Sweet Sorbet Birthday Card

One of my favourite Stampin Up designer series paper this Spring is the Sweet Sorbet collection. I love the patterns and the bright colours. I decided to make it the central focus on the card I'm going to share with you today. As always, Cardabilities has a fabulous sketch this week and I'm entering this card just in the knick of time. 

Not only did I use the designer paper for the card front, I also die cut flowers from the DSP as well, and I love the way it turned out! All it needed was a simple birthday sentiment against the busy background and pearls to embellish the flowers. 

Finish it off with a matching envelope and voila! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Crisp Cantaloupe, Sahara Sand, Pool Party, Pistachio Pudding, Whisper White, Sweet Sorbet DSP

Ink: Crisp Cantaloupe, Pool Party

Tools: Floral Fusion sizzlit die, Little Leaves sizzlit die, Itty Bitty punch

Accessories: Pearls (Michael's)

A Birthday Wish for an 8 Year Old!

Happy Monday! 

I'm feeling rejuvenated after a relaxing, somewhat productive weekend. It involved a little bit of grocery shopping, some baking, date night with the hubby (saw the most recent comedy called "The Other Woman" - hilarious), a walk at the dog park, a Sunday afternoon nap, and lots of papercrafting! 

Today we celebrate my niece's 8th birthday! Elena is a quiet, sweet little girl who has a beautiful smile and a tender heart. She is the oldest of 4 girls in her family and loves her sisters! 

At first it was a bit of a challenge coming up with a design for her birthday card. But, I thought, I can't go wrong with the owl builder punch! 

I love this colour combo and the patterns in the designer paper. To make it a little more interesting I added a wing to the owl (using half of a scallop circle punch) holding a balloon (created using 1" circle and the small heart in the owl builder punch). Rhinestones embellish the balloon, as well as the sentiment. 

Here's wishing Elena a fun birthday filled with laughter, love, birthday cake, and sunshine! 

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Short & Sweet (ret.)
Paper: Basic Gray, Smokey Slate, So Saffron, Whisper White, Basic Black, Tangerine Tango, Wild Wasabi, Floral District DSP
Ink: Basic Gray
Tools: Owl Builder punch, Little Leaves sizzlits die, Scallop Circle punch, 1" Circle punch, Word Window punch, Circles nestabilities, Scallop Circles nestabilities

A Tri-Fold Owl Birthday Card

A couple weeks ago, I posted a fun owl birthday card that I made for my niece (click here to see original post). My initial inspiration came from this adorable card. I loved it so much that I made a second card, this time using the tri-fold. I stuck with the same colour combo, covering each panel with patterned designer paper and randomly placing the punch art owls throughout the card. 

So fun, right? This card is sure to make anyone smile on their birthday! 

I am entering this clean and layered card in The Card Concept challenge this week:

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy your weekend!

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Remembering Your Birthday

Paper: Crumb Cake, Coastal Cabana, Real Red, Early Espresso, Whisper White, Basic Black, Bermuda Bay, Polka Dot Parade DSP, Fresh Prints DSP, Brights DSP, 2013-2015 In-Colour DSP

Ink: Bermuda Bay

Tools: Circles nestabilities, Scallop Circles nestabilities, Owl Builder punch, Petite Pennant Builder punch, Heart to Heart punch, Little Leaves sizzlit die

Accessories: Bakers twine

A Friday Mashup Win and an Owl Birthday Card

Today is already off to a good start! One of my cards was chosen as the winner of the latest Friday Mashup challenge! What a nice surprise! 

Click here to see my original post

Another reason to celebrate - our neice, Zulea, has a birthday today! 

I thought it would be fun to make her a card with punch art owls. I saw this great sketch from Always Playing With Paper and used it as the base of my card design:

I'm also linking up with Seize the Birthday:

I love the new designer series paper in the Stampin Up Spring Occasions Mini Catalogue and decided to use it on this card. The colour combo of Real Red, Bermuda Bay and Coastal Cabana look fabulous together! 

