Happy Birthday CJ

First of all, sorry for the poor photograph of this card, we are in the middle of a massive snow storm at the moment and the birthday man is coming round so I needed to take photo before he sees it.

Christmas Day heralds the birthday of a very special man, my nephew CJ is 14 (can't believe he is 14 and he is taller than me, mind you that's not hard at 5'4" LOL)

Anyhoo, I luvs him to bits. He was quite a difficult child for a number of years but thankfully he grew out of that stage and is turning into a lovely young man who I am very proud of. He is in the Army Cadets, previously in the Sea Cadets and the sense of discipline it has given him has completely transformed him and got him back on the straight and narrow.

He is really good at football and until recently that was his sport of choice. He is now playing Ice Hockey and goes skating for 5 hours on a Sunday. He has my utmost admiration, I honestly don't think I could manage 5 minutes. I've never tried it but knowing how accident prone I am I am pretty sure it would not be a good idea......

Obviously, I wanted to incorporate his new sport into his card so went searching for a suitable image on the tinterweb. I happened upon this one which was from a colouring book site. I have coloured it in with Promarkers and added a bit of Sakura clear glitter to the puck and the blades of the ice skates. I used sketch #7 at Crafters Companion for the layout of this card.

The spotty patterned paper is a freebie from an issue of Creative Cardmaking Inspirations. The starry paper is from a Dovecraft male set. I only have a couple of scraps of it left, it has been one of my most used papers.

I used a Martha Stewart punch for the edge of the mirri card, I thought it would emulate the edge on the ice skates and it embosses as well, it is the first time I have used it and I have had it ages. It was a particularly good Ebay purchase.

The chipboard circles are from a Colorbok kit I got from QVC, the birthday sentiment is from Craftwork Cards and the gems are from Paperchase.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges :-

• Crafter's Companion #7 - Card Layout
• One Stitch At A Time #43 - Anything Goes
• I Did It Creations #34 - Anything Goes
• Gingerloft #8 - Distressing (sanded edges on Chipboard and ink around paper)
• Crafty Pad Challenge #102 - Anything Goes
• Aly's Sunday Sketch #31 - Anything Goes
• Totally Gorjuss #61 - For Someone Special (Nephew)
• Sweet Stamping Challenge - Celebrations
• Craft Your Days Away #10 - Punch It Out
• Allsorts #83 - Anything Goes
• Patties Creations #9 - Punch or Punches
• Character Cafe - Shiny Mirri Card
• Sugar Sweet Paper Treats - Anything Goes
• Hodge Podge #6 - Blue & Silver
• AI Factory #61 - Anything Goes
• Paper Pretties - Birthday Card
• For Fun Challenges - Anything Goes
• Digistamps 4 Joy #9 - Anything Goes
• Top Tip Tuesday #15 - Get Embellishing
• Passion for Promarkers #80 - Anything Goes
• Digital Tuesday #90 - Lets Celebrate
• Creative Card Crew - Birthdays at Christmas
• StampFairy - Anything Goes
• Design Dollies - Colours of Tan, Chocolate Royal Blue & Orange
• By the Cute & Girly - Children (for my Nephew)
• Aud Sentiments #18 - Anything Goes
• Crafts & Me #20 - Anything Goes
• Whimsie Doodles #61 - Birthday
• Scrapbook Sisters #16 - Male Card
• I Love Promarkers #46 - Anything Goes
• Crafty Ann #30 - Anything Goes
• Creative Craft Challenges - Anything Goes
• CES Challenges #17 - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp - Time to Celebrate