I've been in a birthday card making mood so this post features birthday cards I have made in the last couple of weeks, starting with two I made for family members.
My sister's birthday was way back on May 1st, and I made this card for her:
I can't remember exactly where I found this design but I was using a card from a magazine as a sketch. I used a bunch of scraps from my Basic Grey Cupcake papers, still my go-to for birthday cards. I covered a white card with the orange background paper and lightly drew a line like faux stitching around the edge, then added the strips of various papers and outlined them too. Then I inked up the largest flower from Petal Pizzazz (Stampin' Up) by inking it first in orange and then dragging each edge through the red pad to give it a two tone look. If you are doing this, remember to do the light color first and then the darker color because it is less likely to muddy up the inkpad.
After stamping the flower I cut it out and mounted it with foam tape. Then I stamped the small round Happy Birthday stamp from Wow Flowers (also Stampin' Up) and used a circle punch to punch it out, and mounted it on foam tape at the center of the flower.
My brother Mike's birthday was May 4, and this was his card:
This card took a while longer. I had some various red and blue papers (unknown source) that all seemed to go together nicely. I started by layering the striped piece on a white card, and adding a strip of red dotted paper across it. To make the cupcake, I traced a cupcake wrapper stencil on the same paper and cut it out, then traced the stencil for the icing on a coordinating blue scrap and cut it. I glued them together and punched a small red circle out of a scrap for a cherry. I attached the cupcake pieces to a rectangle of white cardstock, and used a dimensional dot to add the cherry. Then I stamped the greeting (Stampendous) under the cupcake. I colored all the edges with a red inkpad, and layered it on a piece of red and white patterned paper that coordinated well. I am getting more comfortable with adding pattern to pattern without separating them with solids! The cherry was a little blah, so I added some glitter glue to it.
While that dried, I made homemade "baker's twine" with plain twine and a red sharpie. I have a large clear plastic quilting ruler that is about 6" across. I covered it with saran wrap to keep it clean, then wrapped plain twine around the ruler nice and tight for about 15-20 loops. Then I drew stripes across the lined up twine using the red sharpie. I did one side, then flipped the ruler and did the other. When I unwound it, I had my own "baker's twine"! I still want the real thing, but this will do til I get some! I wound the twine around the focal piece a few times and tied it off in a simple bow. Then I mounted the layered pieces onto the rest of the card.
The other birthday cards are just cards for my stash at this point, none of them have found a home yet.
I made these two cards while playing with a set of retired Stampin' Up stamps (Alphabet Soup). I like these because the words become the main image and all I have to do is add some papers and embellish! On the first card, I was trying a new technique for the Monday challenge where you are supposed to dry emboss a pattern onto paper (using a Cuttlebug, Sizzix, etc.) and then ink the reverse side, producing a negative where the parts that are popped up on the front side are white and stand out from the inked part. Not having a machine, I took some embossed designer paper that I have, where the front is covered with embossed stars, and cut a strip off and tried inking it up. I think the embossing is a little shallower than you get with the Sizzix, etc. because there wasn't much contrast. But I decided to still use it on a card.
I covered a card with denim designer paper from Elizabeth Ann, then added the star embossed strip across it. I stamped the sentiment in denim blue Adirondack ink on a white square, and layered it onto a scrap of green denim paper. I attached that and a diecut from K&Co using foam tape, and was done!
The other card was made for the Tuesday color challenge that week, which was to use orange, light blue and navy blue on a card. Since I lovelovelove orange and blue combinations, this was right in my wheelhouse! I made the base card from light blue Bazzill cardstock and layered on a sheet of faux ledger paper that had orange lines on it, then layered two contrasting pieces together into a stripe. I cut a square from another piece of plain orange paper and used that to highlight the white cardstock on which I had stamped the sentiment. Then I layered that on a delicious bit of orange and blue patterned paper. All the papers are from the Recollections Mosaic Memories pad.
I wanted to finish off with a line of orange flowers but did not have any orange flowers in my assortment of deconstructed dollar store flower sprays. But I did have some white ones of the right size, and an orange inkpad, so I very quickly dyed them orange by pressing them on the pad. The only hitch is that they took a long time to dry so I had orange fingers from checking them too often. I finally had to leave them overnight. The next day I attached them to the card with black brads and it was finally finished.
This was from a challenge to use vellum on a card. I took some lightweight white vellum and stamped a flower from the Stampin Up Petal Pizzazz set in orange and pink ink. Then I took a stylus and outlined the white sections of each image, presseing down on it to make it pop up on the reverse side (use a piece of fun foam or an old mouse pad underneath to cushion the paper while you trace). To make the card I took a plain white card and embossed a simple frame by tracing a line around it using my Martha Stewart scoring board. Then I used a scrap of designer paper to make a "vase" and attached the vellum flowers with brads, and finished the card off by stamping the sentiment (A Muse Stamps) in the lower right corner. I really like how this card turned out!
Finally, two quick and easy cards, that work either for birthday, graduation, or general congratulations. I layered the red graphic design paper onto a white card, then cut another scrap of the denim paper from the card above to fit. I used pinking paper edgers to cut the edge and attached it over the red. I stamped the star image using a foam chunky stamp and denim Adirondack ink, and cut it out. I stamped the sentiment (Denami Designs) in Frost White Colorbox ink, and heat embossed with white embossing powder. Then I mounted the star image on foam tape, and finished it off with a button in the center of the star.
Here's is another variation using the same stamp:
For this card I layered designer paper (unknown source) onto a light blue card. There was a bit that said "Rock Star" so I cut out the "Rock" and layered it onto a scrap of the blue cardstock. Then I stamped the chunky foam star in yellow ink and cut it out, then covered the star with clear glitter glue and let it dry. To make the letter I stamped the letter "U" from a set of alphabet foam stamps on the back of a piece of sky blue glitter paper and cut it out (this trick only works on letters that don't have a backwards and forwards, since you are cutting it from the reverse side). I glued the letter in the middle of the star and added the "Rock" piece next to it.
Whew! Tomorrow I will catch up on all the cards I made yesterday and today!
Have a great day, and thanks for looking!
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