How cute are these owls?! They were created using the Owl Builder punch from Stampin Up - probably one of my favourite punches of all time! The cute party hats were created using the Petite Pennant Builders punch (cut off part the bottom portion) and one of the Itty Bitty punches for the pom. And the owl party continues inside the card! 

Here's wishing Zulea a fantastic day! 

This card was inspired by Darlene Design

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Remembering Your Birthday
Paper: Bermuda Bay, Real Red, Sahara Sand, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Basic Black, Fresh Prints DSP, Brights DSP, 2013-2015 In-Colour DSP
Ink: Bermuda Bay
Tools: Owl Builder punch, Petitie Pennant Builders punch, Itty Bitty punch, Heart to Heart punch, Little Leaves sizzlit die
Accessories: Bakers twine (CTMH)

A Bold & Cheery Birthday Card

We decided to change things up a bit this week, moving our KCRR and "Inspired By..." challenges to a day earlier than usual. But, before I introduce our new KCRR challenge for the week, I wanted to share with you some recognition I received this past week! One of my cards was chosen as a Weekly Top Pick over at Stamps at Play! What a nice surprise!

Click here for the original post

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Rose Red

Little Leaves Sizzlits Die

Fancy Fan Embossing Folder

I wanted to combine this challenge with a sketch challenge over at Cardabilities, as well as a colour combo at Dynamic Duos. 

I was so happy to see that Rose Red was one of the colour options at Dynamic Duos this week! When we first randomly chose the three elements for this week's KCRR challenge, I wasn't quite sure what colours I would use with Rose Red. But, Dynamic Duos made it easy for me! I also love the layers in the Cardabilities sketch this week!. So combining all three challenges, here's the end result:

A bold & cheery birthday card! I love the patterns of the DSP and the texture of the fancy fan in this card! The stitched satin ribbon blends so well with the patterns. The flower is created from the Floral Fusion sizzlits die from Stampin Up. This recently came in with my last order and I'm so glad I decided to get it! It adds that extra special touch to this card, with a pearl in the center of the flower. 

Thanks for stopping by! Make sure to visit Karly's Creations to see what she created with these elements! Join us tomorrow for a new "Inspired By..." challenge! 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Family Reunion (ret.)

Paper: Midnight Muse, Rose Red, Whisper White, Subtles DSP, 2012-2014 In-Colour DSP, Floral District DSP

Ink: Midnight Muse

Tools: Little Leaves Sizzlit Die, Floral Fusion Sizzlit Die, Itty Bitty punch pack, Fancy Fan embossing folder

Accessories: Pearl (Michael's), Midnight Muse stitched satin ribbon

A Spring Mother's Day Card

Saturday was a good day. I spent part of the morning doing devotions. I'm doing a topical Bible study, where I pick certain topics, search for related verses in the Bible and keep a journal. Currently I'm studying the topic of 'worrying'. I have a tendency to worry about a lot of things and I need to constantly remind myself that God is in control and he has my whole future in His hands!

I had a pretty productive day -- finished a few loads of laundry, did some housecleaning and made several gift card holders! Here's a picture of them in a few different colours:

I hope to have about 30 or so for the craft show. I also want to make masculine wallet gift card holders!

Last night, my hubby and I went to the aquatic centre for the first time. It was fun! We spent a lot of time in the hot tub, went a few times through the lazy river and relaxed in the sauna. We then went for a coffee date at Timmy's, using up the free coffees that Kevin has been winning through Roll Up the Rim. I, unfortunately, have had terrible luck! I think I've only won once!

I also had time to make today's card! I played along with two challenges: a clean and simple sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and a spring colour combo from Play Date Cafe.

