Clean and Simple Card for My Niece

Hello Everyone - I hope you are well. Well, I've finished my extra busy stint at work - our Office Manager has been on leave for 3 and a half weeks, and I've been covering for her as well as doing my own work, and so I've had to work 5 days a week instead of 4! But I have a day off tomorrow as the children have finished school for the long summer break today - it only seems like last week that they were starting the school year in September! Then I'll be working 3 days a week instead of 4 through the school holidays.

I've also been busy at home this last week making presents for the teachers and teaching assistants which has meant late nights - but I'll show you all those goodies another day. I am feeling pretty shattered at the moment, and I'm looking forward to a lie in tomorrow (I'll be lucky probably - not LOL!).

Today I want to show you the card I made for my niece who was 6 on Monday - I hope you had a lovely birthday Caitlyn.



Sorry, it's not the best photo - the image looks kind of squashed up somehow - it didn't look quite that bad IRL.

The image is a digi by Wags n Whiskers, called Snuzzle Love - I bought it from Bunny Zoe's Crafts. I chose her as I think she looks just like my niece, and my niece often has some kind of a cuddly toy with her. I tried to colour her hair like Caitlyn's. She's been coloured with Promarkers. I cut the image out, so that I could emboss the mat to sit her on using 3D glue (the mat was die cut using a Spellbinders scalloped circle die)- the embossing folder I used is a small one which was free with a Do Crafts magazine. I just love the gingham paper - printed from a Cute Companions CD.

Unfortunately, I don't have much luck with papers I've printed - this card was standing on the table drying as I had to use wet glue at my Mum's to stick the insert inside the card. I forgot I'd left it there, and then spotted Eleri dunking her sweets into her glass of water! - she'd blinking well splashed the card with only one tiny drop of water, but it splodged the gingham paper. There was absolutely nothing I could do about it though as I was at my Mum's and I was leaving the card there for Caitlyn - I just hope it wasn't showing up too much! I had thought about spraying the paper with a Crafters Companion spray but I decided not to - I'm going to always spray papers that I print from now on - lesson learned!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Sweet Stampin Challenge - Cute and Cuddly - I hope my cute little girl cuddling her teddy counts
Kaboodle Doodles Challenge - Use those Scissors - I cut the image out to give it a bit of dimension
Digital Tuesday - Spellbound - the mat was cut using a Spellbinders die, and the flowers are a die as well, the only set of flower dies I have, and I really must buy some more!

Well, that's enough waffle from me. I really should be back soon as I do have another card to show you and the teachers' presents. I think I'm going to do a bit of jewellery making tonight - I'm developing another addiction, and getting butterflies whilst watching the Jewellery Maker channel on TV - I would love to buy so much from there too! You never know, I might just show you some jewellery I've made soon.

Love, Andrea xx