More Birthday Cards

A dear friend ordered three August birthday cards for family, so I put my nose to the grindstone (ha! as if stamping is hard work!) and came up with the following for her:



This first card may look suspiciously familiar (see last post), but there are some differences. For one, I used blender pens rather than an aquapainter, and I much prefer the results. Secondly, I raised the two colored flowers with some Stampin' Dimensionals. Sets used: Time Well Spent, For a Friend (inside). Colors: Pirouette Pink and Purely Pomegranite.







This next card speaks for itself. The only Stampin' Up! material used is the cardstock. Image is colored with pencils. Inside the accent circles on the front are three silver button brads.







For the third card, I dug out an old SU! set, Flower Garden, mostly because I love the rose. Colors are Barely Banana and Garden Green, with a touch of Bashful Blue blender pen work behind the rose. I also stamped the Aida background with So Saffron, just to make it stand out a little more than VersaMark would. Oval and oval scallop punches are by Marvy. The straight scallop was made with SU!'s new border scallop punch. And the lace was a gift from the person I made the cards for!

A Couple Birthday Cards

Marni and Abdellah! Quick, close your eyes! Don't look!



Ummm, guess who these two cards are for *grin*. Turns out the newlyweds have birthdays three days apart. How cool is that?



Abdellah's card is made with a Pacific Point base and Basic Black for layers. The pic of the laptop at the beach is courtesy of Google, and the HB greeting is from SU!'s It's Your Birthday. I used the Sandy Shells SU! regular sized wheel for the background. The waves in the water are highlighted with the COOLEST gel pen EVER! That would be the Gelly Roll Stardust Clear pens I received this week from my wonderful friends in North Carolina. AWESOME! (*wiping drool from face*)






Marni's card is Pirouette Pink with Purely Pomegranite. (I love this color combo!) The stamped images are from the SU! set Time Well Spent. I used an aqua brush to watercolor the two main flowers -- with marginal results. I can't decide if I'm a watercolor flunkie or if I just need more control, like with blender pens. I suppose I simply need to keep practicing. The center of the flowers all ran together, so after I stopped weeping, I did some damage control by layering the center with Purely Pomegranite cardstock and a punched flower. I like how it looks! Then I heard a faint voice calling out to me from my stash cart, "oh, Jooooyce, use me, use me, please use me!" The voice turned out to be coming from my Fruit Punch Stickles, so I put them to good use. Because of the background stamping, this card looks busier than most cards I would send to Marni, who likes more simple designs, but I hope she'll like this one anyway. *fingers crossed*

One Lonely Little Card

I made just one simple card today since my ambition seems to be MIA.



SU! sets: Always, Happiness Always

Colors: Pacific Point, Pirouette Pink

More New In Color Cards

I made some more simple cards today, just playing around to get used to the new In Colors.

New "In Colors"!

I got NEW STUFF! from Stampin' Up! today! Woohoooo!!!



Needless to say, I tore into the new In Color cardstock and inks right away. The first two cards I came up with are made with the new Level 3 hostess set "Happiness Always." I'm not wild about the double-mounting (two stamps per wood block), but other than that, I love love love love love this set!



This first card has a Pacific Point card base. I stamped the main images on Pirouette Pink cardstock with the same pink, then overstamped with Riding Hood Red. Butterflies are stamped in Pacific Point on the card base, and I accented one with Riding Hood Red. LOOKIE!! See the scallops? Those were done using the new SU! scallop border punch. How cool!






The inside of the card has scallops, too! I also added a panel of Pirouette Pink since the the Pacific Point seems it would be a bit dark to write on.






I'm not a big fan of the color orange, but this Tangerine Tango is starting to grow on me. I actually (surprisingly!) like it with the Kiwi Kiss color.






It's 4:00 a.m. and I'm wide awake, but I better head to bed anyway since I have an early doctor appointment. Watch for more In Color cards coming soon!

Special Wedding Card

Here's a wedding card I put together for some very special friends of mine who got married this last Sunday.



Stampin' Up! sets: Always, In My Thoughts, Wonderful Words

Cardstock: Arctic Snow Cool Metallics by The Paper Company (even more shimmery than SU!'s Shimmer White cardstock!)

Inks: Real Red, Versamark

And: Lace from a friend (thanks, Nikki!), Stampin' Dimensionals, SU!'s Pretties Kit, Embossing Buddy



I began by embossing the branch (seen in red on the envelope) in Pretty Pearls (retired SU!) on the shimmery cardstock. Next I embossed all the red stuff, including the inside sentiment, with detail Ruby Red powder from Bmuse. The two hearts were embossed on a separate piece of cardstock, cut out, then attached to the cardfront with Stampin' Dimensionals. I added the wonderful lace (which I just received in the mail today!) using super sticky tape to keep it in place. The last step was to add the two half pearls with mini glue dots.



This is one of the most elegant cards I've ever made, and I'm honored to be sending it to Marni and Abdellah, who truly deserve all the best!

Silly Birds

I started working on these cards Thursday, but really did most of the design and assembly work last night since I couldn't sleep again. I'll warn you, these cards are BRIGHT, so you might want to put your sunglasses on!



