Paris in the Spring birthday card

Well howdy there! Yes, it's another card from me! Amazing, I know. I'm feeling such a strong desire to stamp right now. It's wonderful! Almost every day I stamp and create a little. I love it!

This card is more what I normally do, but you'll be seeing me go back to my stamping roots in the near future. I've got another card I'll post soon and I'm almost finished with a third. My mojo is back, y'all, and it's all because I am playing like I used to!

I had actually made parts of this card many months ago, and was re-inspired to finish it whilst going through my cardstock pile and finding pieces of cards I had started. Do you have a cardstock pile that forms every time you make a card? I usually do, and it normally grows with each project, gathering dust in the process. But I got it all put back and now have my cardstock within easy reach so I can put scraps in their proper place. I keep a box like this nearby for smaller scraps so I am more likely to grab them instead of reaching for a new sheet. It works! I feel so good using my scraps up!

I realized how perfect this saying from SU Loads of Love Accessories was with this image from SU Paris in the Spring.

The middle flower and the smallest flower were inked up with a Copic marker. It was so easy to make the white flowers into whatever colors I wanted and was much less messy than pressing the flowers on an ink pad (my old way) which soaks up a lot of ink.



All coloring was done with Copics.



See the wheel stamping I did below? I have totally ignored my lovely wheel stamps for far too long! Btw, you can also see that I started to write in the card before I realized I hadn't photographed it yet. Oops! It went in the mail to my sister today!



More Copic coloring. I did a little doubling and tripling up on the colors to make the images more whimsical.



Tried hard to copy the outside image coloring inside. Considering that the outside image was done months ago, I found it a bit challenging. But the FUN kind of challenging!



Well, I hope you enjoyed this birthday card I made! Thanks for coming by!

Stamps: SU Paris in the Spring, SU Loads of Love Accessories, SU Swirl Style Wheel, Fiskars Make a Wish Quotes

CS: SU True Thyme, Tim Holtz Idea-ology Paper Stash: Lost and Found, White

Inks: Copic markers, Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black, VersaMark, SU True Thyme

Other: Martha Stewart Arched Lattice border punch, Nestabilities oval die, Cuttlebug D'Vine Swirl and Polka Dot embossing folders, Cloth flowers, Gems, Grosgrain ribbons

You're So Sweet!

Do you ever struggle with a card to the point of almost giving up on it, and then it magically comes together? That be my experience with this h'yere card.

To start with, I had the idea of putting the ice cream sundae in the back of the pickup truck from the SU Loads of Love set. Then I colored it without too much planning of colors in mind. Once I got to that point it got hairy. Since it was such a big "scene" I couldn't just plug it into a prefab sketch, so I just designed the card myself. First I started with a rectangular card in the standard A2 size. But it just wasn't feeling right. Then I went to a square format and that seemed the best fit for it to me.

Once that was decided I just had to decide which colors of cardstock to use and which colors to emphasize. One of my favorites is often red, but I love turquoise as well, so that's what I went with. I didn't want too much black, just accents, and that worked out really well.

I wanted a 1950's feel to the card (a la soda fountain), so I used the star image from SU All the Best as a background image. I wanted a bold word phrase to balance out the truck/sundae image, but I wanted it to be more than just the word phrase. So I used VersaMark ink to repeat the word phrase in a scroll-like fashion up and down. Then I cuttlebugged the turquoise cardstock with Spots and Dots and sewed a stitch around it. Busyness without being too busy.

For the white background I stamped the star from All the Best in Real Red ink randomly and then used the Traffic Jam embossing folder to add to the 50's look.

The "You're So Sweet" phrase was done in Microsoft Word on the computer. I printed it out in turquoise ink. I got the font from Kevin and Amanda's site, Fonts for Peas. Awesome site, btw! They're so kind to offer such a huge selection of free fonts! The font I used can be downloaded here. My font size was 8, the smallest it could be. You can learn how to use their fonts here.

As you can see, I did the red stars inside the card, as well, and I also repeated the turquoise, Spots and Dots, and sewing theme from the front.



