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Thursday, November 15, 2012

Coming out of the darkness...

It's been a while since my last post, and it's been almost that long since I've created anything.  I've been coming to terms with my diagnosis of moderate depression, as well as the physiological changes that come with the associated medication.

I just needed to stop!  Strangely I was feeling pressure from the one thing I truly love, and that was the pressure to have pieces ready for the assorted blog post competitions I was entering.  I was getting myself all confused about which blog competition had what cut-off time and day, and the enjoyment went away completely.

Combine that with a severe desire to hide my head under my doona all day, and the creativity has certainly taken a backseat of late.  So I think moving forward that I might not enter so many (or any) competitions for the next little while (although I will certainly take inspiration from my favourite sites!).

The mojo to create is slowly returning, and I hope to be able to start creating some beautiful cards and scrapbook pages again, but I just may not blog about them for a while either.  Feeling the need to detail every little aspect of a piece was also weighing me down, I think.

I do love the creative communities associated with my favourite sites, and I'm still going to try and pop in and check up on the lovely people I have come into contact with, but only as my state of mind will allow...

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

CAS(E) this Sketch! - Challenge #1

I sat and thought about the first CAS(E) this Sketch! Challenge all week before deciding what I wanted to produce.  For those who don't know, CAS(E) this Sketch! is a new blog that started two weeks ago, with a very talented line-up of ladies set to challenge us with wonderful CAS sketches.  

Definition of CAS and CASE


The acronym CAS stands for Clean and Simple.

1. Usually only one layer but can include a simple layer or two.

2. A lot of open space sometimes called "white space" can include color, texture or pattern.

3. Usually no embellishments but can include something minimal.

4. Minimal color palette.

5. Quick and easy to create.

The acronym CASE stands for Copy and Share Everything.


Their first challenge is this wonderful sketch:
I wanted to produce another Christmas card, and so I got out my "My Creative Time - Warm Holiday Fun Stamp Set" to cut out the delightful little bells with the die.  I thread my five silver bells onto some silver DMC metallic thread and matted them on a simple strip of dark green cardstock.  This was then adhered to my basic white card, and the sentiment "Silver Bells" from the same stamp set was added.  Voila!
Hope you like it!
Cheers!
Deb. xo

WHOOPS!  I forgot the most important part of my creation!  In my rush to get it blogged before the deadline (ok, and before I went to the gym!), I forgot to add my stickles sparkle to one of my bells...  here is the updated photo!
 
Deb. xo

Sunday, October 7, 2012

PKS Challenge 38 :: Anything Goes

Time for another Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge, and this week it's "Anything Goes" (original post here).  The rules are very simple: you can make anything, but it must include a Peachy Keen Stamp.
I love the two little Angels in the "Our 2 Angels in Heaven" stamp set, so I stamped, Copic-coloured and close-cut them out.  Next, with my current passion for easel cards, I made a cardbase in white Kaszazz cardstock and used Wild Honey and Faded Jeans Distress Ink and the Inking Tool to create an ethereal background for my two gorgeous Angels.  I popped my Angels up on the background to give them more dimension.

I then cut out the "My Creative Time - Curly Label Die" with some vellum and stamped the sentiment "Believe!" from the O2AiH set in VersaMark, and heat-embossed it with Glossy Black embossing powder. This curly label was then adhered above the Angels' heads.  I doodled around the edge of the curly label with some silver gel pen.

I also cut out a piece of vellum and stamped the sentiment "Never fear... When angels are near!" and  heat-embossed that with Glossy Black embossing powder too.  This piece of vellum also had the silver gel pen doodling around the edge, and I corner-rounded two corners for a different look.

I'm really pleased with how the whole card came together!





Cheers!
Deb. xo

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Say It With... Thanks (AnnaBelle Stamps Challenge AC088)

Time for another weekly challenge over at AnnaBelle Stamps (original blog post here).  This week, the theme is Say It With... Thanks.
This week the challenge is to create a Thank You card that incorporates a Backgrounds By Design stamp into our design.  Unfortunately, I haven't got any of these wonderful background stamps yet, so I have resorted to using the wonderful Borders 1 die to create my background.  

I have then stamped and Copic coloured some daisies and leaves from the Daisy Delight stamp set.  I cut a tag die from MFT Dies, and used a sentiment from the "My Creative Time - So Grateful For You" stamp set.  I edged the double-matted daisies and the MFT Sentiment tag with Walnut Stain Distress Ink (hard to see in this photo - sorry!)

