Zoe birthday

I made this card for my niece for her birthday later this month.  I hope she likes it.  I know it is a little bit girly and she is in her 20's but I went for whimsy this time.  

Well, whimsy and chocolate.  I decided to color the cake chocolate flavor and use some chocolate scented embossing powder.  Well it smelt like chocolate for a little while.  I made this before we went away on holiday and came back and TBH I really can't smell the chocolate on it which is a little disappointing.

Still, I enjoyed making the card.  I used a half sheet of cardstock to stamp and coloring in the scene with copics.  I then used Versamark to color over the top of the cake to give the icing a glossy, chocolaty finish.  After highlighting her outfit with dots and coloring in the ground and wall, I stamped in the sentiment with the Memento and overstamped with Versamark and heat embossed with the chocolate scented embossing powder for more chocolaty goodness.

Once it was finished I die cut the front to pop up the center for interest and then stamped the envelope to match.

What it took:
Card size - 8 1/2" x 5 1/2"
Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 80lb; Recollections Kraft;
Stamps - C.C. Designs Birthday Cake Lucy; Hero Arts  ; See D's Plain Jane Alphabet; 
Ink -  Memento Rich Cocoa, Versamark;
Color - Copics, 
Accessories - Gelly Powder Chocolate; 

ROAR! RIT Class of 2015

What do you do when 2 out of 3 of your son's roommates graduate? Two different cards? Two the same?  Subtlety or KAPOW!  Well, I tried to think of 2 different but equal designs and I couldn't so this is what I did.

I decided to go with the School colors of Orange and Brown and the School mascot, a tiger, as the focus.  And of course, the tiger HAD to be graduating!  Then I thought, what if it were a shaker card?  Everyone loves a skaker card right?  So I looked through my bead stash and even my sequin stash and nothing.  All my sequins seem to be Christmas themed and my beads are tiny.  

So I decided to experiment with Shrinky Dinks.  Yes!  All those little mortar boards and diplomas are Shrinky Dinks.  Did I mention how awesome his roommates are? In fact, the Shrinky Dinks mortar board is the same one on the tiger's head. Boom! I love it when a plan starts to come together.

I made the main background using a non-patented hinged stamp positioner so I could restamp as needed and keep it aligned.  The one I have isn't easy on this size card but I made it work.  I masked the tiger and stamped over him with the large tiger stripe background stamp.

Then it was time to decorate the envelope to match.  I went with the same background stamp and an ombre effect of the school colors but starting with black moving through brown to orange.  Who needs a specialist inkpad?!

Ingredients:

Card Size - 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 in;

Cardstock - Recollections 65lb: white, kraft, orange, black; scrap packaging transparency;

Stamps - High Hopes Stamps: Tiger, Grad Cap, Diploma; Stampendous: Simply Safari, School Years; Hero Arts: Graduation; See D's: Plain Jane Alphabet; Cornish Heritage Farms: Tiger Stripe;
Ink - Memento: Tuxedo Black, Rich Cocoa, Tangelo;

Color - Copics;

Accessories - black cord.