This week at PolkaDoodles we are celebrating a birthday! Fliss' Daughter Claire is turning 21!!! Happy Birthday Claire!!! So this weeks challenge ( set by Fliss ) is to create a card for a milestone birthday or anniversary! Now being the big romantic that I am I just adore the Love and Cherish CD so I have used that this week! There is no end of fab papers to choose from so I printed out a few jumbled them up then picked one at random!!! Sounds mad but my method works!!! I used the backing paper with my big shot and cut out a fancy edge card. I also printed out the toppers sheet to co-ordinate with the paper I have used. I have simply matted this onto gold card using 3D foam pads. this is then layered onto the card again using my 3D foam pads! To finish off I have added some flowers and gems!

I have been asked to put together some invitation samples for a lady that Konrad works with, now this isn't one of hers, but while I was busy putting together her samples I had an idea pop into my head and this is how it looked!!! I have kept it simple but I really love the flower and heart spray! The card is a small hammer square card, the centre is made up from silver card that has been embossed with divine swirls then ontop of that I have layered a pearl card that has a natural pattern and then the flower spray is layered ontop of that! The wedding invitation is stamped then heat embossed! I wish I was getting married again as these are so much better than the invites I had!!!

I have been experimenting this morning with some ideas for invitations to a fancy party! As always I like to put a Stacey twist on things! I love how this has turned out and I think I will be using this design quite a bit! It is a small version of what the actula invit will be, The cupcake is cut at 5" in shadow and welded together in DS ( I flipped the one image so they would match up when folded ) Then I have cut just one more shadow layer to stick over the top. Next I have cut it in the black out feature and stuck this on with foam pads, I added a silver border peel off sticker to the bottom then added some gems! I have used white card for the icing which i have then embossed with the big shot. To top the icing I have glued the embossed swirls then added fine glitter! I could not resis the opportunity to make this even more sparkly so I added more gems!!!

I have been looking at challenge blogs today so I have decide to enter this in the Die Cuts R Us Challenge!!! wish me luck!!!

I have never entered a challenge on the Do Crafts site but I thought why not??? This weeks challenge was to take inspiration from a picture, we could take to colours the shapes anything that inspired us so this is what I did! I created a shape card using DS and SYI. The black base is 5" in shadow, I then cut 5 other layers reducing then by 1/4" each time. To give the layers added dimension I curled the edges of the petals. The centre is cut from sweet treats and enbossed with swiss dots using my big shot. Finally my little lady bug is cut from doodle charms, the black spots are filled in with glossy accents for a bit of shine and He has some googly eyes so he can see x x

It is coming upto Valentine's day so I though I would get in the mood for ramance and create some valentines cards! I must admit I have seen a few versions of the bird cut on the cricut forum and on some of the blogs I have stumbled across. I was so inspired that I decided to create my own version!!! This card ( I think ) has used the most carts during its birth, but I think the hard work is reflected!!! The card is A5 in size and it is made from brown pearl card. The background papers are by Bo Bunny and they are both the reverse of christmas papers!!! I have hidden the join with some American Crafts ribbon and punched the blue card with my Martha Stewart border punch. The bird is cut from Indie Arts at approx 3", I cut the shadow, then the blackout and then the shape, they have been shaded with brown ink then layered. The clouds are cut from the Hello Kitty Greetings cart, I have run them through the big shot using the divine swirls embossing folder them inked them up again using brown ink. The little heart that the bird is carrying is cut from Doodlecharms and embossed. To finish off the card I have used my trusted pearl gems!!! The smaller card is done almost the same but using up scraps for the background!!!

In keeping with my good blogger pledge I am pleased to bring you another card!!! I have been at it with the cupcakes again! I must say I have stolen a few ideas from the amazing card I had for my birthday from Julie over at huxtershouse!!! You can see that card here http://huxtershouse.blogspot.com/2009/11/cupcake-birthday-for-stacey.html

The card is A5 and it is a pearl brown cardstock The background is actually the reverse of a Bo Bunny christmas paper ( nothing goes to waste ) I have cut the cupcake using Doodlecharms and I think it is cut at about 6". I have aged the edges of the cupcake top and embossed it with the divine swirls embossing folder using my big shot!!! I have finished off the cupcake with some fab sticky gems and a bow using american crafts ribbon. The whole card is then finished with a self adhesive lace strip and more of those cute gems x x x