Happy World Card Making Day to everyone!

Cheers!
Deb. xo



1st Birthday Card!

My good friend has the most delightful little girl, and this little girl turns one today!  She is such a gorgeous bubba, and is quite possibly the most-loved child in our community - everyone wants to hold her and she goes to everyone!

So I wanted to make her a special birthday card today, using my new-found technique of easel cards.  There's nothing too technical about this one - I just stamped a cute little teddy bear and coloured her in pink with my Copics, cut her out and popped her up on the cardface.  I stamped a mini birthday cupcake over the cardface background and used the "My Creative Time - Stitched Circle" die and "My Creative Time - All Around Birthdays" stamp set.

I used a sentiment from the "Peachy Keen Stamps - Our 2 Angels in Heaven" stamp set and put a pretty pink button with silver DMC metallic thread through it.  Very simple card, but heartfelt...

Happy Birthday Princess Amelijah! [Hugs to you] sweet girl!

Deb. xo


Friday, October 5, 2012

Annabelle Stamps Challenge ABSC054 - Take 2!

I received more delicious AnnaBelle Stamps products in my happy mail yesterday, and couldn't wait to put together another entry for their weekly challenge - a sketch (challenge post here).  

 
I referred to some fun little baubles I had made previously with the Cuts By Design - Decorated Christmas dies and the new Decorated Christmas co-ordinating stamp set, and this new entry makes use of those!  I had played around with the dies and the decorated bauble stamps when I first got them last week, and I did some silver heat embossing on them - they came up a treat!  

Then, in my happy mail yesterday came along the fabulous Cuts By Design - Borders 1 die - perfect timing!

I have made my first easel card for this challenge entry, which in itself was a lot of fun.  The card face of the easel card is what I have decorated for this challenge, using a 4x4 piece of white cardstock.  I have made a red frame using the "My Creative Time - Just Simply Live" polaroid die, although I have removed the fancy edge for this piece.  I used a section of the Border die in dark green for the background of the frame, and then set my silver embossed baubles on silver DMC metallic floss inside the window.

I then double-matted some white cardstock on red, to put as the stopper of the easel card, and included the sentiment "Celebrate the Magic of Christmas" from the Jewelled Tree stamp set I also received yesterday.

A few bits of bling on the bottom of the polaroid die and some silver faux stitching around the sentiment, and my card is done!  I love it!



Thanks for visiting!
Deb. xo

[[Dang, I just missed the deadline for linking up - oh well, had heaps of fun anyway!]]

Monday, October 1, 2012

Fisherman Luka Birthday Card - Copic Colouring

Another week, another birthday/wedding/engagement/celebration of some sort!  It is my nephew's 21st Birthday today (wow!) and he loves fishing, so I thought I'd make him a birthday card with Fisherman Luka on it.  I'm really happy with the way Luka came out, colouring with my Copics - he's just so cute!  I also added some glossy accents to his eyes just to try it - I quite like it!

For the background of the card I've used my Distress Inks (Faded Jeans and Bundled Sage) to lightly daub directly onto the cardface.

I had cut out three fish from the Every Day Paper Dolls Cricut cartridge and I originally used each one as a mask on the background and went over it with Tattered Rose.  I then further highlighted each of the fish with some Crushed Olive, Wild Honey and Faded Jeans, and then highlighted the features with a Copic Multiliner.  The fish were then adhered to the card face.

I used the "Happy Birthday" sentiment from the "My Creative Time - Card Sentiments" stamp and die kit, and the "21" from the "My Creative Time - All Around Birthdays" stamp kit.

Finally, I cut Luka out, leaving a bit of white edge around him and popped him up on the front of the card for dimension.  I really like this card!



Thanks for visiting!
Cheers!
Deb. xo

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge 37 :: Sketch

I really love the sketch for this Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge (original post here).  It's a very clean and simple design and I think it lends itself quite well to a Christmas card theme.  That's the way I've gone, anyway!


 










I started with a piece of red cardstock from my stash, and cut out the "Merry Christmas" from the "Simply Charmed" Cricut Cartridge (I hid the guides for the little faces in the "e" and "a").  I then matted that piece of red cardstock on some Vanilla Cardstock so that the vanilla came through the negative space left from the cut.

I then traced and cut out a portion of a circle from the edge of a piece "Be Merry - Cheer" patterned paper by Kaisercraft.  I made my bauble using my new AnnaBelle Stamps "Decorated Christmas" dies and stamps.

