Crazy Twin Card

My brother Richard (Ricky) and I were both born in September, me at the end of September one year and him at the beginning of September the following year so for 25 days each September we are the same age.  Both in our forties now I still drive my brother mad for most of September by constantly referring to him as my twin brother and he always gets a birthday card from me to start the teasing off.  This year I wanted to use the gorgeous Poppy the Owl die along with the Lorna Label pop up die and the Clock & Gears die set, all designed by the wonderful Karen Burniston for Elizabeth Crafts.  I wanted the front of,the card to be a bit boring so I just used some scraps of Graphic 45 Botanical Tea papers from my scraps bag and typed and printed some text and die cut it into a label for the front.  I added some stars from a banner die I bought recently and left it at that.  The inside I wanted to be vibrant and funny and it had to relate to twins and 25 days.  I hope with the combination of more scraps of Botanical Tea papers and the die cuts I achieved my aim. 

The two text labels go something like this...

Happy Birthday Brother, this year I thought I'd drop the silly "twins for 25 days" routine....

.....but where's the fun in that!!  Happy birthday twin brother, lots of love from your TWIN sister .....blah blah.

 I hope this puts a smile on his face when it pops through his letter box shortly.  Let the teasing commence.

My Little Tree

 

 

 

Over the few months I have been making a few Christmas cards so I don't have the usual last minute rush to make lots which usually results in me cheating and buying a couple of boxes of cards instead.

This stamp is one of my favourite Christmas stamps from Lili of the Valley called My Little Tree.  I have bought a lot of the new Christmas stamps from Lili of the Valley recently and I am in the process of colouring them with my Promarkers but I had this slightly older image already coloured so I thought I would use it on this card. 

 

The base card was cut using the Elizabeth Crafts Evergreen Pivot Card die designed by my favourite American designer Karen Burniston.  This die cuts the three trees that pivot and also comes with some decorator dies that cut the slightly smaller trees and baubles etc. separately.  Here I have covered a piece of white cardstock with a large strip of double sided carpet tape, run the cardstock and dies through my Big Shot then removed the backing paper from the carpet tape and dunked the trees in Crystal Glamour Dust.  I also cut the tree background strips at the bottom using another Elizabeth Crafts die called Outdoor Edges and added Glamour Dust in the same way.  I cut two strips of white cardstock to go inside the card and one for the front and embossed two strips with a snowflake embossing folder and attached one to the left inside edge and one to the front right hand edge and left the right hand inside strip plain so I can write on it.  The tartan background papers are from an 8 x 8 paper pad from Lili of the Valley called Classic Christmas and the funky Christmas phrases on the front and inside are from the Christmas Wishes stamp set also from Lili of the Valley.  That's one down, only another 99 to go.

 

 

 

 

Poppy The Owl

I have fallen in love with the new wafer thin Karen Burniston dies from Elizabeth Crafts.  This card is made with a combination of her dies.  The base I cut using one of her old Sizzix Pop n Cut dies, the pop up part in the middle is her new Lorna Label die which creates a 3D step and a 3D label above it.  Poppy the owl is another of her brand new dies and the glasses are part of another of her new sets, Props 1, which has glasses, a bowler hat, moustache, lips, and dicky bow.  I love that each of the pop it up dies comes with lots of lots of decorator dies.  The Lorna Label has lots of smaller label dies, a banner and a speach bubble.  The Happy Birthday die is by Tonic and I can't remember what make the banner die is.  The papers on the card are leftovers from a Graphic 45, Botanical Tea paper pad.