Birthday break!

I stopped with the holiday cards long enough to make a few critterless birthday cards.  I give my friend cards each year for her birthday and she hinted that she needs more birthday cards.  She also is not a big fan of critters, so there's that.

The first 2 cards are using the Simon Says Stamp Leafy Frames kit from last June. The sentiment on the front is from an older set, and the inside sentiment (the scripty "happy birthday to you") is an older one from Lawn Fawn.  "Queen for the Day" is an older sentiment from My Favorite Things.

As much as I liked the Leafy Frames kit, the sentiments were not really on point for me and my card making style.

Then, because I couldn't resist, I made another vintage red pickup truck.  From Queen & Co.'s Special Delivery kit.

Now that's done with I can get back to Christmas again!

Happy Bee Day

I am hoping I can make 10 cards from this kit before I move on.  By my calculations, this is card # 7.  It's the Simon Says Stamp card kit of the month for July, 2019 called "Bee Yourself".   I am using a teal colored card base that has a white interior. I dry embossed another piece of the teal, and added it to some of the patterned paper from Honeybee Stamps, and put a couple of the hexagon die cuts and bees for a focal point.  The sentiment is from the My Favorite Things' set that came out last year called "Meant to Bee".

I don't know, I'm thinking the bees should be wearing party hats, what do you think?

I used some bee themed washi tape on the inside. I don't pull out the washi tape often enough and this one is perfect for these cards.

Side note : yes, those are 2 of my favorite Fiesta plate colors. In real life the plate is more yellow than orange. I still haven't figured out how to edit the colors right in Photoshop. I really do love this color combination.

Happy bee day!

Here is my entry into this week's sketch challenge at My Favorite Things. I had decided, based on the sketch, to use the "Hearts in a Row" die, like I did for a previous challenge. The previous one was a color challenge, though.

Here's the sketch:

Now, doesn't this look a a lot like this one from back in January?

Anyway, I used the Hearts in a Row die and the Meant to Bee stamp set. I did not do any coloring on this one. I don't know why I am avoiding coloring lately. I have another "Bee" idea for this sketch challenge, which I may slip in later.

Happy end of March, you all!

Aww nuts, how did that happen?

True story: my sister's birthday card was riding around in my purse from September 11th until September 18th. I was going to put it in my mailbox, but we had just had Hurricane Irma and the Post Office wasn't delivering or picking up that day. So I put it in my purse to put in the box near work the next day. And I totally forgot it was in there. It is a very big purse. Her birthday was on the 15th, by the way. Well, she didn't have the greatest day either since she didn't have power for a week at her house.

So, enter the belated birthday card I put together this morning. It is a near copy of one done by My Favorite Things' design team member Inge Groot and a Facebook user in a stamping group I'm in, Monique van Steenbergen.

I cut the three background papers from some old 12 x 12 papers in my stash. So old! I then die cut the white circle and many leaves. I tucked all the leaves behind the white circle, along with some twine, and as I was placing the little squirrel I decided something wasn't right and went back to look at the original. Yes, the leaves and twine should have been behind the squirrel, not the white circle. So I just cut a few more leaves and some more twine and built another layer.

I used Lawn Fawn dies for the background, and a few of the leaves, Paper Smooches Dies for the rest of the leaves, and Gina Marie Designs for the white double stitched circle. The squirrel is from My Favorite Things' "Wild Woodland". He's stamped onto craft card stock and fussy cut. It feels strange not to color the image.

Now this card is going into the mail for my sister, and I can save the purse riding card for next year. I'm super early for that!

Beary good greetings!

In keeping with the theme of using up images I've already created, here are 2 friendly bears waving you a beary good birthday!

The bears are from My Favorite Things' Polar Bear Pals set, and are colored with Spectrum Noir and Copic markers. The card base was stamped with the fish bucket in Versamark, and the sentiment was heat embossed for a little texture. Everything is flat to send through the mail.

I have a bunch of these bears pre-colored, except for their scarves. I decided to do the scarves after I chose the other card colors. I'm glad I did, because I never would have thought to do a brown scarf on a polar bear, LOL.

Even the snow was pre-cut and hanging out in my desktop bowl of miscellaneous stuff. I wonder what will get my (short) attention next?

We're gonna need a bigger cake.

Isn't she fabulous?  I needed birthday cards, so I headed off to the Avery Elle "Hello chum" stamp set that I have been giggling over for almost a month now.

She's just popping out of the front, so pleased to be there! The front "burst" is a die from Pretty Pink Posh that I've had for a while, too.

The inside has a cake from The Alley Way Stamps.

I figure I could send these cards to a guy or a gal. Or maybe a teen, but probably not a kid.

Incidentally, you know those card makers that can't stop embellishing? I'm not one of them. I was going to put on some sequins, but I think they are fine without.

Happy birthday, February kids!

Ok, I'm bad. I make cards and didn't have a single one to send out for a birthday. Except a really bad one I made in 2010 when I first started. I should throw it out, but I want to keep it around to show myself how far I've come. Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Anyway, I got a set of Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers and I've been going to town playing with them. Then I pulled out some Distress minis and water colored with them, too. The turtle is from The Alley Way Stamps "It's My Birthday", and the papers are so old they have whiskers.

My desk is such a mess that I have been working in this little space in front. It's about an 8" by 7" spot. Time for a major clean up before I get my spring card kit and the madness starts again.