Custom-Made Special Occasion Cards

I had a request for some extra-special cards last week.  One was for a 60th wedding anniversary, and another for a 99th birthday.  Can you imagine accomplishing either?  I sure can't!  So, I rolled up my sleeves to see if I could out-do myself with these cards.

I worked on the birthday card first, and decided I wanted to do something with a vintage feel to it.  I'm not sure I succeeded, but the cards turned out okay anyway.  I ended up making two because I wasn't happy with the ink color I chose -- early espresso on Blushing Bride cardstock -- because the ink seemed way too dark.  With encouragement from my friend Chris, I went ahead and finished the card and then proceeded to make another similar card, this time with Baked Brown Sugar for background images and Soft Suede for the sentiments.  I also experimented with two different bows on the cards.  Which do you like best?

Early Espresso ink:

Baked Brown Sugar and Soft Suede:

The flowers are from Stampin' Up!'s Elements of Style set.

When my friend Cathy arrived to pick up the cards, she asked if this one could be personalized with "99" for the years, so I pulled out my Sizzix alpha/number sizzlits and added it to the inside left side.  The first card went to the designated recipient, and the second was personalized with "75" and went to another birthday person.  It turned out to be a good thing that I had made two cards!

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I was much more pleased with the anniversary card.  Due to the short deadline, I chose to CASE (Copy And Selectively Edit) a beautiful card, originally made by Diana Gibbs, which you can see here.  I again made two cards, one with pink flowers and one with blue, this time because I couldn't make up my mind.  I knew both would be good cards, so I figured I'd keep the extra for myself!  Here's how the first card turned out:

Before I finished it, I knew it'd be the one I'd keep, so instead of an anniversary sentiment, I simply left room for a sentiment to be added later.  The flowers are from the Stampin' Up! two-step stamping set Stippled Blossoms, and I used Regal Rose on top of Pretty in Pink for the blooms and Old Olive on top of Pear Pizzazz for the leaves.  The card base is Very Vanilla, and the background is stamped in Crumb Cake with the stamps Hello Doily, Script, and the splatter from French Foliage.  Yep, I fussy-cutted the flowers, which makes me appreciate sets like Secret Garden that have coordinating framelits that do the cutting much more easily.  The flowers are carefully layered with thin foam squares (thinner than Stampin' Dimensionals), but the cards still fit comfortably into the matching envelopes (not shown, but simply stamped with a corner of Hello Doily on the front).  The butterfly on this first one is a Martha Stewart punch.

I decided (with Chris' help) that the blue flowers would be more striking for an anniversary card:

I stamped the flowers in Bashful Blue and Not Quite Navy, and all the sentiments in NQN as well.  I added "60" to the front with some punched hearts in Real Red, and topped it off with a bow made with Crumb Cake seam binding.  I really am quite pleased with how the card turned out, and to my relief so was Cathy. I really want to thank Diana and Chris for their help with this project!

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So what's next? you ask.  I have a whole lot of ATCs due on both August 1 and September 1, and a ton of birthdays and other occasions coming up fast that require cards.  I will do my best to stay on top of posting things as they are made or received, so stay tuned for more stamping goodness!

Inky smiles,

(wait, that sounds like I've been licking my stamp pads, doesn't it?)

Umm...

Happy smiles,

Joyce Spear (a.k.a. Stamper Joyce)