Botanicals Happy Birthday Friend

Happy Friday! 🌞I am so enjoying getting back into making cards again! It's like Christmas!

This card is for a dear friend whose birthday is this month. I actually have two friends with September birthdays, and I'll share the other card once she has it in her possession.

I post my cards on this blog mainly to inspire MYSELF! 😄 But of course, I hope it inspires others, too! I learn cool techniques and then forget about them. So I often look at what I've done in the past to remind myself of them, to re-learn them, basically. Like stamping on cardstock with watermark ink and then embossing it. Such a cool look! I do that all the time, or used to anyway. But I had forgotten all about it until I started looking at my older cards for inspiration. 

Botanicals is one of the first stamp sets I bought from Stampin' Up! back in the early 2000's. All but the "Happy Birthday" stamp and the background stamp on the green paper are from the Botanicals set. It's a classic set that never grows old. 

One thing I love doing is dimensionalizing my cards. I am in love with foam tape! You can do such cool things with it. I must not be alone because while I was at Michael's the other day I saw a 12-inch wide roll of it! 

I'm not keen on sinking $21 into such a thing, but it made me happy to see that it comes in such vast quantities! I mean, look how cool that stuff is! You can pop out anything you like with it. 

My cards tend to not only be dimensional, but also textured, either visually or physically. It just thrills me to add texture or movement of some kind to my cards. 

On this one I popped out the poppy flower, bud, and pod. To add interest I put some Fruit Punch Stickles on the flowers and Peeled Paint Stickles on the leaves and pod. And I don't know why, but I get a thrill putting holes on my cards. Like the ones on the scalloped piece. They're not perfect. But I find that look more endearing than a perfectly-holed die that cuts them for you. Dies are expensive. My hole puncher is not. And I already own way too many dies as it is. Plus, punching holes is very Zen!

For the inside I used two inks to create a marbled effect on the saying, although I'm not sure it's visible in the picture. I inked the stamp with a lighter red, and then touched it here and there with a darker red. Then I breathed on it to moisten the ink and stamped it.  It gives a cool mottled effect. I used the Stamp-a-Ma-Jig to line up all the stamps inside the card. The bottom collage stamp was stamped twice to get a continuous look. It's not perfect, but it's tricky with such a stamp as this that has so many things to line up.

Well, that's about it! Thanks for coming by for a visit!

Recipe:

Stamps: SU Botanicals, SU Canvas, Savvy Stamps "Happy Birthday"

Papers: Prima Doodle Deux, Swirl Vellum, White, Black, Olive

Inks: Versamark embossing ink, Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Black Soot Distress Ink, Papertrey Ink Pure Poppy, Tim Holtz Distressed Ink Abandoned Coral

Copics: 110, R30, R32, R35, YG95

Other: Cuttlebug Argyle embossing folder, Nestabilities Classic Oval Scallops - Large, Classic Ovals - Small, SU Scallop Trim Border punch, large oval punch, small oval punch, black gingham ribbon, Stamp-a-Ma-Jig, hole puncher, foam tape, Stickles (Fruit Punch, Peeled Paint)

To Someone Special

This card was made for my granddaughter who recently had a birthday. I love this image. It's another Pure Innocence digital stamp. It's so sweet, and it's so much fun to color. I seem to be drawn to them lately.

For this one, I went monochrome.....just because. I actually found it quite satisfying to limit myself on colors. I had done a card that way in the past. 

I loved playing with my old Stampin' Up! Botanicals set on the gray designer paper and inside the card. I hadn't pulled it out in a long time. It's a classic that will never age. The images look so beautiful stamped.

On the inside, I went simple. Just a piece of the Basic Grey Granola paper with some paper piercing around the edges. The bee is also from Botanicals. The "Happy Birthday" image is from SU Birthday Greetings. It fits in so well with the Botanicals set, don't you think?

I took this pic so you could see the shine on the wings. Maybe I should've added glitter, too? I dunno.

And I gave her some princessy slippers by adding a gem to each. 

Well, thanks for looking! Take care!

Stamps: Pure Innocence PI049, SU Botanicals, SU Birthday Greetings

CS: Black, Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White, Basic Grey Granola designer papers

Inks: Copic W1, W3, W5, W7; Memento Tuxedo Black

Other: Nestabilities Curved Rectangles, SU corner punch, SU 1/2" circle punch, clear gems, Inkssentials Glossy Accents (on wings), paper piercer, foam tape

Hydrangea Thanks

Hi all! It's been awhile. I actually made this card weeks ago, but life's busyness and having the flu last week kept me from photographing it. I actually made 2 cards, but one will have to wait to be posted until the person I made it for receives it. She reads here and I want her to see it first.

