now *THAT* is a cool sketch, no?!

but then i might be ever so slightly biased, since i happen to think that my dear pixie-in-chief kirsty vittetoe is one of the best sketch-makers around, and i absolutely always look forward to digging in to one of her creations!

this time, although i am very happy with my card, i *MIGHT* just have to have a second try, because i can see sooooooooo many ways to go with this, and am finding it hard to resist "the path untaken"; for example: that line of swirls across the middle? how cool would some webster's pages "bloomers" look right there?! yeah. i'm just sayin'... :)

so why didn't i do that THIS TIME, you ask? well, i'm sure you've had it happen, too, occasionally, when the next card you need to make is very specific, and the deadline is looming in the sort of menacing way that only deadlines and 7-foot-tall, steely-jawed bond villians can loom. so i bowed to the inevitable, and instead of an uber-flowery, shabby chic masterpiece, i made something totally fun (and totally young!) for my father-in-law:

(everything you see is from one pixie dust paperie kit or another: most of the papers, the alphas and the fab american crafts' "flutterby" banners are from the march kit, MARY MARY QUITE CONTRARY; the fabric thickers are from BLUE MOON, and the other bits and bobs are from my "pixie leftovers" box, which is LARGE and quite full; because despite making 6+ projects a month... and often one of 'em is a minibook... i have never even come close to using an entire kit!!!) 

of course i don't wish to imply that making a card for lovely husband jeff's lovely dad could EVER be anything less than a joy! my father-in-law just happens to be one of my favorite people: he is fun, he is funny, he is kind, smart and thoughtful, he is creative and talented, interesting and interested... in short, he's everything you'd like a man to be... and he taught his children, by example, to be just like him; which is a big part of the reason my husband is the amazing man he is. yepper, in the marriage lottery, i was lucky enough to choose a winning ticket 26.5 years ago, for which i could not be more grateful!

his main birthday present, from the whole family, is a donation to his favorite local charity, in which he is very involved. but of course i had to *MAKE* a little something, as well, and it's a little dr. seuss-inspired minibook. this card coordinates with it; and i hope is a pretty good--if loosely interpreted-- masculine version of kirsty's sketch, as well.

and now i'm pretttttty sure you'll want to be hopping over to the pixie blog, where you can not only find out all the details on submitting your own version (did i mention there's a prize?!) but also see the jaw-dropping work of our amazingly talented challenge dt! off you go then, darlings! ♥