Another 1

We had two first birthday parties in two days this weekend, so here's another #1 card for you! This time for a gorgeous little girl. I think this is the start of a long party season so watch this space for lots of #1 and #6 cards this year :)

I used this weeks latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches, the cake (with one candle of course) from the Pretty Princess stamp set, and some old Candy Lane DSP for inspiration. It's a little hard to see in the photo, but I also added some sparkle to the candle and a couple of the cake layers.

Thanks for visiting - I hope you had a great weekend!

Birthday Princess

I found another blog challenge recently, Simply Stampin' Challenge, and have finally been able to play along! The challenge this week was a gorgeous colour combo - perfect for a girly birthday card.

One of Miss L's friend's is turning 6 next week, and she is very girly and loves everything pink and princess (just like my big girl), so here's what I came up with - appropriately pink, lots of sparkle and a crown on the cake to make it a princess :) MissL Loves it, so hopefully so will the birthday girl!

Thanks for visiting!

Mermaid Punchart

Hello!

I did not realise it has been 2 months since my last post. Being a Mum of 2 is certainly keeping me busy, but I wouldn't have it any other way :) My little cherub is now 3 months old, and my big girl is 5!! I don't know where the time has gone. Here they are:

We have had a lot of birthdays to celebrate over the last couple of months, and I must confess I am running VERY behind with the cards. I have been managing to get cards made for the parties Luana has been invited to though... It's just the cards I have to post that are incredibly belated...

This card today was inspired by the latest Just Add Ink challenge Just Add.... Something from your stash, as well as the birthday theme of Under the Sea (or more specifically, mermaids!). I pulled out my Trip Flower Punch (which I haven't used until now) and Soft Sky cardstock and ink for the challenge. I tried to look for a punch art mermaid online, but only found one which didn't really fit with what I had in my head, so I managed to put together this lovely lady. She was a little fiddly (with the scallops for scales) but must say I am rather pleased with her! And the birthday girl loved her too which was most important!

Must be off and try to get something productive done before bed.

Thanks for visiting!

Rock'n'Roll Melon Mambo Butterflies

I must apologise for my lack of blogging this month - but I have a great excuse! I had a very successful night at my craft desk the last weekend of May and had every intention of photographing and posting the cards on the Monday, but instead I welcomed our second beautiful daughter into the world - Bethanie. Since then, I've been caught up being a Mum-of-two and not knowing where time disappears to!

Here's our gorgeous girl at one week old - I don't know where the last month has gone! If you would like to see more photos of my cherub, check out this post at Katrina Barr Photography's blog.

I have managed to make a few cards, and made tonight's last weekend for a little friend of Luana's birthday. The girly colours and 'garden' inspiration courtesy of the Stampin' Celebration Inspiration Challenge were just perfect, and the flowers in the (rotated) Inkspirations sketch suited the rock'n'rolled butterflies brilliantly.

Not going to write a long post this time - must try to make the most of the time I can get to the craft desk while Bethanie is sleeping and I'm not!!

Thanks for visiting,

Natasha

Magical Pony

I am ever so slowly catching up on my backlog of cards that I have - February is now done!! Just have March and the 5 birthdays for this week (yes, that's right, 5 birthdays this week!), plus finishing my calendars..... maybe by Easter.....

This is one of the cards I made last night for a special friend of Luana's who turned 5 (better late than never I say), and I am rather happy with it, I must say. Many thanks to the latest Mojo Monday sketch and ColourQ Challenge for the inspiration.

I wanted to make this card just a touch more special than usual as turning 5 is a big deal!! The pony from Pony Party was stamped in Early Espresso and I coloured her mane using a Pink Pirouette marker (and her hooves) and blender pen with ink pads for the Crumb Cake and Early Espresso (so the colour was a bit softer) before adding some sparkle with Dazzling Diamonds (sparkle always makes things more special! and you can *just* see it in the pic). I also very lightly sponged around the grass in Certainly Celery. The rest just really fell into place from the sketch - such a great one to use - thanks girls! I did reach for a little bit of retired product in the Certainly Celery Prints DSP and Pink Pirouette striped ribbon (actually the first time it has been used.... oops).

Happy Birthday to a very grown up girl - you will be receiving this in the post VERY soon.

Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Pony Party, Great Friend

Card: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Certainly Celery Prints DSP (retired)

Ink: Pink Pirouette, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Certainly Celery

Other: Pink Pirouette Striped Grosgrain ribbon (retired), Dazzling Diamonds, Scallop Trim Edge Punch, Timeless Type Alphabet Junior Sizzlits

Magical Princess

We attended another party for one of Luana's child care friends today, and my brief for the card was 'princess' and 'pink'. At least this one made the grade this time!! (The last time I made a card for a birthday party I was told it wasn't pretty enough!). Thank you to Annabelle Stamps for the awesome sketch and Scrapmaster's Colour Combos for the colours!

I did add a tiny bit of Certainly Celery so the princess wasn't 'floating' and some Blush Blossom for her skin, but apart from that stuck to the colour combo - perfect for a pretty princess!! I used my Stampin' Write markers to colour this lovely lady and added some sparkle to her crown and wand with Dazzling Diamonds.

Hope you have had a great weekend and thanks for visiting!!