 

I had a couple scraps laying around, one being the negative cut-out from the Little Leaves sizzlit die. I wanted to find a way to use it with this sketch. And when I looked at this colour combo with Play Date Cafe, I saw the Stampin Up colours Elegant Eggplant, Island Indigo, and Certainly Celery. What a nice spring colour combo! Here's my card:

 

 

I like how clean and simple it is. The Island Indigo adds a pop of colour against the Certainly Celery. I love the coordinating polka-dot designer paper in Elegant Eggplant. I think these colours coordinate really well! I would have never thought to put them together!

 

 

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Card Ingredients:

 

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum, Certainly Celery, Island Indigo, Whisper White

Ink: Elegant Eggplant

Tools: Little Leaves sizzlit die, Circles Nestabilities, Scallop Border punch, Word Window punch

 



 

Birthday Wishes for a Special Sister-in-Law!

Yesterday was a fairly good Monday. The work day went by fairly quickly... however, we got another dump of snow! About a foot of snow fell and it was a winter wonderland in PG by the end of the day! While it did look quite pretty, I was kind of disappointed... What happened to the early spring they predicted?? Here are a couple photos I took of what is hopefully the last big snowfall before spring:




 


Despite the disappointing snowfall, I came home to a few goodies in the mail! First and foremost, I received my prize from Verve Stamps for the card that was chosen as a winner at Mojo Monday. To see the original post for this card, click here. I got to choose a stamp set of my choice from Verve Stamps and this is what I chose:

 

It is such an adorable stamp set and I can't wait to use it! It will make some cute baby cards!

Another wonderful surprise was a card from my Mom. She is so sweet and I love getting things from her in the mail! It makes me smile and miss her all the more!

 

And finally, I received the new Stampin' Success magazine! I love getting this magazine in the mail. It has many great ideas of how to use Stampin Up's products in unique ways. I often see quite a few things that catch my eye and inspire me to try a new layout or technique.

 

 

Today, I think of my dear sister-in-law, Angie. It's her birthday today! Unfortunately, she is so far away, living in Uganda, Africa, and I wish I could be there to celebrate with her! The closest I could get was a phone call on Saturday morning :) It was great to catch up with her! I miss her so much! She is such a sweet, caring, supportive sister and a wonderful mother to 5 darling kids. I hope she has the best day and that God blesses her with a wonderful year ahead. Love you, Angie!

I sent her a little package in the mail to let her know I'm thinking of her. I filled an envelope with a few goodies and this fun-folded greeting card!

 

This is a cascade card fold. It's created with an 8.5"x11" piece of Old Olive cardstock. I've made cascading cards before in a larger size, but I love this size, just for the fact that I can stick it in a regular A2-size envelope! I decorated it with designer paper from the Twitterpated collection and stamped flowers in Elegant Eggplant, Island Indigo and Pool Party. I added leaves that were cut from the Little Leaves sizzlit and embellished a few of the flowers with rhinestones. The sentiment is stamped in Elegant Eggplant and punched out using the Curly Label punch. Here is a side view of the card:

 



I left a spot on the back of the card to write my card message. I just love this card fold! It's so unique and can be decorated in so many different ways! I hope to make more of them and do a picture tutorial with instructions in a future post. Stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by! Come back tomorrow to see my take on the Mojo Monday sketch this week!

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Elementary Elegance (ret.), Mixed Bunch
Paper: Old Olive, Whisper White, Twitterpated DSP
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Island Indigo, Pool Party
Tools: Blossom punch, 1" Circle punch, 1/4" Circle punch, Little Leaves sizzlit
Accessories: Rhinestones (Michael's)

Mojo279: {Tea for Two: Me & You}

A couple days ago was Groundhog Day and Punxsutawny Phil and he made his prediction. He expects an early spring! While the legend of the groundhog may be somewhat hoaky, it gives me hope that spring is on it's way!  It's been quite mild in Prince George lately. Snow is melting, it's raining instead of snowing, and signs of spring are in the air. I know I am probably speaking way too soon, but part of me is getting really excited for a new season. As you can probably tell, I'm not a huge fan of winter. Even though the snow can be quite pretty, by the end of February I'm ready for it to melt and for the spring flowers to bloom:)