Now for the fun part - selecting an adorable Peachy Keen Face for my bauble!!  I just love the "Happy Lashes Assortment" faces and so I selected one for my bauble, one to fill in the "a" and the eyes only of another one to fill in the top of the "e".  They're so cute!

I popped my bauble up to give dimension and tied a bow with some metallic stranded DMC Cotton.  I added some faux stitching around the red cardstock, Cinnamon Stickles to the  brown dots of the patterned paper and put some bling above the bauble (in keeping with the sketch requirements).  I put my card together on some Kraft cardstock.  The entire card is 5.5 x 5.5.  I love it!

Cheers!
Deb. xo

AnnaBelle Stamps Challenge - ABSC054

Having just recently purchased my first products from AnnaBelle Stamps, I couldn't wait to get to stamping with them!  I have fiddled around with the Cuts By Design - Decorated Christmas dies and the new Decorated Christmas co-ordinating stamp set and have created some fun little baubles that I will use on upcoming projects.  However, for the purposes of this AnnaBelle Stamps challenge I have stamped directly onto cardstock, by-passing the dies for now.  Here is a copy of the sketch we're to follow:
I have used Kaszazz Vanilla Cardstock for my base and have added a red cardstock cover sheet (from my stash).  I used the "My Creative Time - Just Simply Live" polaroid die to cut out a window in the red cardstock.  I then stamped christmas baubles from the Decorated Christmas set directly onto the Vanilla card base through the window.  I cut out the little tag die from the Cuts By Design set and stamped the border and the "Merry Christmas" sentiment from the stamp set.

I then edged the red cardstock with some Memento Rich Cocoa ink and adhered the red cardstock to the card base.  I added faux stitching around the perimeter of the window feature and added some bling to the bottom.  And here is my finished card...
Clean and simple, just the way I like it!  
Cheers!
Deb. xo




Thursday, September 27, 2012

Quilted Card - Thinking of You

Katie from "Crafting with Katie" had a post earlier today called Collecting Cards for Cancer Patients.  I think this is such a wonderful and worthwhile idea and so I wanted to practice some of my newly-acquired skills and techniques to a few cards that I could send to the Card Care Connection.  I thought a quilted card would be quite uplifting and quirky, and so I 'lifted' a new quilt pattern from here.
I wanted to use up some of the Creative Memories papers that I have in my stash, and so I pulled out the "Creative Memories - Primary (Tone on Tone)" papers to have a go.  I also used my Creative Memories Square Maker Punch (1") to cut all the individual squares that were needed (very fast doing it this way!).  I'm really pleased with how this came out...

I cut out the label from the "My Creative Time - Just Simply Live" stamp and die set, and stamped the sentiment 'Thinking of You" from the "My Creative Time - Card Sentiments" set. I added a bow made of red hemp twine and there is my first card for this worthwhile cause.

Here is my recipe:
- Yellow - 4 x 1" squares, diagonal
- Green - 4 x 1" squares, diagonal
- Purple - 4 x 1" squares, diagonal
- Purple - 4 x 1" squares
- Blue - mat, 4.25" x 4.25"
- Card base (Scrapbook Boutique - Vanilla) - 5.5" x 8.5"
- Blue for the label

This is just one colour scheme and layout for this particular quilting pattern.  There are so many more possibilities, and I might start to explore them too!

Thanks for the inspiration Katie!

Cheers!
Deb. xo



Rye Pier - 12x12 Layout

I thought I might put together another layout today, and chose to use more photos from a day trip I took with my own two kidlets and two 'ring-ins' as well (the 'ring-ins' being Tayah and Emily).  We had fish & chips at the foreshore picnic area in Rye before taking a long walk out on the Pier.



It's just a very simple layout, clean and symmetrical just the way I like them.  The base is a neutral colour textured cardstock.  I used my Walnut Stain Distress Ink to ink the edges of the base cardstock.  I have used Double Mates cardstock in Perfect Plum to mat the photos and some black cardstock to double mat the main photo and add a feature strip down the left side under the photos.  The title is cut from black cardstock using my Expression and the "Hannah Montana - Daddy's Girl" font (except for the word 'on' which is done using Making Memories Rub-Ons).

The pelican and the word 'beach' are from the "Life is a Beach" cartridge and I cut it out twice - once on black with all the guides removed and then once on grey.  I have then used my white gel pen and yellow Zig Writer to add feature and detail to the pelican.  Once he was adhered to the page I went back and put some light chalking detail around the pelican to give a beach effect.



