Golden Birthday

Good morning friends.  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  Ours was low key, but that was a nice change of pace after the busy-ness of the past month.  Our youngest even treated my husband and I to the movies last night....saw "Silver Linings Playlist", and other than the profanity, it was a really good movie!  It's de-decorating day at our house today, so I guess I better quit gabbing and get on to my card for you today!

My niece Dawn is celebrating her "golden birthday" today (31 years old on Dec. 31) and here is the card I made for her:

Lighting was not the best this weekend (cloudy and snow), but I think you can get the idea!  I am still totally in LOVE with this SU stamp "Blooming with Kindness", so you will probably be seeing a lot of it in the future.  That's the whole beauty of stamping though...using one stamp in many different ways to get your moneys worth!  This is a larger card and I started with a 5 1/2" square base with SU's Whisper White cs.  I stamped the flower image on Whisper White using SU's Pumpkin Pie ink first, and then dabbing SU's Cherry Cobbler around the edges of the petals and a little in the center of the flower.  I cut out the flower using a circle die (Spellbinders), sponged around the edges with Cherry Cobbler, layered another circle behind it, and then layered again with a larger scalloped circle cut out in Cherry Cobbler cs.  I used some scraps of design paper (aren't you proud of me Steph, and even on a Scrappy Monday, no less!!) behind the main image to take away from the all white background and also added a few silver nailheads (Gina K) to bling it up a little.  My final touch was to add a little banner with the birthday sentiment (PTI's "Blooming Button Bits" stamp set), a small bow, and another silver nailhead.  I was quite pleased with the way it turned out and hope my niece likes it too! :0)

I have one more picture to share with you today too.  My sister-in-law suprised me with a gift this Christmas, and I'd like to introduce you to "Diablo":

 
Is he not the cutest, or what?!!!  Shari has been making these "Yo Yo" pets (the bodies are made from LOTS of circles of material that sewn around, gathered, and then strung on heavy elastic cording) all fall, and had shown me some of the patterns and I jokingly told her I'd take one of the reindeer ones.  I completely forgot all about it, but Shari didn't and suprised me with "Diablo" on Christmas Day.  She named him "Diablo" she said, because his head was a real pain to put together and she'd had to do it many times over before it looked just right.  Apparently being anal about our crafts runs in the family! :0)  Anyway, I think he is just too cute, and will not put him away just yet!

Thanks for stopping by today and sharing a part of your day with me.  Have fun celebrating New Year's Eve this evening and I'll see you all next year! :0)