Black and sweet birthday

I have to say that it has turned out to be a rather nice day today, even though the rain didn't seem like it was ever going to stop in the early hours! I managed to have a play in the front garden and get rid of the new set of weeds that are coming through! I have a new Gladioli starting to flower - a lovely rich purple it is. However, I did not get down to the allotment even though the weather was good enough, as the garden and shopping took longer than expected (and Chucky was refusing to go back into his cage!).

However, I did manage to make a birthday card. I noticed that I was running low in my stash, and as I do not tend to send Halloween cards I decided to use the Halloween colours for a birthday card instead.

A piece of black and white paper was cut to size, and inked over with orange before placing in the centre of an orange card blank. Two scalloped circles were die cut using the X-cut nesting dies and Bigshot - one on black card and one from orange papermania patterned paper (from the Sunshine collection). A scalloped circle two sizes smaller was cut inside the orange circle. A slightly large circle was then cut from packaging acetate, using a Sizzix thinlets die, to fit inside the aperture of the patterned circle. A cake image was stamped onto the black circle using versa mark ink and a free stamp, and heat embossed with a cosmic orange embossing powder. This came out slightly dark on the black card and with a green shimmer, so I used orange ink to add the orange sheen to the image. I layered the aperture circle over the image, using foam pads and filling with black thick glitter and orange seed beads, before layering onto the base card. To finish three orange flowers were added, according to the sketch below (from C4C258) and a sentiment.

This card is being entered into the following challenges:

Simon Says - Monday Challenge - O is for Orange

CASology - 117 Candy

Shopping Our Stash #173 Hello, Sweetie

craftycatz #251 Black and one other colour

allsorts - Embossing (heat)

613 Avenuecreate #93 CAS

scrapbook stamp society #52 Use Orange
alphabet challenge R for Round
Fussy and fancy #125 Orange and Black
Simply Create Too #72 Lots of orange
crafting by designs - anything goes
crafty calendar - BINGO (embossing, sparkle and sentiment)

Book Review - Black Gold by Frank Palmer. The main character is this mini crime novel is a complaints department policeman. Phil used to be an investigative officer until an assignment caused permanent damage to his leg and he feels lucky to have been able to get a desk job, although it is rather boring. However when two deaths that initially seem to be standard assignments, turn out to not only be linked to each other, but also to a murder investigation, 

Phil decides to drag his feet with the complaints investigations so that he can help out with the murder investigation. It is suspected that a religious charity is being used as a cover for smuggling and the original deaths are in connection with this. But Phil has to work hard to both keep himself on the case, and find out what has actually happened - and he hates using guns! 

This is a fast paced book with lots of twists and keeps you guessing. I enjoyed reading this book, and it is written so that you can put it down and be able to pick it up without having to go over what you previously read. This is a well written investigative crime book.

Thanks for reading

Hugz Tinz