Lili of the Valley Topper birthday card

Hi blogging friends

Edited to add:  This  card was featured by Lydia on the Splitcoaststampers Facebook page - WOW!  That sure made my day!  Thanks Lydia!!

My husband's family have alot of birthdays at the beginning of the year so I thought I would use one of my Lili of the Valley (UK) pre-coloured toppers which I bought in December when they had free postage (along with some stamps of course because I find them quite irresistible!) as an early Christmas present to myself. 

Am I cheating by using a pre-coloured image?  Even though using a topper saves you colouring an image, you do still need to plan out the rest of the card so from where I stand, I feel very comfortable using a topper.  And I put a lot of love in my cards and try and tailor it to suit the recipient.  I think you could use this topper for so many different occasions - Mother's Day, Friendship, Thank you, Thinking of you etc. - just stamp (or handwrite) a different sentiment on teddy's envelope.

As I wanted the topper to be round, I diecut it using my Cuttlebug and one of my Spellbinder Circle Nestabilities dies.  I couldn't really find the right colour cardstock to match the image so after a bit of a search through my designer papers, I found some old Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie 'Ella' papers and on the flip side of the flowers, was a nice, soft pink that toned beautifully with my card.  I decided to add a white diecut Scalloped Circle to the image as well and popped this panel up on dimensionals. 

I recommend that you use lots of dimensionals (or doublesided tape) if you are attaching something to a dry embossed panel as there is less surface area for the panel to stick to and in my experience, is more likely to fall off - which I learnt the hard way after handing one of my relatives a Christmas card one year which he popped on the window ledge, and whilst we were sharing our Christmas meal with family, two of the panels dropped off to my horror!  As I had already posted the same card to about 8 other people, I still wonder how many other panels dropped off!  Did they open the envelope and find a jumble of panels and thought it was some sort of weird Christmas jigsaw puzzle card?!  Oh dear........

I added 2 pink hearts around the image which were punched from a Martha Stewart Lace Heart edge punch and the designer paper; I used the leftover punched hearts.  Just the right size for what I needed.

As another Christmas present for myself, I bought one of the new Die-sire Embossalicious 6" x 6" square embossing folders by Crafters Companion from Joanna Sheen's website.  I was so thrilled when Crafters Companion released some square folders to suit us cardmakers who love to make square cards and I do hope they release some more, in particular, some Christmas designs.  You know, I never cease to be excited when I emboss a white card with an embossing folder and see it come out all pretty and textured - and it can really 'lift' a card and give it that 'wow' factor.  I used the Floral EF6 folder which I ran through my Big Shot.

The bottom pink border was punched using an EK Success Abstract Flower punch with the same pink designer paper along one edge of the paper which had a bit of a lacey design printed on it - and I think it turned out a bit prettier than just using the plain pink colour.  I did add a Scor-Pal line just above the punching so I had a straight line to butt the border up against the white cardstock.

I went to town with Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue around the pink circle, the hearts on the image panel, the tiny hearts printed under the butterflies, the heart on the envelope and the teddy's cheeks. Here is a wee close-up:

The envelope that the teddy is holding was blank, so I rummaged through my stash and found a tiny little stamp from my Popcorn the Bear 'Someone Special' stamp set and stamped it with Versamagic Pink Petunia chalk ink.

Lastly, I tied on some button twine after winding it twice around the card and added some Fray Stop to the twine ends so they wouldn't unravel.

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges -

The ABC Challenge - E for Embossing - where you can use any sort of embossing such as embossing powders or folders

Incy Wincy Designs Challenge - Something New - show off your crafting goodies you got for Christmas - mine is the topper and the embossing folder.  This challenge blog is an Australian one which I was very pleased to discover as I don't know of many Aussie challenges.

Splitcoaststampers - Ways to Use it WT408 - New Year - make a card with your new toys - mine is as per above.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  'For you' sentiment from Crafter's Companion 'Popcorn the Bear' Someone Special set

Designer paper:  Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie 'Ella'

Ink:  Versamagic Pink Petunia chalk

Accessories:  Image by Lili of the Valley from Cuddly Teddies diecut sheet, Cuttlebug, Spellbinder Circle + Petite Scalloped Circle Nestabilities, dimensionals, button twine - pink by May Arts, Crafters Companion Die-sire Embossalicious EF6 Floral square 6" x 6" embossing folder, Big Shot, Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue, Scor-Pal, white cardstock

Punches:  Martha Stewart Lace Heart edge punch, EK Success Abstract Flower border