Stamps: Pretty Princess (retired), Scribble Jumbo Wheel, Pony Party

Card: Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Regal Rose Patterns DSP (retired)

Ink: Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Crumb Cake, Certainly Celery, Blush Blossom

Other: Word Window punch, corner rounder punch, Circle Scissors Plus, Dazzling Diamonds, Subtles Brads

First Birthday Butterflies

I hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas with loved ones! We have been very lucky here to have a 4 day weekend which has been fabulous (and a much needed break) - we still have one day to go! I'm not sure I want to go back to work this week..... Even though it's only for 2 days, then it's another 3 day weekend! Yay!

I have had a very busy few weeks with my celebrating my birthday (my Mum flew up and surprised me for our trip out to Uluru and Kata Tjuta - here's a quick pic of my little family with 'The Rock'. I'll put some more up later) and now Christmas and all the festivities that go along with it. I'll be putting up a post in the next week with my Christmas Card that I sent to family and some other cards I put together. But for tonight, I have a first birthday card for you created using Stampin' Royalty Challenge 51 - a sketch and ColourQ 64.

I have some serious catching up to do on the card making front as I have not been able to create much lately, so these two challenges provided the perfect inspiration for a darling first birthday card. I love all the layers of the sketch and those butterflies are too cute - I don't yet have the butterfly punch (shock!) so I used the 5 petal flower for mine. The flower is scallop circles in Pink Pirouette and Real Red layered (the top layer popped up and the petals cut so they create more dimension).

Thanks for visting and I will try not to leave it so long between posts now energy levels are returning!!

Stamps: Best Friends Numbers (retired)

Card: Real Red, Pear Pizzazz, Regal Rose, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Sweet Always DSP (retired), Patterns DSP

Ink: Real Red, Regal Rose

Punches: 5 Petal Flower, Scallop Circle, 1 3/8" Circle, 1 1/4" Circle

Other: Beachfront Ribbons Originals (retired)

Birthday Unicorn

I'm sorry it's been a while since my last post - we moved house at very short notice, so I had to pack up my stamping gear (I didn't realise how much I actually have until packing it all!), and we are slowly getting through the unpacking. I'm hoping to get some stamping done this weekend; maybe tomorrow while Paul watches his team in the footy (AFL) final.

Anyway, I have a card for you that I made for a gorgeous little girl who turned 2 at the start of July. She's the twin to the little darling who received this card. I bought Pretty Pony for Luana, but couldn't resist inking it up for the girls; a unicorn for one, and a pegasus for the other. I used my blender pen to add some colour to the mane and added some magic with Dazzling Diamonds.

This almost didn't make it to the intended recipient as Luana saw it and fell in love with it.

Hopefully it won't be so long to my next post.

Thanks for visiting.

Stamps: Pretty Pony

Card: Pixie Pink, Pink Passion, Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Certainly Celery Prints DSP (retired)

Ink: Pixie Pink, Pink Passion

Other: Scallop Circle Punch, 1 3/4" Circle Punch, Word Window Punch, Linen Thread, Sherbert Buttons (retired), Soft Subtles Brads (retired), Dazzling Diamonds

Helping Hudson and Just Add Ink

The girls over at Just Add Ink are supporting the Helping Hudson fundraiser and this week have set the weekly challenge theme of 'Wheels' to tie in with it.

I paired this with the sketch challenge from Helping Hudson to create this gorgeous (if I do say so myself!) pegasus card for a very special little girl. The circles and the So Swirly Jumbo Wheel as the background meet the JAI criteria!

I used a blender pen to add colour to the mane, tail, wings and hooves and lots of Dazzling Diamonds to make it that bit more magical!

Thanks for visiting and don't forget to head over to the Helping Hudson blog to lend your support.




Stamps: Pony Party (Autumn Winter Mini), So Swirly Jumbo Wheel
Card: Lovely Lilac, Almost Amethyst, Whisper White
Ink: Lovely Lilac, Almost Amethyst, Certainly Celery
Other: Circle Scissors Plus, Scallop Circle Punch, Scallop Edge Punch, Dazzling Diamonds

Girly Birthday Cake

Luana had her first Alice Springs birthday party on the weekend. She had an awesome time on the bouncy castle and the climbing wall, and it was great to meet some more parents in town. The theme was Princess Party, and I had every intention of using Pretty Princess, but then saw this Inspiration Challenge from Stampin' Celebration and just had to play along:

The cupcakes and flowers were just too sweet to pass by..... I have been visiting Stampin' Celebration since they started a couple of months ago and love the Inspiration Challenges they come up with, but must admit this is my first time playing. Isn't this weeks Inspiration just so girly and gorgeous?!

I teamed this challenge with the latest Inkspirations sketch challenge, being hosted by Cindy this week.

Cindy has issued an additional challenge of 'using something from your stash you have been hoarding for a long time'. Well, I pulled out two stashed products - Certainly Celery Prints DSP (I think it's about 2 years old now....) and Pink Pirouette Striped Grosgrain Ribbon (this is the first time it's seen the light if day since I bought it!!).

It's really hard to see and it hasn't come out as well in the Pink Pirouette as it does with darker colours like Chocolate Chip, but I used the small swirl from Priceless to kiss the cupcake icing to simulate the swirls of the knife (my icing is NEVER smooth!).

Hope you're having a great week and thanks for visiting!!

Stamps: Big Bold Birthday. Priceless

Card: Pale Plum, Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Certainly Celery Prints DSP (retired)

Ink: Pale Plum, Barely Banana, Certainly Celery, Pink Pirouette, Rose Red

Other: Clear Rhinestone Brads, Dazzling Diamonds, Pink Pirouette Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Scallop Oval Punch, Scallop Circle Punch