birthday wishes

My mother-in-law's birthday was last week and I was excited to make her a card. She should have received it in the mail by now so I can show it here without ruining the surprise.

I absolutely love this stamp set from Papertrey Ink! Once I stamped the blue flowers onto the branch, I thought they needed a little bit more oomph so I used the Night of Navy marker to accent the middle of the flowers.

On the inside of the card (no picture of that, oops!), I used one of the sentiments from PTI's Birthday Basics and surrounded it with the flowers and leaves that coordinate with the ones on the front of the card.

supplies used
...............
stamps: out on a limb revised, mega mixed messages (PTI)
ink: chocolate chip, river rock, bashful blue, night of navy marker (SU!)
paper: white (Hammermill); light olive green, light blue (DMD Industries scrap pack)
other: dark chocolate bitty dot ribbon (PTI); swiss dots embossing folder (Provo Craft)

with deepest sympathy

supplies used
...............
stamps: out on a limb revised, everyday classics (PTI)
ink: chocolate chip, night of navy marker, whisper white craft (SU!), versamark
paper: very vanilla, kraft, not quite navy, chocolate chip (SU!)
other: clear embossing powder (SU!), double ended ribbon tag (Spellbinders), ribbon (Martha Stewart)

let's get crafty!

I love creating cards and I thought it would be fun to have some of my gal pals over for a crafting night. These are the four cards I designed for them to make:


I was really nervous about this get-together because I hadn't ever taught anyone else how to make my cards and I wanted it to be an enjoyable experience for everyone. I think the evening was a success because they all said they'd be interested in doing it again! Phew!

A few tips for the cards...

birthday card: Since the scalloped square is virtually the same size as the largest SU! square punch, I used my paper cutter to cut a larger square to mat it.

thank you card: I cut the pink, chocolate and patterned red papers to be slightly wider than the card front. Once the pieces were adhered together and to the card, I flipped over the card and CAREFULLY trimmed the excess off with scissors.

one of a kind card: The Really Rust strip is textured using the Cutter Bee piercing tool. Maybe I just don't know the tricks for this tool, but I have yet to have it make clean, uniform holes through the paper. Sometimes it punches through, and other times it just indents the paper. For this card, I like the backside of the "pierced" paper, so I turned it over and adhered it so the back was facing up. (I was inspired by this card on SCS for my creation.)

everything card: To use the Stamp-a-ma-jig on small pieces of cardstock, I suggest using some removable adhesive on the back of the pieces to temporarily stick them to your work surface. Then line up the image and stamp away! (I was inspired by this card on SCS for my creation.)


supplies used (SU! unless noted otherwise):
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birthday card
stamps: pocket silhouettes
ink: versamark, so saffron, certainly celery
paper: white (Hammermill), so saffron, certainly celery
other: certainly celery twill ribbon, chocolate chip rub-on sentiment, clear embossing powder, 1-3/8” square punch, scallop square punch, scallop edge punch

thank you card
stamps: say it with scallops
ink: real red, chocolate chip marker
paper: white (Hammermill), pink pirouette, chocolate chip, real red DSP
other: scalloped square punch

one of a kind card
stamps: one of a kind
ink: chocolate chip marker, really rust marker
paper: river rock, really rust, sage shadow, chocolate chip
other: word window punch, texturz plates, 1-3/8" diacircle punch, silver brads (Making Memories), 1-7/8” dia metal edge tag (Avery), piercing tool (Cutter Bee)

everything card
stamps: always, mistletoe standard wheel
ink: chocolate chip, old olive
paper: white (Hammermill), groovy guava, wild wasabi
other: small corner rounder (EK Success), eyelets (Making Memories)

little onesie

No stamping on this card -- just punching and embossing! (I cased Lauren Meader for the shape of this card. She's so clever!) Friends of ours just had a little baby boy and I thought this would be a fun card for them to receive. They decorated his room in shades of green so that influenced my color choice. I used the new Texturz plates from SU! to emboss the dots on the green paper before punching/cutting it.


supplies used
...............
paper: whisper white, old olive (SU!)
other: 1 3/8" dia circle punch, large star punch, texturz plate (SU!)

choo-choo!

This card is for our niece's 2nd birthday. She loves trains so I knew a Thomas-themed card would be perfect for her. I should have made two of these cards because as soon as my daughter saw it, she tried to keep it for herself! I love that these two little girls love trains!

To make Thomas' face, I printed his picture onto white cardstock and then punched it out.

supplies used
...............
paper: pacific point, basic black, real red (SU!); white (Hammermill); yellow, gray (my stash of scraps)
other: 1/2" dia circle punch, 1/4" dia circle punch (my stash); small and medium corner rounders (EK Success); 1 1/4" dia circle punch (SU!); giga circle punch (Marvy Uchida); Scor-Pal