Birthday Wishes for a Gem of a Friend !

Our good friend Kay turns 60 next week, so I wanted to make her a really special card.

I had it in mind to use tartan 'cause she's scottish and I had this gorgeous "diamond" which I'd been saving for ages which I thought would be perfect for a 60th birthday card.

As usual I turned to my favourite sketch challenge for inspiration and found this wonderful sketch by Edna Morrisedie and all the pieces just fell into place.

What better way to frame the diamond than to use the new splendid circles set I got as a late birthday present, which is incredible - it reminds me of the crocheted doilies my grandma used to make when I was young.  All that was left was to choose the colours and papers.  So I went through my stash looking for tartan papers and found this lovely purple and blue tartan from DCWV.  I teamed it up with some purple swirly DP from HOTP Busy Scrapper's Solutions for Girls to Women, and some silver, purple and orchid card stock and a little vellum.

I stamped a banner using WMS Bitty Banners and a sentiment from WMS Bountiful Baskets Additions.

Et Voila !

It's actually an easel card with a foam mounted die cut "60" inside.

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, though in the excitement of putting it together I forgot to mount the silver ribbon I had set aside and add some little diamantes in the holes on the punched border.  Oh well I can still add the diamantes before I pop it on the post.

Secret Santa Holiday Card Exchange

I entered in a Secret Santa Holiday Card Exchange at Waltzing Mouse Stamps this Christmas and received this exquisite Christmas card from Antje in the Black Forest region of Germany.  

I love the subtlety of the cream on white, and the wonderful distressed look of the card and then there's those dinky little red bells on those lovely leaping reindeer.  I think my favourite bit though is that embossed strip mounted across the middle.  Beautiful to see and touch.

Sorry if the photo is too dark.  I've been experimenting a lot but I'm afraid this was the best full shot of the card.  Here are some close ups of the card - 

Thank you Antje !

And if you would like to see the card I sent to Renee in the U.S., she has it up on her blog here

The last Christmas cards of the year

I wanted to make some photo cards for Simon's doctors and therapists.
This peppermint wheel stamp from WMS Faux Fun Circles seemed perfect to frame my angel's face.
The December Christmas Card Challenge was to use green (I'm thinking Lynn was taking it easy on us so close to the big day), so I made the card up using as much green as I could manage.
I used WMSC128 as inspiration for the first one I made up, creating little ornament banners either side of Simon's photo frame, adding a little colour and highlighting the red and green he was wearing in the photo.
The little green ornaments on the left were stamped with the tiny snowflake stamp from the WMS Compliments of the Season set.  As with all WMS stamps it is exquisitely detailed and stamps and embosses beautifully.  A memory box icicles die cut border seemed perfect to finish it off.