A Banner Day

I am taking a break from the massive catch up posting, so will spread the last few days' cards over a couple of entries, along with (hopefully) the daily cards I continue to make.

Before I do today's cards, though, I want to note one milestone:  I have passed 1000 pageviews!  Since I do relatively little to promote this blog, I am very excited about this.  I started the blog basically as a way to keep track of my goal, and to have something to show for it when I finish the year.

Today's cards are for the Thursday Ways to Use It challenge at Splitcoast Stampers.  The theme for today is banners.

I actually made this card several days ago, so I didn't officially submit it for the challenge.  It is based on a sketch in my new Sketches for Papercrafters book, which has been very inspiring.  For this card, I made a 5"x5" card from white cardstock, then cut one-inch strips of designer paper (all from Basic Grey Cupcake collection) and trimmed them into banners.  I attached them to the card and decorated each with a coordinating button.  I layered an aqua blue ribbon onto a cream colored one across the top of the card, and attached a layered flower (Michael's dollar bins!) with an aqua button center.  Finally I stamped the greeting (Studio G--Michael's dollar bins again!) in orange ink at the bottom.

For today's challenge, I CASEd my own card and made a Father's Day version:

This time I used coordinating papers from Authentique (Loyalty line) and left out the flower!  The sentiment is from Stampendous.

Making this card left me with a strip of 3.5" x 11" cream cardstock, and 2" strips of each of the banner pieces, so I decided to make a coordinating gift card holder:

(The colors of both came out truer in this photo, by the way.)  I cut the strip of paper down to 10", to make a 5" card when folded, so that 5 1-inch squares would fit perfectly across.  I cut the 2" strips into 1" squares and played with them til I had a good pattern.  I had to cheat a little and use the flip sides of the double-sided paper so there are a couple of pieces that don't show in the original design.  I measured the center of the card and drew light pencil guidelines 1" to each side, then added strips of roll-on adhesive and attached my squares, keeping the line straight and even.  I stamped the greeting, this time in denim blue, and finished off with ribbon and buttons that match the big card.

Finally, one more birthday banner card:

This is a variation on the card I recently made for my brother's birthday, again using the Basic Grey Cupcake papers, both because I am ready to use them up, and because they are so perfect for birthday cards!

I made this card on kraft cardstock and punched the right edge of the card front into a scalloped border, then punched a scrap of paper with the same punch and lined it up on top.  I added a wide strip of the red swirl paper and a yellow ribbon between.  To make the cupcake I again used my Dollar Tree stencil set and cut out a wrapper piece and the icing.  I attached the wrapper to the card.  Then I used the banner stencil that was part of the set to make the "happy birthday" banner.  I had to adjust it to be a little longer, then cut it out and stamped the sentiment (A Muse Art Stamps) on it.  I should mention that I made it on a folded piece of paper, so that I could put a line of glue down the fold and wrap it around a toothpick.  When it was dry, I made a small slit in the icing piece and put the banner toothpick through it.  I added foam tape to the back to hold it in place, then several more pieces to give dimension to the icing.  To make the cupcake stand out a little, I lined the edges with a black thin Sharpie.

So that was my banner day!  I hope you have a banner day as well, and thanks for looking!