You're My Hero Birthday

Do you find making cards for little boys challenging? I do too, possibly because there are so many small boys in my family, there's an awful lot of cards to make. I have to hold onto the retired stamp sets like Dinoroar for the dinosoar fans and I Dig You for the little guys that love all things construction. I am looking forward to the Annual Stampin' Up! catalogue on July 1st when we will see new stamps. My fingers are crossed for a different vehicle/digger stamp, but in the meantime I've used You're My Hero, which is also pretty cute.

It comes with the two greetings you see on the card, and one other, which just happens to be the same as the name of the stamp set! The three vehicles are a cute little police car, a fire engine and an ambulance. I've punched out portions of the images to use on this card. Those squares are mounted onto a coloured square a little bigger and then with Dimensionals, on to a much larger double-mounted square. Right in the middle is a square with the number 4, from my favourite and much-loved Memorable Moments stamp set.

I have just bought myself a new letters and numbers stamp set, mmmmm... that would be ABC-123 Sketch Alphabet & Numbers on page 131 of the catalogue. There is an outline set as well, but I have chosen the filler part to try out first. So you just might see a different style of number appear on my 'age' birthday cards soon.

Happy stamping
Rachel

Little Pink Bunny FMS 118

I have been sorting through my huge quantity of Stampin' Up! retired goodies since we returned from holiday, preparing to sell off heaps of stamp sets, paper and some ink pads etc.

However, while I slice and dice, I come across paper I loved, or hadn't noticed or .......whatever. This DSP is long retired, might have been called Nursery Nest I think. It's very sweet anyway, and I had several of the bunny stamped and cut, but not colored. She comes from Storybook Friends and has the word surprise! underneath, but that is easy enough to leave off by not inking it. The base card 'needed' something too, so I settled on the word girl, which is in the Baby Prints stamp set. A little bit of Pistachio Pudding grass from Dinoroar, and a rhinestone at the end of the wand, finish it off.

Just a very simple card, to suit the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.
Thanks for passing, leave a comment if you like
Rachel

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

Birthday Tricycle PP#136

I promise this is my last post for the day!

I've had a lovely time today and I have actually done more than make cards, but that is what I concentrated on most this afternoon. Only one other family member was home for dinner tonight, so that was easy, and he has gone off to work now too. I just seem to have been on a roll with the creativity this afternoon, no idea why really.

Of course, the starting point was the colour challenge from The Paper Players. Then, there is a small person called Alice. She was born only seven days ago, a girl to a family with 2 sons already - my eldest son's family, so Alice is my first grand-daughter. I am the mother of 5 sons, and Gran to 4 boys, and was sure we'd never see a girl in this family - till Alice!
This has given my whole week a rosy glow, and I suspect inspired this wee birthday card.

So, we have a technique commonly called 'Ink to Rubber', the stamp set Moving Forward, a party banner from Owl Occasions from the Holiday mini, grass from Dinoroar and 'Happy Birthday' from Made for you. Add in a little teddy from Baby Bundle and a bunny from a long retired set and you have all the stamping sorted. I really like 'Ink to Rubber' for a change because you can use multiple colours on the one stamp, and it gives a water-coloured effect. I would be happy to teach you how to do this, if you are near to the northern suburb of Melbourne, South Morang.

 Lately, I have seen a lot of people using flowers cut with Floral Fusion Sizzlets, so I ordered them with my last order, and they appear on this card with a Vintage Faceted button on top. The middle layer of the flower and the Pool Party banner have both been dry embossed using the Square Lattice Folder.

I hope you will have some fun stamping soon, 

bye for now, 

Rachel

Samuel turns 30

I really should have heaps to share since it is school holidays here ( and that means no workplace to go to each day) but I seem to have been a bit of a social butterfly visiting and lunching with friends for the past week.

The other reason I haven't made too many cards is that I have been putting together a 8" x8" scrapbook for my third son who will turn 30 later this month. When my first and second sons turned 30 I did the same for them and no. 3 challenged me then by saying..."Well, I won't get one because you always lose interest by the time you get to me!" And the really sad thing is, he tells the truth!!! Well, not entirely, because I couldn't lose interest in this sometimes charming, always funny young man who is so much a part of our lives. BUT, I did make 21st quilts for his brothers and he is still waiting for his, which is started but hasn't made any progress since I returned to the paid workforce. So of course I couldn't let him down AGAIN so I have been very industriously sorting photos, remembering anecdotes, typing, stamping, cutting and assembling until I believe I have finished. Very pleased with it, and I'm sure he will be too.

Because I'm sure Samuel doesn't know I have a blog, I can safely put some sneak peeks here for you to check out. He was about seven months old here and so cheeky!

I had a lot of fun stamping out the image from Baby Bundle and finishing off with sponged clouds using a cut out scallop circle punch and some grass from Dinoroar (gosh, I use that grass a lot!)

And near the end of the album is this page

With this page of a couple of random photos, a dress up party and last year's birthday present for Sam and his youngest brother which was a ride in an ex-army tank,  I have cut a Top Note out on my Big Shot and inked and distressed it using the splodges stamp from French Foliage and a file from the Stampin' Up distressing kit to curl the edges over. I finished off with some word stickers to write "Live Life Like a Great Adventure" which I can assure you he definitely does.

Next post, the birthday card.

Cheers,

Rachel