Versatility in Design

A few years ago I attended an online craft retreat called Maker Mania 8. The kit for the retreat was autumnal with papers and stamps and dies great for this time of year. My last post's sunflower came from the dies in that kit. One of the instructors was Tricia Crosland Roy from Ladybug Scrapbook (sadly she has closed her shop) and she designed the layout for these cards. It is a versatile design that can be changed up by featuring different sentiments.

The photos on an angle show the subtle use of metallic cardstock. There is a vellum circle behind the white sentiment circle. This birthday card will be entered in the Seize the Birthday #336 challenge for Anything Goes.

 

I varied the gemstones with each card, colours and numbers, playing off the gold paper.

The beautiful 3D embossed background does most of the work here. I used Spellbinders dies for the leaves and Distress Ink to provide a little shading around the edges. Thanks for visiting!

Autumnal Wishes

I made a card that I think would be perfect for someone celebrating their birthday in autumn. It features a stately sunflower with three layers of petals, lots of dimension from a Spellbinders 3D embossing folder of leaves, and some gold highlights to evoke the changing of the colours. I chose this blue as we have had some wonderful sunny days here, and although the temperature is dropping., the sky has been cloudless. I thought the flower would pop against it.

The theme at Seize the Birthday Challenge is to use fall colours so I will enter this there.

Snoopy Birthday Love

I have joined the Peanut(s) Gallery! In the spring I got a magazine with a large set of Peanuts Gang stamps and finally got the set out today to make a card.

I love how these images work so well with vibrant primary colours. I pieced the background together using  a Pinkfresh Diagonal Stripes die and many different colours of cardstock. 

True story - I produced a Peanuts play in my senior high school drama class many decades ago. These characters are still wildly popular. In this case, my aunt is a Snoopy fan and while she will get this card late, I am hoping it makes her smile.

I have entered this in the Seize the Birthday Anything Goes Challenge, but there are two more days to enter the Funny/Punny Theme and I will try and come back to do that!.

 

Triple Tiered Wiper Card

 

For the Craft n Swap Canada group, I joined the Triple Tiered Wiper Card swap.  In the past I have only made single wiper cards, but this one has three "wipers". Here is the 5X7 inch card closed.

When the recipient gently pulls the front and back layers apart the butterflies fly out to the left side of each tier.

This is a vintage-themed card featuring ephemera, postage, die cut eyelet border and tabs. I used rub-ons from 49th and Market, including the Happiness Sentiment, which qualifies this card for the Cut it Up Challenge #362 ~ Add a Sentiment.

Here is what it looks like from the side.

And this is where a note can be added on the back panel. If you want to try one of these, check out this YouTube video that I followed. Thanks for looking!

Stencilled Snowmen

The current challenge at Jingle Belles is a colour challenge, whereby we must use at least 3 of the colours provided in this graphic.

And the current technique challenge at 52 Card Throwdown is Stencilling. 

 I am also entering this in the Addicted to Stamps & More! Christmas Challenge.           

 

Here's the card!

This vibrant and stencilled snowman card fits the bill! I used the Waffle Flower postal collage dies and snowman stencils and stamps to create this fun card. I used Distress Inks to create a northern lights background for the snowmen and set them on a dry embossed panel.

UPDATE - thank you to both Jingle Belles and 52 Card Throwdown challenge sites for highlighting my card in their round ups!

That was a different way for me to use the stencils and dies. Normally I leave the framed elements all together in a postal panel. The variations are in the framing, and the little embellishments added here and there. Those are generally dictated by where I have smudged something nd need to cover it up! Here is a sampling of those types of cards. It's like a fun Where's Waldo search to try and spot the differences in them. Thanks for visiting!

Balloon Banner

 At Seize the Birthday the challenge is:

This Clean and Simple card fits the bill. I used Taylored Expressions stamps and dies and a Sizzix stars embossing folder. Popped up a few balloons with foam tape.

I was also inspired by the Monday CAS challenge at Splitcoaststampers to use a balloon.

Hats Off to the Graduate!

 

Here is a graduation card that was fun to make because I used a new tool to make the card interactive. I recently purchased tiny Nano Spinners, a Dress My Craft Product. They are only 1/8th of an inch round, but that is what makes the graduation cap on this card spin! (Action video linked below.)

I stencilled stars in Distress Inks across the background followed by smaller stars in Nuvo Glimmer Paste. The sentiment and hat are from an ancient Stampin' Up! set called Tassel Time, and included the fun saying stamped inside.

To see the card in action, visit this 8 second YouTube video.