Perfect Plum Birthday Wishes

Today's card is for a very special person in my life. She makes me beautiful every two weeks and is one of the hardest working and cheerful people I know.

Inspiration is a funny thing. Annie usually chooses my toe nail polish for me so when I asked for purple this week, she picked out just the perfect shade. I looked at it and thought "Perfect Plum"! (I do that a lot now, see things in Stampin' Up! shades, just ask my husband) and voila!, the perfect inspiration for her card! I know she will get a chuckle out of it :)

Annie is a sparkly person and she wears more bling than any person I know, so I just had to bling her card up! I'm not sure if it comes through in the photography, but there are rhinestones and glimmer paper galore on her card! Just like her :)

Happy Birthday Annie!

...on a closing note, have you noticed the envelopes in today's post as well as Saturday's post? Do you really think I trimmed that envelope liner out by hand?!? I think I spot a sneak peek of a new product in the holiday catalog! Woot! And a wonderful product it is indeed! The 2013 Holiday Catalog will be live on August 1st so if you haven't received one, please feel free to email me and I will get one right out to you!

Stampin Supplies:

Stamps: Flowering Florishes (126367), Remembering Your Birthday (131347)

Paper: Whisper White (100730), Perfect Plum (101889), Silver Glimmer Paper (124005)

Ink: Perfect Plum (126963) Classic Stampin' Pad

Tools: Stampin' Trimmer (126889)

Embellishments: Rhinestone Basic Jewels (119246), Large Rhinestone Basic Jewels (129324)

Thanks for stopping by! 

Pistachio Pudding Love - PPA165 Sketch Challenge

It is so nice to be back creating with the wonderful Pals Paper Arts Design Team! Nicole Watt has turned out a delightful sketch this week which made this card come together very easily...

And here is my interpretation of this sketch:

Do you like it? I really love how the colors and textures came together for a soft, feminine card. There are lots of details so let's start with paper (I just lovveee paper!)...

I love clean and simple but I also love, love layers of detail. Subtle detail. And that's what we have here. I layered Pistachio Pudding Core'dinations cardstock on top of a Very Vanilla base. The Core'dinations cardstock is white in the core so that it can be sanded down and the white core exposed, which makes for wonderful texture. But...for this card, I am very happy with just the texture of the cardstock itself.

Next I used the wonderful patterns of the Venetian Romance Designer Series Paper to add a bit of softness and visual interest. I wanted the pattern of the butterfly to be the focus so I kept the other papers muted. I used my bone folder to flip the edges of the banners up a bit for more interest. Next comes the butterfly...isn't it just adorable? I used the Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die to die cut the butterfly out of this AMAZING patterned paper. Once the butterfly was die cut, I realized that just layering it on top of all that Pistachio Pudding cardstock would just wash the butterfly out so I sponged the edges with Baked Brown Sugar ink. Well, I actually sponged it with Pistachio Pudding but it was too...green, so then I sponged it with Soft Suede and it was too...brown, so I finally sponged it with Baked Brown Sugar...just right! Whew!

I layered the butterfly onto a circle punched out with my 2 1/2" circle punch and run through the Big Shot with the new Stylish Stripes Embossing Folder which will be available in the 2013 Holiday Catalog, available August 1st. I sponged the edges of the circle with Pistachio Pudding ink to add some contrast.

Next...the jewelry! One Very Vintage Designer button with a Linen Thread bow in the center is the perfect finishing touch...at least in my humble opinion.

I left the sentiment until the end. Once the card came together I decided it would be perfect to send to my mother to let her know I am thinking about her :)

I would love it if you left me a comment with your thoughts on my card today!

Stampin Supplies:

Stamps: Express Yourself (130339-Hostess)

Paper: Very Vanilla (101650) Cardstock; Pistachio Pudding (130136) Core'dinations Cardstock; Venetian Romance (130144) Designer Series Paper

Ink: Baked Brown Sugar (131174) Classic Stampin' Pad

Tools: Big Shot (113439), Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die (114507), 2 1/2" Circle Punch (120906), Stampin' Trimmer (126889)

Embellishments: Very Vintage Designer Buttons (129327), Linen Thread (104199)

Thanks for stopping by! 

Clean and Simple Saturday

Saturdays should be fun, agreed? So let's keep it clean and simple today! 

What do you think? I'm not sure it can get more simple but I still think it has wonderful impact! This card is for a very special Pal serving us all far from home. I want her to know how wonderful I think she is :)

I've just come back from Convention and my creative juices are flowing! More about that next week...enjoy your weekend and I will be back on Monday!

Stampin Supplies:

Stamps: Express Yourself (Hostess-130339), Flower Shop (130942), Summer Silhouettes (126447)

Paper: Whisper White (100730)

Ink: Pool Party (126982), So Saffron (126957), Smoky Slate (131179) Classic Stampin' Pad

Tools: Stampin' Trimmer (126889), Pansy Punch (130698), Stampin' Dimensionals (104430)

Embellishments: Designer Buttons-Subtles (130030)

Thanks for stopping by! 

