Happy Birthday, Mrs W!

Tomorrow is my neighbour's birthday. You'll remember Mrs. W from the stories where she's asked me to make cards for her here, here and here.

I'm never quite sure what her taste is, so I figured a foolproof way to make a card she would like would be to case the card she chose for me for my birthday. Here it is:

I made this card at a time when I was attempting the baby wipe technique as shown at Papertrey for another card. My baby wipe card was a mess - muddy and brown. But I had cut one of the MFT butterflies out of vellum for Mrs W's card and decided to see if I could use the baby wipe on it. I simply pressed the butterfly into the baby wipe and look how pretty it turned out! I quickly cut two more and repeated the process.

I used Neat&Tangled's Photo Booth for the sentiment.

On another note, my daughter Kate has just started her own blog, Platypus Krafts. If you have time, I know she would love to hear from you!

40X2

The backstory to these cards is here. This is the first card I made for Mrs W.  I started with this pretty MackIntosh-esque image and added the Papertrey sentiment and numbers. I embossed it all in gold and coloured it in with Copics and then diamond Stickles. I created a frame out of gold foil paper and cut the focal panel a bit smaller, so I could get an additional red border without an extra layer. This card is 5.5x5.5.

Here's the second card, I loved it when Darnell filled in all the little dots with the starburst die for this card, so I used some red glimmer paper for some sparkle. I finished it with a Clear and Simple Stamps sentiment. This card is 5x7.

A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Anniversary Card

Let me refresh your memory about my neighbour, Mrs W. She and I have become good friends in the last couple of years and I've made a few cards for her to give to people, including a 90th birthday card for Mrs M.  Mrs. W's daughter is married to Mrs. M's son, but we'll come back to that later.

A couple of weeks ago in the hairdresser (they meet up there every Friday at 1:00), Mrs M was saying that she couldn't find a 60th wedding card for her friends in England. Mrs W very kindly offered that I would make her one - and then she sheepishly told me that evening, hoping that it would be ok. Of course, I was delighted to make the card and here it is. (60th is diamond, by the way)

Fast forward to yesterday, again at the hairdresser, where Mrs M reminded Mrs W that this week is the 40th (ruby) wedding anniversary of their married children. You guessed it! I now have two commissions to make two cards for the same couple - one from each of the mothers. So tomorrow afternoon, I'll be trying to figure out how to manage this whole thing - two different cards, both good, but the one for Mrs W will have to be just a smidge better, to keep this tricky relationship in balance! Wish me luck!

Sometimes you just gotta....

...step outside your comfort zone! lol!

This card is for (obviously) Harlowe, who is turning 3. Harlowe is the great-granddaughter of my neighbour, who is a lovely and spunky lady who from time to time asks me to make cards. You've heard me talk about her before, here and here.

Now as you can imagine, the cards I like to make are not always the ones an 84 year old would like to buy. Or that a 3 year old will find interesting when she opens it. It's important to be flexible.

So lots of colour and sparkle, not a lot of white space, and bigger than I usually make (5x5). I used PTI's number die for the 3 and Memory Box dies for the letters. These were cut out of pink glitter paper. The Stickles are not even dry in this photo - my neighbour needed the card the day I made it and I was running out of light, so I took the photo as soon as I got them on.

In the end, I quite like it! Very cheery and bright!

Sunflower Wedding

You know that saying "Go big or go home"? This card is 6x6. That's BIG. I made it for my neighbour to send to a couple whose wedding she can't attend.

This is my second attempt that this card - here's the first. My neighbour wanted something with a little more 'presence' shall we say. She was very pleased with this one, which was a big relief to me, because I don't know how many leftover sunflower wedding cards I'm going to need this summer!

Again, I used a Stampin' Up poinsettia stamp (a bigger one from a different set this time), stamped, offset and stamped again so that the petals overlapped, then stamped a big circle in brown and filled it with Cinnamon stickles. I matted the main panel on gumball green and then on some beautiful yellow vellum.

And since the only 6x6 envelopes I have are brushed gold, this card is going to land on the doorstep with a nice solid visual and audible 'thump'. Presence indeed!

Happy 90th Birthday

I have a neighbour who is almost 84. Last summer, she fell and needed some help for a while, and my daughter and I helped her by visiting every day and doing her grocery shopping from time to time. We have become close friends (she came to our house for Christmas dinner) and we still go over at least twice a week to check in on her and get caught up on each other's lives.

Last week, when I was there, she told me that she had to go get a birthday card for her daughter's mother-in-law (is there a name for that relationship?), who is celebrating her 90th birthday. These two ladies go to the same church and are good friends, but I think that my neighbour secretly (or not so much) loves the fact that this lady is significantly older than she is! Anyway, since the Hallmark in our local mall has closed, I offered to make the birthday card and this is the result.

I find it hard to make cards to order - I much prefer when people go through 'my box' and choose something they like. This was especially hard, since I have never met this lady (although I've heard a few stories!) and my neighbour really didn't have a lot of design criteria for me. But it's sunny and cheerful, so I hope it will be well-received (although I hear she can be a tough audience! lol!) I'll let you know how it goes!