I did several things to the dark green part of the card. I used Always Artichoke cs and did direct to paper inking with the same colored ink. Then after it dried I stamped it with the SU Canvas background stamp in Always Artichoke ink, as well. Then I stamped in the lower right corner with a word stamp from the old SU Botanicals set.



I used the Ornare paper piercing plate and added some ornate curly q's to the corners. I also did some paper piercing around the "Thanks" embellishment. The bee is also from Botanicals.



I used Copics for the coloring and a white gel pen to emphasize the flower centers.

It felt good to stamp again. I am trying not to look too much at other people's work. I've found that doing that causes me to become envious and to lose my desire to stamp. Some people are way ahead of me in money and talent. I need to be content with what God has given me. I'm happier that way.

Thanks for coming by! God bless you all!

Recipe:

Stamps: SU Stipple Hydrangea, SU Canvas, SU Botanicals, SU Year Round Cheer

CS: SU Night of Navy, SU Always Artichoke, white

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Always Artichoke, various Copic markers

Other: Cuttlebug Kassie's Brocade embossing folder, Rectangle Nestabilities die, lg. and sm. oval punches, Ornare paper piercing template, paper piercer, green gems, foam tape, olive organdy ribbon, white gel pen

Roses in Winter SC184

Oy vey! Was this a hard challenge! I nearly gave up several times, but I am so glad I persevered because I'm pleased with the final result. However, I think trying to photograph this card was as much trouble as trying to design it! That pointed square on the bottom kept the card tilted when standing by itself, so I had to come up with a way to keep it straight. I think I need to get one of those cheapy plate/picture stands for cards like this. For now I had it stuck with Dimensionals to a big square punch. You can see it a little underneath.

Where to start? I originally was going to try doing this color challenge with this sketch challenge. But I got this wild idea to sponge Rose Red and More Mustard on the Purely Pomegranate cs and liked it so much I canned the color challenge (for now).

But first I stamped both the SU Print Pattern and the SU Canvas background stamps in Rose Red ink on the Purely Pomegranate cs. I always love that stamp combo as a background. But I'm not sure how easily you can see it in the pic. Click on it to enlarge and then maybe you can see it...at least a little...maybe. Trust me, it's there.

I wanted to cuttlebug the background (of course) and went with the Diamonds in the Rough embossing folder. Then I sponged it with Rose Red and More Mustard. Wow! What a great color that came out! Kind of an orangy red. Looks really rich in person.

My squares go off the card, unlike in the challenge design. I couldn't see going with a really small square punch, as it would've limited what I could stamp in the squares. And although this card would be a challenge to get into an envelope, I still like the way parts stick out. After I was done with the card, I thought that had I realized before stamping the sentiment and gluing everything down that this card would've looked really cool standing on its short side I would've changed the sentiment around.

For all the green square backgrounds I sponged Old Olive ink along the edges of Certainly Celery cs. For the little squares I stamped scenes from a SU Friendship's Journey stamp and 2 SU Botanicals stamps and a girl's face stamp from Rubber Cottage on white cs. I sponged them with Rose Red and More Mustard to match the background. I mounted them with Dimensionals on the green and then on black.


For the big square I knew I wanted the rose from SU Roses in Winter done in 3-D, so I stamped the biggest part of the rose 3 times and the middle part 1 time. I used Rose Red ink. I cut out 2 of the 3 biggest rose images and the center of the third one. Then I cut out the middle image. I sponged them all with Rose Red and More Mustard and then sponged the edges with Basic Black ink. I stuck the 2 largest rose images together, rotating one a bit to add a swirling effect. I stuck the middle rose image on next and then cut a piece of a Dimensional to stick the smallest piece on. The 3 leaves were stamped in Old Olive squiggled with a bit of Always Artichoke marker right on the rubber. Then I huffed on the stamp and stamped it. Then I sponged the edges with Basic Black ink.

After I stamped the sentiment from SU Happy Harmony I ran the white cs through the Cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots embossing folder. Then I adhered the rose and the leaves using Dimensionals.

Before putting all the squares on the background I added 2 polka dotted ribbons to continue the polka dotted theme of the main piece. I adhered the ribboned background to black cs. Then I added the squares...with Dimensionals. You can see I love Dimensionals a little too much.

Phew! It doesn't sound complicated, but it sure felt that way!

That's about it. Thanks for looking!

Stamps: SU Roses in Winter, SU Print Pattern, SU Canvas, SU Friendship's Journey, SU Botanicals, SU Happy Harmony, Rubber Cottage "Girl Face LG"

CS: Black, Purely Pomegranate, Certainly Celery, White

Inks: Rose Red, More Mustard, Old Olive, Basic Black

Other: Cuttlebug "Swiss Dots" and "Diamonds in the Rough" embossing folders, Big and small square punches, Polka dot ribbon, Always Artichoke marker, Dimensionals, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Sponges