Mission: Birthday Cards for Men

I've been a little sidetracked (or, I should say, more focused) on pulling together some Cards for Kids these last few days -- and since I used mostly non-current SU! stuff, I chose not to post them. If you really can't sleep at night knowing you've missed something I've created, email me and I'll send you photos privately.

My current mission is to make ten "guy" birthday cards this week at the request of a friend who, well, knows a lot of men. (Or maybe it's her husband who does!) So far, I've gotten three done.

For the first two, I used the Branch Out set, which I absolutely adore! I used a borrowed Top Note die with my Big Shot to create the panels for both the front and inside the card. After stamping the tree with Soft Suede, Certainly Celery, Kiwi Kiss, and Old Olive, I sponged the background with Bashful Blue and Certainly Celery. I layered the panel on a piece of Soft Suede Patterns Designer Paper, all on a Soft Suede card base. The festive little Happy Birthday circle is from the set Wow Flowers; I added a gold brad and popped it up on a Stampin' Dimensional. So easy!


I stamped with the same sets and colors in my second card, only this time adding some Crushed Curry Patterns DSP. The card seemed a bit flat, so I used the Rough Textures Jumbo wheel with Soft Suede ink to liven it up a bit. The sentiment was punched out with the Word Window punch.


I really like the Soft Suede color, but after two cards in a row I needed to switch gears -- so I pulled out some Burmuda Bay cardstock and Patterns DSP. The images in circles are from the Wow Flowers set, and the sentiment is from a retired hostess set, Live Like You Mean It. I threw in some polka-dotted grosgrain ribbon for a bit of interest. All the circles and the sentiment are adhered with Stampin' Dimensionals.


Three cards down, seven to go! Who knows what I'll dream up in my sleep tonight!

Custom-Made Cards

A friend of mine ordered ten cards last week, and I was happy to oblige. She asked for some general birthday, thank you, and thinking of you cards, plus two custom cards. I was able to easily pull eight cards out of my expansive stash that fit her requirements:




... and then began working on the two custom cards. One of her requests was for a "man card" for a relative who likes to hunt and fish. I don't have deer or realistic looking fish, but I told her I had a moose stamp. She laughed and told me I could use it. Here's how it turned out:


I used colored pencils with odorless mineral spirits to color the moose image, used a Sharpie to create a small black border, and used SU!'s Rough Texture wheel for the background. Inside I put a sentiment from one of the many birthday sets Stampin' Up! offers.

The next card was much more interesting to make, and I'm really proud of how it turned out. A friend of my friend recently added a new little puppy to her family, so she was hoping for a fitting card that would be personal. I started out with this card front:


... and put a little surprise on the inside:


It's perfect because the puppy is all black except for four white paws!

The puppy is made with all Stampin' Up! punches. Accessories included a white gel pen, some Crystal Effects for the shiny nose, and some googly eyes I had in my stash. (Thank goodness the puppy is a girl since all my googly eyes have eyelashes, lol!) Here's a close up:


Other supplies for the card include a Pink Pirouette card base, Bella Rose DSP, a computer-printed sentiment, my Eyelet Border punch, SU! felt flowers with white button brads, buttons with white scrappers floss, and white taffeta ribbon.

I'm really pleased with how quickly this order came together, and I think my friend will be very very happy. I think she knows I'm including her birthday card in the package, but I'll hold off posting it here until I'm sure she's gotten it.

Window Dressing

What?!? I haven't posted since July 28th? How can that be?? Well... okay, I confess, I got sidetracked. Between Netflix and Pogo, I've been a little distracted. Oh, and I did manage to clean up my worktable and a few other disaster areas. BUT, I'm back with a vengeance -- been stamping my heart out for a few days now. I must admit, it feels really good. I get out of sorts and off balance when I don't do creative stuff for awhile, and I think I pushed the limit this time. I'm so glad to be back to doing ME stuff!



For my first project, I racked my brains to come up with something special for my friend Fonda's birthday card (...because she is special, and I don't mean just short bus special). I decided to try the Chalkboard Technique, and you won't believe how beautifully the project turned out! I'm going to leave you in suspense, though, since I should hold off on posting the card until after her birthday, just in case she swings by before then to read this. Trust me, it'll be worth the wait!



Soooo... my next project was to make a set of sample cards for my upline (Hi, Hewitt!) using one of SU!'s new level 3 hostess sets, Window Dressing. Is this a gorgeous set or what?






This first card is partially CASE'd from a card I saw on SplitcoastStampers (if it's your design, speak up so I can give you credit!) I loved the layout and the color combination -- Baha Breeze, Apricot Appeal, Regal Rose -- and I got to play with my new scallop border punch. Aren't the curtains the cutest? OH! I have GOT to tell you: After years of staring at my Stamp-a-ma-Jig with fear and loathing, I finally made friends with it for these projects. Now I wonder, how could I ever have lived without it?? It's the best thing since sliced bread!






I like the boldness and simplicity of this next card. Colors are Pacific Point, Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, and Riding Hood Red. The "For You" is from the Happy Everything set. Sidenote: In the past I've grabbed ink from my inkpads with my blender pens to color with the "In Colors" since SU! doesn't offer markers in those colors. The result has been a kind of watercolor look, which is fine. However, this time around I invested in ink refills for this year's In Colors, and found that by dipping my blender pen in a drop of ink, I get bold coloring, just like I would from a marker! I know this may not be a news flash to a lot of you, but to me this is HUGE!






Here's a card that was fun to make! I colored the window image with blender pen and pastels (Close to Cocoa, Lovely Lilac, Riding Hood Red). Next I colored and cut out a second set of the shutters and placed them over the first ones with Stampin' Dimensionals, to create a 3-D look. I used the scallop circle punch to create the window valance, and accented it with my trusty white gel pen. Finally, I made a fence using the word window punch. A few flowers and gold brads later... voila!






I made two versions of the following card. The first one is for my upline and uses only current SU! products. The main colors are Apricot Appeal, Pacific Point, Baha Breeze, and Tangerine Tango. The leaves in the background are from the set Thoroughly Thankful. The photo doesn't show it very well, but the shutters are cut and folded slightly upward to give them the look of being partially open.






The second version is very similar, just minus one layer. I used the Rough Texture wheel on the background this time in hopes of creating a stucco look.






The only stamps in the Window Dressing set I hadn't used at this point were the snowmen and the Very Merry Christmas -- so naturally it was time to make Christmas cards. The card base on these is Pacific Point. I punched out a 1-3/8" circle in the front of the card, then used my new friend, the Stamp-a-ma-Jig, to stamp the snowmen on the inside of the card, which I had already layered with a scalloped piece of Whisper White. I created a frame for the circle using the scallop punch and then paper pierced each of the petals. I added the Very Merry Christmas to the inside and added color to the snowmen. One version of this card has the greeting at the bottom in black on white with a small crystal, but on the rest I used white craft ink and white embossing powder to make the greeting from Heard from the Heart really stand out.

First Christmas Cards of the Year

The "In Colors" Purely Pomegranite and Wild Wasabi together lend themselves perfectly to Christmas cards, so today I made the first of my holiday cards for 2007. They're simple, but still eye-pleasing, I think.

SU! stamps: Greetings Galore, Rough Texture Jumbo wheel
Ink: Pomegranite, Wasabi
Cardstock: Pomegranite, Wasabi, Vanilla
Other: Pomegranite double-stitched ribbon