Penny Black Acrocat Niece's 12th birthday card

Hi blogging friends

A special welcome to my newest Followers - thank you so much for taking an interest in my craft.

It is school holidays here in Victoria which is wonderful as I love spending time with my daughter as well as having more precious family time together and catching up with friends.  The first week of the holidays, we had 4 routine medical appointments for my loved one so that took out quite a few days - and I had to take our cat Ruby to the Vet as her gastro from a few weeks ago flared up again.  Thankfully, Ruby is OK and been on a special diet from the vet and probiotics to help restore the good bacteria in her tummy.  

This week, we are relaxing and enjoying the beautiful Autumn weather as well as doing plenty of crafty things.  We have been to see 2 movies so far:  The Lego Movie in 3D and The Muppets Most Wanted - both of which were fantastic and I highly recommend them!  I have also been knitting in the evenings which I am loving and hope to share those projects very soon.

It is my niece's 12th birthday shortly and this is the card that I made for her:

I wanted something that looked fresh and clean and not too young because at 12, my niece is very much a young lady and not so much a girl anymore - so I hope that is what I achieved.

The Penny Black image - Acrocat - is a recent purchase from PB Stamps in the USA (awesome service - highly recommended!).  I stamped the image onto watercolour paper and coloured the image with Tombow Pens:  oh, he is so CUTE and quick and easy to colour - I love him.  I coloured his cheeks with pink chalk and coloured around the image with blue chalk plus I went around the image with a very pale grey Tombow pen to give the image a bit more depth.   I also went around the image panel with I-Kan-dee pearlescent chalks in lemon and pink to add a bit of interest and sparkle (not that you can see it in the photo...sigh.....).  I use eye-shadow foam applicators for applying chalk to my images as I find these are very easy for me to use and cost very little.  

All the presents had the glitter treatment with Crystalina glitter glue - glitter isn't too "young" is it?

I added the teal and pink sequins using Glossy Accents and underlined the sentiment with a teal and pink pencil just to tie all the elements in together.  I really like how sequins are "in" at the moment.  I don't really follow trends much with my cardmaking but I do love the sequins and best of all, they don't cost much and are easily available.  I buy them from Riot Art and Craft or from $2 shops.

The designer paper came free in a pack with a Quick Cards Made Easy (UK) magazine in 2013 and are by Lilly Bimble who has a store on Etsy where she sells Digital papers.   I really love Lilly Bimble papers - great range and I could buy all of them!  Not sure if the paper I used is available in the store as there were so many to look through and I'm a little short on time.

I diecut the cardstock base using my Big Shot and one of my Lifestyle Nesting Scallop Square dies but just moved the die up on the centre fold so it didn't cut the top.  I then ran the cardstock base front through my Big Shot using a Crafts Too 5 inch x 5 inch square dots embossing folder.  The Duck Egg cardstock layer was trimmed to 1/8" using my Perfect Layers Tools and the main panel is up on dimensionals.

I am entering my card in the following challenges:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - April - Cats and Dogs

Thanks for stopping by!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Penny Black Acrocat 3442F wood mount, Sentiment from Penny Black clear set - Sweet and Cute 30-153

Ink:  Ranger Archival Jet Black

Designer paper:  Lilly Bimble (freebie pack with Quick Cards Made Easy magazine in 2013)

Accessories:  Big Shot, 140lb watercolour paper, Tombow Pens, pink and teal pencils, Crafts Too 5" x 5" square dots embossing folder, Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue, dimensionals, Kaisercolour blue and pink chalks, I-Kan-dee Pearlescent chalks, Glossy Accents, teal and pink sequins (Riot Art and Craft), cardstock - Paper Mill white and Kaisercraft Duck Egg, Lifestyle dies - Nesting Scallop squares, Nesting Circles, Lacey Circles