Yippee-Skippee Birthday - Freshly Made Sketches #90

Carbs, Schmarbs is right! You only have a birthday once a year...so EAT THE CAKE! I love it! 

For this cheerful greeting card, I started with a wonderfully clean and simple layout created for the challenge this week by Linda C over at Freshly Made Sketches:

I built up the layers on this card using designer series paper and white space with a bit of paper-piercing to balance the two sides out, and then simply alternated the pattern with the next layer. I purposely chose bright and cheerful but fairly neutral patterns to compliment, rather than compete with, the stamped focal images.

This delightful birthday cake is courtesy of the Birthday Cake stamp set while the sentiment is part of the Yippee-Skippee! stamp set...how could you not like it with a name like that? I used markers to ink up both stamps. I like the combination of Delightful Daffodll and Melon Mambo with just a pop of Tempting Turquoise...along with the simple use of bright cardstock and Stampin' Dimensionals to define each layer. 

And of course, the jewelry! Pictures never do justice to the sparkle of the rhinestones, they just shimmer and catch the light and of course are the star of this card! The card just needed a little extra something and my handy dandy candy dots filled the bill perfectly!

Comments feed my creative soul, so if you are so moved, please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Stampin Supplies:

Stamps: Birthday Cake (130390), Yippee-Skippee! (131344)

Paper: Whisper White (100730), Melon Mambo (115320), Daffodil Delight (119683) Cardstock; Quatrefancy Speciality (130141), Gingham Garden (129310) Designer Series Paper

Ink: Brights Collection (131259), Neutrals Collection (131261) Stampin' Write Markers (Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, Smoky Slate, Basic Gray)

Tools: Stampin' Trimmer (126889), Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack (126187), Stampin' Pierce Mat (126199), Paper-Piercing Tool (126189)

Embellishments: Rhinestone Basic Jewels (119246), Brights Candy Dots (130931)

Thanks for stopping by! 

Happy Birthday Jacob Mockbee!

Today a fellow Pal shared a link on Facebook to a wonderful story about a local (to her) Tucson young man, Jacob Mockbee, who will be celebrating a sixteenth birthday that some doctors said he would never see. His family has started a campaign to collect 1600 birthday cards for Jacob for his birthday this Sunday. See the complete story here.

I was inspired to create a special card just for Jacob and used the Mojo Monday 297 sketch as my jumping off point:

The funny thing is, I tried VERY HARD to create a card using this sketch last night and my efforts ended up in the trash. I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason and now I know the reason I failed to create a card last night...I was meant to make THIS card, I just didn't know it yet! What a super feeling when you realize you are on the path that was meant to be in the moment!

Back to the card...I found this patterned paper in the Subway Soho Designer Series Paper pack and built the card around it. I pulled the color combination from My Digital Studio (MDS). It has a wonderful feature in the color palette that allows you to pick a color and request a color combination! How cool is that! I chose Island Indigo and the program suggested Sahara Sand, Basic Gray, and Summer Starfruit to compliment Island Indigo and I thought those colors would be "okay" for a sixteen year old young man!

How do you like the candles? I am very pleased with how they turned out! I used the wonderful new jumbo Stampin' Around Wheel, Birthday Candles. I knew I just HAD to have those candles...the possibilities are endless! So...I unmounted the stamp from the wheel and then, using our Clear-Mount Cling Foam, re-mounted the stamp onto the cling foam, essentially turning the wheel into a flat stamp. Why ever would I do that? I personally have a great deal of trouble rolling the Stampn' Wheel straight and I seem to rock it which results in poor image quality. I get much better results from a flat stamp and for this card I inked up just three candles using Basic Gray and Summer Starfruit Stampin' Markers. Isn't that just too fun? I sure thought so!

I used Stampin' Up!'s Typeset Alphabet Bigz Die to create the numbers for his big day and a cute little banner from one of our hostess sets, appropriately named Banner Greetings, to round this card off. Of course for this special card, I added a bit to the inside (which I don't normally do):

I am off to put this card in the mail to this remarkable young man...if you are so inclined, please drop one in the mail yourself, the address is here and I'm sure both Jacob and his family would appreciate the love!

Stampin Supplies:

Stamps: Birthday Candles Stampin' Wheel (130111), Banner Greetings (Hostess), Remembering Your Birthday (131350)

Paper: Sahara Sand (121043), Basic Grey (121044), Summer Starfruit (126839), Very Vanilla (101650) Cardstock; Soho Subway Designer Series Paper (130140)

Ink: Summer Starfruit (126991) Classic Stampin' Pad; Basic Gray and Summer Starfruit Stampn' Writers (not sold individually)

Tools: Big Shot (113439), Finishing Touch Edgelits (127010), Typeset Alphabet Bigz Dies (127553), Chevron Embossing Folder (127749), Stampin' Trimmer (126889), 1-3/8" Circle Punch (119860), Stampin' Dimensionals (104430)

Embellishments:  None

Thanks for stopping by!