MFT February Guest Designer Contest

Hello there!

Long time, no see... but guess what?!  It'll be that way no more!  The kids are all finally sleeping through the night, and all in bed early enough in the evening that I have time to play WITHOUT having to stay up until the wee hours of the morning!  YAY!  (Haaa.... Here's hoping I didn't just jinx that!)

Since I haven't made anything just for the fun of it over the last year, I thought it was high time that changed... and playing along with MFT was the perfect place to start!  I have quite a few of their stamps & dies (and have had them for some time now), and couldn't wait to get into them.

Want to see?  Sure you do; why else would you be here?! (hehe)

Supplies Used:
Stamps:  My Favorite Things "Who's That Birthday Girl", "Who's That Girl All Wrapped Up" (I can't find a link to that set - retired, perhaps?)
Dies:  MFT Mini Rolled Roses, MFT Sentiment Strips, MFT Leafy Flourish, Spellbinders Classic & Scalloped Ovals Large, PTI Small Scalloped Border
Paper:  Echo Park "Sweet Day"
Cardstock:  PTI Stamper's Select White
Copic Markers:  E00, E11, YR000, YR01, YR02
Other:  Buttercream Baker's Twine (the Twinery), Gold Stickles

I decided to combine the bottom half of the Birthday Girl with the present in All Wrapped Up (simple masking), and then paper-pieced the gift & her skirt.  Not much Copic action on this one - just her legs/hands, and a bit of shading on the gift & skirt.  The sentiment strip is wrapped around the edge of the card front for a bit of a different effect.  Despite having an entire cupboard full of flowers, I couldn't seem to find the 'right' ones, so I broke out the MFT Mini Rolled Rose dies and made my own; I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised there.  It was WAY easier than I was anticipating!  

I'm a little rusty, but it'll do.  (Haa... this is the most labour-intensive card I've made since...before I was pregnant the last time - like, before July 2011!)  Thank goodness there was a sketch to follow - I love having that little bit of 'stucture' to start out with!  (Thanks for the awesome one, MFT!)

I didn't have any small tag dies/punches, and the sentiment strip die was calling my name...hopefully my sentiment/flower/flourish cluster will be okay!

Well, I'm off... thanks for stopping by & have a great day!

  ~Steph