Birthday Presents & Challenges

One of my co-workers, Terry,  had a birthday this week, and I couldn't wait to make her a pretty notebook to go with these great flower pens I found at Staples. I found these great little kraft coloured notebooks at the Dollar Tree awhile ago, and went back to get more for this project. Unfortunately, they only had three left; I sure hope they get more.

I pulled out my retired stamps, Pick A Petal, to make big beautiful daisies in the background. My new Larger Than Life Alphabet stamps that arrived this week, just in time to make this pretty book! I embossed the letters and the flower center in white EP. I felt that it needed just a little something more, so I went scrounging and found the cute little bee in a very old set, In Full Bloom. That was actually one of the first sets I ever purchased after discovering Stampin' Up! Unfortunately, it's difficult to see behind the light reflecting off the ripple in the plastic wrap. I cut the label section off the package the book came in, and slid my new pretty book back inside. I added ribbon, the pen, and the little matching daisy birthday card, and voila! -a pretty little gift! And even greater than my joy of making it, was seeing Terry's delight when she received it.

Thanks to the wonderful ladies who attend my card making classes each month, I have been placing orders quite regularly, and having a lot of fun with all of my new toys!

Along with the Larger Than Life Alphabet set, I've also recently purchased the new background stamp, Writing Notes, and the Bold Butterflies Framelits. I decided to try them out for two challenges this week. Unfortunately I don't seem to make enough time to participate in challenges as often as I'd like, but I actually had a couple days off work this week and had lots of time to play! One of my favourite challenges online is SU Only Challenges.  This week's challenge was to use butterflies. I actually did two cards today. The first one fits their criteria, and the second combines this challenge with another at Addicted to CAS, which was to use banners on a CAS card. I hope I'm allowed to submit two entires!

Ok, I am seriously in love with this alphabet! I thought it would look cute on the Writing Notes background, and I think I was right. I wish my 'F' had been a bit closer to the 'O', but I try to reign in my perfectionism from time to time, and let it be. (I lied- the more I look at it, the more it is really driving me nuts!) 

I stamped the background with Soft Suede ink on Crumb Cake CS, embossed the letters in white EP, just like the notebook, and added 'you' with chocolate chip ink. The 'you' is from the Endless Birthday Wishes stamp set. I just love being able to see through the photopolymer to place my stamps exactly where I want them. The butterfly is die cut from Crushed Curry, with rhinestones added to the body for some bling.

My entry for the Addicted to CAS challenge, uses the same background, but cut down to a small banner. I stamped the sentiment with the Endless Birthday Wishes photopolymer set. I layered the banner on top of our Tea Lace Paper Doilies, and added a butterfly cut from Tempting Turquoise. After adding the rhinestones to his body, I felt there was something missing, so I added three more in the bottom right corner.

Thanks for looking!
Chris

February Card Class - I'm on a Roll!

So, yes, I am pretty proud of myself. I'm really on a roll with my blog now, and I think it's okay to be proud of myself. I set out to do something that I felt was important, and I'm doing it. I know my friends appreciate seeing what I've been up to, and I hope you do too. It shouldn't take me long to catch you all up, and get to what I've been doing recently. So here's what we did in February:

February was the last month that we did five cards. We were just finding it too difficult to get them finished- we were going too late, and getting too tired. It didn’t help that many of us had worked a full day, and then had to work the next morning also.

So here's the group of them; we did mostly birthday cards this month. I guess that's what I was in the mood for. :-)

I love CAS, and it’s so easy for the new stampers. CAS cards don’t actual have to look simple- they’re just simple to create. This is handy when you have a limited time frame for the class. Clean and simple cards can still have a great wow factor, as you can see with this butterfly card. I used my circle framelit dies to create a mask out of simple copy paper, and stamped the Hardwood Background in Basic Grey. The butterfly was stamped from the 25th Anniversary set, Best of Butterflies, and cut out by hand. I coloured the butterfly with my wonderful Blendabilities markers. Unfortunately due to a flaw in the manufacturing process, Stampin’ Up felt they had to discontinue them. Hopefully they will find a way to bring them back soon; I know a lot of people are anxiously awaiting that. The sentiment is from a retired sentiment set, Words of Wisdom. And for the wow factor (besides the bright Rich Razzleberry butterfly against the white background), I added a row of pale pink rhinestones to his body. When adding cut out butterflies to my cards, I always glue them down at the body only, allowing the wings to pop up off the card, for a beautiful effect. I stamped “happy birthday” inside from the retired hostess set, Express Yourself.

I don’t know what’s happened to me, but this past year I have fallen in love with yellow! I even bought a yellow pillow to go on my red couch! It’s pretty great.  :-)

Now, I love yellow and grey combos the most, but for this pretty birthday card, I chose a yellow and blue combo. The card base is So Saffron,  and the patterned piece is from the Subtles DSP Collection. The Night of Navy panel has been cut with the Scalloped Edge border punch. The presents are from the Retired Christmas set, Wishing You, and are coloured with Night of Navy, So Saffron, and Marina Mist markers. It is popped up with foam lifters. The sentiment from the Sale-a-bration set, Big Day, is coloured with another set of Blendabilities markers, with rhinestones added for some sparkle.

Our second birthday card is done with a cake image from embellished Events, and a sentiment from the retired set, Curly Cute, which I hope makes a comeback someday- it’s a fabulous set! I coloured the cake using my SU markers, and cut it out. Using my two way glue pen, I added some dazzling diamonds glitter to the cake stand and flames. It is popped up using some foam lifters, on top of two strips of wash tape. I carefully masked off each half of the sentiment, stamping them separately to allow the sentiment to be broken into two separate lines. The white panel was then added to the So Saffron card base.

I just love this retired hostess set, Hello Love- the birds are adorable! You can’t really see it, but I wanted to give the Real Red card base, a bit of texture, so I stamped the retired Just Jeans background in Cherry Cobbler ink. It’s quite difficult to see in person also; even the girls didn’t notice it there. Maybe I should have used a darker ink. I used my corner rounder punch to cut the two corners of the white and black card stocks, and then stamped the images. I used a black fine tip pen to draw sewing lines on, and coloured my pretty birdie with my watercolour brush and my Bermuda Bay ink pad. Inside the card, I used the birthday greeting, but the girls had the option of using any sentiment in the set- for a birthday, baby, or wedding.

And lastly, we have this great card I CASE’d using the Guy Greetings stamp set. The card base is Crumb Cake, with real red and chocolate ship panels. The lights card stock is Naturals Ivory, which I am very sad to say, has been discontinued. It was always a great CS to use for a vintage feel. The hate were stamped in Chocolate Chip, the sentiment in Real Red. I added texture to the Chocolate Chip panel using the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set. I just love this card- such a great masculine card! 

Ok, I think I’ve said enough for one day, and the hubby is waiting for me to go watch 24 with him- we’re addicted! 

Thanks for looking, have a great day!

Chris.