iPad birthday card …

The guy I made this card for is so hard working – taking holidays very rarely – but he does occasionally take a little time out for his passions … football, cars and gadgets!  So when he recently had a big birthday I made him an iPad card, using stamp images from different Stampin’ Up stamp sets…

I stamped each image in early espresso ink onto a coloured cardstock square, and then adhered to a basic black cardstock base with tombow multi-purpose glue, and added some highlights with a white gel pen.

Here’s what you need to make today’s card – all supplies from Stampin’ Up!

cardstock: basic black, pumpkin pie, bashful blue, certainly celery, poppy parade, pink pirouette, daffodil delight, wisteria wonder; stamp sets: happiest birthday wishes hostess set, open sea, circle circus, fox and friends, party this way, schoolbook serif alphabet (retired), sweetheart, artistic etchings, just soccer (retired); ink: early espresso; punches: square, circle; accessories: tombow adhesive, white gel pen.

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Masculine birthday …

Masculine cards are often difficult to do … especially for teenagers.  So when my friend’s son turned 18 a little while ago, I kept his card simple and used masculine colours …

All supplies from Stampin’ Up!

Card recipe: cardstock: whisper white, crumb cake, bashful blue, basic black; stamp sets: birthday wishes hostess set; ink: basic grey, crumb cake; punches: scallop circle, circle; accessories: stampin’ dimensionals, stamp-a-majig

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Up, up and away – one stamp set, three ways …

My favourite stamps from the summer mini catalogue from Stampin’ Up! is the Up, up and away set. I love getting new stamps to play with, and I absolutely fell in love with this set as soon as I saw it so just had to have it!

There are 3 birthdays in our family this month so I decided to get out my inks and make 3 different cards. The first is a one layer card on whisper white smooth cardstock …

According to Wikipedia, the first untethered hot air ballon flight, carrying human passengers, was made in Paris, France in November 1793, in a balloon made by the French Montgolfier brothers, so it seemed fitting to use another Paris icon – the Eiffel tower – for my card.

A little bit of masking and lots of sponging – and I couldn’t have done it without my stamp-a-majig of course! I think it makes a great masculine card and I know exactly the man I’ll be giving it to (I do hope he doesn’t read my blog or it will spoil the surprise!)

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Next I needed something a bit more feminine. I like to look at my stamp sets and see what else they can be used for, as well as what they are intended for – I get more use from my stamp sets this way. Here I used one of the hot air balloon stamps to make flower petals…

I stamped a sentiment from the Happiest birthday wishes hostess set vertically to look like the stem of the flower, using my stamp-a-majig to line it up perfectly. (I have definitely had my money’s worth from that stamp-a-majig! I think I use it for nearly every card I make! Love it! )

I added some of the gorgeous twitterpated designer series paper from the summer mini catalogue at the bottom of the card, and punched out a couple of leaf shapes using a small circle punch, adhering them to the card with stampin’ dimensionals.

I also added a line of doodle dots and dashes around the edge with a stampin’ write marker pen in certainly celery.

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And my last card is cased from one I received from a lovely lady and fellow Stampin’ Up Demonstrator, Susan Yeager, who I was lucky enough to meet recently on a trip to the USA. I think it’s such fun, really showcases my favourite stamp set beautifully and she kindly agreed that I could case it. Thank you Susan – love it!

And a view from the side…

I changed the sizes to make a UK standard A6 size card when folded flat, and the card does fold flat so it fits perfectly into a standard sized envelope – fab!

This 3D card was so easy to make using the new scoreboard, also available in the summer mini catalogue from Stampin’ Up. The scoreboard is lightweight and easy to use, with a storage compartment for accessories such as the marker pegs or score tool – love that! And the marker pegs are such a great idea, especially if you have a lot of the same sizes to score – you can just set the markers at the correct measurement and score away!

The board is marked in inches, but there is a metric board and a diagonal board available too, great for making envelopes! Stampin’ Up think of everything!

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Papercraft supplies from Stampin’ Up!

Card recipe: cardstock: whisper white, regal rose, certainly celery; stamp sets: up, up and away, artistic etchings, happiest birthday wishes; inks: real red, night of navy, bashful blue, certainly celery, black staz-on, regal rose, so saffron, early espresso; accessories: stampin dimensionals, tombow multi glue, sticky tape, stamp-a-majig, scoreboard, twitterpated dsp.

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A beautiful case of charming kindness…

What I love about Stampin’ Up, apart from their fabulous products, their superb quality and their designs, is that their demonstrators are so friendly, kind and generous and love to share their talents, ideas and projects.

For my card today, I cased (copy and share everything) a card given to me by my friend and fellow demo, Deborah Wright. She made it for my birthday and I was just blown away. She very kindly agreed that I could case it, so I made it as one of my samples using the charming stamp set for my inspiration station at Michelle Last’s craft event back in January.*

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I loved the colours Debs had used – so I used the same – early espresso and pool party…

My stampamajig was my best friend – without it I could not have lined up the images to make my own background paper for the card.

I just loved this! The colours, the design …everything!

And the charming stamp set is one of my favourites from Stampin’ Up’s spring mini catalogue – but it’s only available until the end of this month so you’ll need to hurry to order yours!

It’s great value at £13.95 in clear mount, or £17.95 in wood -

 

 

Card recipe: cardstock: early espresso, pool party; stamp sets: charming, happiest birthday wishes; punches: corner rounder, small heart; inks: early espresso; accessories: stampamajig, rhinestones, dazzling diamonds, two way glue pen, stampin dimensionals, chocolate chip satin ribbon.*

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