birthday · Sentiments

Birthday Cake

Welcome to the midway point of the week. Why does it always seem like the summer goes by in a flash? We’ve had a busy week this week with junior police academy going on, but the kiddo seems to be enjoying it and is learning a lot about what goes in to being a law enforcement officer. I love that he’s finding a new respect for police officers and ALL that they do behind the scenes!

This week, we’re designing our cards around sentiments. And you might be wondering why I chose this particular design theme, and I must admit it’s because I couldn’t choose a bundle or suite to feature. Lol! Seriously though, I find it challenging sometimes to use my sentiments in new or exciting ways and I always find design themes a great way to think outside the box. Today, we’re pairing up the With You in Mind stamps with the Wildflower Birthday pieces and Beautiful Bokeh paper to create this easy z-fold.

We start our card with a base of Sea Foam Green cardstock and score as usual and then score one side in half again to create our Z fold. I chose a sheet of Beautiful Bokeh that has a lot of colors from the Soft Subtles palette as my background. This sheet is cut into 2-inch strips, leaving just a little edge on all sides, and adhered to each of our panels with the inside panel having a base layer of white to which we adhere the Bokeh strip so that it peeks through to the front when the card is closed. Next up, we cut a focal panel from the blue pastel ombre glimmer paper using the Textured Notes dies. I chose a large cake and a few balloons from the Wildflower Birthday paper pack (punched from the tag sheet) as the focal images. The cake is adhered to the focal panel with dimensionals in the center toward the top of the panel. The happy birthday sentiment from With You in Mind is stamped in Versamark and Coastal Cabana on a sheet of Coastal Cabana cardstock. It’s then heat embossed with some glitter embossing powder. I cut around the sentiment with paper snips leaving a nice shaped border on all sides. The sentiment is adhered over the cake stand at the bottom of the sentiment panel on a double layer of dimensionals. I tucked the balloon strings behind the sentiment, adhering the tails with glue dots, and then popped up the balloons themselves on either side of the cake on several layers of dimensionals. The focal panel is adhered to the left panel of the card (when the card is closed), leaving the right side free-floating so that the Z fold opens cleanly. We finish things off with some In Color shimmer gems.

Tomorrow we’re making our own patterned paper to help feature our sentiment. Stop in and check it out!

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Masculine Designs

Masculine Birthday Wishes

This week, we’re designing around the theme of nature. And I can’t think of a better way to reflect nature than with a mountain scene! The beautiful Grove collections (In the Grove and Grassy Grove) by Stampin’ Up! are perfect for creating beautiful scenic panels like this one.

We get started with a base of Early Espresso cardstock. The background panel of the darker woodgrain sheet from the Country Woods paper pack is matted with a sheet of the Old Olive Season of Elegance paper. The sentiment from Simply Said is heat embossed in gold centered underneath the focal panel. The mountain scene is stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock using a combination of gray and green shades. The mountain stamp is from In the Grove, while the grasses are a combination of In the Grove and Grassy Grove stamps. I filled in the shading of the sky and grass with a combination of blending brushes but chose to simply use them as they sat in my storage bin for an even subtler shading effect. I used the birds from the all-too-fun Friendly Seagulls stamp set to add realism to the sky above the mountain range. The scenic panel is mounted on Basic Black cardstock and then affixed to the background panel. I wrapped some gold thread around the panel before affixing it to the card base. A few copper sequins from the neutrals set add a touch of sparkle to draw the eye to the sentiment.

This is one design that didn’t need a single dimensional. And if you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know how rarely that happens! *snicker* This is the perfect design for a quick masculine design and could be suitable for any number of occasions.

I hope you’ll pop in tomorrow to check out an ode to spring!

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birthday

Day to Celebrate

We’re winding up our spring break week, and although it’s been a little windy, we’ve had beautiful weather to enjoy our time together. I worked the end of the week, so getting back into the groove has been a little challenging with us mostly being off our regular schedule. But hopefully we’ll all get back in the swing next week.

Today, I had a little time to whip up a simple birthday card. Not only does the kiddo have a birthday coming up, but we have several of his friends to celebrate with, as well. So I turned to the cute Wildflower Birthday paper pack for design inspiration for this card.

