It's that Time Again

It's that time again. Yes, time to update the blog and enter a Simon Says Stamp challenge. This week the SSS challenge is 'Anything Goes' and they already have over 1000 entries! I'm still entering though. For a change I will add the details for the challenge  here  instead of at the end of my post. That way I can think of a catchy phrase to end on. Must think of one then by the time I finish my post - no pressure!

A friend recently had a BIG birthday so I thought I better make a BIG effort for her card.  A Sizzix accordion die recently came to live with me so I pulled it out and had a play. A word of advice: don't try this for the first time with a script piece of paper. It makes it very difficult if you are learning how to put it together with the added stress of making sure the script is the right way! Won't make that mistake again. If you look closely you will notice that the script is upside-down on at least one side - just don't look that closely now that I said it.

The flowers on the front came with a prize I won from NZ Paperchase. I won a gorgeous album with hidden folding pages, these flowers and some other decorative bits. As soon as I pulled the flowers out I knew they had to go on the front of this card. Thanks NZ Paperchase. I'm also loving curling the ends of the flowers to create twirly tendrils (I'm ashamed to admit I used to cut them off!).

One thing I am loving about that photo is that you can't really see that I stuffed up my friend's name and covered over it with the same colour cardstock. I had the lovely script stamp which I stamped each part individually as it was all on one line on the stamp. Then I realised I didn't have a way of adding her name in a matching script stamp. I did try handwriting it myself but it looked disastrous! My fix: I coloured some Basic Grey mini letters black then added glossy accents. I then adhered them to the same colour cardstock and glued it over my own disastrous handwriting attempt. You wouldn't even have known if I told you (well, to be honest, you could in real life but this is blog world - not real life!)

Next up are photos of all four pages together then individually starting with the front:

And now for the back:

I got to play with a new Prima stamp which I heat embossed in pink, liquid pearls which are new to me (and I now love) and some old stamps which I do use often. I put in a lot more effort with this card but it was a important birthday for an important friend.

For those of you who don't know I have challenged myself to use items from my stash that are either old or unused on all of my creations.  For this creation I have used: Spellbinders die (unused - bought last year), Making Memories flower brads (reeeeealy old that my Mum bought me in the States years ago), Kaisercraft stamps (old - on sale),  Paper (found during my rummage/tidy) and flat flowers (old).

Thanks to this card I have tidied one part under my desk. I wanted to find the paper/cardstock to use and ended up sorting through all the bags of paper from LSS that I have purchased over the last year (+) and put/shoved out of the way under there.  I semi sorted them and it looks a lot tidier and more roomy and I have added to my 'donate' pile. I'm trying to slowly purge my older items and donate them or regift them. My donate pile is slowly growing. Give me a shout out if you want any sent your way or have suggestion of where to donate the items (I'm thinking hospice).

Sorry for the long blog post but I have two more pictures to share and my final gag. For my friends gift I put a gift card in a decorative tin with 40 peppermints. I then added a decorated note on the front that said: 40 SUCKS.

Get it?

Thank goodness my friend did and found it funny too :)

Materials:
Paper (Bu Bunny), Cardstock (Stampin' Up!), Flower Brads (Making Memories), Stamps (Kaisercraft, Rubbadubbadoo, Stampin'  Up!, Prima), Dies (Sizzix, Spellbinders, Stampin' Up!), Ink (Stampin' Up!, other, Stazon, Versamark),  Twill (Typo), Letters (Basic Grey, American Crafts), Flowers, Liquid Pearls, Glossy Accents, Acetate, Embossing Powder.