Birthday Wishes

Hi all,

Well, we've gone from 80+ degrees here on the San Diego coast to rainy and much more seasonal and cooler temps. I went to run some errands yesterday afternoon and when I left my house, it was 81 degrees and sunny. When I returned an hour later, the fog had rolled in to where we couldn't see out back fence and the temp was 61. I know that's not cold, but it's a pretty dramatic temp drop in just an hour. This morning it's currently 55 and drizzling. 

After my errands, I decided crafting was the best way to spend the rest of the afternoon, and I wanted to get my card made for LeAnne's Paper Players Color Challenge. She has chosen Bermuda Bay, Mint Macaroon and So Saffron for the monthly color challenge. The colors compliment each other pretty well, and I made two birthday cards for my stash.

As I mentioned in my last post, I seem to be doing a lot of ink blending lately, and I used it on this first card. I started by cutting a mini slimline panel from SU bright white card stock using the GKD Master Layouts 7 die set and ink blended the three colors using the SU ink pads and blending brushes. Next I pulled out a fairly old SU stamp set called Inspired By Nature and stamped part of the large flower stamp with black ink over the blended panel. I have removed all of my old SU wood mounted stamps from the wood blocks, which allows me to use the Misti stamping tool and get a nice dark image by repeat stamping.

The sentiment die cuts on the bottom of the card are also from the GKD Master Layouts 7 die set, and the greeting is from the GKD mini stamp set called Bitty Blossoms. The butterfly I pulled from my box of unused die cuts. It's from Pink Fresh Studio and is hot foiled with gold foil. I used small blending brushes to add the colors. Embellishments include Mermaid Tail mini sequins from GKD and a Baker's Twine bow.

For the inside, I colored directly on the small flower on the stamp with the SU markers and added a greeting form the SU Dragon Fly Garden stamp set.

The second card uses the SU Color and Contour stamps & die bundle. I stamped the large single flower line stamp in the set randomly around  a panel of SU Bright white card stock, then used the solid stamp to fill in the color, but "stamping off" to get a lighter shade of Bermuda Bay.  I used the small bkg dots image to stamp between the flowers with Mint Macaroon, then cut the panel with the Scalloped Border die from the set bundle, and used a blending brush to blend Mint Macaroon ink around the edges. The front of the card base is embossed using the SU Basket Weave EF. I cut some additional rectangles from white and So Saffron card stock, stamped the flower image from the stamp set and cut it out with it's corresponding die and layered it all onto the card. I added three small crystal gems around the flower image for a little sparkle. The greeting is a pre-printed sentiment strip from GKD. I cut it using one of the GKD flag dies from ML 4.

The inside greeting is from the SU In Bloom stamp set.

It's good to have more birthday cards ready to go. 

Enjoy the rest of your day, and thanks for looking in.

Supplies

Stamps: From Stampin' Up Color & Contour, Inspired By Nature, Dragon Fly Garden and In Bloom. Bitty Blossoms stamp set from Gina K Designs

Card stock: SU white, black, So Saffron and Mint Macaroon

Ink: SU So Saffron, Mint Macaroon, Bermuda Bay and GKD Black Onyx ink pads, SU markers

Dies: GKD Master Layouts 2, 4 & 7 die sets, SU Scalloped Contour Bundle die set, SU embossing folder, Pink Fresh Studio butterfly hot foil stamp die and cutting die

Other: Misti, Gemini Jr, GKD blending brushes, GKD Mermaid Tale sequins and mini crystal gems, GKD pre-printed sentiment strips, Bakers Twine, SU mini Dimensionals