We get started with a base of Summer Splash cardstock. I cut a piece of the Lovely Garden polka dot paper using the Textured Notes dies to serve as the backdrop for the focal panel. Next up is the focal panel which is a sheet of the Wildflower Birthday foiled paper cut with the Perennial Postage dies. I fussy cut a cupcake from one of the smaller diecut elements from the birthday paper pack as the focal image and matted it with a gold foil circle cut with the Spotlight on Nature dies. I love how this really makes the cupcake pop against the fun patterns of the background. A twist of Summer Splash bordered ribbon gives that extra pop of color and pulls the eye to the center of the design. The sentiment from Day to Celebrate is stamped in Summer Splash on white cardstock and diecut using the Mixed Labels dies. A few Sunny Day iridescent dots add a subtle glimmer on either side of the focal panel.

I intentionally made this card in a more neutral color palette so the kiddo could give it to any one of his friends who is celebrating a birthday without having to worry about it being too girly or too masculine. This layout is one that is simple to replicate for any number of occasions, which makes this one a layout for the sketch book!

Next week is all about nature. I hope you’ll come along with me as we take a tour through the crafty stash to see what we can whip up with this theme.

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Fun Folds · Sale-a-Bration

Toadstool Birthday

We’re continuing our patterns & sentiments design series as we tiptoe through the toadstools today. It’s been a long while since I’ve made an angled gatefold card, and I saw the cutest card using the Sale-a-Bration Toadstool Gardens designer series paper. So I’m taking a stab at this fun fold using our patterns & sentiments design theme.

Our card starts with Peach Pie cardstock. Each of the angled flaps are covered with a pattern from the Toadstool Gardens paper pack. I added some additional patterned texture o the purple stripe panel by running it through the machine embossed using the Birch Wood embossing folder. To bring out the woodgrain pattern, I then went over the top with a Fresh Freesia ink pad. The sentiment panel has two base layers. I cut the circle from Petal Pink glimmer paper using the Spotlight on Nature dies while the long hexagon is cut from Fresh Freesia glimmer paper using the Nested Essential dies. The sentiment from With You in Mind is stamped in Fresh Freesia on white cardstock and then cut out using paper snips. Before assembling the sentiment base layers, I adhered some Fresh Freesia seam binding ribbon in between and then adhered the panel to the left panel with dimensionals. The sentiment is adhered with a few extra layers of dimensionals to ensure that it stands out on the center panel. A few shiny sequins finish things off with a little sparkle. You can find the full PDF tutorial here.

Tomorrow we’ll be pairing up a sketch with our pattern & sentiment design theme. I hope you’ll pop by and check it out!

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Inspiration

Birthday Waves

This week, our designs are focused on the combination of texture and sentiments. Today, I’m veering away from the simplicity of the design theme just a smidge as I incorporate more products in this design as we combine the Soft Waves embossing folder with the Wildflower Birthday accessories. And you may notice that while this design has a lot more accoutrement, it lacks nothing in the texture department – from embossing to chunky glimmer paper, there’s a lot going on here!

Our card gets started with a base of Flirty Flamingo cardstock. The background is a quarter-sheet of Flirty Flamingo that has been machine embossed with the Soft Waves embossing folder and then mounted on a mat of Night of Navy cardstock. Our focal section has a lot of elements from the Wildflower Birthday accessories, including the strip of blue polka-dotted paper that serves as the anchor element. Then we have the foiled and striped tag that serves as the base for everything else in our focal panel. Our cupcakes sit atop a piece of the pastel ombre glimmer paper that is diecut with the Mixed Labels dies and the small circle cut with the Spotlight on Nature dies. Dimensionals provide some depth and give plenty of room for our pop of gold thread. The sentiment from Simply Said is stamped in Night of Navy on white and then cut with paper snips and mounted on top of the decorative banner cut with the Mixed Labels die from a sheet of Petunia Pop glimmer paper. Petal Pink foil gems finish things off and tie all our peachy colored elements together.

Tomorrow we’ll be pairing up our weekly design theme with a sketch. Any guesses on what catalog I may choose?

