Category Archives: Birthday

Tuscan Vineyard Watercolor Continued

Here’s the final card of the ones that I made at the crop using the Tuscan Vineyard set. On this one, I decided to watercolour the entire image and to use last year’s in colours.

Stampin' Up! Tuscan Vineyard and Endless Birthday Wishes

So I started off with delightful dijon for the basket and decided that the other bottle was terracotta and thus I could use watermelon wonder. For the ground and shadow, I used tip top taupe and I also used that for the stoppers. I trimmed down my watercolor paper until it felt “right” and then cut a piece of tip top taupe 1/8 inch larger for the mat. Before committing my watercolouring to the card, I stamped the sentiment (which is from Endless Birthday Wishes) in more tip top taupe on a delightful dijon base. Once that was safely executed, I glued on the watercolouring.

For the envelope, I used the Festive TIEF to dry emboss the flap – and this time I remembered to take a photo to show you! It’s a really fun pattern.

Stampin' Up! Tuscan Vineyard and Endless Birthday Wishes and Festive TIEF

I really enjoyed playing with Tuscan Vineyard and since I have a day of stamping planned for tomorrow, there may well be some more examples of its use in the upcoming week! I hope that you have something fun planned for the weekend and that you have a great Friday too.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Swirly Scribbles for CAS Colours & Sketches

Good morning. Once again we’re up to Thursday in the week which means a new challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches. This week it’s my very first time hosting a challenge as a member of the design team and although I planned to make my card before setting the challenge, in typical “just in time delivery” fashion, I completed my card last night. I’d been trying a different idea but yesterday morning thought that Swirly Scribbles would be the way and last night after work, that’s what I used.

Stampin' Up! Swirly Scribbles and All About Everything

And here’s the banner showing the three blues that I chose:

Challenging? Yes. But I think, definitely fun. I kept wanting to add a pop of a different colour (not allowed) so this took some thought but I’m extra happy that what I ended up with was a masculine birthday card.

It’s a fairly simple card to put together once you’ve cut out your three swirly scribbles in the three colours being careful not to lose any of the cut out pieces. I started by laying it out on scrap paper so that I could decide exactly how I was going to fill in the spaces. It changed between the scrap paper and the final card! Once I had that decided, I placed the night of navy outline onto the card to get the placement right for my sentiment and started by stamping that in night of navy. The sentiment is from the Paper Pumpkin bonus set, All About Everything that just fits so nicely into the curve of the cutout. Only then did I actually glue down the night of navy outline! I used the 2 way glue pen (because there’s no oozing challenge) and then started filling in some of the gaps with dapper denim and marina mist. Of course I have sufficient cut out pieces to make a couple more of these using the other colour ways.

I hope that you’ll pop along to the challenge blog to see what the rest of the design team have made and to have a go yourself. I’d love to see you in the gallery.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

 

Tuscan Vineyard Masculine Birthday Card

Yesterday I shared a watercoloured image from the set Tuscan Vineyard as the focal point for my card. Today I’m sharing a card showcasing one of the smaller, more overlooked images.

Stampin' Up! Tuscan Vineyard and Endless Birthday Wishes

I stamped the corks in early espresso on very vanilla and then trimmed to scrap paper to what felt like the “right” size. Then I cut a piece of early espresso 1/8 inch larger to give me my little border. I then took a “card front” which is 1/4 inch smaller than my card base – it’s adds some interest even though it’s the same colour as the card base – and heat embossed the sentiment using versamark and gold embossing powder.  The sentiment is from the must have set, Endless Birthday Wishes. This is one of my most oft used birthday sentiments – not only is it a good birthday greeting, the size and shape of it makes it frequently fit right on the card.

Once I’d heat embossed the sentiment without mishap, it was time to add the image and layer to my card front and then add that to my very vanilla card base. Since very vanilla is a little thin, I always add an insert to the inside aswell to make it more sturdy. This is especially necessary if you have a number of layers on the front so that the card itself is a little balanced. For the envelope, I got out my Festive TIEF and dry embossed the envelope. Adds a really birthday feel, don’t you think?

