This week we here at the Happy Stampers welcome you to a sketch challenge! It’s always fun to see what the 7 of us in the group come up with – we’re all so different in our crafty aesthetic – so seeing our 7 very different takes on the same sketch is cool! Hope you’ll take a few minutes to peruse all our various offerings today.
To start out – here’s the sketch we’re working with:
So – two years ago (and one month from today), a lovely little girl was born to one of our favorite and most fun-to-have-around team members. At that time, I was just getting a feel for stamping and making cards. Hadn’t even heard of Stampin’ Up!, let alone availed myself of any of their wonderful crafting goodies. But, nonetheless, I made a welcome baby card. Don’t even have a picture of it. Yes, I wasn’t even a blogger then!! 😉
Last year, I made a card for Miss Scarlett’s first birthday. It looked like this:
For today, as I make her second birthday card, I once again have wonderful Occasions and Sale-a-Bration products to use. I used two really fun things – the first is the wonderful, glorious Number of Years bundle, and the second is the so-intricate-people-think-you’re-a-genius-it’s-okay-just-let-them-think-you-are-one Birthday Pop-Ups Thinlit Dies. Take a look-see:
I let the color scheme from the gorgeous Birthday Bouquet DSP drive my color choices. So, I started by embossing a panel of Whisper White card stock in my Happy Hearts TIEF. I SNAILd it to a mat of Mossy Meadow and began to work on the sentiment, which is from Number of Years. I inked up the stamp with Mossy Meadow and carefully stamped it over the top of where my circle element was going to be.
And learned an important lesson. It’s really hard to stamp over dry embossed card stock and have the image look good. I attempted to fix it with my Stampin’ Write Marker. Fail.
Pulled the panel off the Mossy Meadow card stock and consigned it to the round file on the floor.
I took a piece of Whisper White card stock, and stamped the sentiment again in the correct spot, in Mossy Meadow ink. THEN I ran it thru my Happy Hearts TIEF! Sheesh – pretty flat learning curve this past year, huh??
I SNAILd it to the Mossy Meadow mat and drove on.
I cut a strip of the Birthday Bouquet DSP and matted it on Mossy Meadow – and then SNAILd it to my card front. For the sentiment circle, I cut a 2 3/8″ Mossy Meadow circle with my Circles Collection Framelits and ran it thru the Happy Hearts TIEF. It’s SNAILd onto another piece of the Birthday Bouquet DSP, punched with my 2 1/2″ Circle Punch.
Then I put a piece of Stampin’ Dimensional on the top and bottom of the circle, and SNAIL in between. I carefully adhered it to the card front – ensuring that the embossed hearts lined up.
I’m sure two-year-old Miss Scarlett will fully appreciate that fine artistic detail!
The “2” is cut using the die from the Large Numbers Framelits Die set – that I got as a 15% off bundle with Number of Years! – out of another of the pretty designs in Birthday Bouquet. I think this might be one of my favorite designer papers yet. Every design is just beautiful!
I popped it onto the sentiment circle with Stampin’ Dimensionals.
For the balloons, I stamped several in each size from the Balloon Celebration stamp set. Some are in Mint Macaron – and I added the image from the same set to give the balloons some dimension – and some are in Blushing Bride. Then I punched them all out with the matching bundled Balloon Bouquet Punch. I adhered them willy and nilly around the card, sticking (if sometimes loosely!) to the intent of the sketch, I think. The bottom 3 on the left are adhered with Multi-Purpose Liquid Glue, and the one on top of that and in the top right corner are popped out with Stampin’ Dimensionals.
I gave all the balloons a Blushing Bride Baker’s Twine String – stuck to the back of each one with a little dab of the Liquid Glue – ran the string down and secured it with a little more Liquid Glue, and then popped on a tiny bow of Gold 1/8″ Ribbon. And that was it for the front….
The inside was fun. I used the new Birthday Pop-Up Thinlits and cut a piece of Birthday Bouquet DSP.
Now. What the instructions tell you to do is to cut a piece of DSP the same size as your card base, fold and score it, and then lay the die along the fold, lining it up using the handy guide arrows on the die. And that’s what I would have done if I’d had paper that size. But I didn’t. I had 6″ x 6″ paper – I’d cut it to make getting it here easier! So, I folded my paper in half, lined up the die and cut it out. Then I folded it in the center – making a mountain fold in the die cut itself.
