A Unique Birthday Card for a Talented Cabinet Maker

Today I'm going to share with you a unique birthday card that took a lot of brainstorming and creativity. We celebrate our brother-in-law's 37th birthday today! He is currently on vacation and probably enjoying every minute of it! Happy Birthday Mark! 

Mark is a cabinet maker and is very good at what he does. I thought it would be fitting to make a card that resembles his handiwork:

Neat, right? I thought of the gate fold while making this card, and that's how I created the cabinet doors. I started with a 7" x 5" piece of Early Espresso cardstock. To make the cabinet doors, I measured in from the 7" long side of the cardstock and scored at 1-3/8". I decided on 2" height for the top cabinets and 3" height for the bottom cabinets. I cut up to the 1-3/8" score mark and folded the 'flaps' or 'cabinet doors'. The middle section 'flaps' were cut off and discarded. The final card size ends up being 7" x 2.75". I then took the time to decorate it. The counter is simply a Very Vanilla piece of cardstock that was spritzed with Early Espresso marker (using the Spritzer tool). The 'back splash' is a piece of designer paper from the Well Worn series - it was perfect and exactly what I had in mind! For the top cabinet doors, I cut out the center using an xacto knife and glued window sheets to the doors (it's a bit hard to see in the pictures). I free-hand cut wine glasses. The bowl is simply the Small Oval punch cut in half and the plates were created using the Word Window punch. For the bottom cabinet doors, I created a 3-D layered look by using dimensionals to pop up the top layer. To finish it off, I stamped and cut out a small vase with flowers and placed it on the counter. 

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you enjoyed this little ounce of creativity! 

Make sure to stop by tomorrow for a new KCRR challenge! 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Bright Blossoms

Paper: Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Well Worn DSP (ret.), Window Sheets

Ink: Early Espresso marker, Cajun Craze, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight

Tools: Spritzer tool, Small Oval punch, Word Window punch

30th Birthday Celebration

A couple days ago, we celebrated my hubby's 30th birthday! While he may think he's getting old, he is forever young in my eyes :) He is a wonderful, thoughtful, optimistic, determined, encouraging person; a talented photographer and an avid outdoorsman. Oh ya... and handsome too!

 

Words cannot express how much I love this guy!

 

To celebrate, we enjoyed a delicious dining experience at a local restaurant called the White Goose Bistro. He had his favourite - red wine and seafood, and I tried chicken cordon bleu with roasted potatoes and white wine. So good!

 

Of course, I made him a unique handmade card. I struggled at first with the design of my card, knowing that it had to be special. I decided to stick with the "30" theme and I was very pleased with the result:

 

 

I started with a 5" x 5" square card, then simply drew the '30' and cut it out, leaving the fold at the top of the '30'. I cut 1" strips of designer paper and glued them on the card front, then re-cut the 30 shape. I added a fun banner using bakers twine and the pennant punch. Three candy dots embellish the card.

 

 





 

For his birthday this year, I decided to get him a unique gift, something he would never guess! And I totally surprised him! (this is hard to do, as he usually picks out exactly what he wants or simply buys it himself). I wanted to give him a chance to guess, so I made a gift tag with a hint on it...

 

 

 

You're probably thinking, a shark? really? What could this gift possibly be? haha... this was Kevin's reaction exactly. Well let me explain... usually once a year we like to drive down to Kelowna for a mini weekend getaway. They have an awesome store called "Bones and Stones" and we make sure to stop there every time. They have the most unique house décor items from all over the world. We have added a few stones, etc. to our collections. But one thing Kevin has been eyeing up are the megalodon shark teeth that they sometimes sell there and so I knew this would be the perfect gift.

 

 

To give you an idea, this single tooth is actually 5.09" in length. Here's a better picture of how big these sharks actually were:

 

 

Here's wishing Kevin the best year yet!

 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Family Reunion (ret.), Pennant Parade, Fundamental Phrases (ret.)

Paper: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Well Worn DSP, Regals DSP

Ink: Early Espresso

Tools: Petite Pennant Builder punch, 3/4" Circle punch

Accessories: Early Espresso bakers twine, Square Lattice embossing folder, Crumb Cake candy dots

 

Gift Tag:

Paper: Smokey Slate, Night of Navy, Baja Breeze, Basic Gray, Whisper White, Basic Black

Ink: White gel pen

Tools: Oval nestabilities, Petite Pennant Builder punch (for fins), Owl Builder punch (for the eyes), 3/4" Circle punch, 1" Circle punch (for waves)

Accessories: Gray bakers twine (CTMH)



Two Birthdays in One Day!

Today is another day to celebrate - two birthdays in one day!

My older brother, Jason, celebrates a birthday today! Jason currently lives in Mississauga, ON and works as an Engineer Technician. He's an active guy and loves the outdoors! In just a couple days he is on his way to Hawaii for 10 days! Lucky guy! Here's a pic of me and Jay 4 years ago:

I thought he would like a card with a little bit of nature, so I made a duplicate of a card that I created a couple years ago.

I love this doe and fawn stamp! It has a lot of detail in it and looks so realistic. I found this stamp at a craft store in London, ON a couple years ago. I used the 'quilting technique' for the background. There are a few different ways of doing this technique. For this card, I simply cut a piece of cardstock in the size of a matte for the card front, punched out 1-1/4" squares in designer paper (in this case, I used Well Worn DSP) and glued them onto the piece of cardstock. I then sponged the edges with Early Espresso ink to distress it a bit.

I really like this look and it makes such a simple background! It's a great way to use up scraps of paper you have lying around (and I have lots!!)

Another birthday to celebrate -- my coworker, George, turns 75 today! George is a funny character. He loves puttering around at our shop and joking around with his coworkers. He has a way of brightening our day and putting smiles on our faces :) Last year, for his birthday I made him a tool belt card (he loves woodworking as a hobby. In fact, he made my easel that I use for my craft fair booth - it's awesome!). This year, I decided to do something a little different. Another one of his hobbies is golfing. So I thought it would be fun to make a golf punch art card. I used an easel card fold using these simple instructions. And here's how it turned out:

 



The hills are cut free-hand in different shades of green cardstock. The sky is sponged with Bashful Blue ink (I masked the clouds - the shape comes from the Cupcake Builder punch) and the trees were punched out using the Pennant Builder punch. The flag is cut free-hand. I stamped the numbers '75' in Chocolate Chip ink, fussy-cut them, and popped them up to give the card some dimension. In order to make the card front stand upright, I stuck a button on the front panel.

Thanks for looking! Make sure to return tomorrow for a new KCRR challenge!

Card Ingredients for the 'Deer' Birthday Card:
Stamps: Doe & Fawn (craft store in London, ON), Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Well Worn DSP
Ink: Early Espresso
Tools: Word Window Punch, 1-1/4" Square punch

Card Ingredients for Easel Birthday Card:
Stamps: Memorable Moments
Paper: Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Whisper White
Ink: Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip
Tools: Ovals nestabilities, Pennant Builder punch, Cupcake Builder punch, 1/2" Circle punch
Accessories: Bronze button, Linen Thread