All things bright and beautiful ..

... all creatures great and small ...

I have just returned from my second Grandson's 7th Birthday party.  A little different from the usual  - he had "Snake Busters" - yep! they bring the snakes, lizards, frogs and even a crocodile to the house to amuse the children ( and terrify the grandparents ).  The children ( 28 of them !) couldn't wait to get hold of them and thought it was fantastic. 

So you will understand why this little boy had to have different cards for his birthday:

a bit of fun with the SU Punches

another one with the SU Punches

and this one using SU Nature's Nest.

There were a few other birthdays that required more conventional type cards:

this one was for a ten year old boy and used SU Stars,

and Butterfly Prints and Pocket Silhouettes for a ten year old girl,

and a robot for a five year old - SU Star wheel for the background.

Last month I posted the photo of a card I made for a friend which featured a stamp set from Hero Arts with little birds.  Well, I ended up making her a set of cards to match using some of the lovely Raspberry Tart designer paper, and popped them all into a little "pizza" type box.

you can see the original card I made at the top centre of the photo.  The box is at top left of the picture. 

Back to the drawing board now for the rest of April's birthdays.

Midnight, not a sound from the pavement .....

I feel like Cinderella - I am always trying to get to bed before midnight.  I just seem to get a run on and the clock beats me again.

However, I have just finished off a couple of cards and wanted to post them here before I forget and post them to the recipients.  I had a quite a few cards to do and not a lot of time so I found inspiration in cards I had seen and liked on the web.  The one original card I did make this weekend,  I mailed without taking a photo!

Earlier this month I saw this lovely card on Sue's blog and just had to try it for myself.  It was the first time I had used the little dragonfly from SU Organic Grace.  Unfortunately I don't have any of those lovely hat pins, so this is how mine ended up.  Kraft,  Red Ridinghood Red and Choc Chip - just love those colours together.

This is a bit too pale I think, but it is for an elderly aunt so hope it will be ok. 

I have had a set of bird stamps from Hero Arts for a year or so now and finally got to use some of them - I think they are really cute.  I got the idea for this one from here just changed it around a little.  

Loved the simplicity of this lovely card from Nancy Riley, but as usual I didn't have the  ingredients so here's what I ended up with:

and this is what I've been working on tonight.  Just loved this card by Silke Ledlow - you can see I'm right into the red and kraft at the moment.  I have used (for the first time) a stamp from last year's Saleabration set - Polka Dot punches - for the large flowers and one from Razzle Dazzle for the smaller flowers.  The little dragonfly from Organic Grace makes a comeback - I stamped him onto the card and then stamped again onto kraft card,  cut them out and overlaid them.  Drew the stems by hand and made the buttons from card.  I would have preferred the ribbon a bit wider as they are large cards 120 x 180, but at least the colour was right. 

I have forgotten to take a photo of the little Easter baskets I made for the Grandchildren, so will do that next time.

Mary