for her, but today it's her Mum Lianne's birthday.  Yesterday we visited Evie's Granny and Grandad to deliver a card and present for her along with a birthday card for Lianne as they are visiting the birthday girl today and bringing tea along with them.  They were telling us that when big brother Finlay stayed with them, whilst his Mum was in hospital, he managed to keep it a secret that it would be a girl arriving and that she would be called Evie.  He must have been well primed as he let slip to Granny that Mummy was having a baby long before Lianne herself told her Mum.       

This is the card I made for Lianne 

 

Back to a squares design this time but on a smaller square card.  The toppers and sentiment were stamped using stamps from three different Stampin' up stamp sets.  The smaller roses were stamped from the Baby Blossoms set and the larger roses were from the Stippled Blossoms set.  Both of these are two step stamping sets.  The sentiment was a stamp from the Oval All set.  Their plain and scalloped oval punches were used to punch out and layer up the sentiment. 

I had decided that I wanted to make this card in shades of lilac but didn't have two shades of ink which worked together for the two step stamping  until I finally worked out that a paler shade could be created by making it a second impression instead of straight from the ink pad.  It takes this old brain time to work things out sometimes but we get there in the end.

Spellbinders plain and scalloped nestabilities dies were used to cut the layers for the toppers and lilac thread was wrapped around the corners.  Lilac peel off butterflies were attached to acetate, cut out and then had their wings folded back to make them three dimensional before being glued to the toppers.

The patterned paper used is from the Nitwit collection Promises and the card was finished off with my usual addition of ribbon and pearls.

Hopefully the birthday girl will have a good day today and enjoys being treated to her tea.

Thanks for reading today

Liz xx