Happy 40th!

Good afternoon crafty friends - hope you have had a wonderful weekend!

It's been nice to see the sunshine here at Casa Mia, after the grey weather of the last couple of weeks ... let's hope it stays!

It's new challenge time at All Dressed Up Challenges and we're also introducing our new Dressy Girls following the recent DT Call - it wasn't an easy choice, but we hope that everyone will find inspiration from our new ladies who have made some fabulous creations! As usual, our challenge is Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image. Not got any All Dressed Up images? Wendy has plenty of gorgeous images available in the All Dressed Up Etsy Store and has also very generously provided some freebies here - please send your friends over to ADU for the freebies though, to make sure they're available for other crafters to share!


One of our friends celebrated her 40th Birthday last Sunday, and her husband threw a surprise party for her to which we were invited. This wonderful image was just perfect to mark her special day!

My card recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Centura Pearl Snow White Silver which I have cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card
• Mat - is a sheet of teal coloured Core'dinations Card which I cut to 14.5cm square
  
• Image - is Happy 40th by Wendy at All Dressed Up (which I have printed onto a 14cm square panel of Neenah Solar White Cardstock.) There are 3 digis in this great value set (the others are Happy 50th and Happy 60th) and not only are they great to help celebrate those big '0' birthdays but they would be fab for big anniversaries too! I can just see this in ruby colours for 40th or gold to celebrate a Golden Wedding Anniversary! Anyway, as my project is for a birthday, I have gone for different coloured flowers using my Spectrum Noir Marker Pens. As I have also followed the Elements of Nature Class by Alyce at Kit & Clowder to colour the Leaves, Rose, Poppies and Gerberas, and then used the Hydrangea tutorial for colouring the small purple flowers, I am unable to share my colour combinations with you. However, you will have to trust me when I say that you will not regret purchasing this class if you wish to improve your colouring ... 😃 The 4 butterflies were coloured using VB1, VB2 & VB3 with a tiny pearl on each for the head. The sentiment was embossed using a VersaMark Watermark Pen and silver embossing powder, although I think I would have been better embossing in smaller portions to get a more even finish.
• Frame - around the heart wreath, has been cut using my Die'sire Classiques Lace Corner dies. For the two upper portions, I cut around the wreath using a sharp craft knife so that these parts would sit on top of the die (like an "Out of the Box" Technique) and not be cut, and would then nestle back down into place once the die (and negative parts) was removed.

I hope I have inspired you to come over to All Dressed Up and play along with this challenge. If you're in need of further inspiration please head over to the blog and check out the other gorgeous creations by my Dressy Teamies and also help us to welcome our new Dressy Girls! Then come back and show us your Anything Goes with an All Dressed Up Image. Don't forget that for more chances to win some of Wendy's gorgeous images, our Facebook Dressy Teamies have their own challenge running until the end of February and their theme this month is Flora and / or Fauna.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenge:

• April Challenge - Butterflies at I'm a Crafter's Companion Facebook Group
• #387 - Creative Corners at Tuesday Throwdown
• Challenge #137 - Use Die Cuts at Simply Create Too
• #201 - Happy Birthday Aud Sentiments at Aud Sentiments
• Challenge #47 - Flowers at Craft Rocket Challenges
• Vibrant Colours at Seize the Birthday
• Challenge #287 - Make Your Mark at Addicted to Stamps and More
• Challenge #334 - Flowers at The Paper Shelter
• Challenge #423 - Dies at Everybody Art Challenge

Well, it's back to work for me tomorrow after the Easter break - I hope you have a great week!

Hugs, Helen x