Some Birthday Cards

Oddly, August and September are birthday months, not only for me but for most of my friends as well. Maybe I'm attracted to fellow Virgos, or perhaps there's another explanation I'm not aware of.  At any rate, it makes for some frenzied card-making in these two months!  Here are some of the cards I made to celebrate birthdays this month.  (Click on a photo to enlarge it.)

Here's a flip card I made for my bestie Debbie.  I used the Circle Card Thinlit again, but left the right side uncut so it could fold into a panel where I could write a message.  Pretty slick, eh?

For Margie I made a regular card.  Of course it had to have a kitty on it, so I did something I almost never do and made a little scene of the kitty sitting in the sun with a birthday cake.  Just look at all those candles!  ;)

Why are there two cards? you ask.  Well, seems I haven't quite mastered the art of cutting a piece of DSP the right size for a card front, haha, so I had to be creative on one of the cards to make it fit properly.  As it turned out, I liked the card with the diagonal cut better than the original design, so that's the one I sent her.

So now I am officially caught up with posting what I've made to date. This means no more excuses, time for me to roll up my sleeves and get back to work!  I have ten Christmas cards to make, a set of sympathy cards for someone going through chemotherapy, some fabric butterfly cards to  make, and some projects of my own I want to work on.

Wait!  I totally forgot about a project I did with my BFF Chris who came down from central Wisconsin early this month to visit with me! We did some monoprinting with a Gelli Plate, and I have some awesome prints to show you!  I'll save those for another post...

Big Smiles,
Joyce Spear (a.k.a. StamperJoyce)
  

August Swaps

August was another productive month for me.  In addition to the Christmas cards previously posted, I also completed a bunch of swaps for the ATC group I belong to.  Without further ado, here they are.

Mystery Image, which was a moose - Yep, decades after the unique TV show concluded, I still can't see a moose without thinking of Northern Exposure!  The background I used is a printer copy of a painting I found online. 

Sketch Card #1 - We decided to try something new and work with a sketch every month.  Sketches are quite popular in the cardmaking and scrapbooking venues, but I've never seen this done for ATCs.  The top image is our starting sketch, and the four below are the cards I came up with using the idea.  I was surprised at how fast and how fun this swap was!

Quote of the Month - I used a quote from a Stampin' Up! set along with some SU! washi tape.  Easy peasy!

Artist's Choice - The photo just does not do this card justice.  I fussy cut the heat embossed flower into several layers and added some leaves that weren't in the original image.  The card base was dry embossed with a SU! embossing folder and then randomly painted with Gelatos.

Just Beachy - Of all the ATC series I've made so far, this is my favorite.  I love the collage effect and the colors I chose, and the focus is on the real sea oats I acquired a few years ago while visiting some friends in North Carolina.

Winner Take All - The winner this month chose the theme Trees, so it was a perfect excuse to pull out my Lovely as a Tree Stampin' Up! set... well, if I could have found it quickly.  Instead, I chose to use the Lovely as a Tree stamp brushes in My Digital Studio to create this card in Early Espresso and Bashful Blue.  I printed it out and used Stickles to make the trees shimmer.  This is another card that looks much better in real life than in the photo.

A2 Birthday Card - Just for fun, we decided to do a non-ATC swap, and this month it was an A2 sized birthday card.  This was my first time using the Circle Card Thinlit from Stampin' Up!, and I had fun with it. The card base is Summer Starfruit, and the other colors are Island Indigo, Tangerine Tango, and Bermuda Bay.

Celebrate You RAKs (Random Acts of Kindness) - These were both quick and fun to make, and I'm amazed at how well they turned out.  I resisted the urge to keep them for myself.  :)

I have just one more set of cards to blog, and then I can roll up my sleeves and get started on the next batch!  I do hope you're enjoying the pictures.

Smiles,

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

           

Fifty Christmas Cards - Batch Two

I had two more cards to complete by September 1 in order to be on schedule with my 10 per month deadline, and I decided to use my brand new Circle Card Thinlit from Stampin' Up!  I've been fascinated with flip cards for as long as I can remember, but because I kept misplacing my template for it, I had to reinvent the wheel every time I wanted to make one -- and so didn't do it very often.  Now I have no excuse not to make them, as all it takes is a a few cranks through the Big Shot!  

These are basically the same card, with just the Designer Series Paper switched on each one.

Card 1:

Card 2: 

I enjoyed making these two cards with a combination of old and new -- retired DSP and new stamps -- and my favorite traditional Christmas color combination of Real Red and Gumball Green.  I just had to use Stickles on the red Christmas tree ornaments!

Twenty cards down, thirty to go!

Happy Smiles,

Joyce Spear, a.k.a. StamperJoyce

P.S.  Have you started on your own holiday cards yet?