Simon Says birthday challenge

  I have been really busy setting up my craft room has a class room.  SoI  decided to take a break and  enter the Simon Says birthday challenge.  Since there logo is a Boston terrier I decide to use an old recollection stamp and have some fun   I stamped and embossed the back ground with Obsession Impressions  circle background stamp and colored in all the dots.  I used the lawn fawn balloon die cut .Simon Says Birthday Challenge

I AM BACK

I am back, after a long absence due to a big move to a new province , buying and selling houses, a new golden retriever puppy who now is a year old,  and  a new job,  teaching at Michaels Craft Store.
It has been a very busy two years.  Not that I haven't been crafting.  I have lots of projects to share with you.

LOSS OF A FURRY FRIEND

My girlfriend runs a doggie daycare and over the years has lost many of her doggie friends including my two beautiful golden retrievers.   Pet loss sympathy cards are not always easy to come by so I made this book of cards for her.  

These are a few of the cards I made to go inside. I  made sayings for the inside of each card which could be
included with the card or she would be able to write her own message.

AN OWL POP UP CARD

This card was a tutorial from Darlenes cards.  She has the most fantastic owl cards using the stampin up owl punch.   Her instruction are great and the cards are fun to make.   

50th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY CARD

Another casual Anniversary card.   This card was made for a couple that live in the country overlooking a lake.  It seemed really fitting for them.   I got the idea from a similar pin.   The image is Mo Manning and the log cabin is a stampscapes stamp.  The log cabin scene was colored  with  sponges and  stampin up inks. 

The couple were done in  water color pencils. 

THANK YOU CARD

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be included in a small group of chosen few, for dinner, in honor of a very special person.   We were totally spoiled with good food , wine and great company.  This is a thank you note for the women who did all the work to make the evening so great.

A CASUAL 25TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY CARD

After looking at the anniversary cards, they very quickly started all looking familiar.   If they don't have hearts, they have flowers on them.   I needed a simple card for a 25th anniversary BBQ.   So this is what I came up with. 

18th BIRTHDAY BALLOONS

An 18th birthday should be special.  My friends granddaughter loved looking at the old photo albums so it had to be about pictures and what birthday would be complete without balloons.   So I scanned in a photo of the birthday girl from age 1 - 18   and mounted 17 of them on  30 inch dowels with  matching balloons and curly ribbon.   I had one   3.5 ft  balloon in the back which held the gift bag with an album to put all the pictures.  They were secured to the little gift boxes which had candies on top.

VICTORIA SECRET CARD

Most of the cards I make are at the requests of  friends and  family. This card is for my best friends sweet granddaughter who turned 18 today.  She is a big fan of  Victoria Secret so I had some fun  making her this card.   There is a pocket on the inside which holds a gift card.

I swapped out the model on the poster in the store and put a picture of the birthday girl.

SPECIAL ANNIVERSARIES

The following cards are for a friend who is going to a 25th  and 50th  wedding anniversary parties. I decided to make 4 cards,  2  for each occasion so she could choose.  These are the first two. The card ideas were taken from the net but adapted to my supplies and tools. Unfortunately  I could not capture on camera the beautiful gold paper from the  50th anniversary card.

BABY CHRISTENING CARD

It is hard to come up with a baby christening card idea.  I didn't  want it to look like a new baby card but  I wanted to keep it baby themed.   This image is from Lily of the Valley , colored with spectrum noir markers.

MENS BIRTHDAY CARD WITH SPONGED BACKGROUND

My ex boss collects watches so this card is so perfect for him. I saw a similar card and just loved the colors and textures.  The inks are from Tim Holtz ,  the embossing folder is a cuttlebug, and the clocks are images I took off the net.  

CRAYONS FOR GROWNUPS

I found an awesome tutorial on coloring your card images with crayons.  You use baby oil and artist stumps to even out the crayon marks.   What a fun inexpensive method of card making.    I couldn't wait to try it. The following two cards are done using this method .

FLOWERS AND BUTTERFLIES CARD

A friend of mine needed a birthday card for his sister.  He had seen a similar card  and asked me to make it for him.   It is  a stampin up image done in  colored pencils. The flowers and butterflies are 3d.

WATERCOLOR WOMENS CARD

One of my most talented friends is having a birthday soon.  Besides water color painting, she plays the sax, is a female dog whisperer and is just an all around amazing person.  I made her this card with a little inside touch to hold the card verse and gift card I plan to give her.   The image is from Mo Manning and I painted it  using watercolor pencils.   

MENS CARD COLORED WITH BIC MARKERS

I wanted to color with alcohol markers but didn't want  the expense of the copic ones so  after watching Gina K's tutorial and the purchase of an inexpensive set of bic markers I made this card.  It is really remarkable how they blend together just like the better ones. Unfortunately they don't have a  large color    range.

NEWBORN PAGE

All books have to have a beginning.  In each of my childrens scrapbooks I made a newborn page. Being a packrat I still had their original hospital certificates and the new born picture the photographers took in the the hospital when they were days old.   Remember these were the days before digital. 

MASCULINE FISH CARD

Another tutorial from Michele Zindorf.  I didn't have  a lot of the right things to work with like the markers or the right color inks so I did a work around.  I usually don't copy a tutorial 100% but this card was just so stunning I couldn't help myself.  A friend of my is having birthday and is an avid fisherman and will really appreciate this card.  I am always so grateful for those talented people out their that share there incredible talent.

GOLD WATCH FOR 90TH BIRTHDAY

What do you give a man who has everything.  I designed this cake for my bosses 90th birthday.It was definitely something he never had and  was really thrilled with it. The face of the clock was an edible image and the gold fondant was a edible spray coloring.

MASCULINE BIRTHDAY CARD

This is a Mo Manning image.  Perfect for the fisherman in you life.  I used spectrum noir markers to color the image and a real fish hook for an embellishment. I designed the circular sentiment.