I have used the faux stitching line stamp from the "My Creative Time - Gift Card Sentiments" stamp set to make guides for my journalling.  My final touch was to add some faux stitching of my own on some of the photo mats in black, and to add some seagull silhouettes to the upper part of the page (the sky!).

Cheers!
Deb. xo

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

70th Birthday Card - Two New Techniques!

So who's getting a bit clever then, eh??  In making a card for my friend to give to her M-I-L tomorrow, I have put together a masterpiece combining two newly-learnt techniques. 

Technique 1 is the Triple Time Stamping technique shown by Leanne over at Created By Leanne (original post here).

Technique 2 is the Simple Two-Step Stamping technique shown by Gayatri for the AnnaBelle Stamps Blog (original post here).

I love the overall effect of the card!  I finished it off by using the "My Creative Time - Stitched Circle" die and the "My Creative Time - All Around Birthdays" stamp set.

Hope you like it!
Cheers!
Deb. xo



Quilted Card - "Happy Birthday"

I'm having fun with these quilted cards!!  I found a different design on the internet (here) and I have 'lifted' it to create my own design for a quilted card.  Here is the original design...
I've used  "Echo Park - Simply Eclectic" papers to complete this card.  Here is my recipe:

Card Base - 5" (white cardstock)
Mat - 4.75" (teal)
2 x 1.5" squares (teal) - cut on diagonal (represents pale pink in pattern)
2 x 1.5" squares (pink) - cut on diagonal (represents pale blue in pattern)
8 x 0.75" squares (pink) (represents pale blue in pattern)
1 x 1.5" square (hex pattern) (represents lilac in pattern)
8 x 0.75" squares (hex pattern) (represents lilac in pattern)

I also then cut a flower from a Cuttlebug Die in the pink and hex pattern papers, and the "My Creative Time - Stitched Oval" die in white cardstock.  I have edged the Stitched Oval cutout with Blue Lagoon VersaColour ink and have stamped the sentiment "Happy Birthday" from the "My Creative Time - Gift Card Sentiments" stamp set.

I have added some Stickles to the flower and to the green hexagon wherever it appears on the hex patterned paper just for a bit of something special.


I absolutely LOVE how this turned out!  My friend has just asked me to make a 70th Birthday card for her M-I-L.  I think I might apply another quilt pattern...

Cheerio!
Deb. xo

Quilted Card - "Happy Holly Days"

I saw a fabulous card over with Katie at Crafting with Katie (original post here) for a Quilted Card.  I knew I just had to try it!


I've used "Echo Park - Very Merry Christmas" papers to create my card.  The recipe is as follows:

- Card base - 4.25" square
- Mat (Striped) - 4" square
- 9 x squares at 1.25" (4 x green; 4 x red; 1 x bauble pattern).  Green and Red squares cut on the diagonal to form triangles.
- 1 x ornament (Striped) from "My Creative Time - Warm Holiday Fun" stamp and die kit
- 1 x tag base (same as card base colour) from "My Creative Time - Teeny Tag Die" stamp and die kit
- Sentiment "Happy Holly Days" from "My Creative Time - From Our Family to Yours" stamp kit
- Hemp Twine



After cutting the red and green squares on their diagonal, I then joined a red diagonal cut and a green diagonal cut together to create new squares.  I then pieced the squares together in the same formation as with Katie's card.



Next time I might use a different contrast or different pattern papers to create a different look. 

Thanks for the inspiration Katie!

Cheers!
Deb. xo

"Beary Special Blog Hop" this Friday - MCT

WOW - cannot wait!  Emma and the lovely DT over at My Creative Time are having a "Beary Special Blog Hop" with a brand new stamp set being released for this hop on Friday at 8:00am PST (which is about 1:00am Saturday Melbourne Time!)  I may have to catch up with it after 8:00am Saturday...

Check out the cute badge for this hop under my "Badges of Honour" on the right hand side...

Cheerio!
Deb. xo

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

MCT Technique Tuesday - "Enjoy the Ride" Triple Time Stamping

One last post for today (it's after 11:00pm here!).  But I just HAD to have a go at the Triple Time Stamping technique shown by Leanne at Created by Leanne for the My Creative Time "Show Me Your Technique" weekly mini-hop.  These techniques are so awesome, and it is really worthwhile hopping along with three to four of the fabulous Design Team members from MCT each Tuesday.  You never know what you might learn...