The card I created for Mojo Monday this week has a little touch of spring in it. This sketch has a great layout. At first I wasn't too sure what to do with it... what stamp set to use, what type of occasion, what colours... But, after a lot of brainstorming and sketching my ideas out on paper, I knew exactly how I was going to design my card. Here is the sketch:

I love the layers in this layout. It gives lots of opportunity to use coordinating designer paper. I pulled out a designer paper collection that I haven't had a chance to use much: Tea for Two. And the stamp set that I thought of right away was Tea Shoppe. Both have the "tea" theme - perfect! With lots of playing around with paper and embellishments to see what coordinates best together, this is what I came up with:

I love how it turned out! This has easily become one of my favourite cards! After layering the designer paper, I embossed and cut out the oval frame and layered it on the apothecary accent stamped image. The sentiment is stamped in Early Espresso, the edges are sponged and the oval is popped up within the embossed frame. I added small roses and leaves to embellish the sentiment. Small pearls are placed in the right corner to complete the card.

 

 

 

Card Ingredients:

 

Stamps: Tea Shoppe, Everything Eleanor

Paper: Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Lucky Limeade, Tea for Two DSP, Early Espresso DSP

Ink: Early Espresso

Tools: Extra-Large Oval punch, Little Leaves sizzlit, Oval Frame Embossing Folder

Accessories: Rose ribbon, pearls (Michael's)

 

Thanks for visiting! 

Birthday Celebration!

It's been a great weekend of birthday celebrations! Saturday night, my hubby, Kevin, and I  dressed up and went out for a delicious dinner at Ric's Grill. Kevin had his favourite seafood meal - Alaskan King Crab legs and prawns, and I had a delicious Italian sausage pasta dish. We enjoyed white and red wine and completed our meal with ginger cake and vanilla ice cream. It was scrumptious!

I promised to share the birthday card I made for my hubby's 29th birthday... It's a side-step folded card with an outdoorsy theme - perfect for my hubby! He loves the outdoors!

 

I got this idea from a card I found online and decided to CASE it. To see the original design visit Creative Corner Studio. I added my own touch to this card. The tent on the back 'step' is cut free-hand. I added eyelets and bakers twine to the open door flaps. A sleeping bag sticker is added to the inside of the tent. On the 2nd 'step' i created a campfire and marchmallow stick using punches. On the front 'step' I created a bush with the Little Leaves embosslet die from Stampin up and added the sentiment 'happy birthday'. On the larger side panel I stamped trees to make it look like a forest, added a stamped bunny, and cut a sign post shape using my cricut.

 

If you would like to try out this card fold, click here for some great instructions. I found these instructions were very easy to follow.

 

Some other highlights from Kevin's birthday:

 

Turtle Brownie Ice Cream Cake -- yumm!

I made the pennant banner using the Pennant Punch and cut the letters out using my cricut.

 

I spoiled him this year! Got him a couple merino wool t-shirts, the 75th anniversary edition of "The Hobbit" and a portable JetBoil stove. He was thrilled!

 

Had quite a few phone calls/skype calls today. I think he had a great birthday!

 

 

Card Ingredients for the Side-Step Card:

 

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Forest Friends (ret.), Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Always Artichoke, So Saffron, Whisper White, Certainly Celery DSP, Always Artichoke DSP, Crumb Cake DSP

Ink: Early Espresso, Always Artichoke

Tools: Bird Builder punch, Word Window punch, Modern Label punch, Snowflake punch (ret.), Little Leaves embosslit, Campin' Critters Cricut cartridge

Accessories: Brads (Michaels), Eyelets, Bakers Twine, Sleeping Bag sticker

 

Thanks for stopping by!