Dreaming of Wales

I just heard this morning that my lovely Welsh pal received her birthday parcel and card, so I can now post this. I used my newest dies for this make, a lovely 'Go Kreate' die. I've loved this shaped die ever since I saw craft guru Bev Rochester use it and finally got around to buying it last month. So I wanted to try using it for my lovely Welsh pals birthday card, as I wanted something a bit different and special for her.

I used the die to cut the three shaped layers you can see on the card, edging each layer with Tea Dye Distress Ink from the Tim Holtz range by Ranger. I cut a pretty border trim using my Spellbinders Edgeabilities Classic Edges 2 and layered that with lace from Wild Orchid Crafts and a coordinating ribbon I had in my stash. The pretty spray of flowers is from Prima Flowers and the large flower is a Hellebore from my most recent purchase from Wild Orchid Crafts. I was so pleased that they would post to New Zealand and because the flowers are so light, the postage was really reasonable!

I wanted to add a little more interest on the card, but didn't want to detract from the pretty paper shape, so added a hidden tag trimmed with a pink organza ribbon, a heart shaped brad and a sweet butterfly charm I got a long time ago, I think from MeiFlower. The tag itself was cut using a Magnolia Doohickey Vintage Tag die, then sponge inked and the sentiment added in Memento Desert Sand ink. The sentiment is one from my large collection of unmounted grey rubber sentiments, that I picked up at the Ally Pally Craft Fair in London over the last couple of years. I so wish I could remember the name of the company that I purchased them from, as they really deserve the credit for each post I've used these on. They had huge baskets and tubs of these grey rubber stamps, many only 50p a stamp. I picked up so many fabulous sentiment stamps from them over the last couple of years. So if anyone knows what the companies name is, please let me know, so I can give them the credit for these fab stamps.

The sweet image I've used on this card, I found some time back on a Spanish designers site - Garabatos de Papel and this lovely image was offered then as a freebie. It is called Sweet Dreams and I just loved it straight away. I have a thing about mushrooms, I love the imagery and I'm sure it has something to do with the sweet Bambi stickers I had when I was a little girl, not long back from France, where I spent my early childhood years. I had a cute red and white mushroom sticker along with a Thumper sticker, which I had been allowed to embellish my school desk with. So I used to stare at that sweet image each school day for that whole year. It was a comforting image for me in a big time of change and I do have a real love for images and embellishments using mushrooms now. So when I saw the gorgeous CC Designs mushroom die it just kinda fell into my cart. I've used that at the base of the image coloured in pinks and browns, to work in with my colouring on the main image. I have of course used my Promarkers for all these inkings. I added some white pen spots on the large mushrooms too. The fairy wings and dragonflies were glittered up using Stickles Crystal glitter glue. I sponged the edges of the image in Tattered Rose Distress Ink.

The final thing to mention are the papers. I just love these and they worked together really well. The larger spotty paper, is from the Craftwork Cards Sugar & Spice collection. I chose this to work in with the spotty mushrooms but besides this, I just really love spots and polka dots, must be the 'mushroom thing'! The smaller designer paper (which I tried not to cover too much!) is from my favourite designer papers - Maja Design. I LOVE these papers from the Swedish paper designers. They are utterly divine across their whole range. I'm so reluctant to use them as I really just want to keep them to look at and stroke, LOL. But a special pal, deserves special paper! So I found this utterly gorgeous design, which worked in with my colour scheme so brilliantly. It's from the Vintage Summer Basics collection and is called '1911'. The Vintage Summer Basics is one of my absolute favourite paper pads. You can buy the collection in 12x12 size, but I have the 6x6 paper pad (okay, I have a few 12x12 pages too, LOL). If you want to get your hands on some of these utterly divine papers, look no further than Live and Love Crafts in the UK. Sandy will post worldwide and I still get my papers from there now I'm in New Zealand.

Wey-hey, you made it to the end of my mammoth post, well done you! Sorry it was so wordy, but there were some pretty embellies that really deserved to be mentioned and yes, I do get a little carried away with the waffle. But that's all for today folks. Y'all come back now y'hear. Hugs, Wends x

Here's my song inspiration for this card: Jewel - The Shape of You. (Shape inspired card)
(For my beautiful friend, who's far too far away from me now.)

Challenge Entries: 
Whimsy Stamps: #65 ~ Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday: #295 ~ So Angelic
Challenges 4 Everybody: #33 ~ Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Got Ink?
Songbird Challenge: #28 ~ Your Favourite Song
Sister Act Card Challenge: #32 ~ Anything Goes
Jo's Scrap Shack Challenge: #25 ~ Things With Wings
Crafty Creations Challenge Blog: #248 ~ Dies & Punches

Fab 'n' Funky Challege Blog: #193 ~ It's Our Birthday - Anything Goes

Crafty Little Fairies: Top of the Pops - Inspired by a Song. Jewel - Sweet Dreams.

As You Like It Challenge: #15 ~ What's Your Favourite - Spots or Stripes (Tell Us Why)