Simple Birthday Card

I can't resist pretty paper, especially when it is on sale.  I am sure this is an affliction that I share with many of you.  I wouldn't dare to tally up my paper stash but I have no doubt that I could spend a year crafting and I wouldn't run out (but I might not always have the perfect color...that's why we buy so much, right?).

Sometimes papers are just "too pretty to use" but I am working on conquering my reluctance to use them.  No matter how pretty the paper is - there is always new paper coming out that is even prettier and we need to make room for it!

 

I've had this pad of double-sided paper by Susan Winget called Spring Blossom for quite a while.  I was lucky to find it on clearance for about $8.  The large floral designs are beautiful but not something that I would generally use for a scrapbook page.

I chose this sheet of daisy paper and looked at it carefully to find a section that would work well for a card front.

Sometimes I cut pieces from the center but in this case the top left corner was just right.

The large daisy fits neatly in the typical A2 card size and there is a nice "blank" space for stamping the sentiment.  The "Happy Birthday" is from one of the stamp sets that comes with the Art Philosophy cartridge.  I stamped it with brown ink - I thought black would be too harsh on the pretty watercolor design.

The card base is pink shimmer cardstock.  Even though I am trying to use my paper stash, I still like to be "green" and conserve my supplies.  I've showed this little trick before (but not for a while...).  When I am simply matting a card layer, I often cut another shape from the bottom layer.  In this case I used a scalloped oval Nestabilities die from Spellbinders. 

This is the side that will be adhered to the card front.  There is plenty of room for the adhesive around the edges.

The brown layer adds a nice frame to set off the floral paper from the pink card base.  I cut the brown cardstock at 4 x 5 1/4 inches and trimmed the floral layer a bit smaller to leave just a thin line of brown showing.

I will keep the cut and embossed oval shape in a dish on my table and it will probably show up on another card soon.  Sometimes when I don't know what I want to make I "browse" through my extra bits and pieces and find interesting combinations.

I used a Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page set called Geometric Frames to make a mat to write the message inside.  My punched edge was slightly misaligned  (look carefully at the corner) but I was planning to add some flowers to the inside and I knew that they would cover this.

The green flower was too light and bright so I inked it a bit with some Crushed Olive Distress Ink.  Here you can see the before and after.

I added a smaller white flower and held them together with an antiqued frosted gem brad in pink.

The card front is very plain so I decided to add pink pearls in three corners to coordinate with the flower inside.

I also added some pink pearls on the lower right corner of the mat inside the card.

This card was for our niece and when I was wrapping her gift I noticed that the pattern on the inside of the fabric card holder had a design very similar to the punch that I used - almost like I planned it!

It is a nice change to make the card front very simple and then add more decoration inside the card. 

We will be off on some adventures today - we might even end up in Salem (always a fun place to visit this close to Halloween!).

I hope you have a great Friday and a crafty weekend planned!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  For the rest of the month, everyone who leaves a comment on my blog will have a chance to win this Sizzix "Scrap Pink" set.  You can see more photos and details at THIS POST.  For more chances, you can leave a comment everyday for the rest of the month - but just one comment per day please.

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Spellbinders Summer Spectacular

Summer has officially arrived and the Summer CHA show is not far away.  I won't be going this year since it falls right in the middle of the two weeks we will have our older son and daughter-in-law with us as they return from their year overseas. 

One of the things I look forward to before each CHA show is the unveiling of the new Spellbinders products.  They have a fabulous group of designers who make very inspiring samples to show off the new and creative items that will soon be for sale.  There is a "blog frenzy" for a week or so before each new release with great prizes and a super grand prize.   The daily prizes are the dies revealed on each blog and if you faithfully follow and enter on every blog for the entire week, you are eligible for the Grand Prize - the entire Summer 2012  die line, a raspberry plate and the Grand Caliber machine.

Each day starting at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time, three more blogs will feature new products and you need to enter for each blog within 48 hours. 

You can read all about it on the Spellbinder's blog starting with Day One HERE.

The rules for the Blog Frenzy can be found HERE.

I enter this contest every year and I haven't won yet - maybe this will be the year!  Good luck to all of you who enter.  I have already seen several things that I would love to own...

I have one more day with my Dad today and head back home tomorrow. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

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Happy Birthday (by the numbers)

My father-in-law turned 78 yesterday and we got together with some of the family for a nice birthday dinner.  I think it is fun to make cards with the exact age sometimes - particularly since you can usually only buy them with ages that end in a "5" or "0."  When you are young, you are always "going on" the next age and a card with the exact number seems special.  For much of your adult life, the number isn't as big a deal and then when you are getting older, you start to brag again.  I remember my Grandmother who was 89 when she died but would always tell people she was "in my 90th year!"

I used Cardstock from this DCWV "Cotton Bloom" stack.  This was a recent find at Marshall's for just $5.99 for 48 sheets.  I am not sure when this stack came out but I suspect it was a couple of years ago.  If you check the DCWV blog, Erin posts the Ultimate Stack List from time to time as new stacks are issued.  I found a listing for "Cotton Blossoms" as a Michael's exclusive - eventually the exclusives appear for sale elsewhere (I am guessing that this is the same stack since the name is so close...). 

