Fab 'n' Funky ~ Paper Piecing

Hey there my lovely blog buddies. I'm here today to share a DT post for Fab 'n' Funky, which is actually the birthday card I made for one of my darling pals who I got to know when Zac was at Playcentre here in Auckland. She's having a high tea party at the weekend and we've all to dress up in our finest, so I had the fab idea of combining my DT post with the creation of her birthday card. Our lovely Chris is hosting this week and we're being sponsored by one of my favourite online craft stores - Live & Love Crafts. If you've not discovered them before, go check out this fabulous craft store!

I was inspired to paper piece this fabulous 'Audrey' image by Stamping Bella, creating rather a lovely party frock. Watcha reckon? I LOVE it! So the theme for our current challenge, which yep, you guessed it, 'Paper Piecing', lent itself perfectly to the creation of my lovely pals birthday card. 

I used the fabulous MFT Die-namics Blueprints 14 set to create the base elements of this card. I cut them from two gorgeous pages from the Raspberry Road papers by Lili of the Valley. I just love these, they're so pretty and were perfect for the vision I had to create a pretty floral tea dress. Don't you just LOVE this fabulous Stamping Bella image? A wonderful hat tip to Audrey Hepburn. She's such a style icon and this is a fabulous image. I've coloured the base pieces with my Promarkers and added some accents here and there over the paper pieced areas. 

I didn't start out intending to create a red card base or to have so many red accents, but I love how that worked out. It really brings out the red blooms in the floral paper. I wanted to include a wee teapot and teacup in the make, to reference the high tea party we're having for my pals birthday, so this sweet Whimsy teapot and teacup were perfect. The little heart that was cut from the centre of the teapot, I added above the sentiment as it was too sweet to waste! I was inspired to try a 'tea themed' card after seeing this lovely make by one of my fav' blog buddies Kat. Go check out her stunning work, she's fab.

Initially I finished up the card as you see it above, but after a little more thought, I realised I'd forgotten to add her pearls! I also played around with the idea of adding a bloom to finish the card. So some extra elements were added here and there. The sentiment is from an older Whiff of Joy set by Katharina Frei called General Sayings, which was just the perfect sentiment for my lovely pals birthday card. A wee doily tucked in the back, some pretty red satin ribbon behind the diecut feature strip (which kinda looks like a tablecloth side on don't ya think?) I doodled some steam above the teacup too, as it just needed something else I thought. I edged most of the papers (apart from the stitched edge one) with some Ingvild Bolme chalk ink in Old Road. It worked really well with the green papers. Hope you like!

I'll be back again soon with another crafty adventure. In the meantime, if you haven't yet checked out my candy in the post above, please do! It's pretty awesome, It includes the goodies in the pic, plus a $20 Saturated Canary Voucher and a £10 Live & Love Crafts Voucher too. Plus a couple of small surprise prizes for two runners up. There's only a few weeks to go now! I so want to share some joy with one of my lovely blog buddies, so don't be shy, join in! Go have a nosey at what you could win (as part of my candy) over on our lovely sponsors site too. Big hugs, Wends x

Challenge Entries:
Stamping Sensations: March ~ Flower Power
The Ribbon Girl: Anything Goes (or Spring/Easter)
Creative Inspirations Challenge: #246 ~ Pretty Projects
Crafty Calendar Challenge: Mum's Day/Special Female
Crafty Creations Challenges: #310 ~ Sentiment As A Focal Point
Allsorts Challenge: #353 ~ Celebrating International Women's Day
Pile It On Challenge: #103 ~ Green and Two Other Colours (Green, Red & White)
613 Avenue Create: #166 ~ Anything Goes with Optional Twist - All That Glitters
The Crafter's Cafe: #144 ~ Inspired By A Song - Oh Wouldn't It Be Loverly from My Fair Lady
As You Like It: Favourite Occasion ~ Birthdays. I love to make birthday cards. I make more of those than any other I think (including Christmas!) I just think it's really lovely to give and to receive a hand made birthday card. It's that one day of the year, which is all about 'you'. So I like to make the effort for my family and friends.

Update: My card made the Top 3 in the As You Like It 'Favourite Occasion' challenge. I'm so thrilled you liked the birthday card I made my lovely pal. Thank you so much!

My card also made Top 5 in the Allsorts 'Celebrating Women's Day' challenge. Thank you so much ladies! I'm delighted.

This card also made Top 3 on The Crafter's Cafe Challenge. So stoked that my card has been so well received. Thank you all so much. :)