Birthday Goodies!

Some more birthday cards came my way this week!  Yippee!

This gorgeous creation was from Emily.  It uses a beautiful PTI impressions die (that did not want to be photographed) and -OMG- is that butterfly perfection or what?  I love the twisted wire body!  She's a clever one, that Em! 

This card is from a coworker who is a scrapper that I'm trying to bring over to the dark side.  She knows I love any and all October Afternoon, so she filled my card with all sorts of cuteness!!  I think every girl deserves a pink polka dotted flower on her birthday.

And I finally sat down yesterday to make a card with some of my new birthday goodies!  The paper is from one of my three new Echo Park paper packs--I'm in love with all of them.  The blue paper is the back of the floral, and PTI Hibiscus Burst matched perfectly for the base.  The sentiment and frame is PTI Fillable Frames #4.  I had to handcut it since they were out of the die (what a shocker).  I stamped it with a dark brown, even though it looks black in the picture.  Here's a trick for sewing the edges without sewing the twill ribbon: lay it across the front of the card, but only adhere the portion that will fold over to the back.  Then cut the ribbon on the front where it will be hidden by the sentiment panel and let the two ribbon ends hang off the sides of your card.  Stitch around your card (I did two rows), then adhere the ribbon across the front.  I then used my fingernail to ruffle up the edges.

So here's something weird.  I bought all three of the new Crate Paper 6x6 paper pads (school spirit, snowy days, and restoration).  Now most of the 6x6 paper pads I buy are scaled down versions of the original.  I've never bought one that is actually made up of 12x12 pieces that have been cut and glued into a pad.  Which means (a) none of the papers are exactly the same piece, which doesn't really bother me, (b) the patterns are not scaled down, which only partially bothers me on a few, and (c) some of the patterns don't work at all--as in, the snowy days one has 3/4 of a tree on one page and the top 1/4 on another.  Has anyone else run into this weirdness from other paper companies?

Hope everyone is enjoying the three-day weekend!  We are about to take the corgi to the park and enjoy the beautiful weather.  Happy crafting, everyone!