Happy Birthday Sunshine

 I may not be a huge fan of the hot weather but I love this cute Ray of Sunshine stamp set from Stampin' Up! and I used it to make cards for my Sister-in-Law's birthday...

and since I have two Sisters-in-Law  (from different branches of the family) with birthdays in the same month, it made perfect sense to use it twice.

The card to the right I made for my husband's sister's birthday earlier this week.  He was involved in the design of her card and we really wanted to give her a smile in an envelope. We added a few rhinestones to give it a little bling.






The card to the left  I made for my brother's wife who has a birthday coming up.  This one is a little more focussed on the sunny yellow and is minus the added bling...but the key is in the greeting...Happy Birthday Sunshine!

Until next time, take care

C xx

Alien waves

 I was recently asked to make a card for a boy ...and these fun alien images from VLVS immediately came to mind.

I started with plain black cardstock for the base and embossed and debossed some blue and silver mirror board using circl;es and dots embossing folders. I cut the aperture in the blue debossed card and added the waving alien. I then added the silver embossed  'planetary rings' and hand cut a smaller alien to cling to the  lower ring containing the sentiment.




                                                     
When the card is open there is another alien face waving through the porthole on the reverse front  and because the card base is black a panel insert was needed.

It was a fun card to make but shiny surfaces are difficult to photograph so apologies for picture quality.

Until next time, take care

Cxx

Getting Chunky

 These were a first for me...chunky ATC.

Artist Trading Cards have been around for ages but it seems the 3D wood based versions are a more recent development, merging ATC with alterable art.

These were a lot of fun....but I found it surprisingly difficult to get my hands on the wood needed to begin the project. Websites talk about getting offcuts from a 4x2 but of course none of the big stores or wood merchants keep offcuts, nor do they cut anything smaller than 9 inches wide. Eventually I located a huge length of wood, paid my tenner and then two of us battled for twenty minutes trying to fit it in the car. Thankfully the store was only 2 miles away.

 Once I had my plank of wood it was over to hubby to cut it down into 2.5 inch pieces. He then delivered me a bag of cut chunks  said here you go and handed me a few sheets of sandpaper. There was dust everywhere by the time I had finished sanding but I had my beautifully smooth edged blocks and I was ready to go... But where to start?

This was a new process for me and the possibilities were endless... logic dictated I should start with paint and so that is what I did... drying each layer before adding the next, playing around with different media until I was happy with the result.

Once I had my base blocks ready it was time to decide on how to finish them. These were always destined to fly to the USA  as part of an International swap and so that is where I finally drew my inspiration.

All of the stamps (images, sentiments and alphabets) used on these projects are from the wonderful Viva Las Vegas Stamps.

The wings I made from white card which I embossed, cut and stained with layers of  distress paint in solids and metallic and of course I used my trusty promarkers too. There are 5 surfaces to address in a chunky ATC and I tried to make a logical link all the way around.

These are already on their way to Las Vegas ...I just hope they have a good trip and arrive safe and sound.

Until next time, take care
Cxx

Since I used promarkers and spotted the theme was things with wings I also entered these into a challenge over at  Ilovepromarkers. Wish me luck ;)