It's a Minnie for Birthday #2

I am catching up on some missed birthday cards during my hand surgeries that are for my oldest granddaughter's keepsake box.  I needed a card for my sweet girl's birthday number two.  She loved the books I gave her featuring Minnie Mouse.  Whenever I made a visit, she would pile them haphazardly on my lap and climb up next to me on the couch, jabbering away as she turns the pages.  Even though there was much I did not understand, every now and then I catch the words "Minnie Mouse" in a somewhat strange diction, but yet, ever so clear.  Thus, I thought that this catch-up birthday card would be perfect featuring Minnie Mouse.

I made a "punch art" Minnie Mouse card a few months ago for another granddaughter's second birthday to coordinate with her birthday party theme.  It also coordinated with her Minnie Mouse dress-up doll, garbed in the signature colors of red and white polka dots, so I wanted to do something a little different with this new card.   A few years ago on Pinterest, I saw several ideas using Stampin' Up's Swirly Bird stamp/ die set making Mickey or Minnie Mouse cards.  I thought I'd like to try my hand at one.   Take a look below at my finished card, along with its inside verse and design:

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up products:  Cardstocks--Melon Mambo, Basic Black, Whisper White.  Patterned DSP--Pop of Pink (2016 Annual).  Stamps--Swirly Bird, Thoughtful Banners (both 2016-18 ret.).   Inks--Melon Mambo, Memento: Tuxedo Black.  Punches--Bow Builder (2015 Occ./ 2016 Annual), Duet Banner (2016 Annual).  Twine--Black & White.  Pearls (Copic colored).  Other:  EK punch---Victorian Corners.

Birthday Niece #1 Turns A BIG Four!

I have two great nieces who have birthdays in late September.  For niece #1, I decided to use a little punch art to make a cute little girly dress on her card for her special day.  Over the last several years, I have seen several little girl dresses on card on Pinterest, some  done with punch art and some with dies.  Needing to get my creative juices flowing, I decided to re-visit "little girl punch art dresses" on Pinterest to see what I could find.  I found one that looked like a little tutu made from pink vellum for the skirt, using Stampin' Up's Blossom Builder Punch, which is now retired, but, I am happy to say is part of my tool stash.  

Looking at this Pinterest card brought to mind several little girls I had seen shopping with their Moms wearing tutu-style dresses, as it seems to currently be a part of a lot little girls' wardrobes.  These dresses seem to come in all types of styles and fabrics from really frilly and fancy silky fabrics with ruffled tulle layers to a little more casual style with a knit top and gathered ruffles layered about three layers deep.  

Well, my juices were flowing. . .I would use my seldom used Blossom Builder punch to make my skirt and my Spellbinders Decorative Dress dies for the bodice.  I would not use tulle or vellum, but rather complimentary paper patterns.   My little tutu dress card is VERY girly and VERY pink, and I think my two-year old great niece will love her new little dress card.  Take a look below at the finished card, both inside and out.

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up Shimmery White.  Darice Core'dinations cardstock pack: Soft Side.  BoBunny Tutu Double Dot.  Recollection Glitter Iridescent White cardstock.  Recollections Itsy Bitsy Ditsy: Cherry Pie (floral).  Stampin' Up sentiment stamp:  Teeny Tiny Wishes.  Stampin' Up Ink: Melon Mambo.  Stampin' Up Labels Framelits.  Stampin' Up Punches: Blossom Builder, Curvy Corners; Word Window (all retired).  Ribbon: Stampin' Up-Melon Mambo 1/8" Taffeta; Offray 3/4" pink check.  Size: 6-1/8" x 5-1/4".

Welcome to My Newest Great Niece!

My little niece, Adelyn, was born at the very end of September, and I fully planned to get a card made and sent off with a gift right away, because I so love making baby cards!  Somehow, here it is in the middle of January and I'm just finishing her card now!  Yikes. . .what happened???

Some months back (imagine that), I decided I wanted to make a baby card with a little giraffe on it.  First, I was going to use Stampin' Up's Zoo Babies, but then I saw a card on Pinterest with a cute little digital image giraffe that was paper pieced.  I tried to find that giraffe, but the card was made about four years ago, and the company was no longer in business.  Just the other day, I did a Google search for giraffe black and white illustrations, and that search found me many cute giraffes to choose from.  I love, love this little girl giraffe that I chose, and when I found the papers that I ended up using, I knew just what I would do with my coloring for this cute little creature!  I'm pretty please with the end result, and I hope my niece enjoys her baby's little card as well.  I'm going shopping tomorrow for a gift card to tuck inside for something that's just right for Baby Girl Adelyn.

Card inside greetings:

Recipe:  Stampin' Up cardstocks: Whisper White (base), Daffodil Yellow, Pretty-in-Pink (ret.).  K&Co.: Susan Wright Spring Blossom Specialty Pad.  Spellbinders die: Romantic Rectangles. Giraffe Digital image: Thingkid.com Coloring Page.  Copic markers.  Elmer's Craft Bond Spray Adhesive.  Stampin' Up Dazzling Diamonds Glitter.  WRMK Corner Deco Chomper.  Stash: organdy scallop ribbon/ yellow glitter heart button.  Ribbon tonal color change with Copic RV-11.  Handmade Fishtail Flags with computer-sentiment - Tempus Sans ITC 14 Bold.  (Inside: WRMK Corner Deco Chomper.  EK Medium Scallop Corner punch.)   Size: 6" x 5-1/2."