I cut a piece of Whisper White card stock to match my card base, and cut a square window out of it, using my Stampin’ Trimmer. Then I adhered the die cut to the back of that piece, and then adhered the whole thing to the inside of the Blushing Bride card base. One note – you want to use stout adhesive (think Fast Fuse!) and put the adhesive close to where the die cuts start on the sides. Once you get your piece cut out, it’s pretty obvious where you want adhesive and where you don’t! 🙂
Obviously, if you’ve got paper big enough to make into a card base sized panel – lots less work! This fun die really does all the work for you!
I used my Gold Wink of Stella to paint tiny little flames on the candles, SNAILd the card front on the front of the card base. And called it good!
And then I realized I could bling up my balloons a little, so I painted them with some Clear Wink of Stella. 😉
My card turned out a little smaller than a full A2 card, so a Whisper White Medium Envelope works fine. It’s a thick card, so if yours is “full” died, you might want to make a custom envelope to give yourself a little wiggle room,
I used the Time to Celebrate “string” from the Balloon Celebration stamp set to make a Blushing Bride string on the front. I used a little Multi-Purpose Liquid Glue to adhere a leftover large balloon to the string. And then I colored the bow image with my Gold Wink Of Stella….
…and of course the inside got a liner from more of the striped Birthday Bouquet DSP, courtesy of my Envelope Liner Framelits!
Et Voila! Two stamp bundles and the prettiest DSP ever to make a cute, girly birthday card for a favored little 2-year old! Hope that you like it! And that her parents like it – even if she doesn’t quite care yet…. 🙂
Now that you’ve seen my card, please take a little time to visit all the Happy Stampers Team blogs today.
If you click on the Next Blog button, you’ll go right to Jari Francis’ page. And you can just click on the names below to go direct to all the blogs!
Mary Deatherage – YOU ARE HERE!
Enjoy the Hop!
TTFN
Mary
WEEKLY DEALS FOR 19 Jan – 25 Jan 15!! Click here to see the Weekly Deals from Stampin’ Up! in my online store. The Weekly Deals are only while supplies last and only available at these great prices through 25 Jan!
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STAMPIN’ UP PRODUCTS USED IN TODAY’S PROJECT:
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Card Cuts Used in Today’s Project
Blushing Bride Card Stock: 5 1/4″ x 8 1/2″ (card base; scored and folded at 4 1/4″)
Mossy Meadow Card Stock: 4 1/8″ x 5 1/8″ (card front mat); 2 3/8″ Circle (sentiment circle); 1 5/8″ x 4 1/8″ (front strip liner)
Whisper White Card Stock: 4″ x 5″ (embossed card front); 4 1/4″ x 5 1/4″ (inner liner (cut out is 3/4″ from top and bottom and 2″ from each end)); balloon punches
Birthday Bouquet DSP: 1 1/2″ x 4″ (front strip); “2” (Large Numbers Framelit cut); 2 1/2″ Circle (circle mat); Party Pop-ups die cut; envelope liner
If you need any stamping supplies, I’d be very happy to be your Demonstrator. Just click on the Order Stampin’ Up! Online Now button on the right side of the screen to go directly to my online store or drop me an email if you have any questions. Happy Stamping!
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BACKORDER LIST AS OF 20 Jan 16
February 1
140566: Honeycomb Embellishments
140550: Blushing Bride Glimmer Paper
TBD
140503: Happy Home Stamp Set (Clear)
Inky Bee Stampers
KarensCardCorner
Stamp with Amy K
Stamp With Nel
Stampin With Shirley G
Tarabeth Stamps
TL's Bright Spot
wow, totally stunning card and happy birthday to her!. Love the pop out inside, it’s amazing, now I’ll have to get that die and try it, LOL…
Thanks, Sandi! Yes, it really is a cool die!! You NEED it! 😉
Very sweet card! Love the way that you finished the inside with the pop-out…but I’ll keep in mind the note to cut the paper to the same size as the card base! 😉 I’m sure that she’ll love it!
Thanks, Amy! Yes, having big enough paper will definitely reduce the time to make the card! 😉
Awesome! What a fun card for someone special. Love the inside and the candle flames!
Thanks, Jari!! 🙂
A peek-a-boo card for Scarlett! I hope they are keeping a scrapbook. This one is wonderful; they all should be saved.
Aww, that’s sweet, Mom. Thanks! 🙂
What a FUN, cool, very pretty card!!! I love it!!!! Thanks Mary 😀
Thank you, Heather! 🙂