A Nephew Celebrates His October Birthday!

I've just finished my last October birthday card that I am able to complete before my trip to Las Vegas.  I will have four more October birthday cards to complete upon my return. . .two of the feminine variety and two more of the masculine variety.  When I'm all done, I will have completed thirteen cards in all for this month, with seven of them being for men!  Now, that's a record for male cards in one month. . .and I have already finished five of those seven.  Surprisingly, my creative juices were flowing at full speed for these masculine cards, because normally, I find myself struggling to come up with designs without struggling a bit, especially when I'm under pressure.  I am pre-posting all these cards I have just completed so they will appear while I am away.  This way my blog does not look like I am neglecting it, when in truth I am until I return from my trip.

This final card that I created and am ready to post is for one of my nephew from my sister's side of the family.  I know Davis likes to hunt, but I am not sure that it is for pheasant, though he does do wild turkeys for sure.  But, I so wanted to use a Stampin' Up stamp set that I bought several years ago but have never used.  I think it is great for masculine cards, and it is named Walk in the Wild.  

In making this card, I decided to use a technique that I've always like, but not used for quite awhile---a form of edge distressing by fraying the edge of the paper with an open pair of scissors.  (There is also a fraying tool that can be purchased, but I find the scissors work just as well if not better.)  I followed this distressing with ink distressing on the frayed edges.  These two distressing techniques give cards that worn and vintage look that I think lends itself well to men's cards.

My next step was to decide on papers.  Since I decided this card would have a vintage feel to it, and because it was for a man, I decided browns and dark blues would be good.  At this point, the rest of the card design fell together quite rapidly, and I finished it in record time.  My final step, as is traditional in all my cards, was to create the inside to coordinate with my outside design and choose or make up a verse that befits the occasion.  Take a peak below at my finished card, inside and out.  I think Davis will enjoy his specially design card, just for him!

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up products:  Cardstock--Early Espresso, Midnight Muse (retired), Soft Suede, Natural Ivory (inside/ retired).  Pattern:  Natural Composition Specialty dsp (retired).  Stamps: Walk in the Wild.  Ink: Burnt Brown Sugar (distressing).  Ribbon: 7/8" Cotton (retired).  Spellbinders dies:  Ovals SM; Big Scallop Ovals LG (modified).  Impression Obsession dies: Instant Photo Frames Corners (inside).  Computer sentiment/ verse.  Size:  4-1/2" x 5-3/4".

A Niece Has A Birthday to Celebrate!

One of my sister's girls has an October birthday.  In fact, it is on the same day as my son, Mark's, birthday and my husband's youngest sister.  I also have yet to make a card for my great nephew who celebrates on the exact same day.  What a busy day!  I guess in some ways it's good that we don't all live close enough to visit or it could be a problem!

I'm into making fall cards...just love the color combinations of autumn!  Our dinner-plate-sized Maple leaves are beginning to fall, but as it has been a lovely and warmer fall than usual, the leaves were slower to get ready to abandon their high perches. Though by Halloween, we should be wading in them knee deep!

With falling leaves in mind, I thought I'd make my niece a colorful leaf birthday card in the shape of our Maple leaves to remind her of her brief time living in Washington.    My next step was to design an interior that coordinated with the card front, and then compose a verse that fit the occasion.  Shauna's card would another that would arrive a bit late due to all my fast-paced family activities during the past three weeks.  I hope she enjoys her fall leaves card as much as I enjoyed putting it together!

Recipe:

Paper:  SU Natural Ivory (base), Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla, Pool Party; Echo Park Fall Fever-Journaling Leaves.  MME-So Sophie: Celebrate (grid).  Basic Grey-Pattern Paper:  Archaic Ancient.  Dies: SU Autumn Accents Bigz; Spellbinders Labels 12.  Punches: Scallop Edge Border; (Inside: EK: Medium Scallop Corner).  Other: SU: Button.  May Arts Twine.

Easter Bunny Ready to Travel!