Anyway, so I have had a go tonight at the Triple Time Stamping, albeit a rushed go as it is a bit late!

I have again used the horse's head stamp and I have used a sentiment (Enjoy the Ride) from the "My Creative Time - Just Simply Live" stamp and die set.  I'm pretty happy with how it has turned out for my first go and I will definitely be exploring more combinations of colours and stamps in the daylight hours tomorrow!!



Thanks Leanne for showcasing such an awesome technique!

Have you noticed the improvement to the photography??  I might have a chat about that tomorrow...

Cheerio and goodnight blogisphere!
Deb. xo

Wedding Card - LOVE

I've got a busy couple of weeks coming up with two weddings, an engagement and a 40th Birthday - all within about six weeks...  YIKES!  The first wedding is this weekend and the bride loves all things BLUE!

So I thought I'd make a blue-themed card for the happy couple.  I started with some of my Shimmer Creative Memories Cardstock (I have quite a bit of it...) as the base.  I then cut out four scallops and circles, from the "My Creative Time - Scallop and Stitched Circle" die kit (scallop) and "My Creative Time - Build A Banner" stamp and die kit (small circle), also on Shimmer cardstock.

I then sprayed Blue Skies Glimmer Mist on the scallops to create a nice shade of blue.  I kept the circles at the original shade and stamped "L-O-V-E" on the four circles in Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink.  I then popped up the small circles on the scallops.

To bring the card together I matted a piece of navy blue metallic paper and I put a piece of organza ribbon across the length of the navy blue paper.  I then adhered the scallops to the navy blue paper and across the organza ribbon too.  I had made some tiny bows with fine white ribbon and put one on the top of each scallop with mini glue dots.  

To finish off the card I stamped the sentiment "Mr & Mrs" from the "My Creative Time - Teeny Tag Greetings" stamp and die set on the bottom right corner of the card.  


I'm thrilled with how this card came out.  I hope the bride and groom like it too!

Cheerio!
Deb. xo

"Dancing 2010" - Double 12x12 Layout

The scrapping bug has well and truly hit!  Of course I couldn't do a layout of my son's football photos without doing one for my daughter's dancing photos.  That just wouldn't be right!  So I grabbed out the photos from my daughter's first year at dancing and started planning.

I love simple layouts, relatively symmetrical, that can utilise the growing number of fun 'tools' I have in my scrap space.  I have also recently unearthed a rather large stash of Creative Memories papers and cardstock (purchased quite some time ago) that I have vowed to use up before buying more supplies.

I had already decided to use black textured cardstock as my backing pages for this double layout.  I then sourced some pink, red, blue and shimmer Creative Memories cardstock to mat the photos against and to cut out the lettering.



The lettering for "Jazz" and "Tap" was cut using the MS Word "Forte" font, and the "Dancing 2010" and "Studio One" was cut using the MS Word "Bauhaus 93" Font.  These were cut using SCAL.

I also used the leftover scraps from these cuts to cut out the label die from the "My Creative Time - Just Simply Live" stamp and die set, and used the alphabet stamps from that set to add detail.

The song for the Jazz number was "Three Wishes" and so I have used the alpha stamps to stamp that on the pink label.  The song for the Tap number was "Uptown Girl" and likewise I have stamped that on the red label.  On the first blue label under the "2010" I have stamped "First Year" and on the second blue label above the "Studio On" I have stamped "Kait & Emily".  My daughter has been doing these dancing classes with one of her close little friends for these past three years.

The most time consuming part of this layout was the faux stitching around each of the pages.  As it is on black, I first went around with my white gel pen, and then I used my red, pink and blue sparkly gel pens alternating so that they would stand out.  (I tried it first on a scrap bit of black without the white underneath - didn't have the same effect!).

I added some bling to the corners of the mats and finally used a "K" bling piece that I'd been hoarding since my daughter was born!

The final touch was some Stickles on the "Jazz", "Tap", "2010" and a line inside the "D" from "Dancing".




My daughter loves the layout and is now satisfied that she hasn't been left out (LOL, gotta love 7yo's!).  HOpe you like it too!

Cheerio!
Deb. xo

Monday, September 24, 2012

Congratulations on your blog Glora!

