Commissioned wedding card

Why is it that sometimes it takes ages to make a card and it still doesn't seem right? I was asked to make a Wedding Day card - and I need to give it to the person tomorrow, so needed to get it done today. Anyway, whatever I thought of and tried just didn't seem to work.

So this is what I've settled for in the end. The background paper is Papermania - it has the look of being dusted with gold although that isn't obvious here. It was for that reason that I decided to stamp with versamark and heat emboss with detail gold, but on reflection I wonder whether it would have been better to have embossed with copper, but it's done now and I'm not starting all over again!

The inner piece of paper is from a K & Co La Boutique pad which I've had for ages. It actually had a border around it with a repeated wedding sentiment, but it included 'our wedding' which wasn't appropriate for someone else to give, so I cut it off. I stamped and embossed the image before I decided to print the sentiments directly to that piece of paper - I managed after trial and error on ordinary paper to get the sentiments in the right places, but in the process I got some printer ink smudged at the bottom - which is why I had to put the string of gems there and some more at the top to counterbalance.

The flowers are Martha Stewart - I very gently distressed the edges with fired brick DI to give a deeper pink and did the same around the outside of the card. Why is it that colours don't always look right on the photo (made worse I suppose by the poor light of a rainy day which resulted in using flash). The little punched hearts filled a space that looked odd without them.

I'm linking this for the following challenges:

Everybody art 190: wedding
Soartful: wedding/anniversary
Ruby's rainbow 27: brown & pink
Make all with love 27: celebration/party
Fashionable stamping 20: embossing
Kaboodle 116: emboss it
Crafts and me 81: embossing
Pixie dust studio 124: embossing
Deep ocean 24: use punches/dies
Truly scrumptious 79: distressing & die cuts/punches
Whimsy 36: distressing
The stamp man: show us your shabby chic or distressed style
Wags n whiskers 78: distressing
Desert island crafts 29: I chose: favourite song 'Love and marriage', embossing, distressing
S J Crafts 4: favourites (favourite song)
Craft-room: ink it
Sentimental Sundays 99: celebrating earth day - flowers
Paper creations ink 23: flowers
Little darlings 22: flowers
Moving along with the times: garden or flowers
Prairie fairy Fridays 77: anything with flowers
Cards and scrap 30: use flowers
Pile it on 17: sparkle & shine
Tuesday throwdown 95: use some sparkle
One stop craft 180: recipe - 1 image, 2 designer papers, 3 embellishments (flowers, hearts, gems)
Aud sentiments: anything goes
Victorine 32: anything goes
Simon says: anything goes
Make it Monday 86
Inspire me Fridays 56
52 card pickup 17

Suzie's 365 photos day 119: handmade

For day 119 today, Suzie is asking us to show something that is handmade.

Ellie was made by a dear crafting friend, Kaz and came to live with me some time ago now. She usually sits up on the high shelf with lots of other friends - you can see her here:

but today the naughty monkey clambered down the shelves to sit at my keyboard to help me with my blogging! Mind you, she encountered a bit of a problem because, as you can see, some of the letters have rubbed off and Ellie hasn't learned to touch type, so she found it really difficult!

Suzie's 365 photos day 118: art

I didn't get round to taking a photo for yesterday's day 118: art, so here it is today. It's a self portrait that I drew way back on 7 January 1973 when I was 26! It's laminated, so difficult to get a photo on a rainy day because of the flash, so I had to take the photo at an angle.

I look so serious!

CHNC challenge 70: any greeting/sentiment without the word 'Christmas'

It's Saturday and that means it's time for a new challenge on my CHNC blog. If you haven't discovered it yet, please head on over there and join in the fun and get a headstart with your Christmas cards.

Today's CHNC challenge 70 is all about Christmas without mentioning the actual word 'Christmas' - that's right, you can use any greeting/sentiment as long is it doesn't incorporate the word 'Christmas'.

For my card I've used the sketch given for Christmas challenges with sketches 25 (to see the sketch please click on the link).

Papers are all offcuts from My Mind's Eye Christmas glitter stack (these papers, thankfully, seem to be going on for ever - I love them!).

I used the Anit's angel stamp, stamping on to a piece of starry card and very lightly colouring with copics. I wasn't really sure about stamping over the stars, but quite like it now because it gives an ethereal look to the angel. Both scalloped circles were cut with nesties. The glittered ribbon is a piece that I had left over.

Week 21 for Christmas card challenges is a recipe to include 3 designer papers (tick), 2 stamps (I only used one), 1 ribbon (tick) and 2 buttons (I didn't include buttons) - however, it is stressed that the challenges are optional as long as the submitted card is for Christmas, so I'm linking there despite only adhering to half the recipe!

This is also for:

Dare to be sassy Thursdays 122: Christmas card with a sentiment
Crimbo crackers 14: angels
Christmas stampin all year long 8: anything goes
Fussy & fancy 61: punches and dies
Pile it on 17: sparkle & shine
Tuesday throwdown 95: use some sparkle
Aud sentiments: anything goes
Victorine 32: anything goes
Simon says: anything goes
The poodles parlour: anything goes
Inspire me Fridays 56
52 card pickup 17