Birthday Cupcakes!!

Well, here's my latest effort, after a week of contemplation and changing my mind about what I'd do, for a friend's 21st birthday this weekend. She's having a picnic so I really hope the sunny weather will come back for her...but knowing our English weather lately that may have been 'summer' already over! I won't be able to go so I thought I'd get into the spirit with a cupcake card! :)

This card is based on the design of my mum's Mother's Day card from earlier this year which I was very pleased with- as was she I'm glad to say!! :) I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with the way it's come out, though- often the way when you try to recreate something that you loved first time around, isn't it?! I can't put my finger on it but I feel like it's all a bit dark or something...perhaps it's just because it has ended up so very different from the vague idea I had imagined while I was struggling for so long to decide what to do/use :S

The cupcakes and little flowers are from the gorgeous Kanban Fairy Cakes clear stamp set- I embossed them with sparkly powder and coloured them with Twinkling H2Os, mixing several shades and then adding a bit of this and a bit more of that to get a range of colours that all toned together. I haven't used my H2Os in ages and have to say I had fun! :) The pink card is Core'dinations Gemstones, embossed with my new Divine Swirls C'bug folder and the papers are cut with Nesties from Forever Friends Party Time and With Love pads which I've found mix and match really well. Almost every layer is edged with a teal dye-based ink pad and the pink and purple colours from the Brilliance Twilight Trio pad- using Cut & Dry Foam again, I did say I was loving it! I think I may have been a tad heavy-handed in places, though :S The greeting is from Woodware's Mixed Greeting's clear stamp set- a brilliant set, I couldn't manage without my (quite large!) collection of Woodware greetings stamps :) And I finished it all off with some teal ribbon from Anita's...and a hefty helping of Crystal Stickles!! :)

Thought I might as well do a few extra for some future cards while I had all the kit out! I often do this as they come in so useful when I'm not well enough to deal with embossing powders etc. but still want a card I can call my own :)

This is just a shot of a few of the H2Os I used! I'm still playing around and getting used to my new camera and these colours were just too pretty to resist taking a pic- or six!! :)

Well that's all for now, if anyone comes across this then thanks for reading and I'd love to know what you think- all constructive criticism welcome, maybe then I can work out what's not quite right with this card! :) I'll hopefully be back soon with some pics of the bracelet I've made to go with the card! :)