Penny Black: Imagine - girl's birthday card

Hi blogging friends

Just wanted to say thank you for all your sweet comments and support following my last post re my sick family member - I really appreciate them   It's going to be a long road to recovery - most of this year - but we are just taking a day at a time and getting through it with whatever challenges arise and not thinking too much about tomorrow.

I thought I would share a card that I finally finished today.  It just seemed to take ages to figure out if I needed a sentiment and if so, where should I put it?   Sometimes it takes me longer to "finish" off a card than all the rest of it (hope that makes sense!) especially when my mind has been filled with a truckload of medical information.  Gosh, it feels so good to post a card and think about something non-medical :-))  ....and here it is:  

I coloured the CUTE little Penny Black teddy with watercolour pencils and added lots of glitter to the balloon and the wings on the bees.  I paper-pieced teddy's bow tie then punched some tiny hearts with my Arrows border punch (they are the leftover punchies which look like tiny hearts) and added them around the balloon and glittered them too.  I chalked around the image with Kaisercolour blue chalk.    Can't you just imagine teddy saying "Wheeeeeee!!" as he flies across the sky?  Doesn't he look just so happy?!  

Here is a little close-up of teddy - the glitter on the balloon doesn't look as gaudy in real life - just the camera angle captured it that way:

And here is an extra-close-up pic so you can see the paper-pieced tie. I should do more paper-piecing - I really love the effect:

I also really love the designer paper - such gorgeous, cheerful colours.  It was so hard to cut into it LOL!!  I struggled to find a matching ribbon in my stash so dyed some white seam binding with Jo Sonja Textile Medium mixed 50/50 with Aqua + Colony Blue Jo Sonja acrylic paint to get a light teal kind of colour.  The Textile Medium changes the paint into fabric paint - very handy!!  I attached the ribbon in 2 separate elements and the bow itself was made with my Bow Easy.  I sewed the button onto the bow then glued the bow on with fabric glue.  

The tag was diecut with my Cuttlebug and one of the Tiny Tags dies.  I added the same tiny little hearts as around the balloon and glittered them too.  Lastly, I added the lovely pearly brads to the top RHS which were some freebies from Anna's Craft Cupboard that were included with a recent order.

Challenges:

I am entering my card into the following Challenges:

Splitcoaststampers - Free for All Friday - F4A105 - Cards with Character - which is to add a character to your creation such as people, animals etc.

Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Simon says: "Use 3 different papers".  My first 2 papers are obvious; the 3rd is the paper-pieced bow tie on teddy - and are all from the same MME paper pad.

Allsorts Challenge Blog - Week 143 - It's your choice

Thanks for stopping by - I really appreciate it!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Penny Black 'Imagine' 3694K wood-mount, sentiment by Wendy Irving Expressions clear set J6412.01

Ink:  Versafine Onyx black

Designer paper:  My Mind's Eye - Lime Twist - Life of the Party 6" x 6" pad

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug Tiny Tags die, Bow Easy, white seam binding, Jo Sonja Textile Medium and acrylic paints, Bow Easy, button and sewing thread, fabric glue, Lyra Aquarelle watercolour pencils, paintbrush, Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue, 140lb hot pressed watercolour paper, Kaisercolour blue chalk, cardstock:  light teal

Punches:  EK Success Arrows border

Life has thrown me a curve ball.....

Hi blogging friends,

As I type this, I have just returned from hospital having stayed there for 2 days with a family member whilst they had many tests.  They have been admitted and will require surgery but the end result at this stage is unknown.  My heart is heavy and I have had no sleep for those 2 days.   I shall be back at hospital in the morning and what will happen from there is a case of waiting further results.  I hope to continue blogging my cards when I can but it will be sporadic.  I have four cards to share but haven't had time to write up my blog posts for them.

Please bear with me.  My posts will not be filled with hospital details and detailed information about my family member but will be related to my cardmaking which will be my escape from this nightmare - but I shall be very constrained time-wise and may not be able to visit blogs as much as I would love to or respond to emails.  As I am the Primary Care Giver, I must concentrate on family for now and do the simple things like keep washing done and up-to-date and keeping other family members informed along this difficult journey. 