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Coming Soon · Fun Folds

Happy Birthday Deer

Do you ever see a card design and think, “man, that’s brilliant!” as you’re scrolling Pinterest or some other platform for inspiration? There are some cards that are just show stoppers! Today’s tri-fold card design was inspired by a stunning card posted by fellow demonstrator Stamp With Amy K, and as soon as I saw it, I knew that I had to give it a try for this week’s In the Woods card series.

I knew that I wanted to spotlight a gorgeous sunrise scene paper from the upcoming Splendid Autumn paper pack. We get started with this super simple tri-fold fun fold design with a base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. I laid the open tree grove die from the Grove die set over the sheet of paper to determine what portion I wanted to peek through to the card front and then diecut the front panel of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. I diecut two deer silhouettes in black cardstock with the Grove dies and then adhered them in the grove of trees with tear-n-tape. To keep the deer in place, a sheet of acetate is then adhered to the back of the card front. The focal sentiment from Adventurous Sky is stamped on Flirty Flamingo and diecut using the Happy Little Things banner die. It’s adhered over a ribbon of Blackberry Bliss & Gold, gold trim, and Peach Pie and then mounted to a textured gold hexagonal mat.

The sheet of Splendid Autumn is then cut to fit inside the card and the far right of the patterned paper panel is scored to create the fold-out portion. The inside card base is covered with white cardstock, which also serves to cover the anchor for the patterned paper sheet.

I stamped the sentiment from Something Fancy in black ink on white cardstock and then diecut with the Greetings of the Season die, adding some gold trim to finish things off before adhering to the fold-out panel. We finish off the whole design with careful placement of shiny sequins and sparkle gems to add twinkles on several of the panels to help draw the eye across and through the full tri-fold.

Although this card looks complicated, it comes together quickly and is even more stunning in person! Tomorrow, we’re going to be walking through a new-to-me design technique. I hope you’ll pop by and check it out!

Products used in today’s card:
Blackberry Bliss, Flirty Flamingo, Basic Black, Basic White cardstock
Splendid Autumn (coming soon!), textured gold DSP
Acetate window sheets
Something Fancy, Adventurous Sky stamps
Grove, Autumn Leaves, Happy Little Things dies
Heartfelt Hexagon punch
Peach Pie bordered ribbon, Blackberry Bliss & gold textured ribbon (coming soon!), gold trim
In Color shimmer gems, shiny sequins
Adhesives

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Frosted Forest

Forest of Birthdays

We’re on day 2 of our featured Online Exclusive bundle from Stampin’ Up! called Frosted Forest. The full bundle includes photopolymer stamps, coordinating dies, and decorative masks. And today, we’re keeping it pretty simple, much like yesterday, because you really don’t have to put much with this bundle to make eye-popping cards.

We get started on our card today with a base of Early Espresso cardstock. Our focal panel is a sheet of white cardstock diecut using the largest Deckled Rectangles die. The evergreen trees from the Frosted Forest stamp set are offset on the right. I combined both the large and small tree to create the focal image section. The trees are “colored” using the decorative masks with a combination of Shaded Spruce, Old Olive, and Garden Green inks. To give the look of falling leaves or snow, depending on your perspective, I chose the small detail stamp from the In the Grove stamp set and filled in around the trees in Gray Granite ink using the stamp-off method so that my images weren’t super crisp. I diecut a piece of Gold Mercury vellum to serve as the backdrop for the sentiment to ensure that it stood out from the scene. The sentiment from So Sincere is stamped in Versamark and then heat embossed using black embossing powder and then diecut with the longest banner die from the Happy Little Things set using the die extension method. The sentiment is adhered to the vellum panel with dimensionals and the full panel is set apart with a strip of gold trim. To add some sparkle and draw the eye across the design diagonally, I added some neutrals sequins.

Tomorrow we’re going to kick things up a notch with more product pairing. I hop you’ll pop by and check it out!

Products used in today’s card:
Early Espresso, Basic White cardstock
Gold Mercury vellum
Frosted Forest, So Sincere, In the Grove stamps
Frosted Forest masks
Happy Little Things, Deckled Rectangles dies
Gold trim
Neutrals sequins
WOW embossing powder
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Frosted Forest

Birthday as Great as You

We are already halfway through July, people. How is this possible??! Sometimes I’m amazed at just how quickly time flies by. And all of the Christmas-in-July and back-to-school posts are reminding me of it, for sure.