Late last night, I finally finished my last Easter card.  I have been on a roll using my newly invented stash of vintage Easter images that you have heard me talking about off and one for the last three weeks.  I needed another masculine Easter card and selected this cute little bunny with spectacles, who looks like he's ready to make a journey.  My guess is he is making his annual journey to color Easter eggs, and I surmise that the big egg in his basket backpack is his egg-coloring kit.  How's that for some imagination!

I found a wonderful stripe in my paper stash by Fancy Pants that matches my bunny image colors just right.  I decided all stripe was just too much, and since I seem to be using combinations of geometric paper patterns in the background of most of my Easter card so far, I might as well stick to my groove, right?  I framed this little rabbit by re-enforcing the thickness of one of the background papers, cut it out with the Spellbinders Deckled Rectangles, which had to be modified so all edges would be the same thickness, sprayed it with adhesive glue, and added a thin coat of fine crystal glitter.  I was satisfied with my results, but wished I had taken time to sewing machine a straight stitch on the striped segments and entirely around the outer edge of as well, but time was limited, so here is my finished card, which will be for my husband:

Recipe:  Papers:  Stampin' Up Very Vanilla cs (base); Fancy Pants Beach Bum-Hawaiian Stripes; AdornIt Vintage Groove-Polka Dot Green; Recollections Basics-Blue Pinstripe.  Spellbinders dies: Deckled Rectangles LG, Rectangles LG.  Vintage online Easter image.  HugSnug seam binding: Blue Jay, Moss Green.  Queen&Co.: Twinkle Goosebumps.

My husbad's striped Easter card fits the Shabby Tea Room's Week #214 Challenge, which requires the use of polka dots or stripes, so I thought I put it into the challenge as my second entry.  The challenge's inspiration photo tells you your card should be Easter-oriented as well.

Don't forget to visit The Shabby Tea Room at the link below to take a look-see at all the wonderful entries:

http://theshabbytearoom.blogspot.com/2014/04/week-214-easter-sweetness.html

Sister-in-law Number. . .What Number is She??? I'm Losing Track!!!

My husband's sister, Joanie's, birthday is in August, so I needed to get busy and get a card made for her.  I had a two-year-old card kit, purchased at the Paradise Scrapbook Boutique in Chico, CA, that I had been wanting to make up.  Because it was designed as a smaller card than I like to make (silly me), I had to do a little tinkering.  

I had the paper that was in the card kit in my own stash, and I was very glad that I had the same hot pink Wasabi measuring tape, because that provided in the kit got stuck together while wrapped up.  I began by making a new Vanilla cardbase to add another layer and to make it larger than the blue provided, thus I was able to use the blue cardbase for matting both inside and out.  I moved some of the design elements from vertical to horizontal and placed my bird a bit farther to the left allowing for my added petite banner birthday sentiment.  Stampin' Up does not yet have a "Happy Birthday" stamp to fit their Bitty Banner Framelits, so I came up with my own idea to use Microsoft Word's WordArt to make my own wavy banner sentiment.  With a little fiddling, I was able to get it just the right shape and size to fit the die frame. . . I was so excited! ( I see many possibilities in the future!)  I really liked this card's original design, so my re-design creation basically retains the flavor of the original with a bit of tweaking here and there and a few enlarging additions.  I hope Joanie likes my bird's birthday message flown to her across the miles to the Midwest!

Recipe:  SU Pool Party cs. BoBunny Double Dot-Blush Dot. Le Paper Cafe Wasabi measuring tape. SU Bitty Banners Framelits. EK Success Victorian Corner punch. Hug Snug Seam Binding-Limoges Blue. Colorbox Chestnut Roan (distressing). Sentiment: Computer-made for Bitty Banners Framelit). Kit provided: Accu-Cut Bird die #10 (Swallow), Pink pattern paper/chipboard (for bird), Lt. blue cardstock, Pattern papers, Blue button, 1/8" Lt. pink ribbon, mini flower.