My congratulations goes out to the wonderful Glora, who is a Design Team member over at my favourite My Creative Time.  Glora has a blog post going right now in celebration of almost three years in the blogisphere.  She is at just over 900 public followers and would love to get to 1000 by her blog-a-versary (22 Oct - also my wedding anniversary - SPOOKY!).  Check out her blog and if you like it, follow her!

Cheerio!
Deb. xo

"Tackers White 2012" - Double page 12x12 Layout

My son recently had his presentation day for this junior footy team.  He plays in the Tackers White team at our local footy club with a bunch of his mates from school.  Earlier in the season the team photos were taken, and because I've been a bit slack with scrapbooking lately (try the past 2 years!), I thought I'd get these photos done straight away!  I'm rapt with how this double layout turned out!

I've just used white textured cardstock for both sheets.  I then cut a whole heap (34!) of the pointy banners from the "My Creative Time - Build a Banner" stamp and die kit using scraps of some navy blue Creative Memories cardstock.  I have then stuck these up one side of each page and across the top of both to create an enclosed banner feel.

I used my SCAL Software and a "Letterman" font to cut out the title.  I adhered the cut out letters to some plain white cardstock.  For the "Tackers White" strips I inked the edges with Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink and then daubed Faded Jeans Distress Ink on the face around the letters.  For the "2012" strip I only inked the edges with Chipped Sapphire.

I then matted the portrait shot of my son on some blue cardstock, and added white faux stitching around the edge of the mat.  I wanted to get a bit funky with how I put the photos and title pieces on the page and so I continued to use the Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink and the Ink Blending Tool directly onto the textured white cardstock to create a feature mat underneath.  I'm really pleased with how it came out, although once it was all stuck down I wish I had've done it under the "Tackers White" part of the title too.  Oh well, live and learn!

I had some little footy stickers in my stash and I've added these to the banners up the sides, and I've used silver Stickles to write "LOVE FOOTY!" across the top of the banners.  Finally I used a black pen to link up the banners as though on a string.

The photo is a bit blurry (must set something up for photographing my masterpieces!), but I'm still so thrilled to be actually 'scrapping' again!

Cheerio!
Deb.
xo



"Digging to China" - 12x12 Layout

I thought it would be fun to create a layout from some photos I took of my friend's daughters when we went to the beach one cold winter's day.  They were convinced they were digging to China!

I used Kraft cardstock as my base for the layout and have used some small stamps and several different green tones of VersaColour ink to create a spinifex grass effect on both sides and across the bottom of the page.

I have then used three different shades from the "Creative Memories - Shades of Olive" collection to mat my photos and create my title.  I have used the font from the Life is a Beach Cricut cartridge, and the bucket and spade from that cartridge too.  I wanted a splash of colour on the page and so I cut the bucket an spade in yellow cardstock, and I have highlighted the edges with a yellow Zig Writer, and added depth with my VersaMarker pen.

I put a strip of seam binding behind the four smaller photos down the left hand side to tie them in together.  Then some white faux stitching on the word "China" in the title, and it's finished off!  I'm so pleased with how this layout turned out!  Hope you like it!

Cheerio!
Deb.
xo

 

Sunday, September 23, 2012

16th Birthday Card - Horses

I still have my 'craft' on at the moment, and with my niece's 16th Birthday tomorrow, I wanted to make her a special card.  My niece is very much into her horses, and whilst I was tidying up my scrap-space, I found an old, cheap-ish set of stamps I had bought ages ago that was about horses.  I really liked the look of the circular horse-head silhouette and knew it would fit perfectly inside the stitched circle from the "My Creative Time - Scallop and Stitched Circle" die set.  

I cut a piece of Kraft Cardstock to make a 4"x4" card.  I then ruled lines at the 2" mark to create four squares on the front.  With my white Sakura Jelly pen I added faux stitching around the outside.  I then cut four stitched circles on plain white cardstock.

I edged three of the circles with my Chipped Sapphire Distress ink and the fourth one I lightly daubed the surface with the same colour. Using Memento Tuxedo Black, London Fog and Rich Cocoa, I stamped the horse silhouette once for each colour on the three white circles.  On the fourth circle that had been daubed with Distress ink, I stamped '16' in VersaMark ink and heat embossed with black embossing powder.  I then cut a Scallop Circle from the MCT die set in black for the '16' circle to sit on.

After putting each of the circles in the four squares of the card, I then added some bling to the card, and some black stickles to the alternate scallop petals (didn't really come out too well in the photo).


I hope my niece likes her card tomorrow, and I hope you like it too!!
Cheerio!

Deb.
xo