More Birthdays

Whew! Well, I finally finished the cards for my sister and brother...and yes, they are BOTH late!

This first one is for my sister, Kathy. (DUH...it has butterflies! Of COURSE, it's the girl card!!) Kathy likes to stamp and loves receiving hand stamped cards...hope she likes this one! This card looks a bit more simple than it actually is....although it really wasn't at all difficult!

The butterflies were created with another of the Convention sets received, Flight of the Butterfly. It's such a cute set!! Each of these butterflies were actually triple stamped: base, or solid in Pink Pirouette; the flower stamp in Regal Rose over top; and finished with the dotted outline in Rose Red. Highlighted each little flower center with some glitter and then cut them each out. As you can see, they were placed on layered squares.

The gathered ribbon was the most difficult portion of this card......this was a trick that was demoed at Convention. Of course when we were shown, it looked so quick and easy, but in fact, was much more difficult than it looked. To achieve this, cut the ribbon a few inches longer than the width of your card, unravel a little bit of one end and then choose a "string" and gather. Now that's not all the hard....the difficulty was in trying to get it to be even, not pull out on the far end....AND to lay in a straight line on the card! I managed....maybe it's not perfect, but then maybe it's not supposed to be?

Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly, All Holidays

Inks: Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Rose Red

CS: Whisper White, Rose Red, Kraft

Misc: 1 3/8" & 1 1/4" Square Punches, Wide Regal Rose Grosgrain, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Glitter Pen by Sakura

This one was the tough one....masculine cards are not always easy!!...which is why it took me so long to make it!! I chose Lovely as a Tree...a set that has not seen ink in quite some time. Do you know that this is the top selling stamp set at SU?!! It's been around for a long time and is amazingly versatile! (Christmas....Fall...General...AND Masculine!)

I wanted to do something different (for me) and was inspired by the amazing Michele Zindorf....who is truly a papercraft artist! Truthfully, I took a lot of liberties with this technique, but for my first attempt it isn't too bad, is it? I think my brother will like it.

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Sanded, Twill, Warmest Regards*

Inks: Chocolate Chip Craft, Old Olive, Summer Sun, More Mustard, Brocade Blue, Not Quite Navy

CS: Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive

Misc: More Mustard Narrow Grosgrain, Hodgepodge Hardware-Antique Copper*, Brayer, 1" Round Punch, Sponges and Daubers, Clear Embossing Powder

*Retired