60th wedding anniversary - 52 cards week 52

The final prompt for the 52 cards challenge is to use any prompt, or any card made this year, as inspiration for a new card.  Since it's my in-laws' 60th (Diamond) wedding anniversary, I decided on the 'numbers' prompt, though I can't remember which week that was originally from!

I had already prepped a base card, with matted and layered papers from a 6" paper pad.  Then I built up layers - the dark green base is a Joy Crafts die, the scalloped circle is done with a Woodware punch which was then run through the Bigshot in a flowery embossing folder.  The twirly heart is a Cheery Lynn die and the butterfly flourish is yet another die, this time from Joanna Sheen.
I added some flowers with pearl centres, a star which was part of a Hobby House pearl flourish and a row of diamonds interrupted by the number 60.  Also managed to sneak yet more diamonds in, on the butterflies :-)
The sentiment is from Stampingallday, stamped onto a die-cut banner from Dienamics.

I am very pleased with this card and they loved it.  However it was outshone by the other item we arranged for them to receive........ a telegram from the Queen.  Her Majesty now has pride of place on the mantelpiece!

See the entry on the Buckingham Palace website for details of how to apply - there are various anniversaries for which this can be done.

Horse themed Christmas card

As mentioned in the previous-to-last-post, my colleague loved the 'bee' card so much, she wanted a 'horse' one.
So here it is!  I used a Hero Arts snow scene background stamp, over-stamped the horses (Lavinia Stamps), then smooshed a little ink under their feet so that they weren't floating mid-snow.  I did have a little trouble with the black ink - my faithful Versafine let me down, so I tried heat embossing the image in both detail and ordinary black embossing powder, both looked awful.  Finally I remembered that I had bought a Memento black, ages ago, and tried that (removing the shrink wrap first.......!) and thankfully it worked!
I had an already-prepped card base, with an embossed mat in Bazzill bling 'Sparkle', so I mounted the topper onto that, stamped and punched out the sentiment, and added some pearls to finish.  I think the sentiment stamp might be from Lakeland, back when they were doing craft stuff.... I have had it for years, and only now have I discovered that one of my oval punches fits it perfectly LOL.
So - I charge £3 each for my cards, or 2 for £5.  To make these, I bought two Molly Blooms stamps (bees and hive) and the Lavinia horses ... not to mention the other Lavinia stamps that fell into the basket!  Somehow, I don't think I have made any money on this .... LOL .... but I will use all the other stuff I bought, so that's OK.  Isn't it?
Oh, and she loved it :-)