Hello everyone! I have not abandoned my blog, although it may seem that way since I haven't posted anything in months! I thought I would have more time to post to my blog this summer, but I'm teaching summer school and that has taken precedence to my blogging. This afternoon I am making the time to post three of the birthday cards I've made recently and actually got a picture of before I gave them away. The first one was for one of Jamie's friends who likes the beach and had a beach party for her birthday. So, in keeping with the beach theme, here is the card I came up with for her.
Because the card was going to be signed by a bunch of people and accompany a group gift, I made it large using an entire sheet of 8-1/2 x 11 Whisper White card stock and did a gate fold. The focal image was stamped and sponged onto Whisper White card stock to create a beach scene and layered onto a piece of Tempting Turquoise card stock. I had not intended to make the background look like a surf shack, but not wanting to trash the card after accidentally dropping an inked stamp on it (and of course the stamp bounced, making two unwanted partial impressions), I had to come up with "Plan B." I must admit I like "Plan B" a whole lot more than whatever I was originally doing. I really did not have a "Plan A" for the background, I was just kind of thinking about it as I was doing it. I started stamping the surf lingo randomly on the background and was just going to leave it at that...blah white. Although I was not happy with the background, it was after 1:00 a.m. and I really wanted to go to bed. Then I dropped the stamp and it bounced! Hmmm....now what?! Immediately it hit me....it looked like weather worn graffiti!! Cool! Okay, now to just stamp out some more imperfect and faded impressions of the other surf lingo and add a wood-grain background. So by stamping off the image and then stamping it onto my card and making sure NOT to make a good impression, I created a graffiti covered surf shack. To make the wood-grain I very simply just swiped my ink pads from top to bottom of the card, pulling them as straight as possible and leaning or applying a little more pressure to one of the edges to get the darker lines that simulate the edges of the wooden planks. (Inks used for wood-grain: More Mustard, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa). {Wood-grain backgrounds are really super simple to do - you should try it if you haven't.} After I finished the shack, I adhered the focal image to the left side of the card front and attached some Prima flowers with a flower brad.
I LOVE these kinds of mistakes!! :)
Stamps are from A Chemistry With Paper - Surf's Up! stamp set.
Card stocks and inks are from Stampin' Up!
Next up is another card for one of Jamie's friends who is a tennis coach and loves tennis, amongst a myriad of other extreme sports like sky diving and swimming with sharks! Well, I didn't have any stamps for skydiving or swimming with sharks, so I made her a simple tennis themed card.
I started with a Stampin' Up! Big Shot Curly Label card made from Whisper White card stock. I then embossed a happy birthday background (Cuttlebug) on Tempting Turquoise card stock. Carefully finagling the card stock and die to line up just right, I die cut the curly label in the Temp. Turquoise piece and layered it onto the white background. I had a red curly label from a previous card (never throw away scraps!) that I used on the inside of the card to layer under and frame the white curly label punch with the sentiment stamped on it. I also use a white gel pen to go over the stitches ((which I think was a mistake, but oh well)).
The tennis racquet and ball (popped on Dimensionals) are from an old foam mounted stamp set (remember those?) from DJ Inkers. The labeling on the set does not have a copyright date, but I know I got it when I had my stamp store so it must be from the early to mid 90s.
The sentiment stamp, card stocks and ink are from Stampin' Up!
I colored the racquet and ball with Copic markers and highlighted them with a glitter gel pen - that doesn't seem to show up too well in the picture. The ribbon is from Michael's.
Okay, on to the next and final card for today. This card is not a fun as the other two, but a pretty card using the Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set from Stampin' Up!
I used Going Gray to stamp out two of the lillies from the set and then cut them out very close to the outline and mounted with Dimensionals. I used Copic markers to shade and color them and outlined them with a silver glitter pen.
All the card stock, designer series paper, inks, and punches are from Stampin' Up!
The ribbon is from Michael's and the two yellow brads are from my stash.
Thanks for stopping by! I'm always amazed to see how many of you keep visiting even when I haven't posted for so long. I truly appreciate your e-mails and comments. You are all so nice! Thanks again!
