All Aboard for a Happy Birthday!

It's that time of year where I make a card for our uncle who loves photography and trains! Subtle right?

I don't have any fancy polaroid dies so I made do with my rectangles and squares! Sometimes you have to think about what you have and how you can use it.  I think it works.

Ingredients:
Card size - 8 1/2 in x 5 1/2 in;
Cardstock - Recollections: Kraft, White;
Stamps - Clear Dollar Stamps - Railroad Memories;
Ink - Memento - Tuxedo Black;
Color - Copics to match patterned paper;
Accessories - American Craft patterned paper

SuperOwl!

I made this card for our friend who is a huge Sheffield Wednesday Supporter.  I love how it turned out.

I found this cute little owl stamp in the dollar stamps for Halloween at Michael's and think it works a treat!  I knew I wanted him as the focal image and a creative way to pop him so I decided to use my star dies and to cut a "ball" out of the front of the card.  It reminds me of a champions league football from a few years back with the stars in the pattern.  I stamped the footballs on in a bit of a pattern and then adhered the stars to the front and back of the circle cut out for stability.

Ingredients
Card size - 8 1/2" x 5 1/2"
Cardstock - Recollections 65lbs: white, blue;
Stamps - Recollections: soccer ball; See D's: Boys toys - soccer ball; Craftsmart: SuperOwl; 
Ink - Memento: Danube Blue, Tuxedo Black;
Coloring -Copics
Accessories - Spellbinders: Circles, Stars.

Yappy Barkday!

Giddy with excitement! I was drawn to win a High Hopes challenge a couple of weeks ago and then asked if I wanted to be a guest for a challenge.  YES! was my answer and here is my card.  The challenge is Blue, Brown, Cream/White.  OK, I have to admit to adding a bit of black in there, but it is only a little.

I added a bit of sparkle with Copic Spica Atyou pens. On the hats and bows/ribbons.  I have been having sparkle envy with everyone's Wink of Stella.  I think it is just enough especially as this is for a guy.

Ingredients
Card Size - 8 1/2" x 5 1/2"
Cardstock - Artist Loft: watercolor; Recollections: Kraft, Navy 65lb;
Stamps - High Hopes Stamps: Brutus, Scotty Dog, Odie Dog, party hat two, single present; Studio G: alphabet stamps;
Ink - Memento: Tuxedo Black, Nautical Blue, Danube Blue, Bahama Blue;
Color - Copics; Koi Watercolors; Spica Atyou;
Accessories - Polka Dots embossing folder; Dimensional tape; Eyelets; Twine.

The Post Office Ate My Card

I honestly was having trouble coming up with a title to the post.  Well the Post office solved that.  Yesterday, Friday August 22, 2014 I took this card to the Post Office counter and it and a SASE measured, metered, weighed, assessed, inside leg measurement taken etc.  And then posted it to my eldest to post back in time for my husband's birthday. Now I have good faith in the Post Office to do their job so imagine my surprise when today my husband received an empty SASE in the mail from inside the card. Not a happy camper.  From the condition of the SASE I would say a worker interfered with our post, not a machine, but I am sure a machine will be blamed.  My question is if their machinery couldn't handle it then wasn't that up to the postal worker at the counter to inform me?  Anyway, about the card -

I made the front of the card to look like a peg board.  I took inspiration from Lindsay, the frugalcrafter's card but kept it simple with the tools "pointing" to open the card.

In the inside I made a pop up toolbox.  I wish I could say it was my idea, I knew I wanted a dimensional toolbox but honestly wanted something more interactive than this.  You know, pull out drawers with tools inside interactive.  Yeah, I aim high!

So trying to work out how to do what I want I did an internet search and found this pop up card.  I decided with a few changes it was going to be as close as I was going to get to what I wanted, well.... this year!!!

All the tools are hand stamped and colored and then individually cut out.