Both outside and inside phrases are from the SU Many Thanks set.



Most likely all the stamps used are now retired. But I still enjoy them. They're still current and fresh.

I wanted to mention that I did not do what I encouraged you to do. These are not my most well-loved stamps. But I do love them. They are stamps I doubt I'll ever sell.

Did you pull out any well-loved stamps recently?

Recipe

Stamps: SU Loads of Love, SU Loads of Love Accessories, SU Many Thanks, SU All the Best, SU Sweet Treats, "You're So Sweet!" phrase from computer

CS: Real Red, Black, White, Tempting Turquoise

Inks: Versafine Onyx Black, VersaMark watermark ink, SU Real Red

Other: Cuttlebug Traffic Jam and Spots and Dots embossing folders, sewing machine, Various SU and Copic markers, clear gems, black gingham ribbon, clear glitter, Diamond Glaze, Stamp-a-ma-jig, foam tape, 1/8" circle punch

Polka Dot Pickup

The size of this card is 5" x 5".

Do you stamp while watching movies? I watched the whole Cranford series while making this card. It was SO GOOD! Dame Judi Dench and Imelda Staunton just plain old ROCK! Such awesome actresses! All the acting was superb in this series! Okay, enough gushing. Watch it, I implore you! Okay, sorry, still gushing.



So now every time I look at this card it will remind me of Cranford. I was watching My Fair Lady when I was making this card and I still think of that movie when I see it.

I love this polka dot paper by Deja Views! It has such a homey, rustic feel. It looks sanded. The only thing I didn't like was how hard it was to match with my vast collection of cardstock!

I ran it through the Cuttlebug using the Tiny Bubbles embossing folder (I'm really getting my money's worth out of that one!). I had to carefully line it up a second time and run it through again to cover the whole paper because of the size of the piece I used. I adhered it to the Chocolate Chip cs base and then added the ribbon.

I did the large scallop circle in Chocolate Chip using a circle Nestie. Then I made a smaller plain circle in black and an even smaller one in white, also using Nesties.

I went wild once again with paper piercing. I went around the edges of the card and the scallop with a straight pin with the mat pack cushion underneath. I don't know if anyone else gets satisfaction in paper piercing, but I sure do! I love it. ;)

I lightly sponged More Mustard and Chocolate Chip inks around the sentiment on the white circle. I like activity in every area of my cards. I have a hard time leaving anything plain!

For the truck I stamped it twice in Basic Black ink of some Basic Grey dp. I sponged black on the bottom of the one you can see. I sponged the tires on the back one. I cut the tires out of the front one so the back ones would show, giving a feeling of depth. I punched 1/16" holes in silver metallic cs and then punched 1/4" holes over them to create a donut shape to put the silver mini brads in for the tires' hub caps. I stamped, colored and cut out the girl from SU Loads of Love Accessories set; and I also stamped, colored and cut out the flowers in the same way. I also sponged a little black on the flowers to dull them a bit because they were too bright. I adhered them with mono adhesive to the inside of the front truck. I used lots of Dimensionals to build the height of the truck so that it would rest properly over the circles. All circles have Dimensionals behind them.

I had fun making this card. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for looking!

Stamps: SU Loads of Love, SU Loads of Love Accessories

CS: Chocolate Chip, Deja Views Dog Days Collection "Big Polka Dots" designer paper, Black, White, Basic Grey Urban Culture designer paper (for truck), Silver metallic (for tire hub caps)

Inks: Basic Black, More Mustard, Chocolate Chip

Markers: Ruby Red, Ballet Blue, So Saffron, Mellow Moss, Only Orange, Certainly Celery, Blush Blossom, Summer Sun

Other: Cuttlebug Tiny Bubbles embossing folder, Nestabilities scalloped circle and plain circles, Dimensionals, Straight pin, Mat pack cushion, Silver mini-brads, 1/4" hole punch, 1/16" hole punch, Moss grosgrain ribbon, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Sponges