Birthday cake and balloons

This card is for Crafting muskateers challenge 4, which is also a DT call. Crafting muskateers are asking applicants to enter this challenge and also tell a little about themselves.

'For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in crafting of some sort or another, hence the name Craftyhazelnut! As a child I was often ill and off school, so my time was often taken up with some form of crafting – embroidery, knitting, sketching and anything that involved cutting and sticking.

As an adult, for a few years, with work commitments, etc., crafty things fell into the background a bit, but until fairly recently I always had some knitting, crocheting or cross stitching on the go.

Cross stitching is how I got into cardmaking, then I started to produce cards on the computer and then papercrafting itself about twelve years ago, mainly cardmaking, but I also do some scrapbooking, altering etc.

About 18 years ago, I early retired from teaching because of ill-health. Crafting is such a good way of relaxing and trying to forget about the aches and pains! I find that entering challenges keeps me up to date with trying new things that perhaps I wouldn't otherwise try. I sell cards to raise money for charities – this includes Christmas cards, so I need to make a lot throughout the year, which is why I started my own Christmas challenge blog.

http://craftyhazelnut.blogspot.com
http://craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge.blogspot.com/
http://craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2.blogspot.co.uk/'

I had the privilege of joining Crafting musketeers as a Guest Designer for challenge 3 and would love to have the opportunity of joining their team on a more permanent basis.

The Crafting muskateers challenge is being sponsored by Delicious Doodles, so I thought I'd use one of their digital images, which I digitally coloured in Paint.

This sketch was given to be used for the challenge:

The background sentiment card was from Create and Craft and so was the lattice, which was originally white, here painted with red acrylic paint. All papers, including the mirror card backing the image are from my offcuts boxes. The striped washi tape was from Paperchase and the red gems from Pounland, sentiment from Craftime. I used a little bit of Art Institute glitter with a quickie glue pen to add a little bit of sparkle to the balloons.

I'm also entering this into the following challenges:

Creative inspirations paint: anything goes
Sweet stamps 132: birthday
Chocolate, coffee & cards 46: sweet treats
Sparkles 47: up, up and away - balloons
One stop craft 240: spots and dots
Eureka 54: be sentimental
Card crafters circle 89: bright colours
ABC 42: no flowers
One stitch at a time 178: anything goes with a twist - only use titchy Bear digis - I used the DD 'slice of cake' available here from Stitchy Bear Digi Outlet