And yes - this is a HUGE card with a top hinge thanks to some gorgeous grid paper and YES! paste.  Seriously, with YES! paste all things are adhere-able and nearly all things are possible!

I really loved this card so much that I almost didn't send it to my son to send back.  I nearly sent another but I thought this was the most appropriate one between them.  So here, I share with the world and hope someone in the US Post Office contacts us with what is left of my card (my blog I.D. is on the back) or an explanation for what happened.  I am not hopeful that it is still intact and if it is I am not hopeful that it wasn't deliberately opened.

Ingredients
Card Size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Recollections 110 lb - white, 65 lb - red, black; Recollections - Bright & Basic;
Stamps - Little Yellow Bicycle - Birthday; Technique Tuesday - Tool Time;
Ink - Gina K Designs Color Companion Black Onyx;
Color - Memento markers;
Accessories - Swiss Dots embossing folder; silver peel off strips.

Camera Cheese Birthday!

So I saw this wonderful video by Darlene and it is inspired me to look at what I had to make a birthday card for our uncle who has a love for photography (and cheese).

I used my Cricut Create a Critter Cartridge to make most of the cuts in either black or white.  Because none of my black cardstock is that thick, I cut two backs and two fronts in the shadow setting to give it some strength.

I chose the white because I wasn't sure what color I wanted that layer.  I chose a dark grey that looks a lot darker in person.  I did want it to look textured but didn't want to emboss it or make it too dark because I wanted the contrast with the black.  After taking a tip from Darlene I colored my flash and viewfinder by flicking the color.  The yellow really makes a splash of color on the card.

Stickles added to the yellow make it special without making it girly.

I cut a bit of packaging for the front of the lens and patterned paper for the inside. 

Also used my Cuttlebug and Nestabilities to the black circle because I felt it needed an extra layer.  The white cardstock around the lens I wanted to have a metallic sheen.

The top black layer I stamped and embossed with the sentiment.

A nice matching envelope to set it off and this is a case where the card turned out better than my imagination.  I just wish the grey looked better in the photo.  

Ingredients
Card size - approximately 6.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Recollections black and white 65lbs, Recollections paper, upcycled packaging for lens;
Stamps -
Ink - Versamark; Gina K Color Companions Black Onyx
Color - Copics; Sakura metallic silver gel pen
Accessories - Stickles

Box Car(d) Penguin Birthday

A cross between Up! and Madagascar with a cupcake would probably be the best way to describe this card!

I decided I wanted to make one of these box cards that I had seen on SCS and that it would be penguin and birthday themed... well the penguin theme probably came first to be honest. So I looked at my cute as a button penguin by Gina K and thought wouldn't he be cute holding a birthday cake of some kind... I wanted to keep this all Gina K but didn't have the right sized cupcake in my Gina K stamps so I went with the Technique Tuesday ones. Instead of paper piecing I cut inserts to slip the cupcake behind his flippers and then backed the stamped image with another fussy cut penguin, which also helped with stability when I adhered him to the card.

The balloons are an old QuicKutz die and loads of cheerful colored cardstock. Some were scraps.

Ingredients

Card size - 8.5 in. x 5.5 in. folded flat;

Cardstock - The Paper Studio: black, white, striped;

Stamps - Gina K Designs: Melt my Heart, Sweet Tweets; Technique Tuesday: Icing on the Cake;

Ink - Gina K Designs Color Companions: black onyx, white; Versamark;

Color - Copics; Sakura metallic silver;

Accessories - gel-a-tins scented embossing powder chocolate bliss

Brrrrrother... Happy Birrrrrrthday!

This card was created for my eldest who is away at university.  His university colors are brown and orange and he loves penguins. The 2 penquins represent him and his little brother.  I knitted them hats in those colors for Christmas.  I love it when there is no plan but it comes together anyway!

The Stampendous set comes with a stencil so I used  that and sponged my Gina K Color Companion white ink on the blue cardstock and stamped and colored over that. 