Well, we’re in a shiny new week and that means a shiny new featured product from Stampin’ Up! This week, we’re going to be working with the new Online Exclusive bundle called Frosted Forest, which includes a photopolymer stamp set, coordinating decorative masks, and coordinating dies. The images include both deciduous and evergreen trees, along with some sentiments. And this week, I’m working with decorative masks for the first time. To be honest, I have avoided them. They just seemed a little too fussy for me, but I have to admit that they’re not all that much trouble. And without them, I would be hand-coloring my tree images and we all know how well that would go for me! (Not very well. *wink*) So let’s take a closer look at today’s card, shall we?

I wanted to keep this design super clean and simple since it’s my first time using the masks. I decided to use the window pane technique as the layout but punched it up a little bit by changing up the standard window shape.

So we get started on our card with a base of Very Vanilla cardstock. The tall tree from the Frosted Forest stamp set is stamped in black in the center of the card front. Using the coordinating decorative masks, the tree is shaded with a combination of Early Espresso, Flirty Flamingo, and Versamark. The Versamark layer is last and heat embossed using copper embossing powder. Some of the copper embossing powder also stuck in the cracks of the trunk because the ink was still a little wet, but I actually liked the look at kept it. Once embossing was finished, I then added a very light sky behind the tree using Pool Party ink. Our patterned paper window pane is a sheet of Country Woods designer series paper that has been diecut in the center using the largest oblong hexagon from the Nested Essentials die set. The die was placed so that the tree would be centered in the window. The sentiment from Frosted Forest is stamped in Cajun Craze on Very Vanilla cardstock and then diecut with the Autumn Leaves die. The sentiment mat is diecut from the shimmery Cajun Craze cardstock with the larger Autumn Leaves sentiment die using the extension method. A twist of linen thread is adhered behind the sentiment panel and this panel is adhered to the mat with the dimensionals and then the full panel is adhered to the designer paper panel with dimensionals, as well. I added a few copper sequins from the Neutrals set for sparkle and to draw the eye across the design.

I love the simplicity of this design and look forward to playing around with different window pane shapes and a variety of foliage colors on the tree. So many different looks can be achieved with just those simple changes! Maybe we’ll try some later this week.

Tomorrow, though, we’ll be making a regal looking birthday card using our evergreens from Frosted Forest. I hope you’ll pop in and check it out!

Products used in today’s card:
Very Vanilla, Cajun Craze In Color cardstock
Country Woods DSP
Frosted Forest stamps & masks
Nested Essentials, Autumn Leaves dies
WOW embossing powder
Linen thread
Neutrals sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Friends for Life

Hey, Happy Birthday

We happen to be big Duck Dynasty fans around here. So it’s not uncommon to hear us quote the show from time-to-time or use some of the famous catch phrases, like “Hey, Jack” or something similar. Today, I’m pairing the Friends for Life bundle with the Saying Hey set, which always just makes me think of Si from DD. *grin*

In seriousness though, today we’re making a more masculine design using the Friends for Life set by pairing it with some other great Stampin’ Up! products. This shaker card birthday design is sure to make any recipient feel special!

We get started with a base of Pretty Peacock cardstock. This is a standard sized horizontal design. The mat for the focal panel is a sheet of Mossy Meadow cardstock. The shaker panel base layer is a sheet of the Meandering Meadow designer paper diecut with the largest Deckled Rectangles die. The cover layer is diecut with the leaf-patterned heart from Friends for Life and the largest die from the Deckled Rectangles set. A piece of acetate is affixed behind the heart, and then to create the area to house the shaker pieces, a box is fashioned around the backside of the heart using foam strips. TIP: I save the acetate sheets from new stamp sets once I’ve placed them in cases. It’s amazing how quickly you accumulate a stash! I used a combination of green and yellow frosted dots and shaker pieces inside the foam square. To affix the front shaker panel to the back, I added additional foam strips around the exterior of the front panel and then adhered the two layers together.