My Niece Has Her 7th Birthday!

I've decided to enter into a few challenges this week after making my little niece's birthday card:

Love to Create #118 - Happy Birthday
Crafting From the Heart #21 - Anything Goes
Cards Galore Encore - Digi or stamp
Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper June Challenge
Crafty Creations #264 - It's About "S" - Sweet Seven, Scallop Lace/ Borders
The Shabby Tearoom-Week-221 - Vintage Love

Visit their websites to see all their fabulous design team samples and other entries.

The Card Story:  My little niece is having her 7th birthday in mid-June!  She is a beautiful child with gorgeous eyes and hair and very much a girly girl.  I decided a very pink card would be  just right for her with a lovely lacy pink dress to grace its front. . .very girly girl!

Out came the Stampin' Up Dress Up Framelits for the dress form, but I decided to use the Spellbinders' Decorative Dress Forms dies for the little puffy sleeve dress, using only the bodice and cupcake liners for its skirt.  Note: I did have to trim the dress a bit from under the arms and down to the waist to make it fit perfectly.  To do this, after cutting the puffy sleeve dress with the die, I cut off the skirt about 1/2" below the waist (as it is shorter waisted than the Framelit dress form), I traced the dress form outline onto my cut bodice and cut along the traced lines, and I trimmed out the curve of the bodice neckline just a bit to add paper doily lace to its new lower scoop, as well as to the bottom of the puff sleeves.  The shoulders of the two dress dies match perfectly.  I sponged the bodice top with the Stampin' Up Pretty in Pink (retired) ink pad to blend with the skirt color a bit better.  I gathered one organza rosette cut from ribbon trim, making it into a little flower bud and sponging it with the same ink to add to the dress waist.  I was pleased with my little pink dress for Audrey's birthday card.  I hope she enjoys her card as much as I enjoyed  making it.

Following is a picture of the card and the little verse I made to go inside.  Again, I apologize for the blurriness.  As before, the equipment available to me while traveling is not what I use to when at home.  I do hope you can enjoy the card and can visualize it as if it were shown to perfection.

Recipe:  Stampin' Up papers: Wild Wasabi cs (card base), Crumb Cake cs.  Recollections/ Essentials Distressed.  Tapestry/ Geo Breeze.  K&Co./ Watercolor Bouquet Specialty Pad.  Stampin' Up: Dress Up Framelits (dress form); Eyelet Border punch (retired); Ink: Pretty in Pink; Pearls.  Spellbinder dies: Decorative Dress Forms (puff-sleeve dress)/ Labels 4.  Zutter Corner rounder.  Wilton: 4" White Doilies; Baking Cups.  Michaels: Celebrate It-Luxe: White Rosette ribbon.  Stash ribbon: Pink satin; lace.  Colorbox Cat Eye: Chestnut Roan (distressing).  EK punch: Fancy Photo Corners (inside).

Happy Birthday Little One!

Two great nieces, who are sisters, share January birthdays.  I was starting to think about Paisley's first birthday coming up at the end of the month,when I came across this cute little vintage baby girl image.  It inspired me to do a very girly vintage card in pinks...a color I don't seem to have used a lot in making cards, so I was excited to get started.  

After trying out a sunburst ray background card a few weeks ago and enjoying its effect and how easy it was to do, I was anxious to try it again but with sewing stitches.  I really thought this would be a very cute idea with this little girl image.  So, the hunt was on for papers in pink to fit the image.  I got a little carried away and used six different papers for my rays, plus another for a background mat as well.  I got out my sewing machine and added the machine stitching down the rays and zigzags to finish off the outer perimeter.  I think it really adds to the finished look of the card, and I am please with the results.

For the image framing and the sentiment background, I reinforced the cardstock weight by adhering the pink cardstock to a cream cardstock using an adhesive spray glue.  I used Spellbinders Lattice die to cut out the frame.  After cutting the lattice frame out, I sprayed the front surface with adhesive spray. While it was still "wet," I sprinkled it with fine iridescent white glitter with pink sparkles and tapped off the excess. A friend told me how she used adhesive spray to create the snow falling glitter on her Christmas cards. "The cheapest brand works great," she said.  And, it does work great and is very easy to do!

Below is the finished front and inside of Paisley's little birthday card with papers and embellishments to coordinate.  I hope Paisley likes her little "Can Can Cherub!"

Recipe:  Paper: Darice Kraft-base, BoBunny-Vicki B./ Perky-mat, Scrapbook Walls/ Rosey Bouquet, DCWV: Le Tres Chic Stack, Authentique: Cherish Two, Crate Paper: Farmhouse/ Handpicked, Anna Griffin: AG1467, DCWV: Garden Tea Party Stack, Authentique: Cherish One. Darice Pink cs.  Spellbinder Dies: Lattice; Rectangles SM. Stampin'Up punch: Modern Labels. Offray crochet lace. Stash: Satin-sheer 1" ribbon. Computer-made sentiment: Christine font. Homemade crochet flower.