Ingredients

Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Recollections 110 lbs white, 65 lb light blue & blue, Monsters and Robots

Stamps - Stampendous Jumbo Penquins;  Gina K Designs Lots of Letters;

Ink - Gina K Designs white, black onyx;

Color - Copics

Accessories - Stickles, Paint pen white

A hint of vintage birthday

So if you follow my blog you know I start the year with quite a few birthdays and events.  Doesn't everyone? And every year I lose my mojo in January. ..it's a plot I tell ya! So this year I decided to not stress so much if this was the most perfext unique card for my BIL and just create.


I pulled loads of stamp sets and decided to use a Tim Holtz set that hadn't seen ink... I love the look of Tim Holtz inspired work but it is that little bit beyond my realm of logical comfort. I over analyze.  An internal dialogue of "oh my that is beautiful" versus "why?" "This doesn't really fit in your decorating scheme", "Would you want to dust it? " etc...



Hopefully I came up with a happy medium.  Is there such a thing as CAS (clean & simple) Tim Holtz?

BTW I am so excited over the card base I used. I know talking card bases isn't sexy but this card stock is a great weight and a great price especially with a coupon!

Ingredients
Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Recollections 110 lb white; kraft
Stamps - Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz The Journey; Kitchen Sink Stamps: Whole Family;
Ink - Gina K Design black; Memento gray flannel, love letter, espresso truffle;
Accessories - Spellbinders gears; clockworks embossing folder

A card of firsts..

So I was cruising Pinterest and I saw a pin about doller bill origami.  Now I had to find more just to look at and found a fighter plane. Eureka! I thought. I can do that for my cousin's birthday. So I found the instructions in video form and did! Woohoo I love it when a plan comes together don't you? Of course I then had to have a background to mount the plane and this is what I came up with.

I wasn't worried about realism, but it is funny how the plane looks like it is camouflaged.

So being rather proud of myself I show it to my youngest and get told "it's not an F-14, that's his favorite".  Sometimes you just can't win!

Ingredients
Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah; US Currency
Stamps - Gina K. Designs: Lots of Letters;
Ink - Versamark
Color - Copics
Accessories- Zing! Embossing Powder white; dimensionals.

Purple & Gold Soccer Birthday

I made this card for my youngest for his birthday smack, dab in the middle of soccer season for his school.

Yeah that's right! Glitter on a guy card. BAM!

Ingredients
Card sizes - 8.5 x 5.5 in;
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth: Recollections;
Stamps - Recollections soccer ball: Cornish Heritage Farms Tiger Stripes Backgrounder;
Ink - Versamark;
Accessories - Zing embossing powder glitter finish gold, metallic finish purple.

Train-mendous!

This is a card for my husband's very punny uncle.  It took quite a while to do because I decided not to use my Copics and instead use my Prismacolor pencils.  So after a bit of stamping, coloring in, fussy and die cutting, and doing that part fussy/part die cut thing for the first time this is what resulted.  Oh and just to prove I could I threw on a bit of ribbon on this masculine card! LOL!

Ingredients
Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Smooth Solar White; Recollections Black;
Stamps - Viva LasVegastamps: Train;  Gina K Designs: Ticket Trio;
Ink - Ranger Archival Ink: Black;
Color - Prismacolor Pencils;
Accessories - Ribbon; Brads; Spellbinders Nestabilities: Ovals; Dimensional tape

Happy Brrr-day to you...

 

This is the second Penguin card I made for my eldest with his current penguin obsession.  It is a pretty straightforward as they are digital stamps.  I did color them myself and proceeded to make their feet black so had to paper piece them.  Not my best bit of work but I am pleased that I was able to put this together relatively quickly for me and learning how to work with digital images and merging them with sentiments too.

