happy (almost) birthday riley elizabeth!

can you believe niece riley will be ♥TWELVE♥ on valentine's day? holy macaroni, there is a decade+ that's totally blown past at record speed! seriously, it seems like she was a baby just yesterday and now she's (nearly) all grown up! where did the time go? well, at least a bit of my time, over the years, has gone into making special cards and presents for these occasions. i'm almost finished a granny square pillow for the girl's big day (which i'll show you when it's done!) but for the moment i've got on with making her card, and i'm pretty pleased with it:

(patterned paper: recollections, prima, basic grey; resist paper: pink paisley,sprayed with a couple shades of tattered angels pink glimmer mist; cardstock rose and heart stickers: basic grey; burlap butterflies: maya road; pins: pink paislee, basic grey, making memories; rhinestone flourish: want2 scrap; other: velvet ribbon from a sewing store and vintage doily from my stash; ink: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

i used the current sketch (#92) from cardabilities, which i think is AMAZING... as are the dt examples AND the readers' gallery, so you should totally check them out! i kind of flipped the sketch upside down, but otherwise, i think you can see it pretty well:

here's a close-up of some of the embellies, i've got a real smorgasbord here, lol. i started with just the sketch, half a vintage doily and basic grey's big cardstock rose, but eventually wound up with velvet ribbon, burlap butterflies, various stickpin flags, some pink rhinestones and... well... ok, yeah, there's a bunch of stuff, but i like they way it looks together! :)

hope everyone is having a lovely groundhog day, notwithstanding the fact that punxsutawney phil *did* see his shadow, thus dooming us to six more weeks of winter... you'd never know it here in new jersey, it's nearly 50 degrees and sunny; the warmest day we've had in ages, so i think i'll enjoy the sunshine while it lasts! ciao for now, darlings! ♥