Birthday Card 2024 | Big Happy Birthday!

I fell in love with this My Favorite Things die called "Big Happy Birthday" and knew this was going to be the focal point for a birthday card for a dear friend who is celebrating her big day this month.

For the background, I started by cutting a piece of Altenew masking paper that measured 4-1/2" x 5-3/4". I brought out the 8" x 8" Waffle Flower grip map and placed it onto my work surface, peeled off one side of the backer to the masking paper, and put it in the center of my Grip Mat.

I selected four different colors of cardstock (Your Paper Insider's pink glitter from box #6 and a few Spellbinder cardstocks - Pink Sand, Dahlia, and Lilac Blossom) and cut those into strips with Scrapbook.com's "Slim Strips" dies.

I began placing the cardstock strips onto the masking paper and did my best to try to avoid any gaps between the strips. Once the strips of cardstock covered the entire panel of masking paper, I burnished the cardstock strips to the masking paper using a teflon bone folder to ensure good adhesion. I then glued the panel to a lightweight piece of white cardstock to give the panel some additional stability. I used the second largest die from Waffle Flower's "A2 Layers Dies" to cut the panel down to size for my card front.

Next, I used the "Big Happy Birthday" die from My Favorite Things to die cut the card front panel and popped out the letters and their counters (don't lose those counters!). I also cut this die three more times from a piece of white Neenah cardstock to glue behind the individual letters for dimension. Then I glued the card front with the letters popped out to the front of a white, top folding, A2 card base.

I temporarily placed one of the white die cut letters into all the corresponding locations on the card front so that I could have the perfect location to glue all the counters from the striped cardstock letters to the card base. I glued all the letters together (the striped top ones stacked atop the white letters that I die cut for the dimension) and then adhered them to the card's front panel in their appropriate locations.

I thought the card needed just a little something else, so I started digging through my embellishments stash and found one I really liked for this card. The sequins I chose is from This Calls for Confetti and its called "Bring on the Bokeh - Pink"... perfect!

That's a wrap for today's card project. I hope you enjoyed the card and possibly even found some inspiration for your next card project. Until next time... Happy Making!

Hamsterific Birthday | September 2023

For this birthday card, I’m using some supplies that were already in my stash from My Favorite Things (MFT) and Mama Elephant that I just didn’t think I showed enough love to during their initial release.

I started this project by cutting a piece of diagonal striped patterned paper from the My Favorite Things “Time to Celebrate” paper pad and trimmed it to measure 5” x 5”. I took the paper and cut a hole in the center using a circle die from the Hero Arts “Nested Circle Infinity Dies. For the decorative trim for the circular hole, I used the “Nested Decorative Circles” dies (the middle sized one that looks rainbow-ish) from Scrapbook.com and a piece of black cardstock, then glued this trim piece to what will be my card front.

Using a scrap piece of white cardstock and the hamster with balloons stamp from Mama Elephant’s “Celebration Hamsters” stamp set, I stamped and used my Prismacolor Premier colored pencils to color the balloons in colors that closely resembled the stripes of the MFT paper for the card front, as well as colored in the little hamster. I also stamped a sentiment from MFT’s “Itty Bitty Celebrations” onto white cardstock, used Simon Says Stamp Black Ultra Fine Embossing Powder, and heat set the birthday greeting. When the heat embossing cooled, I cut out the sentiment using Avery Elle’s “Simple Sentiment” dies.

Since this card was going to be a shaker, I cut a piece of acetate and glued it to the back side of the hole in the card front and added strips of foam tape around the edges of the card front and around the edges of the hole in the middle. I filled the well (the center of the cardstock that is covered with acetate and surrounded by foam tape) with a few different types of clay bits I had in my stash and carefully placed this aside so I could work on the card base.

For the card base, I cut a piece of 110# cardstock to measure 10” x 5” and scored it on the long measurement at five inches. I used another piece of patterned paper from the MFT “Time to Celebrate” paper pad and glued it to the front side of the card base. Next, I carefully removed the backing from all the foam tape and adhered the card base to the shaker card front. WHEW!! That part is always sketchy for me!

Now for final assembly. I added Simon Says Stamp 3D Foam Squares to the back of the sentiment strip and hamster with balloons image and adhered those to the card front.

My final touch was adding Pink & Main “Musical” enamel dots in random places on the card front for some additional interest. Project complete!

I hope you enjoyed the card. Thank you so much for stopping by to see me - I appreciate you doing so!

Until next time…

Happy Birthday Bear

I purchased this adorable Gerda Steiner stamp set when it was released, but only now am I getting the opportunity to use it. Shame on me!

I began creating this card by using Waffle Flower's "Confetti Foil Plate" and the Gemini Foil Press along with Spellbinder's "Rainbow" foil to hot foil the metallic-looking confetti on the base panel for the card. I trimmed this panel to be 4-1/4" x 5-1/2". Next, I cut two more cardstock panels - one from turquoise cardstock and the other from white Canson Bristol Smooth cardstock.

My next step was to stamp the images I wanted to use on the card front from Gerda Steiner's "Birthday Bear" stamp set using Lawn Fawn's Jet Black ink pad onto the Bristol Smooth cardstock. I colored the images using a combination of Prismacolor Premier colored pencils, Karin Star Sparks DecoGel pens and Sakura Glaze pens. Once the gel pens dried, I cut out the image using the Brother Scan 'N Cut and attached it to the card front using Spellbinders White Foam Squares.

I attached the stamped card panel to the turquoise panel, followed by adhering those two to the hot foiled panel, then glued all the panels to an A2 size top folding card base. My last task was to add some Pink & Main "Floral Pumpkin Sparkle Dots" to random locations on the decorated panel for a touch a magic.

Thanks again for stopping by to check out my card... I appreciate you doing so!