Autumn in Paris.

Julie is my Son Richard's Girlfriend, and I wanted to make a card that tied in with her main present from him, a trip to Paris - lucky girl! I didn't have as much time as I wanted to make this, so it is done in a hurry and maybe not as good as I wanted it to be. The reason for this was that on Thursday my mother in law had a mini stroke, and luckily a concerned relative rang us, and we spent a few hours over at her house finding out what happened, calling the doctor, waiting for the doctor etc. Then we dashed home for a quick and very late lunch while the doctor consulted the practice doctors, before she rang us to say she needed to go to the RUH in Bath for a CT scan.

So we set back off to collect her, after feeding the poor confused dogs, and take her down arriving at 4:30. At 9pm she had undergone examinations, blood tests, ECG, BP checks and was being wheeled off for a chest xray, and still hadn't had the CT scan, and we went home exhausted. 

Yesterday wasn't much better, we spent the morning updating concerned friends and family, getting the shopping that we weren't able to do Thursday done, and after lunch we had to go to MIL's house and find her some clothes and toiletrys, and  a nightdress, and her medication - she was there with nothing at all. Then we went back to the hospital and sat with her for a couple of hours before dashing home for the plumber, and to cook dinner.

Then I made this card very quickly so that Richard could take it with him, and Julie's present is Euros for their trip, I really should have made the card to fit the Euros but when I realised I had started this and was too tired and short of time to change it.

I used a Stampendous Luggage Lables background stamp which has a Paris stamp at the top, stamped with Distress ink in Dusty Concord. I wrapped a piece of black lace round this and adhered it to a blue and white striped card blank, then added butterfly corners (Filigree corners, La La Land die which I won), and an Eiffel tower die cut from silver glitter card with a My Favorite Things Dienamics die. I popped a couple of  mother of pearl heart buttons on, then die cut some Mini Wavy Pennants, also with a Dienamics die, in white and stamped Happy Birthday on them to fly from the top of the tower.

I think I will be safe to post this - I don't want to spoil the surprise.

Happy Birthday Julie!

I found a couple of challenges to enter:

That Craft Place - girls but no pink (Sun)

Vintage Stamping - used purple (3rd Nov)

Hero Hearts

I decided to take the same approach to Valentine's day as I did to Christmas, which was to get everything out related to the occasion, stamps, embellishments, ribbons, embossing folders, the only thing I didn't get out was all the dies. So I have been trawling through all of my stamps in search of love! I haven't gone through all of them I am sure. I am on Hero Arts right now, and this is a Hero Arts cling background stamp I have had for a year or so but not used before. I decided to stamp on Kraft card with black Memento ink, and this one was not meant to be used because it isn't perfect. (If you look closely you will see there are too many swirly bits one side, I tried to get two on a page and the stamp is just too wide for that). I was trying two colours, using Tria pens, to see if I like it better than just red, and I decided it was too pretty not to use to make a card. The sentiment is also Hero Arts stamped and embossed in gold, again this didn't come out perfectly. I added a piece of black grosgrain ribbon then die cut hearts using my new Dienamics die, and some freebie paper I think from Card Making magazine. I bought some black lace on the market yesterday which I think really looks nice. Is there anything else I can add? Maybe, lets see what the next version looks like!