African Tales FMS#109

Oh my! Have I spent a lot of time making this card today!

I needed to make a birthday card for a special little boy turning two next weekend, so I went to Freshly Made Sketches sketch 109 for the starting point. Next I turned to my NEW Zoo Babies stamp set.


 I ordered it at 25% off when they went on sale Tuesday and it was in my hands Friday morning - how good is that? Thanks Stampin' Up! and Australia Post! If you want to take advantage of this BIG sale 25 stamp sets for 25% off, there is still time, but only till this Monday night.

The subject and colour inspiration came from Tinga Tinga Tales a BBC program. **Be warned, if you dare to click on the link there is LOUD noise.** Apparently this is a favourite of Tyler, so I've bought a book (which also was delivered very promptly on Friday ) and used the pictures for inspiration today. It has just taken me several attempts to get a result I was happy with, and I'm not so sure that it is totally clean and simple. Sorry FMS, I have tried very hard to simplify it.


I especially like the monkeys and crocodile in the Zoo Babies stamp set, they are a pretty good match for those in the African Tale. There is a purple elephant with black and red patterned ears too, my version is Perfect Plum and Cherry Cobbler. The croc is a mix of Chocolate Chip and Cajun Craze. One monkey is also Cajun Craze, the other is Crushed Curry. I had to pull out two retired stamp sets for grass (Dinoroar) and leaves (Bloomin' Marvellous) and used a variety of greens including Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive and Gumball Green. The 'Happy Birthday' greeting is from Sketched Birthday: I love the border around it and the fact I can cut it out so neatly with the Itty Bitty Banners die. I tried another DSP in Crushed Curry but decided it didn't have enough OOOMPH! and ended up settling on this Christmas paper Season of Style. The pattern 'speaks' to me of Africa.

Have just finished off the inside of the card and decided to add its picture to the blog. When the card is for someone close to me, I usually step-it-up a bit by decorating the inside fairly elaborately. More Zoo Babies and a greeting from Yippee-Skippee.

Zoo Babies 25% off $36.71 (w)

Now I just have to cross my fingers that the rest of the present arrives before the weekend party!

Hope you are having crafty time this weekend, and don't forget to call 0417 500 681, email rpalmieri5@bigpond.com or go online if you need supplies or want to take advantage of the specials.

Cheers,
Rachel

FMS 71

I've had a hectic 3 days away at my son's home, helping out with their two lively little men, 'cos their dad had surgery last week and they needed Poppy and Gran to take them fishing and to the park to run off some of the energy that Dad usually takes care of.

Since we arrived home my other two grandsons have visited, and when they left, I decided to have an hour or two of "me-time" to recharge before fronting up to some more darling children at school tomorrow!!

I've missed deadlines for some challenges that I had bookmarked (that happens a lot....LOL) but still have time for Freshly Made Sketches, one of my absolute favourites! If you click on that link you will see heaps more great cards by very talented players.

I have used some patterned paper from Sale-a-bration, it's called Sycamore Street, to set the colours for my card. Inks used are Pool Party, Tangerine Tango and I substituted Marina Mist for Island Indigo for a more subtle deep blue. The tag was cut with the Two-Tags die on my Big Shot using Whisper White card. I had tried it in Pool Party but it didn't look "clean" enough. The flower and leaf is from a Sale-a-bration set called Bloomin' Marvellous, and then I stamped a flower centre in Tangerine Tango with a little stamp from the Summer Silhouettes set. The same colour was used to stamp a stamp from the Papillon Potpourri and it was punched with its matching punch.

There's a new petite sized butterfly punch in the 25th Anniversary Catalogue (page 13) which punches the smaller butterflies from the Papillon Potpourri set and also the wee butterfly in Bloomin' Marvellous. I love the way everything mixes and matches. I was going to include one of the Bitty Butterflies too, but it made it a bit busy, I'm sure I'll use the other ones I punched very soon anyway.

At the top of the tag I have placed an Antique Brad over some Pool Party Seam Binding, which unfortunately covers the pretty scalloped top of the tag and the butterfly has three Rhinestone Basic Jewels.

Oh, and the greeting I used is from a Itty Bitty Banners stamp set that is available both as a sale-a-bration bonus (Free with a $100 order, before shipping) or it can be purchased from the Annual catalogue for $27.95 for wood mount. It's on page 134, where you can see that there are three shapes and sizes, six different greetings. Also available are Bitty Banners Framelits dies if you happen to have a Big Shot.

I'll say ciao for now,

Rachel