 

Ingredients

Card size 8.5 x 5.5

cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth, printer paper

Stamps - Clear Dollar Stamps: Pal Penguins

Color - Copics

 

 



Penguin on an Iceberg

 

Peguin on an iceberg please talk free... (totally earworming that to "Mirror in the Bathroom" by The Beat)

 

 

Anyway I digress!  I totally CASEd this card from the Splitcoaststamper gallery http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2296718?cat=fav&perpage=48&thumbsonly=0&thumbcheck=

 

And the template for the card here! http://mamadinis.blogspot.ch/2011/12/penguin-card.html

 

Please go and give them some love!

 

Ingredients

Card size - 8.5 x 5.5 in (well around that anyway!)

Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth, The Paper Source, Recollections; Bazzill

Stamps - Gina K Designs (I think)

Ink - Memento, Archival Ink

Color - Copics

Accessories - Cuttlebug Clockworks embossing folder, White gel Pen, Liquid Applique

Happy BEER day!

See! Masculine Birthday cards really aren't that difficult.  Just go with what you know they love!  I made a version of this card a few years ago so I thought I would revisit it for another guy in my life.  That is 50 pints of beer, stamped, colored, and glossy accented and there is one on the inside for a 51 beer salute (we did remind him it wasn't a challenge!).  I cut the stamped ropes off the added some cord for depth.  I think it worked.

Ingredients
Cardsize - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White; Recollections: Black;
Stamps - Viva LasVegastamps - Man Sleeping in Hammock 3 1/2 x 4 1/2;
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black;
Color - Copics
Accessories - Printer; Cord; Glossy Accents; Brads; Dimensionals;

Superstar Birthday Soccer Owl

Sometimes the simplest cards are the more complex to make to keep them looking simple.  That made sense right?

I made this card for our dear friend who is a Sheffield Wednesday supporter and a "SuperStar!"

I knew I wanted depth and clean lines for this card and something different from the football (soccer) shirts I have done for him in the past.  So I started thinking about our nickname for him and knew I need to use my star dies and a great image but what image?  I was racking my brain for days.  Sometimes this really is a slow process and then I thought "oh I will just put a football/or owl in the middle and be done with it" Then I remembered this little guy that I had from a Hero Arts set and thought it would be fun to perch him on a football (soccer ball).

I die cut the stars and stamped the image through the back star for placement on the inside of the card.  I then opened up the card and colored the owl with copics and shaded the ball. 

On the top star I stamped the "Super!" in Memento danube blue twice to get the intensity and then used Memento markers to accentuate the different layers of the stars and tie in the colors.

The top layer was adhered to fun foam to create more dimension for the card and googly eyes were adhered to the owl, which to be honest gave the owl a completely different look to the stamp .

I used one of the die cuts on the back of the card to cover the bleed through from the Copics and to sign my name as maker.  This added an extra shadow effect that I couldn't capture on the camera.

Ingredients
Card Size - 8.5in x 5.5 in
Card Stock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth
Stamps  - Hero Arts You Hoo Owls; Kitchen Sink Stamps Never A Loss 4 Words; Recollections Comic Talk 
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Danube Blue
Color - Copics
Accessories - Spellbinders Nestabilities Stars, Googly eyes.


Soccer Pride Birthday

My youngest plays for the school's soccer team so I thought this would be an appropriate card for him.

I stamped the hoodie, bag and soccer balls separately on Neenah Classic Crest.  The balls were stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with metallic purple embossing powder.  I probably should have done some shading on the balls.  The hoodie and bag were stamped with memento ink and colored with copics.  I then hand cut them out and set them aside whilst I stamped the background of lockers.  I didn't worry whether they were all perfectly lined up because I don't know about you but the last time I was in a school the lockers looked like the students were using them and not that worried whether they were lined up. Now don't get me wrong they were bolted down and were lined up but I felt the lack of perfection in lining them up added to the ambience of the background.  Well, that is my story and I am sticking to it! ;)  I colored them in copics, keeping them neutral and colored the wall and floor in school colors.  TBH if I think about it I have probably reversed the actual colors; oh well. 

