Birthdays

So many birthdays... they come, they need cards... some get there on time, others not so much. No matter when they arrive, hopefully the recipients realize I've put time into thinking about them while making their one of a kind card.

Here are some examples of what I've done over the last year or so..

      I  like the idea of using the vacated image from using a die, here I've used a branch die & then mirrored it from piece I'd already cut out.

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 Box cards are all the rage right now... I really enjoy making them too. 

This one, I made for my daughter, who turned 12 recently,  to help highlight the many delightful sides of her personality.

 Here's one I made for a niece who turned 16 recently. I really like making these popup boxes. Again, she is a multi-dimensional young lady, so I had to find a way to combine seemingly different styles. This time, I took a swirl stamp I have to decorate the relatively plain pink DSP. Echoing the swirls in the background & the gold paper, I used some bling swirls for a bit of pizazz.

 Want to make one? There are a TON of tutorials out there, here's the one I used: pop up box tutorial

Another fun card that seems to be circulating is the pull pop up card. Here's the tutorial I used from Splitcoast stampers: Surprise Pop Up Card/

This is a card I made for my nephew. It kind of has a Dr. Seuss  feel on this stamp. I colored it with pencils then highlighted the white with a gel glitter pen.

Here, I've opened it just a bit...

 ...And now all the way. You can see some hand drawn balloons peaking out from the tab pulling out. I used my water color pencils and blended with an aqua writer.

For the top panel with the cake, I used a spellbinders die to give it a neat outline. Being careful to only glue the center of the top panel so as not to glue it shut.

 For this card, I spent a lot of time mimicking the lattice design I dry embossed on the yellow background cs. I had to cut thin strips of the white stock & weave to create it. I used a larger piece of stock with a simple rectangle cut out to act as a frame. The front is propped up on dimensional dots.  

The butterflies are stamped & cut using a retired SU! set, Flight of the Butterfly. I've actually borrowed this one from a friend.

I even decorated the inside of this one (not something I do often) I just love this set!

 Here's the finished card

Another dimensional card.... a Pyramid card  

 

 For this one, I used this tutorial from Stamping Year Round.

The Happy Birthday is perched on some acetate I attached on the inside.

On the panel that is not secured, I used a fancy brad (apple since that was the academic side) to hold the card open / standing up. The sentiment is hand written inside.

This is for my father, who often wears Hawaiian shirts.  Its a criss-cross card with a couple of twists....

1) Rather than trimming off the top corner of both sides coming in, I scored them & folded them back - making the lapels.
2) Instead of securing both sides, I added a piece of velcro closure to the bottom front point so it could be opened & closed.


I used cloud white ink to stamp the image, then embossed with white powder.. The handwritten sentiment is with a gel pen.

And finally today, I'm sharing a card I made using Heartfelt Creations, Bella Rose Vintage Background Stamp. I used versamark ink, a mixture of copper & ancient gold embossing powders to heat emboss the stamp.

Then, I used my watercolor pencils (really like those things) to color in the large parts, leaves, flowers, butterfly....
I took my aqua blender and just lightly touched each area to blend the colors for a soft, painted look.

To back this, I used a lattice embossing folder on some shimmery cardstock. It didn't have enough shimmer though, so I added some versamark and some clear powder to give it just a smidge more sheen. That was backed by a light green cs and finally mounted on the card base.
I did use dimensional pads to lift the main panel off the card.

Hope I've inspired you to take on a new technique or two... Thanks for taking a look.