A Simple Birthday Card

This is the first card I've made since February and it's for my hubby who's birthday is on the 3rd May.  He did however tell me that he wanted a card without ribbons, flowers, or any rubbish sticking on it ( his words not mine).  The card actually became a challenge in itself firstly because I don't have many if any stamps suitable for men, I did find this LOTV stamp which I've not used before the second challenge was colour hubby's favourite colour is black, he wears nothing else but that colour.  With this in mind I decided use the Promarker cool grey's to colour the image, I had to make two attemps at the colouring as I wanted to leave a lot of white contrast for clarity.  The card stock is a textured Ivory, I've also stamped the image on the card insert.

I'm disappointed with the photographs as I had to take the pictures early this morning so the light was not great.  In reality the card looks  really crisp and neat. 

Hope you like
Kathleen x

I'm going to enter the card into the following challenges.

I Love Promarkers - No designer Papers
Crafty Creations - White Space
Moving along with the Times - Anything Goes
Creative Card Crew - Childs Play

Gift Box - Hat Box

I had the idea to make this gift box after chatting with Kaz at Crafty Bunch where she mentioned a challenge with a hat theme.  I already had this circular box and an old template for a hat and completed the project last night.  To be honest when I started to decorate the box I had in mind a more shabby look but like so many crafting projects they end up nothing like the original idea.

I've used a plain striped paper which I've stamped with tiny flowers and leaves along the base of the box and round the edges of the lid.  The hat was made from the template below and decorated with ribbon, flowers and trim.

Hat Template

I'm not sure who created the original template to give credit too except to say I've had it quite a few years.  I've writen the sizes I've worked to but any size can be worked from the diagram.

I was looking at  Sir Stampalot Challenge which is Ladies and Fashion and I think this project fits their theme.

Hope you like and thanks for stopping by
Kathleen x

I'm entering this project into the following challenge

Sir Stampalot - Ladies and Fashion
The Shabby Tea Room - #56 Spring Color