Hero Arts stamps: Decorative Birds, Sparkle Background, Quill Wishes to You

SU! stamps: Stripe background, Decorative Dot, Three for You, Amazing to Zany

Colors: Pink Passion, Tempting Turquoise, Yoyo Yellow, Glorious Green, Lovely Lilac

Toys: Watercolor crayons, Aquapainter, Corner rounders, circle punches, Coluzzle

Cupcakes, Anyone?

I got some new stamps today! Yeehaw!!! Life is good.



Right away I broke into my special edition Birthday Cupcakes set from Hero Arts. I love these stamps! They're so fun! (Okay, I'll stop using so many exclamation points... just wanted you to know I'm excited.)



I decided to try my SU! watercolor crayons and aquabrush for the first time, even though I've had them on the shelf for a couple years. I'm kicking myself now for not using them sooner. I'm in watercolor heaven! Now I just need to work on my technique.



I found this print paper in my stash and it just screamed "Use Me!" -- so I did. I layered it on card bases of textured denim (non-SU!), Elegant Eggplant, and Orchid Opulance. I frosted some of the cupcakes with Dazzling Diamonds glitter and some with Star Dust Stickles. I used raised gold stickers on some cards and white rub-ons on one. The cards came together quite quickly, much to my surprise, and I think they're a lot of fun.










*Looking around furtively* Now, what else can I use these watercolor crayons on?

Sleepless Night...

I couldn't sleep last night, so I thought I'd make the best of a lousy situation and use up my scraps of DSP from the cards I made yesterday. I don't know if it was sleep deprivation or what, but these three cards turned out to be, well, interesting. The jury's out until after I get some sleep whether or not I like them, but here they are in all their glory:



The quote on vellum is by DCWV (Die Cuts With a View, for those not familiar with the acronym). I used the larger flourish from Priceless on the Apricot Appeal card base, then did some layering. I'm not so happy with the combination of gold eyelets on the vellum and crystal bling on the posies, but all-in-all it's not a horrible card.






The following card has a Regal Rose card base with panels of Apricot Appeal DSP layered on Wild Wasabi. A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants -- and this is what happened. I pulled out my Think Happy Thoughts set for the first time and decided it's going to become a good friend. Some Wasabi double stitched ribbon, a couple punches (who me? punchy?), a little paper piercing, and a wee bit of bling in the center of the flower... and here's how it turned out:






The sun was a-startin' to rise when I made this third card with the Butterfly of Happiness set. I stamped off with the butterfly to create a "spread" effect to go with the quote. The card base is Pretty in Pink with layers of Regal Rose and DSP. I especially like this card because of its simplicity.

Playing with Prints

I've been seeing cards with blocks of squares created with Square Punches, so I thought I'd try my hand at a couple myself. I decided to work with the Prints Pack double sided paper being offered as a hostess gift in the current SU! catalog. The colors I chose are Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink, Apricot Appeal, and Wild Wasabi. As you can see, these are all pretty simple cards. I used the Priceless set for the center piece in the first two sets of cards. The greeting is from Happy Everything.










After making four of these cards I got bored, so I decided to do something else. This next card utilizes the flip side of the DSP. The sticker greeting is from Wordsworth, and the flowers and half pearls are from SU!'s Pretties kit.






The last card for today features a quote on vellum from DCWV. The top and bottom borders are from SU!'s Asian Flair rub-ons.






Click on the pictures for a larger view.

Playing with Mica Magic

I have three Mica Magic inkpads which I haven't used until now because the pads seemed dry. Well, I solved that problem by ordering reinkers for them, and I gotta say, I'm really impressed with what the pads can do when they're juicy. I experimented with the Blue Teal and Yellow Gold pads yesterday, and decided to save the Purple for another time. I used both colors on both black and white cardstock, and all the images came out stunning, although the photos below with the ink on the black backgrounds came out better.



I used images from SU!'s Spring Song stamp set as well as a saying from Artfully Asian. The leaf stamp I used on the card bases for a background is from... ummm... I forget. (I'll look it up if anyone really cares.)



Card 1: Yellow Gold Mica Magic on black - Card base is Wild Wasabi, and I layered the black image on a bit of Brocade Blue. I used a leaf stamp with Mica Magic to create a subtle background on the Wasabi. I really like the gold ink on the black, but I think I'll choose a less springy/summery image the next time I pull out the black cardstock.






Card 2: Yellow Gold Mica Magic on white - Very similar to the previous card, although this time I used Ballet Blue in layering. The photo doesn't quite capture the contrast of the gold ink against the white that you'd see in person.






Card 3: Blue Teal Mica Magic on black - Of the cards I made yesterday, I'm least confident about this one. I think the black looks odd with my choice of stamps, but then it might make a good "guy card." Card base is Brocade Blue, the black is layered with Sage Shadow, and the vertical strip is So Saffron DSP. The background (card base) is a leaf stamped in both black and So Saffron.






Card 4: Blue Teal Mica Magic on white - This is my favorite out of yesterday's cards! I debated about the color combination, but ended up really liking Basic Gray, Taken with Teal, and Purely Pomegranite together. When the light hits the Mica Magic just right, the bird shimmers -- pretty cool!






Just a reminder: Click on the photos to see a bigger picture and more detail.