More Anniversary Cards

I did manage to complete four more anniversary cards for my friend by the time we met for lunch yesterday (at Red Lobster, yum!). Between car problems and a personal energy shortage which left me sleeping a lot last week, these four anniversary cards were created in a very short period of time and at the last minute. Nothing like a little adrenaline rush to make stamping more interesting!

Card 1:

Stamp: Teeny Tiny Wishes
Colors: Basic Gray, Basic Black, Whisper White
DSP: Night and Day (2009 Holiday Mini)
Punches: Modern Label, 1" Circle, Designer Label
Big Shot: Stampin' Up! Finial Press embossing Folder, Punch Windows die
And: Black grosgrain ribbon

Card 2:

Stamps: Love You Much, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Colors: Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White
DSP: Night and Day (2009 Holiday Mini)
Punches: Scallop Circle, Modern Label
Big Shot: Punch Windows die
And: Stampin' Write markers, Red Gingham ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals

Card 3:



Stamps: Great Greetings (retired)
Colors: Real Red, Whisper White
Big Shot: Elegant Bouquet embossing folder
And: Versamark ink, Gold embossing powder, Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint mixed with alcohol and spritzed on both the card front and inside panel

Card 4:

Stamps: Flower Lines, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Colors: Old Olive, Melon Mambo, Basic Black, Whisper White
DSP: Lovely Flowers (Hostess Level 3)
Punches: Large Oval, Scalloped Oval, Scallop Border
And: Stampin' Write markers, Paper Piercing tools, Mistletoe ribbon (2009 Holiday Mini)

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The last time we went to lunch, my friend and I started a new tradition. Rather than me making, writing, and mailing a thank-you card to her after each of our get-togethers, I just give her an extra blank card that she can use herself. Here's what I chose for her from my stash this time:



Coming up, in no particular order: Five more anniversary cards, ten sympathy cards, and forty Build-a-Bear cards. All that should keep me out of trouble!

More Anniversary Cards

I made four more anniversary cards on Monday, then hit a speed bump on Tuesday -- but I thought I'd at least catch you up on photos. I sure hope I'll be back in the cardmaking groove when I wake up on Wednesday!



This first card is my favorite of the newest four, partly because it looks cool, but also because it was made with scraps of the Candy Lane DSP that were sitting on my desk.






Here's the inside of that card:






My resolve to make "flat" cards flew to the wind on this card, but I just couldn't resist the look of the felt flowers along with the rhinestone brad.






I did a bit of experimenting with this next one. The experiment was to emboss in gold and then color in portions of the image with white gel pen. At first I thought it stunk, but it's really grown on me. I'm open to opinions...






I love the SU! organza ribbon on this one:






Six down, six to go!

Sunday's Doings

My friend really liked the anniversary card in the last post! She mentioned that some of the cards would be going to couples who had been married 50-60 years and that it seemed appropriate that they should get REALLY special cards. Naturally, that motivated me this afternoon to see what I could put together that would have a little extra oomph.



I've never been one to send wedding anniversary cards myself, but I'm discovering it's a little trickier making cards for a couple than for just one recipient. I'm trying to avoid a lot of frills and froo-froo, bearing in mind that the cards are for husbands as well as their wives. I'm also making an effort to keep the cards flat and mailable with a single stamp, just to make things easier on my friend. So for this project I've put away the dew drops and other bulky stuff (well, mostly)... and you know? it's actually harder to work with the restrictions than if I were giving myself free reign.



I worked with the Candy Lane DSP again today because it goes so well with the Love You Much stamp set. The birds on this first card are printed on the DSP itself, and all the other stuff is worked around the image. The gold heart brad and the gold "love" tag are non-SU!, as are the white button brads. The corners and all the hearts were made with SU! punches, as was the scallop edge at the bottom. I used a white gel pen to add the dots to the heart above the lovebirds.






Here's the inside of the card. The "Happy Anniversary" image is by Stampabilities.






The second card I made today came together so much easier than the first, probably because I reminded myself to KISS (Keep It Simple, Silly). I stamped the heart from Love You Much twice onto DSP with Riding Hood Red ink and then cut out and layered those hearts on some Riding Hood Red cardstock to make them stand out. It still wasn't enough emphasis for me, so I used Stampin' Dimensionals to adhere the hearts to the cardfront. I added a wee bit of tiny bling to some of the flowers and the four corners of the striped DSP layer. The bottom border is SU!'s new eyelet border punch. I squinted at the card and didn't feel it was quite done, and then the inspiration hit me to pull out my Amazing to Zany set and stamp the tiny word "love" and punch it out with the slot punch. (I don't normally like working that small, but anything bigger would have been too much of a distraction, I think.)






Card inside:






Three anniversary cards down, nine to go!

Tuesday's Projects

I've got the sniffles today and they're threatening to become a full-fledged cold, so I'm posting the cards I made yesterday while I'm still vertical.



The inspiration for this first card was the layout sketch for February in the Happy Stampers group. I love the simplicity of it! Had I not been feeling so lousy, I might have done a bit more layering or something with Crystal Effects, but I think my white gel pen did a good job by itself. (Unfortunately, the lighting when I took the photo washed out the white gel ink in the heart... but trust me, it's there!) I used the SU! stamp set Love You Much for most of the card, but snuck in small Inkadinkado "Think Happy Thoughts" stamp because it fit so perfectly. The DSP is Bella Rose, and colors are Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood Red, and Pink Pirouette.






This second card I did with scraps from Monday's work. Stamp set is Be Happy, DSP is Hawaii Papaya, and I used an oval punch, some brads, a couple felt flowers from Flower Fusion, and a bit of chocolate grosgrain. Although these are not my favorite colors to work with, I'm really pleased with how it turned out!






I posted this card to another one of the Yahoo groups I belong to, and I got a comment back about how good the "B" looks -- solid and evenly inked. I'm a fanatic about getting a nice, crisp image when I stamp. My first "trick" is to use a well-inked stamp pad and to keep checking that every bit of the rubber is covered with ink. Secondly, if I see the rubber is resisting the ink in any area, I clean the stamp and then sand it gently with a sanding block. I find it best to sand all in one direction even thought I was taught to sand in small circles. I feel I have more control this way. Then I clean the stamp again, removing the gritty residue -- and voila! without fail the stamp takes the ink SO much better!