So many birthdays....

This first card is for my friend Helene, whose birthday is on Sunday. I know that I said that the other card I made was for her (in the unrealistic fish post), but I forgot I needed to send a card to my SU 'sister' Tanya, so that one ended up going to her. Yesterday I sat down and made a heap of things, and this card was one of them.I used Purely Pomegranate, Blue Bayou and Very Vanilla cardstock, Pomegranate and Blue inks and Blue Bayou double-stitched ribbon. The background is the swirls and small flowers from 'Baroque Motifs' and the sentiment is 'Happy Everything'. The sentiment panel has 4 little gold brads and is popped up on Dimensionals. The inside is prettied up too, with the scallopy flower from Baroque Motifs in Blue on Vanilla CS. It's pretty simple but they're 'her' colours and I think she should like it.

This next card is for my Uncle Des, whose birthday is on Saturday. I know that a lot of you (me included) struggle with making male cards, so I went with a nice masculine combination of browns and the least 'girly' stamp in my collection.
The cardstock is Chocolate Chip (yes Mad this colour really is growing on me), Close to Cocoa and Creamy Caramel. The shell was first stamped on watercolour paper and coloured using Choc Chip, Cocoa and Caramel markers and then blended with the aqua painter. I cut out the shell and then stamped it again on the Caramel CS in Choc Chip ink before sticking the water coloured shell on top. This was to give it some dimension, as well as to get those little sticky out bits on there, because I'd cut them off the coloured image. The Caramel panel was then matted onto some Choc Chip and then stuck onto the Cocoa base. The small shell was stamped in VersaMark all over the Cocoa base first, then I stamped 'Celebrate' from 'Wonderful Words' in Choc chip and it was done. I really wanted to stick some ribbon or something on there, but my uncle is NOT a ribbon kinda guy...LOL, so I just left it the way it was. I'm loving the way the shell turned out, it looks almost real...my colouring skills are definitely improving!! Yes, I do love myself...PMSL!

In other birthday news, Anastasia LOVED her present. She thought the little gift bag was really cool and loved how everything matched. She's very taken with the Le Jardin paper, so it was a good choice....she even told me it wasn't too 'girly' for her, and that the soft blue was perfect. I think she was worried that she was going to get one of my extravagant pink and purple creations, which she has seen in the past, and so ended up being pleasantly surprised!

Ok then my friends, I had really better go and do some work....there's been too many distractions this morning and I've been trying to get this post done for an hour and a half! Needless to say, there is a pile of work awaiting my attention. I'm going to try and get back later to post my second attempt at the Kazan sketch for the Caarvarks challenge...you'll be happy to know that this time I actually managed to stick to the sketch!!! I know...I was impressed too!

Have a great day,
Kristie