Birthday Girl Surprise

My post tonight is to share the card I made for my lil' sister's birthday. We had a lovely surprise afternoon tea for her yesterday, on her actual birthday and I gave her this card along with a couple of lovely pressies. This sis has lived in and visited lots of different countries in her life, so I thought it might be fun to create a card that was a hat tip to this citizen of the world.

I have some gorgeous new stash courtesy of the lovely Jody from Spiegelmom Scraps, so I had fun using some fabulous new pieces on this card. The pretty paper doily, the tag and the wooden sentiments are all from Spiegelmom Scraps. If you've not heard of this store before, go check out Jody's Etsy Store. She has some really fabulous stuff. Keep an eye out for the blog hop that is coming up in a couple of weeks too in celebration of National Scrapbook Day. The Southern Girls Design Team has been invited to join along with the Spiegelmom Scraps Design Team to do a combined blog hop over two days - May 2nd & 3rd. So bookmark that date and be sure to come join us for some fun and fabulous prizes! Here's a special discount code you can use now until the end of May for Jody's Etsy Store, so go get shopping! 'NSD15'

Back to my card, I used a stamp set I've had for a while, which has fantastic postmarks from around the world from a Whimsy set called Vintage Travel Postage Stamps. I used Desert Sand Memento Ink so that the images would be background and not take away from the main image.

This sassy and gorgeous image is a Kenny K image called 'All That'. I bought this a while ago, always intending to use it for this sis, as she looks fab in hats and has one just like this one. Something about this image, has always reminded me of her. 

 

I've used another page from the lovely Craftwork Cards Paper Set Postcards From Paris to decorate the inside of the card and paper pieced one of the larger Eiffel Towers which I'd trimmed off the side when cutting to size, and added it over the notes area. I've distressed all the papers in this creation to bring a more shabby chic feel and left the Kraft card base showing at the edges. I was trying something a little different with this, I've used a card shape and paper layout I use often for my more CAS card designs, but wanted to use a slightly more 'shabby chic' finish with the embellishments, so it's a cross of the two styles really. Not sure if I nailed it, but I do like the card, so I'm happy with it as is.

The tag is from Spiegelmoms Scraps as I mentioned above, which I then used a lovely background stamp from Lili of the Valley to create the Parisian background design and then another Lili of the Valley sentiment set I inked over the top for the birthday message. The seam binding is from Wild Orchid Crafts and the blue satin ribbon is from my stash.

Thanks for popping in today. It's always lovely to have a visit. I'll be busy making my next DT creation today, so pop back again soon for that. Let me know you've been and I'll come visit you too. Hugs, Wends xxxx

Challenge Entries:
Crafty Catz: #275 ~ It's A Girl Thing

Passion For Promarkers: #292 ~ Tag You're It

I Love Promarkers: #265 ~ Many Happy Returns
Scribble & Scrap Challenge: #42 ~ Anything Goes
Dream Valley Challenges: #104 ~ Let's Get Krafty!
Moving Along With The Times: Anything But A Square Card
Whimsy Stamps Inspirations Challenges: #82 ~ Colour An Image
Kenny K Challenge: #193 ~ Flower Power (Mine are on the paper on the 'inside' of the card)

Update: So delighted to have made 'Top 5' at Passion For Promarkers!

Second Update: I've made the 'Top 3' at Kenny K's Krafty Krew! Woop woop, what an honour!