3 cards and a premiere!

Hi everyone! Hope you had a lovely weekend and Valentine's Day! Thanks to all of you who left kind comments about my new job and about me feeling ill. I'm feeling a bit better this week though still am not really firing on all cyclinders.

I had my first proper shift at my new job on Saturday which went OK but I really I hate being new and not knowing what I'm doing!!! I had a very exciting day on Thursday which I dragged my butt out of bed for!! ha ha. We went to the premiere of Valentine's Day in Leicester Square. It was really fun as we got to walk up the red carpet and we saw some Hollywood stars like Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Alba and Topher Grace! The film is really good, basically a US version of Love Actually so I'd recommend it if you love a good romcom!

Anyway, onto some cards. I'm really pleased with this one as I was worried I'd lost my mojo a bit but I like how this has come together so maybe it's not as dire as I thought!!

This card is another card for my Auntie's 81st birthday, this time my Mum asked me to make her one. I've used the sketch from Sketch and Stash and have used this gorgeous Stampington stamp which is one of the first stamps I bought and I hardly ever use. I stippled the background with paprika ink and embossed with glittery clear powder. It's quite a nice effect as I covered the whole image with powder so the bits that were still wet from stippling got glittery too! The frame is a Sizzix Bigz die which I could've embellished more but as I'd used quite funky paper, I didn't think it needed it. All the papers were Ambrosia collection from Basic Grey. The little butterfly is stamped on the paper and is by Hero Arts from one of their "Friend" sentiment set.

I'd like to enter this for the following challenges:

Sketch and stash challenge- "Sketch"

Pile it On- "Flowers"- does a dandelion count or is it a weed?!

Our Creative Corner- "Something you haven't used/used for ages"

Fussy and Fancy- "Dazzle Us"

Paperplay- "Birthday card for someone special"

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Stampington; Hero Arts); Papers (Basic Grey); Glitter clear embossing powder; Paprika ink and stipple brush; Assorted cardstock; Sizzix die; Punch (EK Success)

Onto my second card. This is an anniversary card for my friend who will be celebrating her 1st anniversary this week. I didn't want to do a girly girly card for her as she's not that sort of girl so I thought I'd use hearts but with a strong colour theme. The image is Stamping Bella coloured with lyra pencils. The stamped sentiment (words and heart) are by Elzybells, the heart I clear embossed. I also clear embossed the 3 hearts using an Elzybells heart from the Valentine's Tag sets I won recently. The paper is DCWV from their Love stack and then I just used assorted cardstock. I quite like the colour theme as it uses a mixture of red, pink and black which I think is quite unusual together.

I kind of got the inspiration for this card when I was having a strawberry bellini at the weekend with friends to celebrate our forthcoming house move!

I'd like to enter this for the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday- "Sketch"

Lots to Do- "Love is in the air"

Daring Cardmakers- "Have a heart"

Simon Says Stamp- "What's love got to do with it?"

CCEE Stampers- "Use inspiration"

Crafty stash used: Stamps (Stamping Bella; Elzybells); Paper (DCWV); Assorted cardstock; Nesties; Lyra pencils; Embossing powder; Photo corners and brads

And finally a very personal card to finish. My Aunt wanted me to make a birthday card for her friend using some old photos she had of them together as friends in the 1940s would you believe! I scanned in the photos and changed the colour to sepia as I thought it would go better with the papers I wanted to use. All the papers and little tags are from a Papermania vintage set I've had a couple of years. I printed out 3 little signs on my PC which say "Happy Birthday" and then the names of where the photos were taken and the year, 1948. Sorry the photo is a bit rubbish, the light seemed to bounce off the photos so I couldn't really get a good shot but you get the general idea!!

Crafty stash used: Papers (Papermania); Embellies (Papermania); PC generated sentiments; Photos

Hope you've enjoyed stopping by today. I am aiming to get round to see all of you this week now I'm feeling a bit better! Can't wait to see what you've been up to! x