First Holy Communion card - Olivia

Olivia (usually known as Livi), one of our/Len's Grand daughters over in Germany, has just recently taken her first Holy Communion (on Sunday just gone) and I made her this card from Len, myself and her lovely German grand parents:

 I used:

- 5" x 7" white card blank, side opening

- a layer of slightly smaller silver mirri card, glued to the card front

- a piece of Centura White Pearlised card stock, embossed using a Couture Creations 'Compassionate' folder, then trimmed down to a bit smaller than the silver layer and glued in place

- the cross was stamped using a stamp I bought in New Mexico when we met up with Kay a few years ago, made by Paper Inspirations and called 'Small Flourish Cross'. I used a Versamark Embossing pad then heat embossed using Stampendous 'Sterling Silver' EP - onto plain white card

- at the same time embossed the sentiment from 'Stamping All Day' and then heat embossed using Stampendous 'Sterling Silver' EP again

- next came the die cutting, and the sentiment was easiest - using a die from the DoCrafts 'Speech Bubbles' set

- ho hum! Then, it was time to die cut the piece of white card with the embossed cross on - not quite so easy, sigh. I adore the pair of matching MFT dies I wanted to use. But, the basic MFT 'Cherise label die' has a full metal backing to it - so I cut a template and then used that to position the actual die over the cross before doing the 'real' cut

- once that was done - although in the end I snipped off the twirly parts and backed it with the plain white layer that had come out of the template (don't ask me why one cut better than the other one did!) - it was time to face the more decorative top silver layer which frames the piece

- and, to my utter joy, that worked perfectly using a piece of silver mirri card from the same A4 sheet (yup, I do have to cut into fresh sheets of card despite having umpteen 'snippets') - mental note - need more silver mirri ASAP! And, the MFT matching 'Tiffany Frame' die

- all three layers were glued together and that was the main topper finished

- also die cut a further two layers to even up the sentiment, glued them together and ran a silver Calligraphy pen around the edge of the sentiment label just to add a bit of a finish

- used thin sticky pads to adhere the panel with the stamped cross on and the sentiment to the card front - done!

I spotted a blogger I follow using this lovely MFT set of dies and, being me, skipped right off to buy it. But can't remember who it was! So pretty and will also be lovely for Christmas cards - so thank you whoever you are for the inspiration :)

I made a very similar card for Livi's big sister Mia a couple of years ago, using a filigree die cut cross, no fancy oval panels and a slightly different embossing folder for the backing. But, apart from that, the two cards are really similar - kids do make comparisons!

It was all a bit of a last minute rush and I spent a good bit of spare time over Easter working on the card - a little bit at a time - in between taking Dudley for trims, cooking us some nice meals, taking time out in the garden sunshine etc. It needed to be in Germany fairly quickly and when working under pressure I find it best to stop and walk away rather than keep pressing on and end up making mistakes!

Len loved the result and I do hope that Livi did as well! And, amazing postal service, I posted it on a Wednesday and it arrived on the Friday just a couple of days later - still with a week and a couple of days to spare!