I decided to use part of this striped sheet for the card.  I like the plaid for a man's card and I thought the elegant gold swirls and green would make a nice overall effect.  I usually cut layers for a card front but this time I simply cut a piece at 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 inches to completely cover the card front.

I chose to use the dotted striped with the zig-zag edge as the top of the card so I trimmed the cardstock along that line and then cut 4 1/4 inches below in the green section.  Designs in stacks often have edges that are slightly darker (to look "inked") and I don't like to work from the edge and have one side that looks different than the other.  Since the sheet is 12 inches across and I need only 5 1/2 inches to cover the card front, I can shift the cut over to avoid the "inked' edge.  In this case, I trimmed 1/2 inch from the left side to create my card cover.

I cut the numbers for the age with my Sizzix "Fun Serif" dies that I have had for years.  I sometimes think of getting rid of these because they do take up an entire drawer but I find that I still use them for quick and easy individual letters and numbers.  The green glittered cardstock is also from the Cotton Bloom stack.  I backed the number with a circle cut from Core'dinations cardstock with the Nestabilities "pinking circle"  dies.  I used these to match the top pinking edge on the card.  I used Scor-Tape to adhere the ribbon (from my stash, I bought it many years ago when we lived in Germany) to the pinked circle and then used foam dots to adhere the circle to the card.

I stamped the sentiment on the front and then went over the letters with a Sakura Stardust Clear Jelly Roll pen.

 
On the inside of the card, I added a pocket for a gift card.  I cut a strip of the same blue Core'dinations cardstock and used the Martha Stewart "Arched Lattice" border punch on the top edge.  I chose this punch because it also has a "pinked" top edge.  I put Scor-Tape on the sides and bottom of the cardstock and placed it on the back of the top flap of the card.  If you make sure the fit is a little snug, the card should stay in even though it will be upside down when the card is folded.  The sentiment is a Studio G stamp from Michael's.

Remember that 1/2 inch strip I trimmed from the striped paper?  I used it to decorate the envelope.  I also used a strip of the same blue Core'dinations cardstock and cut the letters from the same green glitter cardstock as the number inside.  Pretty coordinated, eh?!

The card was a hit with Dad - here is a father and son photo (in case you couldn't just tell by looking!).

Here are the card and envelope together - a birthday "ensemble" to make a nice presentation for the gift card inside.

There may be a bit of a break in the weather today - it poured most of Saturday.  We'll be finishing the painting and trying to move some things in to the apartment so we have fingers crossed for some breaks in the weather!  I hope  you are having a nice weekend.

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*Scor-Tape 1/8"" Crafting Tape

*Sakura Stardust CLEAR GLITTER PENS Sparkle Accent

*Martha Stewart ARCH LATTICE Edge Punch Edger M284018

*DCWV Cardstock 12 x 12 COTTON BLOOM Stack Paper Printed

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Valentine Cards with Creative Charms

Today is my day to post my projects for Creative Charms.  The Design Team has been creating lots of great projects - if you haven't checked out the Creative Charms blog lately be sure to hop over to see what is new.

I made two cards that will be perfect for Valentine's Day.  This is the more formal card with a medallion created with Spellbinder's dies.  I'll give the details for this card to day and post more about the second card tomorrow.

I was able to pick up this set of dies with a 50% off coupon last week.  There are four circle dies with heart details around the edges.  The larger two dies cut tiny hearts on the edge of the circle and the two small dies emboss hearts on the edge of the circle.

I cut the circles using Core'dinations gemstone cardstock and found that the small pieces stayed lodged in the die.  This might not happen with lighter weight cardstock.

The dies are made with holes that allow you to poke out the small shapes that are stuck after the cut.  A pair of tweezers or another pointed tool will help you to quickly pop out these pieces.

If you pop out the outer ring of shapes first, you will have a nice little group of 20 tiny hearts to use for another project.  You could also save the triangle shapes to use for confetti in a shaker card.

Here is one of the smaller circles with the hearts embossed  (they are really too small to be done as cuts).

I added pink Gradient Pearl Stickers in alternating sizes to the outer ring of hearts on the largest circle.

The smaller ring is accented with the smallest clear Gradient Gem Stickers.

I used lots of foam dots to raise the large medallion from the card front.

The second circle is also raised with foam circles and a red Vintage Velvet Poppy is fastened in the center.  I pierced a hole in the center with a sharp tool before inserting the brad of the flower.

The base card is white cardstock cut at 5 x 10 inches for a 5 x 5 inch square card.  The red layer is cut at 4 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches and the heart patterned paper (from K and Company) is cut at 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches.

You can add a verse or sentiment to the inside of the card and leave the front of the card as is - it could even be framed or used in a shadowbox after the holiday.

 

This is the second card I made - I'll post the measurements and directions tomorrow.  Do you recognize the patterned paper?


It snowed again last night but the temperature should be in the 40's today so it won't last.  In a little over a week I'll be getting on a plane to go to Germany.  I hope all of the snow will stay away - there is nothing worse than being stuck in an airport with a weather delay!

Have you started on Valentine's Day cards yet?  Do you make a lot or just a few for the very special people in your life?

Have a wonderful crafty day! 


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