Yesterday I placed a rather large order from the upcoming Holiday catalog. As a demonstrator, I get to order a month early which is a great perk. Don’t worry, I won’t go completely Christmassy quite yet! The exciting part for non-demonstrators is that now the limited time bundle is available for purchase – it’s available until the end of the month or until supplies last. So if you want it, get it soon!

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Otherwise, sit back and relax and get ready for a really fun holiday catalog.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Bunch of Blossoms Birthday

It’s time to get out the washi tape again! I’m really trying to use it rather than hoard it – at 5 yards per roll and at about 6 inches per card, there’s enough for 10 cards per roll. Coupled with the beautiful sentiments in Bunch of Blossoms, it’s easy to whip up a quick, pretty card.

Stampin' Up! Bunch of Blossoms and Floral Boutique Designer Washi tape

This is a super easy card to make – I used two coordinating washi tapes, both from the Floral Boutique Designer washi tape set, and added a strip of each to my piece of whisper white folding the edges under the card. I mounted this onto a base of night of navy. The sentiment comes from Bunch of Blossoms – love the typeface – and I’ve stamped it in melon mambo. I cut this out with a punch and cut a mat for it with the circles dies also in night of navy. It’s popped up with dimensionals.

For the envelope, I added a strip of each of the washi tape rolls to the front, trimming the edges right up to the envelope. I’m not sure if it would make it through the mail though – I’ll have to do a test to find out. Either way, it coordinates nicely with the card.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Moroccan DSP birthday

Today I’m sharing a third card made with the Moroccan DSP to put in my matching box which I’ve yet to show you. The box holds up to eight cards and because I’ve decorated it with the Moroccan DSP, I’m making the cards all with paper from this stack.

Stampin' Up! Moroccan DSP and Watercolor Wishes

This is another fairly busy paper which would be overwhelming if it were covering the entire card front – well, it would be to me. So I cut a strip 1.5 inches wide (actually it started wider at 2 1/8 inches but I cut it back as I was designing the card) and decided to pull out the cajun craze from the pattern. The cajun craze strip is 1/8 inch wider than the DSP to get a lovely tiny border. Once you’ve got the liquid tombow glue on the DSP, use your trimmer or your table to ensure that you’ve got the edges perfect. This is why I use the liquid glue, you have a little time to wiggle the paper to make sure that the edges are lined up. I then mounted this on a very vanilla card base.

To continue featuring the cajun craze, I used that ink for the sentiment which is from Watercolor Wishes. I know that you knew that because I use it all the time! But I love the typeface, the sentiment and the way the sentiment is stacked together. It’s just perfect. I cropped it with an oval die and then popped it up on dimensionals.

In case you were wondering why I started with a strip of DSP at 2 1/8 inches, it’s because I’m lazy – actually, let’s call it efficient! It means that there’s less cutting for the envelope flap. Just get a 6 by 2 1/8 inch strip, put some tombow on the flap and add the DSP. Use an edge to ensure that the edge of the envelope and the edge of the DSP match and then trim the excess with your paper snips. Now you have a perfectly coordinating card and envelope.

Stampin' Up! Moroccan DSP and Watercolor Wishes

Yesterday demonstrators were able to see the new Holiday catalogue and we’ll be able to order next Tuesday. It will be generally released on September 1st. I can’t wait to start playing with some of the goodies. If you can’t wait either, just think about signing up as a demonstrator. For $99 with free shipping, you can select $125 worth of product (including from the new Holiday catalog) with no requirement to ever buy more. If you want to stay active and enjoy the 20% discount, you just need to sell/buy $300 per quarter, not including your first quarter. This means that you’d have until the end of September to sell/buy a total of $300 to stay active. And that’s not difficult, believe me! Just click on the tab over on the left for more information and the link that you need to join my team.

See you tomorrow,

Liz