Simon Says Stamps - Wednesday Challenge

Its been a fabulous day here today. My daughter Phoebe turned 13yrs old today and she has 3 friends here for a sleepover. Its been very loud and there is a lot of laughing going on but I'm so happy for her. It only seems like the other day that we brought her home from the hospital, petrified that we wouldn't know how to look after her. I really miss those baby/toddler days, where I could pick her up and cuddle her or walk around with her in my arms. However, seeing her become this young woman, with an incredible personality and kindness, it will be amazing watching her on her way to adulthood.

During the week I created two birthday cards for her. The one I'm sharing today is a little young for her but she loves it and knowing the stamp image is called 'Phoebe' too is brilliant:

This little girl reminds me so much of Phoebe when she was 2yrs old. She used to wear her hair in pigtails like this and she has always loved being around animals. This is the reason I bought this stamps set!!

I started by using my mini-blending tool and Distress Ink 'Mowed Lawn' on the bottom part of the card front. I had an idea to use my MFT 'Fresh Cut Grass' die-cut as a stencil along the top to give it more of a 'grassy' look. It was a bit of a disaster, so blended over it and actually like the look of it now!! I then used my MFT 'Cloud' stencil and Distress Ink 'Mermaid Lagoon' to create the sky. This stencil is so cool and love the background it creates, its like magic!!

I stamped Phoebe, the dog, cat, cake and wagon (from Your Next Stamp 'Phoebe with her wagon') with black ink on some white CS. I coloured them with my Faber Castell pencils, fussy cut out and added to the card front with foam tape. The sentiment (from the same YNS set) was stamped on white CS, adhered to some black CS and cut to create a small frame. This was put on foam tape along with some sequins from Neat and Tangled.

Its suddenly gone very quiet in Phoebe's bedroom so better check whats going on. Max is hiding himself in his bedroom and I think Dave and I will do that soon as the girls are sleeping in the lounge room. Its times like this I wish we had a bigger house. A fourth bedroom or rumpus room would be so good right now but if we had that I would have nabbed it for a craft room and wouldn't be sharing that with a 'giggle of girls'!!

Take care
Shona