 

Then I used a Stampendous sentiment stamp and curved it on my acrylic block to make it look like the bunting you buy and hang up.  I stamped that with the Versamark and heat embossed.
When I went to assemble the card the hoodie looked random in the setting so I thought the best way to deal with it was to make a hanger as if it hanging off the lockers.  I got out some wire from my stash and made a couple of holes for the hanger to go through to help it look more realistic. 
Ingredients

Card Size - 8.5 x 5.5 inches

Card stock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White

Stamps - GinaK Designs: Just So Sporty, Sporty Accessories, and School, Sports, Spirit; Stampendous

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark

Color - Copics

Accessories - Zing! Metallic Purple embossing powder, wire.

 

 

Nom! Nom! Nom! Crunchy!

I made this card for my eldest to send to my youngest for his birthday.  He loves Dragons.  On top of that when discussing what our eldest may and may not need for university, I asked if he needed a trunk at which my youngest said - "Does he get an Owl and a wand too"?   Sometimes you really can't make these things up!  Thus I decided he needed a Dragon card from university.

I wanted a lot of texture for the background to imitate dragon scales and I wanted them irregular so handcut every row as randomly as possible.

The image and greeting were stamped on glossy paper and I colored the image in with Copics, adding texture and shading, and then tore around the image and greeting to keep it rustic. The mount for the image and greeting looked better being graphic like the image.

I originally went with putting the mounted image straight on the base and it didn't seem to portray the appropriate amount of fun and whimsy and I just wanted that power of that dragon fire to knock it off kilter, thus I tilted the image on the card.  I think it works and keeps it fun.

BTW the green cardstock as part of the mounting was a happy accident.  I just love the way it replicates the colors from the image, wish I could say I was a genius and planned it that way!

Ingredients
Card size - 8.5 x 5.5 inches
Card stock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Smooth, Recollections, Wassau, Hammermill Color Laser Gloss Paper
Stamps - High Hopes Stamps
Ink -  Memento Tuxedo Black
Color - Copics



Sensei's Birthday

 

Here we go again with my spinner cards.  I made this card for our Sensei.  He has a quite stressful job as well and I thought this would be a bit of light relief for him to see a comical image of himself spinning back and forth on a card.  He loved it and couldn't put it down.

 

Ingredients
Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in
Cardstock - Neenah Class Crest Solar White Smooth, The Paper Studio
Stamps - Stampabilities, Stampendous
Ink - Memento
Color - Copics



Relax...

I'm going to be the first to admit that the Relax doesn't really pop with the white stitching, at first I panicked and then I decided to take my own advice!

I like the subtleness of it being the orange on orange.  Maybe thinking about it I should have shadowed the letters with either white or purple instead of the faux stitching. 

What IS important is that it IS still a pretty cute card!  This card went to our uncle who is a big train and cheese enthusiast - however, he does like to garden too.  The slight irony is that I envisaged a sunny day in the garden and they have probably had one of the rainiest springs to date including a tornado in England.  Oh well, just keep reading the card.

Ingredients

Card Size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in

Card/Paper Stock - Neenah Classic Crest, The Paper Company

Stamps- High Hopes Stamps

Ink - Memento

Color - Copics

Miscellaneous - Sizzix alphabet; Spellbinders Nestabilities; American Craft White Gel Pen

Par fect Birthday

So there are only so many variation on a golfing theme.  After making the pom-pom flowers at Christmas I thought about how to transfer that idea to paper.  I also needed a card for my sports enthusiast BIL. 

I think this almost works...

The fringe for the grass.  The black oval as the hole.  The circle that is debossed to look like a golf ball.

And of course the personalization on the ball!  I will say I attempted to airbrush some depth on the ball.  Something I need to keep working on.

Ingredients

Card size - 8.5in x 5.5in

Card stock - Georgia Pacific, Revelations, The Paper Source

Stamps - Just Rite Stampers

Ink - Memento

Misc- Copics with airbrush; Swiss dots embossing folder