For the sentiment, I began by wrapping linen thread around the base of the shaker panel. The frame from Heartfelt Hexagon is stamped on Crumb Cake cardstock using Pretty Peacock ink and then the Hey sentiment from Saying Hey is stamped using the masking tape technique to avoid stamping the punctuation. This panel is punched using the coordinating Heartfelt Hexagon punch. The paint smudge panel is diecut from the remaining portion of the Meandering Meadow designer paper and then Happy Birthday is stamped in a single line across the panel. The two are then affixed to the front of the card in an overlapping fashion. A few Pretty Peacock sequins across the card front finish things off.

I hope you’ll join me tomorrow as we wrap up our series using the Friends for Life stamps and dies.

Products used in this card:
Pretty Peacock, Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake cardstock
Meandering Meadow DSP
Acetate sheet
Friends for Life, Heartfelt Hexagon, Saying Hey stamps
Friends for Life, Deckled Rectangles dies
Heartfelt Hexagon punch
Linen thread
Sequins trio
Foam strips
Adhesives

Friends for Life · Fun Folds · Gifting

Happy Birthday, Friend

Today we’re continuing to explore all the many ways we can use the Friends for Life bundle by Stampin’ Up! to create fabulous projects. I don’t know about you, but I like to have birthday cards of all kinds on hand for those moments when I need to grab a birthday card on the run. And today’s design is a two-for-one — a gift and a beautiful card!

This gift card design is a modified version of the Slide Up Gift Card Holder by fellow demo Jackie Bolhuis over at Klompen Stampers. I simplified the design to have a slide out gift card holder rather than the slide up version Jackie makes, but both are equally as wonderful for providing a lovely way to give a gift card. What I really loved about this design is it offers so much visual interest. From a beautiful card front that serves double duty as the gift card pocket to the ample space on the inside to dress things up, you have plenty of opportunity to express your creativity.

We get started with a base of Pretty in Pink cardstock. The cardstock is halved on the long edge for this design, but rather than scoring in the center, you’ll instead score at 3 3/4-inches and 9 1/4-inches. That gives you a center portion of standard size and then a flip-up flap and smaller bottom flap for the card front. The smaller flap should be adhered to the card base on either side to create the small pocket, which will be visible when the card front is closed. I chose a sheet of the Flowering Zinnias designer paper as the background panel and cut it so that a small border shows on each of the front panels. The fun background image is the large heart from the Friends for Life die set. I cut a Pretty in Pink heart and used the center portion as the background for the Pretty in Pink glimmer hearts. For the glimmer hearts, nestle the leaf heart die inside the large heart die when diecutting. I then used both the outside and inside hearts on top of the Pretty in Pink solid heart. The sentiment panel is diecut from Pretty in Pink using the smudge banner and then the sentiment is stamped tone-on-tone toward one end. The word friend from Friends for Life is stamped in Pretty in Pink on white cardstock and then diecut with the coordinating die. The sentiment is adhered to the card front with dimensionals .Two small hearts are diecut from white glimmer paper and used as eye-catching accents for the sentiment. The card front is finished of with a few In Color shimmer gems.

The inside of the card is finished to coordinate with the card front. The top flip panel has a piece of the Flowering Zinnias designer paper. Two shimmery banners diecut from glimmer paper and cut using the Filled with Fun dies bring festive fun to this top panel. The inside sentiment from Filled with Fun is stamped on white cardstock diecut using the Autumn Leaves dies. TIP: In order to get the banner long enough for the sentiment, you’ll want to use the extension method.

The gift card holder itself is a pocket within a pocket. It’s made two-sided so that the portion visible through the card front disappears into the background. A tug on the Pretty in Pink bordered ribbon reveals the gift holder and the gift card in the pocket on the reverse side. Each side has a piece of the Flowering Zinnias paper to coordinate with the rest of the card, along with a repeat of the happy birthday sentiment. I chose to keep the inside of my card very simple, but you can see where you could really dress it up.

I hope you’ll join me tomorrow for a more masculine inspired design.

Products used in today’s gift card:
Pretty in Pink, Basic White cardstock
Flowering Zinnias, In Color glimmer, White glimmer DSP
Friends for Life, Filled with Fun stamps
Friends for Life, Autumn Leaves, Filled with Fun dies
Pretty in Pink bordered ribbon
In Color shimmer gems, In Color resin dots
Dimensionals
Adhesives