Retro Birthday Card

My dear friend Cathy had a birthday last week, and I decided to go retro with her birthday card.  I pulled out a Stampin' Up! set call Smile from many many years ago, and updated it with current designer series paper and ribbon...

(Click to enlarge pictures.)

This birthday card was a quick one to make, and with hindsight I see where could have used some current embellishments in addition to the ribbon.  Such is the price I pay for making the card at the last minute and rushing it to the post office in hopes it would arrive on time (which it did!)!  Cathy, if you're reading this, I hope you had a wonderful birthday!

I have a ton (well, four sets) of cards and projects ready to post, but I will do so over the next few days, as I've recently learned that if I make several posts in one day, often the extra posts get overlooked. We can't have that!  

Until tomorrow, Happy Stamping!

Smiles,

Joyce Spear (a.k.a. StamperJoyce)

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?

Fifty Christmas Cards - Batch One

As I mentioned in a previous post, one of my neighbors has hired me to make 50 unique Christmas cards, 10 due on the first of the months of August through December.  Because I had nine cards in my "stash," I got a head start this month. I've made nine more cards, and still need to do two more to meet my September 1st deadline.  Below are the nine cards I've made so far.  If you'd like a larger view, just click on the photos.

Card 1:

Card 2:

Card 3:

Card 4:

Card 5:

Card 6:

Card 7:

Card 8:

Card 9:

I used Stampin' Up!'s retired Letters to Santa Designer Series paper as well as the coordinating self-adhesive die cuts.  I got both from the Clearance Rack in the Stampin' Up! store earlier this year, so this batch of cards was rather inexpensive to make.

I have lots of ideas for my next batches of cards, so stay tuned for the next installment.  I'll also have some ATCs to post soon, so I hope you'll enjoy all these creations!

Merry Christmas in August!

Joyce Spear (a.k.a. StamperJoyce)

  

Artist Trading Cards with a Pretty Bow

Last month was a busy month for ATCs for me, and I had a blast making these.

Swap:  Birds/birdcages (click on photo to enlarge)

Swap:  Pearls

Swap:  Mystery Image (corset on dress stand)

Swap:  Quote of the Month

Swap:  Buckaroos

I also downloaded a template from Stampin' Up!'s My Digital Studio to make these darling paper bows:

My goals this weekend are to finish up an embarrassingly overdue birthday card for my friend Margie, and hopefully have time left to work on Artist Trading Cards that are due September 1st.

Off to the stamping trenches,

Joyce Spear (a.k.a. StamperJoyce)

           

A Birthday Card!

A very dear friend of mine -- and my Stampin' Up! downline, too -- had a birthday recently, which gave me the opportunity to pull out the SU! Best of Birthdays set. She is quite fond of this year's In Colors, so I used them all!

It's hard to see in the picture, but some of the presents in the background have Dazzling Details (Stampin' Up!'s version of Stickles) on them for added bling. The Happy Birthday to You oval is clear embossed, which is easy to do even if you don't have a particular color in Craft (pigment) ink; just tap your stamp in VersaMark ink before loading it with Classic (dye) ink, stamp, and heat emboss using clear embossing powder as usual.  Cool, eh?  Here's the inside of the card:

The cupcake has a bit of Dazzling Details on it, too.

Happy Birthday once again, Chris!  I hope you enjoyed your card, and I wish you many more years of happiness and friendship!

Smiles,

Joyce Spear (a.k.a. StamperJoyce)

Language of Friendship

I just finished up a card that I'm entering in a challenge on the Paper Seedlings blog.  (Check it out, Linda does some pretty cards!)  For this challenge we were to use the Stampin' Up! colors of Island Indigo, Wild Wasabi, and So Saffron along with any neutral we'd like.  The theme of the card was "Friendship."  I decided it would be fitting to use the SU! set Language of Friendship.  Working with these colors was a challenge -- the neutral saved me! -- but I think I did okay:

And the inside:

A couple of my friends also participated in the challenge, so I can't wait to see the results.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I've taken on the job of making 50 unique Christmas cards for one of my neighbors.  He plans to give one card to each of the people in our senior community, his philosophy being "everybody should know what it feels like to own a piece of art made just for them."  My goal is to have at least 10 cards done by the first of each month August through December.  I'm currently two cards shy of my September 1 goal, but I'm using some of the cards I made earlier this year.  I'm going to have to work my butt off to keep up, but I am so very excited about this project.

'Tis also the season of birthdays, so I'll be posting some of the birthday cards I'll be sending soon.  I have some artist trading cards (ATCs) to post, too.  I hope you'll stick around to enjoy the ride!

Happy smiles,

Joyce Spear (a.k.a. StamperJoyce)