Forever Celebrations

Hi there,

It is a little nicer outside today, but apparently it is going to rain over the weekend now :(. There goes my opportunity for doing some butterfly counts and enjoying the wildlife outdoors. Guess I will have to make do with the wildlife indoors lol.

After much rushing around yesterday, due to blogger issues and a busy work day, the new challenge has gone live over at Aud Sentiments, along with the winners and top 5 from the last challenge! (I just hope I have done it all correctly). We are offering a Crafting Voucher, whcih can be redeemed at a variety of on-line stores, to the winner this time.

Anyway, our challenge for you all this time is to make a card that does not have a sentiment on the front. Do remember though that a requirement for our challenge is that a sentiment MUST be included on the creation, somewhere. Now it is up to you to figure out where you can put that sentiment, without having it on the front of the card :). I have lots, and lots, of ideas for this, but decided to go for the simple option of just adding the sentiment to the inside of my card. This challenge has made me realise however, that maybe I need to start doing more on the inside of my card - as I very often just leave this blank, except for a quick sentiment occassionally.

Here is my card, which I created using a free Forever Friends Christmas stamp:

I added some gold stripy paper to a white card base, leaving a small border top and bottom. I then stamped the star corners straight onto this using Pretty Colour black ink. I stamped the image onto watercolour cardstock, die-cut into a scalloped circle, and then coloured with Papermania Pastel Brush Watercolour Markers. The shading was created by mixing a little of the ink from the inkpad with the pen and blending this before it dried (but this ink is not a fast drying ink). I layered this onto a bright yellow circle and then placed onto the card front. I then took two punched stars and drew around the edges using a gold paint marker pen and used these to overlap the image layer. Finally I added the sentiment to the inside of the card.

I would like to add this card into the following challenges:
City Crafter #372 Something beginning with S (stars and stripes)
Crafting by designs - Get ready for Christmas (although this one can also be used for a birthday)
CCM #193 Lots of layers

Anything Goes @ Crafty Calender; Simon Says Wednesday; Cute Card Thursday #488

I would also like to share a Fish Tank update with you all - at just over 151 hours:

It is really coming along now and I cannot wait until it is completely finished!!

And for some outdoors pictures too - we went butterfly and hoverfly watching at the weekend, in between the rain, and got these lovely pictures:

As you can see I had great fun capturing the images.

Thanks for looking,

hugz Tinz