Thomas has turned 1!

My nephew, Thomas, had his birthday party today - his birthday was on Wednesday.

I made another last minute card this morning for my sister and brother-in-law to give to him with their gift - here it is.

Please don't look to close at my fussy cutting - I was in a hurry, so there was not much fussy about it!

International visitors update

The last time I posted about international visitors, I'd had visitors from Australia, USA, Canada, Germany, Russia, China, Norway, Spain and France.  Since then, I've also had visitors from Iran, the UK, Luxembourg, Phillippines, Malaysia and Poland!  Thankyou for visiting my blog!

A colour I find tricky to work with, and the problem with American background stamps

Sometimes, when I'm in a rut, or have lost my mojo, I randomly pick about 10 or 15 different coloured A5 sheets of card, and tell myself that I have to use these colours as base cards before I use anything else.   This teal green colour was the last one I used - it has been sitting there for so long, through at least one cheat (when I add more colours to the pile of 10-15 before finishing all of them).  For some reason, I just didn't know what to do with it.  Each patterned paper I tried with it seemed to be not quite right. 

Until I pulled out this scrap of Cristina Re patterned paper (I think it is discontinued - I can't find it on her website, and I bought a bundle of it at her last factory sale).  Even though none of the colours in the patterned paper match the card, I still think it works.

I also love the background stamp - it is a "cover a card" unmouted stamp from Impression Obsession called "vines". Love it! (unfortunately, it covers a standard card if you are in America, not in Australia.  Our cards are A6 (1/4 of A4, or 148mm X 105mm), their cards are 5 1/2 X 4 1/4 inches (approx 140mm X 108mm), which means that a lot of background stamps from US companies are just that leeetle bit too small (the 4 1/2 bit is OK - its a teeny bit wider than A6 - but the 5 1/2 bit is just not long enough).  So I covered the join in the 2 spamp impressions with the patterned paper - problem solved!

Another failed background

I tried out my new bottle of Smooch Spritz on this card.   I wanted a blotchy silver background, like I have seen on some samples using Smooch Spritz, but it came out as a very even coverage of silvery sheen on the black card.  Quite nice, but not the look I was going for - I wanted something more definite, not so sheer.

I therefore sponged the Hero Arts Fabulous Flourish stamp with Frost White Shimmer paint so that it had a simlar kind of shimmer to the Smooch Spritz, but was a bit more intense. 

Failed background

I wanted a subtle script background on this card, and sponging around the edges. In order to match the card, I used Versacolor Paprika pigment ink.  I think I should have used Versamark instead - you can hardly see the background in the flesh, let alone in the photo!  I've even made the photo extra large, but you can still barely see it!