Birthday Celebrations the French Way!

A friend of an especially good friend is having a birthday later in September, and several ladies, including me, will be taking her to lunch.  I wanted to mark her birthday with a handmade card from me.  I have made at least three "Paris" cards in the last few year and added them to my card stash, probably because my daughter-in-law loves all things French.  The Eiffel Tower is one of her favorite tourist attractions, especially since she and my son made their trip to France and Italy a few years ago.  Probably because of this, I have felt the nudge to create "Paris" cards depicting The Eiffel Tower.  

The "Paris" card that I have chosen for my friend's upcoming birthday is made from several pieces of the Graphic 45 Tour de France paper collection.  Graphic 45 is one of my favorite paper companies, especially when making vintage style cards, though I don't think this card is truly of the vintage style.  I hope the birthday lady enjoys her French birthday card and her gift card for a cup of latte!

To turn this "Paris" card from just a generic card depicting The Eiffel Tower on its front and into a birthday card, I decided to use a little French in it's inside birthday verse.  Here's a peek at the inside design and my little French verse!

Recipe: SU Chocolate Chip cs, MME-Everyday Tango, MME-So Sophie/Celebrate, K&Co. Portabello stack, Graphic 45-TourdeFrance/ Eiffel Tower.  SU Calypso Coral (sponging); Colorbox Chestnut Roan (edge distress).  SU Early Espresso Scallop Tulle.  SU Buttons: Sweet Stitches, Regals Designer.  EK CardCreator Corner punch-Basketweave (modified/ inside).  Karen Foster Scrapper's Floss:Yellow.  Stash: Brown Lace; Rust/Gold Velvet ribbon.  Computer-made verse.

My Niece Has Her 7th Birthday!

I've decided to enter into a few challenges this week after making my little niece's birthday card:

Love to Create #118 - Happy Birthday
Crafting From the Heart #21 - Anything Goes
Cards Galore Encore - Digi or stamp
Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper June Challenge
Crafty Creations #264 - It's About "S" - Sweet Seven, Scallop Lace/ Borders
The Shabby Tearoom-Week-221 - Vintage Love

Visit their websites to see all their fabulous design team samples and other entries.

The Card Story:  My little niece is having her 7th birthday in mid-June!  She is a beautiful child with gorgeous eyes and hair and very much a girly girl.  I decided a very pink card would be  just right for her with a lovely lacy pink dress to grace its front. . .very girly girl!

Out came the Stampin' Up Dress Up Framelits for the dress form, but I decided to use the Spellbinders' Decorative Dress Forms dies for the little puffy sleeve dress, using only the bodice and cupcake liners for its skirt.  Note: I did have to trim the dress a bit from under the arms and down to the waist to make it fit perfectly.  To do this, after cutting the puffy sleeve dress with the die, I cut off the skirt about 1/2" below the waist (as it is shorter waisted than the Framelit dress form), I traced the dress form outline onto my cut bodice and cut along the traced lines, and I trimmed out the curve of the bodice neckline just a bit to add paper doily lace to its new lower scoop, as well as to the bottom of the puff sleeves.  The shoulders of the two dress dies match perfectly.  I sponged the bodice top with the Stampin' Up Pretty in Pink (retired) ink pad to blend with the skirt color a bit better.  I gathered one organza rosette cut from ribbon trim, making it into a little flower bud and sponging it with the same ink to add to the dress waist.  I was pleased with my little pink dress for Audrey's birthday card.  I hope she enjoys her card as much as I enjoyed  making it.

Following is a picture of the card and the little verse I made to go inside.  Again, I apologize for the blurriness.  As before, the equipment available to me while traveling is not what I use to when at home.  I do hope you can enjoy the card and can visualize it as if it were shown to perfection.

Recipe:  Stampin' Up papers: Wild Wasabi cs (card base), Crumb Cake cs.  Recollections/ Essentials Distressed.  Tapestry/ Geo Breeze.  K&Co./ Watercolor Bouquet Specialty Pad.  Stampin' Up: Dress Up Framelits (dress form); Eyelet Border punch (retired); Ink: Pretty in Pink; Pearls.  Spellbinder dies: Decorative Dress Forms (puff-sleeve dress)/ Labels 4.  Zutter Corner rounder.  Wilton: 4" White Doilies; Baking Cups.  Michaels: Celebrate It-Luxe: White Rosette ribbon.  Stash ribbon: Pink satin; lace.  Colorbox Cat Eye: Chestnut Roan (distressing).  EK punch: Fancy Photo Corners (inside).

Challenge: Cycling On...

I wanted to make another entry in the "Paper Sweeties" Sketch Inspiration #11 before it closes on September 30th.  The link to the sketch entry guidelines are below; click over and take a look at the wonderful entries:  www.papersweeties.com/uncategorized/paper-sweeties-sketch-inspiration-11/

I love bicycles and particularly penny-farthing bicycles, and I had a yen to making a card with one.  I chose the Feeling Sentimental stamp set from Stampin' Up and decided black and red would offset a black stamped penny-farthing a bring a little dramatic contrast as well.

The instructions said the sketch was a starting point and you could "flip it, change the shapes..."  I decided to do both.  My center focal point would be a square instead of a star to accomnodate my bicycle stamp, and the ribbon or trim would be diagonal instead of horizontal!  I'm hoping I'm still within the guidelines!  Here is how my card evolved.

Recipe:  SU Stamp: Feeling Sentimental (SAB 2013) – penny farthing bicycle. SU papers: Very Vannila base, Basic Black cs, Cherry Cobbler cs. Pattern: AdornIt-Happy Holidays.  SU Ink: Basic Black. SU Punches: Lace Ribbon (ret.), Modern Label. WRMK Deco corner punch. SU 3/8” and mini glimmer brads. SU ribbon: 1/2” Cherry Cobbler Scallop Dots ribbon (reverse side), Offray 3/8” Picot Edge Satin-Black. Recollections Florals. Stickles-Lace.