Springtime Has Sprung ...

... or so we are reliably informed by the weather forecasters and if today was anything to go by then they may be right ... for once.  We certainly had a good dose of sunshine today with only one brief shower and the temperature reached double figures so it's all good.
I spent this afternoon making a couple of cards for birthdays which are looming on the horizon. 

The first one for my eldest brother, used the lovely bird silhouette again from My Graphico but this time I wanted a more masculine look so it was printed onto plain white card and then matted with black.  I cut away a portion of the base card front, trimmed it slightly and then mounted it onto a slightly larger piece of black card before re-attaching it onto the back panel of the base card. 

Another strip of black card was embossed with my Cuttlebug Birthday embossing folder and this was then layered on top with some knotted silver/black checked ribbon for decoration.
Daring Cardmakers Challenge "Tweetie pie" asks that we use birds on our creations this week so I'm entering this card.

My daughter's friend celebrates her 15th birthday tomorrow and as she is allegedly a 'Cupcake Queen' it was the obvious choice to make her a cupcake card.  

I matted a strip of embossed lilac card onto silver mirri card and then laid it across the pretty floral patterned paper.  White satin ribbon, overlaid with some narrow pink velvet ribbon - very tactile - was wrapped around the embossed panel before adding the cupcake and frame which were freebies from a magazine last year. 
Hopefully this card is ok for Charisma Cardz Challenge "Something For The Kids" - (not sure the young lady it is intended for will appreciate being referred to as a kid but hey ho!) - and the current Kaboodle Doodles Challenge is "Happy Birthday" so I can sneak in there too.

Finally, I'd like to show a wee card I made whilst in York - can't believe that was a whole month ago!
Irene brought her cute Cuddly Buddly rainbear stamp with her and was giving us a tutorial on how to use poly pencils and she also allowed us to play with her Nellie Snellen multiframe dies (which seem to be all the rage at the moment) - please note that the blotchy fur look was intentional LOL! 

The bright blue and yellow papers just shout 'Spring' to me so I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
The Pink Elephant Challenge #58. 
Crazy 4 Challenge - C4C29
Lots To Do Challenge #11
The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #75
Rosie-D's Challenge #66
Allsorts Challenge #44 

I overlaid the blue negative from the die cut frame onto a yellow square of paper to decorate inside the card - waste not ... want not.

Naomi's Creation

I have been too busy to do any crafting this week, but Naomi wanted to make a card for her friend at school ... whose name also happens to be Naomi ... and I was once again very impressed with what she created.
I have some serious competition methinks!
The stamp is "Cuddly Buddly Charley with Willow" and was a surprise gift from a special online friend Jules.
She coloured it with my Whispers Brush Markers and then mounted it onto turquoise and brown card from my stash, which was cut with scalloped scissors.
The base card and the letter stickers came from a DCWV card kit.
I have no doubt that her schoolfriend is going to be delighted when she receives this beauty.

3 RAK's Today

I have got to be having the most amazing week of all time. The postie arrived this morning bearing yet more RAK gifts from my CB friends. And when they were opened they revealed so many beautiful things I'm afraid I had a 'Niagara Moment' ... quite a long one too!

Glitzzy had sent a bumper bundle of oriental goodies, far too many to mention individually but one item in particular was a gorgeous keyring which has a quartz stone encased in a metal spiral globe. Needless to say it is hanging from my car keys already. Thank you Glitzzy ... I will enjoy playing with them all and you may find you and Zheena are responsible for another addiction LOL.

The 2nd RAK was from a very special lady Jules, from Creative Makes. She sent my daughter and I a pony card ... knowing how horse mad my little girl is ... but, more than that, she also included the actual Cuddly Buddly stamp for us to play with! Isn't that a wonderfully kind thing to do? Thank you so much Jules ... we'll have to have a rota for using it I think.

That was when my eyes started to leak.

So by the time I came to open the 3rd RAK, which was from Queenie ... well that was when Niagara started flowing with a vengeance. The envelope revealed a box ... beautifully decorated in friendship papers and a little twiggy heart.

Inside the box was an accordian Friendship Book ... and I can't tell you how gorgeous it is in real life but take a look at the photo ... isn't it amazing?

I have got to be the luckiest lady ever to have such wonderful, kind and generous friends. Thank you all so very, very much.