A Big Birthday - A Little Birdie (or 3)!

So far this year I've not been doing much in the way of blogging - just a combination of things between not feeling too great and a massive bout of can't-be-botheredness but hopefully now that I have made something to blog about I may just find my mojo again!

There are 3 "Big" birthdays and our 20th Wedding Anniversary in the offing this year, hubby's brother-in-law is 60, our son is 18 and my big sis is also 60.  The first is my out law Robert's birthday.  I've spent ages wondering what on earth I was going to do for him and I've lost count of the cards I've started and then gone "Meh" to. 

In the end I just started working my way through all my dies and stamps to see what I hadn't used for a while and found Elizabeth Craft Designs Karen Burniston's Katie Label Pivot die and decided to give a try. I had bought the Tim Holtz Crazy Talk stamps a wee while ago but I had only used a couple of them so they came out the folder & if you're talking Crazy then the birdies just had to come along too!

As I seem to be getting more problems with my dexterity I decided to treat myself to a WRMK Precision Press & it certainly makes a difference to my stamping.  At least now when I miss a bit I don't have to ditch everything and start again, I just re-ink and re-stamp over the missing part.

I had some cardstock which I had Distress inked up a while back but it was only after I cut out the label inserts and went to cut out lettering I realised I didn't have enough to do all the personalisation. As I had already glued the labels in place I had to try and match up the colours to do the letters and numerals - fortunately the finished results weren't that far off the original.

Hopefully Robert will like it!

 What I used

Cardstock

Linen Card 6x6 Blank - Craft UK

White Supersmooth 300gsm - Fabriano 

Stamps & Dies

Tim Holtz Crazy Talk & Bird Crazy Stamps - Stampers Anonymous
Tim Holtz Bird Crazy - Sizzix Thinlits

Smiles and Years - Lindsay Mason Designs

Inks

Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Ranger

Tuxedo Black - Memento

Assorted Promarkers - Winsor & Newton/Letraset

Who Let The Dogs Out? - Part 1

Finally, over a month after ordering them on pre-release, my Tim Holtz Crazy Dog stamps have arrived.  Seems to have been a bit of a mix up at the retailers.

Never mind they are here now and I've been having a play with those and my new A5 die cutting machine from the Aldi "So Crafty" range. Didn't know that Aldi did such a thing? Me neither but they do now and it's a rather nice piece of kit! It came with two A6 embossing folders and 11 small dies, 2 of which are shown in the photo below.  The machine takes all formats of dies. In the Facebook Groups I belong to there have been quite a few people who have purchased one.  So far, everyone has been really impressed by the quality of it.

Anyway, I digress, back to the "Crazy Dogs" - aren't they cute! Got a few ideas for them although only 3 finished cards are on here at the moment - more to follow!

I decided to try and fit one in the sketch for this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge

I decided to use the smallest of the dogs, not sure but it could be a dachshund I guess, and combine it with some stamps from the Crafty Impressions, Cathie Shuttleworth's "In the Dog House", set.  I think, perhaps, it's a rather loose interpretation of the sketch.

I Used

Cardstock

White 300 gsm Supersmooth - Fabriano

Colours - Crelando

Dies & Stamps

Tim Holtz Crazy Dogs - Stampers Anonymous

Barking Mad, "In the Dog House" Set - Crafty Impressions

Don't Tell Me, "I've Had Enough" Set - Lindsay Mason

Never Forget, "Smiles & Years" - Lindsay Mason

Here are the other two - not sure if they are meant to be a French Bulldog (or Pug perhaps) & a Bulldog or not: