Birthday Panda for a Young Niece!

My first niece on my side of the family will be having her eleventh birthday  in June.  I need to get a card made and off in the mail.  I bought a card kit from Stampin' Up, which I usually do not do, but I loved the papers and colors, which remind me of the colors in a challenge provided by Spiltcoaststampers.  The kit provides four card designs and materials to make four of each design.  I really did not want to have four cards all the same, so I've been venturing forth mixing and matching the kit materials, plus adding others to come up with my own designs.

My niece is right at that in-between age when she may or may not like fuzzy animals on her birthday cards, but with the help of some inspiration from a second Splitcoasterstampers challenge, I wanted to use a panda bear on her card.  I still LOVE panda bears, so I'm hoping she might enjoy them too!  For this card, I used materials from three of the kit's card designs, plus added some additional cardstock colors and a panda stamp as well.  Take a peek below at my cute little panda card...hope the recipient likes it!

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up products:  Cardstock--Whisper White, Old Olive, Flirty Flamingo.  Stamps--Perfect Pandas (2018 SAB).  Ink--Old Olive, Baked Brown Sugar (ink distressing).  Punch: Scallop Border (ret.).  Perennial Birthday Kit (2018 Occ):  materials from three different card designs: denim/ gold dsp, floral dsp + balloon die-cuts + Dapper Denim twine.  Other: Memento Tuxedo Black Ink; Spellbinder dies: Long Scallop Rectangles SM (modified).  Chatterbox verse. Size: 4-3/4" x 6".

Birthday Balloons for a Sister-in-Law Birthday!

Now for my last female family birthday card for early days in October.  This next card is for my husband's sister who lives in Utah.  I chose a card that I made at a girls' get-together given by my Stampin' Up upline, Liz Thayer, for a few of us back in March of this year.  I know I say this a lot, but it's true every time. . .I absolutely loved this card. . .everything about it.  These Stampin' Up shades of aqua blues are my very favorite:  Pool Party and Bermuda Bay.  If Liz had thrown in Coastal Cabana, then I would have been over the moon!  LOL

I finished every part of this card's assembly at our fun little get-together with Liz.  I was thrilled she used the Irresistibly Yours dsp, which is a white pre-embossed paper to be sponge colored whatever shade you wish.  We, of course, sponged ours with Pool Party ink.  The only thing left to finish my card completely was to create a suitable inside design and birthday verse, and these I was able to do in May while in Mt. Shasta, California.  It is ready to be sent off to Judy for her birthday, and I think she will be delighted with her card.

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up products:  Cardstocks--Pool Party, Bermuda Bay.  Pattern--Irresistibly Yours dsp.  Stamps--Kinda Eclectic (sun), Balloon Celebration.  Ink--Pool Party (balloons/ sun/ distressing), Bermuda Bay (birthday/ balloon sprinkles/ verse).  Punch:  Balloon Bouquet, Curvy Corners (inside/ retired).  Dazzling Diamonds Glitter adhesive.  Metallic Silver cord (2015 Holiday).  Sequins--2013-2015 In-Color Asst. (2014-15 Annual).  Papertrey Ink stamps:  Tuck In Birthday (verse).  Size:  4-1/4" x 5-1/2".

A Birthday for My Niece Who Turns 10!

It's time to celebrate my little niece, who lives here where I am visiting.  Another card that I finished on my Girls' Get-Away to Mt. Shasta was one I started at a cardmaking class hosted by Dara Peterson and Luci Kirschbaum, a partnership of two Stampin' Up demonstrators.  Their classes are always fun to go to, and the other cardmakers make it a fun gathering one doesn't want to miss!

This is what I would call a "clean and simple" card, which is not always my favorite style of card to make as I usually favor cards with lots more detail and fussiness, but I really like this card's color combinations, with the little balloons and the washi tape application so it moved to my "I'm likin' this one" category!  I did add another layer of color with the black cardbase under the Melon Mambo layer.  I just thought it needed just a bit more and made the other colors pop!  Thanks to Luci Kirschbaum for her design for us to make).

True to my cardmaking style, I set myself to design and inside to coordinate with the front card design.  I chose a retired stamp for the verse, as I wanted to color it with Copics to tie in the rich vibrant colors depicted on the card front. 

Recipe:  Stampin' Up products:  Cardstock--Black, Melon Mambo, Whisper White.  Stamps:  Party Wishes (balloons/ sentiment), Big Day (2015 SAB).  Ink--Melon Mambo, Crushed Curry, Mint Macaron; Memento-Tuxedo Black.  Punch--Party Punch Pack-balloon, Curvy Corners (inside).  Washi--It's My Party (2016 Occasions).  Twine: Thick-Blace/Melon Mambo.  Other: Goosebumps--Queen & Co.-Hot Pink Quartz (inside).

More Celebrations in My Brother's Household

My sister-in-law, Diane, celebrates her birthday in May, and I definitely needed to send her a card to let her know I am thinking about her and sending her happy wishes.  She has been under the weather a bit as well, so I wanted to be sure to get her birthday card off in time.  With my short timeline due to vacationing to visit my Mom in California, I chose to use a birthday card that I made in a January card class.  I loved this design just as it was presented, so I re-created my card just as shown in Liz Thayer's original design.

I just love balloon cards for birthdays, and I especially liked the glitter effect added to each of the tri-colored balloons.  It gave them a sensational look with the sentiment nestled amongst these balloons and featured center-front.  The two-layer die-cut shapes in black and white really set off the sentiment and made it pop!  Take a look below at my finished card:

Featured below is my completed card interior.  I chose to create a design using colors that coordinated with the card's front, and I also made up a little verse to fit the birthday occasion.

Recipe:  Stampin' Up Products:  Cardstocks:  Basic Black Whisper White, Wisteria Wonder, Marine Mist.  Stamp--Birthday Celebration.  Ink--Basic Blake, Wisteria Wonder, Pink Pirouette, Marine Mist.  Punches--Baloon Bouquet, Curvy Corner, Petite Petals, Itty Bitty Accent/ Flower. Die--Lots of Labels Framelits.  Pearls.  Stash: Pink Rhinestone Flowers (inside).  Size:  4-1/4" x 5-1/2". 

Belated Wishes Little Niece #1's January Birthday!

Two of my nieces, who are sisters, have birthdays in January.  The oldest is first, and she celebrated her sixth birthday.  I had in mind to make a birthday card with balloons on it.  I don't have any dies to cut out balloons, so I decided to use my Spellbinder Ovals to imitate a balloon and found a good idea on Pinterest of using the owl's feet from the Stampin' Up Owl Builder Punch for the balloons "blow-up valve."  What a great idea. . .it worked perfectly!

I have seen numerous cards that have tied balloons to a bicycle die cut.  I thought it would be a great idea to tie my birthday balloons to the handle bars of the old-fashioned, penny-farthing bicycle from Stampin' Up's 2014 SAB Feeling Sentimental stamp set.  For some reason, finding just the right papers for my card became my next challenge.  After much indecision, I finally settled on October Afternoon's Cakewalk birthday papers for the major portion of the card's designer papers.  

I am pretty happy with the way this little card turned out, but just after I finished creating the card front, I realized the card will be late.  Evidentally, I entered the wrong date for Taylor's birthday in my date book.  This forced me to come up with just the right inside birthday verse acknowledging and sending belated birthday wishes.  I hope Taylor likes her finished card inside and out!  (Hmmm...do you suppose that's where the phrase better late than never came from?)

Recipe:  DCWV 12x12 Cardstock Stack (kraft).  DCWV Glitter Red.  October Afternoon: Cakewalk-Paper Straws (diag. stripe)/ Sugar Stix (ray collage).  BoBunny Double Dot: Buttercup Dot.  Carta Bella: It's A Celebration/ Candles (backside).  Pinecone Press: Sweet Plaid.  Stampin' Up Very Vanilla cs.  SU stamps:  Feeling Sentimental (2014 SAB); Happiest Birthday Wishes.  SU Ink:  Mossy Meadow.  Dies:  Lifestyle Nesting Scallop Squares ;  Spellbinders Ovals (balloons);  SU Stars Framelits.  SU Owl Builder punch: feet.  Stash:  Gold Metallic Twine; Glitter Brads.  Distressing: Colorbox Chestnut Roan.  EK Corner Punch: Medium Scallops.  Size: 5-3/4" square.

A 2011 Valentine for Each of My Two Sons

On a roll with masculine Valentine cards, I thought I should attempt those I needed to make for my sons, David and Mark.  

Because I had this idea of threading a ribbon through the sentiment, David did get a ribbon and bow.  After finishing the card, I came to the conclusion that I could have used a fishtail knotted ribbon instead of a bow, but that just didn't come to mind until I was all done. . .so a bow he got!  I liked his card even with the "prissy" bow, but at least it was black!

My next card was for my son, Mark, and his wife, Ginger.  Because he has a wife, I figured I could fudge on the totally masculine card, after all it is for her too!  Though you can't see it well, the hearts on the balloons have the letters that spell out LOVE U.