No Cake for David?

My oldest of four will be celebrating his birthday in the first week of March.  He is on the KETO diet, so he wants to say, "NO," to cake...can you imagine?!  I found it is now possible to purchase KETO ice cream, so we will be making an ice cream cake for his birthday.  He won't have to say NO to cake and he can have candles!  Now, I just had to get busy on a birthday card.

When I was last visiting my Mom, pre-COVID, I saw a card she made at her Stampin' Up demonstrator workshop.  I remember its sentiment from the stamp set, Amazing Life, and thought it would be perfect for my dieting son's card.  It also used the very masculine papers, In Good Taste, which I have, and thought one of the patterns might work nicely as well.  I decided to add a little black and a some recycle coppery foil (saved from an envelope insert...just too pretty to throw away!), plus a cupcake all work together.  Take a peek below at how my project evolved into David's finished card inside and out:

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up products:  Papers--Basic Black cs, Very Vanilla cs, In Good Taste dsp.  Copper Foil (saved from an envelope insert).  Stamps--Amazing Life (sentiment); Dies--Call Me Cupcake (framelits), Stitched Rectangles; Inks (sponging)--Bermuda Bay, Call Me Clover, Cherry Cobbler, Melon Mango; Clear Embossing Powder; 3/8" Black Shimmer ribbon; Metallic Brads.  Other:  Copic Markers.  Inside--Chatterbox verse.  EK Victorian Corner punch.  Size: 4-3/4" x 6."

A Daughter's Birthday!

My oldest daughter had a birthday at the end of June.  I have been absent from my craft room for most of the last five months, except for a card here or there, and I have missed making many cards for the special people in my life.  So, I said to myself, "You really must get your creative mojo going and get a card made for your lovely daughter."  And, so I did.  Here is the card that I found a bit of creativity to create for daughter, Michele!  She was very pleased to get a handmade birthday card from Mom.  I think she was surprised and figured I was still avoiding my craft room!

And, here is the inside design and verse.  I am desperately in need of a new printer...it just won't print a clear font; therefore, it is a bit blurry on several lines.

I decided to use my daughter's favorite colors on her card...teals and blues.  I wanted to use a hydrangea bouquet and remembered Stampin' Up's Bouquet Bunch framelits.  I sponged them with similar colors, but added a touch of lilac in the flowers, plus sparkly glitter to the flowers and sentiment die-cut.  I did trim my flower stems and branches just a touch to fit the die-cut framing size that I used.  I offset the die-cut framing to the left side to add a criss-cross ribbon lacing that I learned from fellow cardmaking, Liz Thayer, several years ago.  I used Lots of Labels to die-cut a Shimmer White mat to host my bouquet and stamped it with splatters using the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set and Highland Heather ink.  

Next, I die-cut eight of the four-petal flower bunch to overlay and overlap each other onto my flower stems to give the bouquet depth.  I sponged them with Pool Party, Tempting Turquoise, and Highland Heather inks.  After overlapping them to form the bouquet, I applied Wink of Stella-Clear for shimmer, but it didn't seem enough, so before it dried, I added Dazzling Diamonds glitter, which is really sparkly, but unfortunately, it does not show up in the photo.  I sponged white cardstock in the same inks to make the sentiment die-cut and inside petite scalloped corners.  I used glue stick to apply the sparkly glitter to these pieces as well after I had die-cut the sentiment and punched the corners. 

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up products:  Cardstocks--Pacific Point, Bermuda Bay, Shimmery White, Whisper White.  Inks--Pool Party, Tempting Turquoise, Highland Heather.  Stamps--Beautiful Bouquet.  Dies--Bouquet Bunch framelits, Lots of Labels.  Dazzling Diamonds Glitter.  Other:  Recollections Purple Passion.  BoBunny Kiwi Double Dot.  Cottage Cutz Expressions: Happy Birthday.  EK Punch: Medium Scallop Corner.  Offray double-stitch pale aqua ribbon.  Queen & Co. Iridescent Purple Goosebumps. Chatterbox verse.  Size: 4-3/4 x 6 in. 

Bubble Over with Happiness!

I wanted to make a happy and encouraging birthday card bubbling over with sunny thoughts for my  youngest daughter for her recent birthday.  Mom is a little behind playing catching with hand recovery.

I visited several SCS challenges to come up with some ideas, and I settled on two happy colors that kept popping up in all of my browsing. . .a rosy pink and yellow combination.  Those two words bubbling over stuck in my brain, and I remember a stamp set with a similar name.  A little research gave me Stampin' Up's Bubble Over set that features soda bottles, bubbles, and a bubble over sentiment.  That also brought to mind a card I started at a card class by Liz Thayer way back in early 2018 with this same stamp set.  I dug it out of my unfinished To-Do Stash, and I loved the look, so decided to continue with Liz's idea, though I liked a few more stamped bubbles and Glitter Enamel dots, as well as one more colorful mat layers and some corner punching to dress it up.  Take a look below at my Bubble Over card for my daughter's birthday.

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up products:  Cardstock--Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White.  Ink--Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight.  Stamps:  Bubble Over (2018-19 Annual retired), Life is Grand (2019 Occasions-retiring).  Dies:  Bottles & Bubbles Framelits (retiring June 2019).  Glitter Enamel Dots (retired).  Other:  1/4" ribbon (unknown).  WRMK Corner Punch: Deco.  Size: 4-3/4" x 6".

Miss Callie's First Birthday!

My granddaughter is having her first birthday!  Oh, how exciting and so much fun to make her a one-year old birthday card!  I've been busy making ice-cream cakes for the birthday party event, so have left myself little time to get her birthday card finished!  I did start on it because I wanted to try a technique that I've been eyeing for more than a year called Faux Tile Sponging, which is similar to Delft Tiling, except you don't stamp a pattern on the tiles to get a similar look to Delft pottery.  The two techniques are similar in that you do make a diagonal grid scored background on both and sponge ink onto scored grid by using a mask over your score lines and sponging color onto the edges of your tiles. 

Before I figured out what cute focal point I wanted to use or planned my layout design, I visited the Splitcoaststamper challenges forum to see what inspiration I might find.  I planned to use the Alphabet Challenge, Round 8, Letter Y for yellow, but when mojo arrived from the Inspiration Challenge, I decided to go with Letter G for giraffe!  I found the foundation for my layout by visiting the Featured Stamper's gallery of Bronwyn Eastley.  I did modified Bronwyn's original layout quite a bit to make it fit my baby theme for my card!   Take a look below at granddaughter Callie's birthday card, plus the inside design with Grandma's created verse.  I'm thinking she will like it, especially when she's around four to five years old!

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up cardstock:  Very Vanilla, Lemon-Lime Twist.  Stampin' Up Ink: Daffodil Yellow, Lemon-Lime Twist.  Precious Moments Coloring Pages digital image.  Copic Markers.  Wink of Stella-Clear.  Die: unknown/ gift.  Ribbon: stash.  Stampin' Up Pearls.  Technique: Faux Tile Sponging.  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".