Birthday Bicycles

There's quite a story behind this card:

Many years ago, when our daughters were just babies, we became very friendly with Roy, the owner of the local greengrocer's shop and his family. One of Roy's passions was pillarboxes, and he used to travel around the country photographing unusual and historic ones. He also loved cycling, a passion that he passed on to his children and grandchildren.

Sadly Roy is no longer with us but we are still friendly with the rest of his family, and his son and granddaughter are about to celebrate very special birthdays with a joint party, so here is the father-and-daughter card I have made for them. The blue bicycle with the 50 sign signifies the father's 50th birthday while the pink bicycle with the 18 sign, the daughter's 18th birthday. And the pillar box is a reminder that it was through Roy that our families became such good friends.

I die cut all the elements using snippets, so naturally I'm heading over to the Playground to share my card.
I'm also sharing with Fab'n'Funky - Shaker card or birthday with a number. I'm rubbish at shaker cards so I'm bringing you TWO numbers instead!

Second Time Around at CD Sundays

Our new challenge at CD Sundays is live and this time we would like to see something recycled on your card - as well, of course, as something from a CD.

The recycled element on this card is the background 'paper' which isn't really paper at all, it's beautiful printed plastic that came wrapped around my Mother's Day flowers. Far too pretty to throw away! I used spray adhesive to stick it to the card base, wrapping a little around the spine for a neat finish.

The butterflies are cut using the classic Cuttlebug butterfly die and a paper printed out from the Creative Crafting World CD 'Mix & Match Papercrafting Collection'. I was delighted to find one of the colourways was such a good match to some twine I have in my stash!

I am sharing this with - Make My Monday - Go green/Upcycle

Add Ribbon and Sparkle at C.R.A.F.T.

After having been the weekly guest designer at C.R.A.F.T challenge I am delighted to now tell you that I am the monthly guest designer for the whole of June!

This week's theme is "Add Ribbon and Sparkle" and it is sponsored by Oddball Art.

The image I have used is called kawaii Christmas Baby Elephant 

 
The sentiment is stamped with a stamp from a Papercraft Essentials cover kit, the background is paper from an old issue of Making Cards and all the other bits and bobs are from my stash. I was able to get around the eternal problem of sticking things to glitter card by choosing a layout where everything that crosses it can be stuck down in other places!

Fathers Day at Cardz 4 Guyz

It's time for this fortnight's challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz and this time our theme is Fathers Day.

I've used papers and stamps from the docrafts Heritage Press collection, assembling the shirt from snippets of the papers. For the layers, I used pinking shears to cut one layer and drew in faux stitching on the others. The tie and spectacles are die cut with dies from a recent Papercraft Essentials covermount set.

I am sharing this with
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - June
A Bit More Time To Craft Extra - Anything goes 

Pile 'em high!

Here's a tottering pile of parcels! The stamp is a very old one - I think it may have been a Craft Stamper cover mount way back when - and I've stamped and heat embossed it in red on white and white on kraft. The sentiment is from a Uniko stamp set and I've used a festive red card blank.

I am sharing with
Sweet Stampin' - Presents
CAS on Friday - Embossing

Shabby Chic Shoes

I've been having another play with my Dovecraft Couture du Jour goodies - die cut decoupage, backing papers and pre-formed pleated heart rosettes.

I must say I am very impressed with the die cut decoupage, the quality is much better than others I've tried which have often ended up having irregular white borders that I've had to attack with tiny scissors. As you can probably make out from the picture, there's lots of glitter on the images and that's carried through right to the bottom layer, so if you want to use any of the layers separately they are still sparkly.

I distressed the edges of the backing papers and added pearls from my stash.

I am sharing this with

Little Red Wagon - Not too shabby
A Bit More Time To Craft - Anything Goes

Jungle Fun

I really love these jungle animal stamps which were a craft magazine covermount about a year ago. I've used them many, many times although almost every time sees me wishing it had been possible to purchase matching dies.

I've used them today with a selection of papers from a pad of natural design papers from Zeeman - there are animal prints, stone and wood effects and fabric effects - some punched Monstera leaves and a cardboard slide mount covered with one of the papers.

I am sharing this with
Creative With Stamps - Cute Animals

Just Add Ink - Sketch

2 Crafty Critter Crazies - anything goes with creatures