It is hard to believe that only a short time ago, my little world was a happy place - and now it has been turned upside down.  I am very fortunate to have wonderful neighbours in my street and have great support from other family members and my friends plus our Church and an awesome husband who is an incredible tower of support.

Thanks for listening and hopefully I shall get to post something soon!

((hugs)) 

Jocelyn

A masculine 90th birthday card

Hi blogging friends,

Last January, I needed to make a 100th masculine birthday card but I chickened out and bought one.  Masculine cards are difficult at the best of times, but a 100th masculine fried my brain and I just couldn't think of anything that I could do for the occasion.  And of course I left it to the last minute to buy one that cost over $6.00 but was such a simple card that I wondered why I hadn't thought of it!  D'oh (as Homer Simpson would say)!!  I had to pay more than what I wanted too because most of the 100th birthday sentiments on the card insides that I checked out sounded more like a sympathy card rather than celebrating such a momentous occasion.  Things like:  'As you look back on cherished memories....."   I don't know - it just didn't fit my recipient as he was as sharp as a tack and worked well into his 90's and was still able to memorize and recite a whole page of technical jargon!   Guess card companies have the same problem as me as I am often stumped to know what to say and after 10 minutes of ruminating and asking DH (who usually just shrugs his shoulders and says "dunno"), I usually write something that sounds so dull and unimaginative like "Happy birthday" - not very original!

So, when faced with a 90th masculine birthday card to send to our cousin in Wales, I was determined to make my own.  And after much searching, I remembered a Scalloped Medallion Tutorial that I had seen over at Splitcoaststampers ages ago (but never got around to doing) which I thought would add a little pizazz to a fairly plain and simple card.  I had also seen Nancy Riley from her blog iStamp make a layered one which I really loved - see this card by Nancy which lists the same measurements for the punched squares of cardstock that I used.  And you can find the SCS tutorial at this link here.  Please note, if you are not a member of Splitcoaststampers, you will not be able to bring up the tutorial.

And this is the card that I ended up with:

I will say that you must be very, very accurate at cutting out the squares of the cardstock layers if you are doing a layered medallion like I did on my card as if you don't, they will not match up very well after punching them which can be very frustrating and they don't look right; it's like seeing a picture hanging crooked on a wall (I am one of those people who has to straighten the picture or it makes me crazy!)   Even a little bit out with your measurements DOES make a difference.  I popped my medallion is up on dimensionals.  It is hard to tell from the photo, but the dark teal layer has been punched with the scalloped border punch just like the duck egg blue layer - it just doesn't show up well.

In a perfect world, I would have had a number 90 in some Thickers (self-adhesive numbers/alphabet sets) on the medallion that matched the cardstock perfectly but none of my sets did, so I just used an old Penny Black sentiment stamp instead which luckily, was just the right size.  This sentiment was stamped with Colorbox Peacock pigment ink and heat-embossed with clear embossing powder.  I lightly inked around the sentiment panel with the same ink.

Just to add a little something to the card but was not over-the-top, I added the 3 green buttons underneath which is old shop stock I inherited from my family's haberdashery business and are over 30 years old.  I had to also keep in mind that the card was going overseas and needed to not be too bulky or it would get damaged or cost alot to post if I had to send it as a parcel in a padded box/bag.

I was actually quite happy with how it turned out in the end after a few mis-punched medallions that ended up in the bin because they didn't line up!  Simple and stylish and easy to make - now that I know how.  Our cousin was so pleased that the card was handmade especially for him, that he rang me here in Australia all way from Wales to say how much he appreciated it.   How awesome!! That sure made my day!! and so glad that I didn't buy a card instead!

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenge -

The Sisterhood of Crafters - Stripes - use striped paper on your card/project.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a fab weekend!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Penny Black - 417E A Birthday Wish - released 1997 (retired)

Ink:  Colorbox Peacock pigment

Designer paper:  Little Yellow Bicycle - Vita Bella Collection - Green and Blue Stripes (2008)

Accessories:  Dimensionals, heat-gun, clear embossing powder, 3 x green buttons, green sewing thread, cardstock - dark teal, white, duck egg blue

Punches:  Fiskars scalloped border