Dotty birthday with a Circle Circus flower

Have you noticed that birthdays have a habit of creeping up behind you and catching you unawares? I am feeling very virtuous today though - my niece's birthday is coming up this month and I made her card in advance!

Have you noticed the sewing? (I am jumping up and down here!) Yes, it's another stitch stamp I got by modifying my In Stitches wheel (see Wednesday's post). The fabulous dotty designer paper comes from the Subtles Patterns stack. It comes in four tone-on-tone designs in all four of the Stampin' Up colour families and is SO useful!

This flower was such fun to make using the leaves from the Sweetheart set and one of the Circle Circus stamps. I stamped the flower head three times and used my scallop circle punch and a couple of circle punches to cut them out and layer them. One of the gorgeous self-adhesive rhinestones gives it a bit of glitz!

I've built up a nice collection of sentiment stamps now and it means I can put them together in different ways to fit a space. I used 'Birthday' from Sincere Salutations while 'happy' is from a retired sale-a-bration set. (Have you SEEN that stitching!!!)

While I was busy on this card, I suddenly remembered I haven't yet made my card for the St Lukes Hospice Charity Challenge! This month we've been asked to make a card using pattern and I thought this one would be perfect - so I set to work making another one!

I made a darker flower for this one and used a darker dotty paper. This photo shows the layered flower much more clearly. These flowers remind me a bit of Sweet Williams!

And here they are! Finished and ready to post - one to my niece, and the other to Sheffield where it will be sold to raise funds for the St Lukes Hospice there. This is such a worthwhile cause - please do go and check out the challenge site and join in.

Here's how to make this card:

• Cut a 18cm x 9cm piece of Whisper White card stock. Score and fold it in half to create a card base.
• Cut a 7cm square of dotty paper from the Patterns stack (I used Regal Rose and Pink Pirouette on my cards). Glue it to the card front.
• Use Rose Red ink and a stamp-a-majig to stamp the zig-zag stitch round the edges of the paper. Alternatively, sew round the paper with dark pink thread.
• Stamp the leaves in Old Olive ink and cut around the shape with sharp paper snips. Tie a length of silver elastic thread round the stem and finish with a bow.
• Stamp the scalloped image from Circle Circus with Rose Red ink three times. I made one flower from Regal Rose card stock and the other from Melon Mambo. Cut one out with the scallop circle punch, another with the 1 1/4" circle punch and the last with the 3/4" circle punch. Sponge the edges of the card stock with Rose Red ink.
• Make a flower head by layering the punched shapes with dimensionals. Decorate the centre of the flower with a self-adhesive rhinestone.
• Use your stamp-a-majig to stamp a sentiment then assemble the flower and glue to the card front.

Supplies (for the first card)
Stamps: Circle Circus, Sweetheart, In Stitches wheel, Sincere Salutations, Happy Moments (retired)
Ink: Rose Red, Old Olive, Basic Black marker
Card stock: Whisper White, Regal Rose
Other: Patterns Stack in subtles, silver elastic thread, basic rhinestone

Last night, my daughter perched on the arm of the sofa where I'd laid my book. My hand shot out to prevent it from falling. "Mind my book!" I said. She gave it a withering glance. "That's not a book," she told me. "That's just some pages near to each other!" Here is a picture of my book. Hmmm. I suppose she does have a point...

Have a wonderful weekend and do come back very soon!