Vroom! Vroom! Happy Birthday!

I made this card for my son for his birthday over the weekend.  He is 17 and of course like most 17 year olds he dreams of the day he will own a fast car.  Notice I don't share that dream but as long as it's a dream then I can live with it and indulge all the work he is doing to one day afford one!

I ran across this card contest on Clearly iStamp and thought it would make a great layout for a masculine birthday card.

Pretty much everything on this card IS Clear Dollar Stamps - The car image, the greeting, the background, and even those bolts; they are stamped in Memento Tuxedo black, cut out and then a clear glaze over them for some shine and texture.  This is one case where I started with the card sketch, the intended recipient (and chose the appropriate stamps from Clear Dollar Stamps) and ran with it.

So, do you think my card is running fast or running on empty?

Recipe

Card Sketch - CDC #22

Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah (base and image), Recollections (Blue), The Paper Source (Black)

Stamps -  Clear Dollar Stamps - bolt (Wrench & Bolt set), Metal plate (Heavy Metal), Happy Birthday (Cool Ride), Car (Corvette 1968)

Ink - Memento (Tuxedo Black, London Fog)

Color - Copics (sky - B0000, B000, B00; car - B23, B24, B29, B00, C1,C3, C5, W3,W5, E31; ground - C1, C3, C5)

Accessories - Cuttlebug embossing folder (gears), Spellbinders Nestabilities Oval

ETA - to answer the question - yes the diamond plate background is stamped.

2010 - Penguin sleigh party

The last of my last year's Christmas cards well not quite - would you believe I have a whole group of "winter cards sat here that haven't been mounted to send to some special people in my life? Yeah, I didn't think I was stretching your imagination too much with that one!  Maybe its something to do with publishing photos of my work 2-3 months after I have sent it out!  Still I love to share even if its only with a few people.

So here it is and a bit blurry too!  Bet you would believe that I take most of my pictures just as I'm stuffing that envelope to get my cards out the door too... hmmmm I think I might be giving away all my closely guarded secrets!

Anyway I like how this ended up and hope you do to.

Recipe

Card size -  8.5 in x 5.5 in

Cardstock -  Neenah, Bazzill, Recollections

Stamps -  High Hopes (I think)

Ink - Memento

Color - Copics

Accessories - Grosgrain ribbon, Cuttlebug dots embossing folder.

2010 Ski bear Snow Wishes

I decided early on that I wanted this card to use non-traditional christmas colors. 

I think it works even though I didn't have quite the right color cardstock and ribbon to match the blues in the coloring.  Sometimes I think we can get too hung up on things matching.  When Helena Bonham Carter was questioned by Jay Leno recently about her oddly paired shoes at the Golden Globes she said perfection is overrated and she is happy being herself. 

I think she had a point.  I know many card makers that can drive themselves to distraction trying to perfectly match items rather than enjoying the "flaw" or even glorying in it - so here's a shout out for non-matching blues - don't let them get ya down!

Recipe

Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah, Bazzill

Stamps -  High Hopes

Ink -  Memento

Color-  Copics

Accessories - Ribbon from Michaels, Spellbinders snowflake background die.

PS - the color matching police haven't found me yet!

2010 Merry Kiss Moose!

Maybe I should have published this warm little kiss earlier this winter!  Definitely a cute idea for a winter warmer.  I sent this little card kiss to my BIL and SIL.  I tried a few patterns and embossing folders for the background and I was happier with the less is more approach, almost like that old saying about taking off one piece of jewelry before you walk out the door, however as I normally only wear earrings I think I would look a bit odd with only one earring so maybe I will just stick with I planned this card to be clean and simple!  It will be a secret just between us right?

Recipe

Card size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah, Bazzill

Stamps - High Hopes

Ink - Memento

Color - Copics

Accessories - ribbon from Michaels. Corner rounder.

Christmas elf wishes 2010

I honestly don't know if this worked.  I tried to make this look like a package but I think it probably just looks a bit top heavy.  I played and played with placement I just couldn't get it any better than this.

 

So basically its my same normal construction model.  I got this stamp as an extra when I ordered directly from High Hopes - I think they only deal with shops now so I don't know about availability.  I colored this stamp with copics and mat and layered to pop it a bit and added the green ribbon as an accent.  I'm thinking that is probably where I went wrong and got the proportions of the ribbon layout too far into the corner.  Still if we don't try these things how do we ever learn.

Recipe

Card size  8.5 in x 5.5 in

Cardstock  Neenah, Archiver's open stock red

Stamps - High Hopes

Ink - Memento

Color - Copics

Accessories - ribbon from Michaels

Cricut Trees 2010

Shock horror I didn't stamp my "bulk" Christmas cards last year.  Oooo don't give me that evil look!  Truthfully I wanted to use up some patterned paper that just wasn't speaking to me and the copious amounts of dark green cardstock.  The only thing I actually purchased to make these was a Xyron creative station - oh my how did ever get on without that! Again this past year I went with the smaller card and kept it handmade and still sent them - my frugality came with the size and using up my supplies! We sent out around 90 of these cards.  I know several people that do individual cards for holidays but I always liked sending the same even before I started making them! 

Recipe

Card size - 4.25 in x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Georgia Pacific, Recollections, Rob & Bob paper stack (I don't know what number but I have had a few years!)

Accessories - Cricut Expression with Design Studio,  Xyron creative station, Christmas cart.

Fly by Birthday for future Fly boy.

I made this card expressly for my cousin, his heart's desire is to go to Naval Academy and fly as long as he doesn't get too tall!

So truthfully I bought this set from Clear Dollar Stamps specifically with him in mind because whether or not his dreams come true he will always love airplanes.

I made a tonal background using London Fog and Tuxedo Black in my Memento inks, alternating colors and stamps to get a masculine feel.  I colored the focal image with Copics and plenty of color to ensure it stood out.  I matted it on the black and put it to the background and it just seemed to swim on the page.  I decided I needed to break up the background so I adhered the black strip across.  That really made it much better.  I put the card together adding a bit of masculine bling with the silver brads on the corners of the main image.   It was still a bit blah.  So I decided to use the "Happy Birthday" stamp from another Clear Dollar Stamps set (I think Classic Cruisin) and round them so they were like little message clouds.  Hope you like.

Recipe

Card Size - 8.5 in x 5.5 in

Cardstock - Neenah, The Paper Source

Stamps - Clear Dollar Stamps

Ink - Memento - Tuxedo Black & London Fog

Color - Copics

Accessories - corner rounder, silver brads.