It’s Your Birthday! | Penny Black + Simon Says Stamp

Hi friends!  Today I wanted to share the creation of a birthday card using tools and supplies from Simon Says Stamp, Spellbinders, Brass and Bliss (formerly Rubbernecker Stamps), and Penny Black.   This project can also be found on my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@VeehattInspired .

The supplies used were:

  Simon Says Stamp “It’s Your Birthday” die set

  Penny Black “Ascending” die

  Penny Black “Dignified” die

  Simon Says Stamp “Kaleidoscope” embossing folder

  Spellbinders “Precision Layer A2 A” die set

  Brass & Bliss “Deckle Hills” die set

  Simon Says Stamp White Glossy Cardstock

  Simon Says Stamp Rose Gold Metallic Cardstock

  Finetec Pearlescent Colours watercolor paint – 9034-Golden Rose

  Studio Katia – Arctic Breeze Pearls

  Glue and other adhesives from my stash

I started the project by cutting the 8-1/2” x 11” piece heavy weight white in half to create an A2 top folding card base. 

I cut another piece of the white cardstock to be 4-1/4” x 5-1/2” using the largest die from Spellbinders’ “Precision Layer A2 A” die set and then utilized one of the dies from Brass & Bliss’ “Deckle Hills” edger die to cut the panel to cut it in half diagonally.  I misted the piece of the panel I’m going to use for the card front with water and placed it in Simon Says Stamp’s “Kaleidoscope” embossing folder and ran it though my Anna Griffin Empress die cutting and embossing machine.  I applied tape adhesive to the back of the embossed panel and attached it to my card base.

Using Simon Says Stamp’s “It’s Your Birthday” die, I cut it two times from white cardstock and a third time from Simon Says Stamp’s Rose Gold Metallic cardstock.  I applied Distress Collage Medium to the backs and adhered those three sentiment pieces together and set them aside for the glue to dry.

I used Penny Black’s “Ascending” die and cut it once from Simon Says Stamp’s Glossy White cardstock and cut Penny Black’s “Dignified” die from Simon Says Stamp’s Rose Gold Metallic cardstock.  Before placing these onto the card front, I lightly splattered Finetec Pearlescent Colours Watercolor Paint in “Golden Rose” onto the front of the card base and embossed panel.  Once that dried, I placed a combination of glue and Simon Says Stamp Thin 3D Foam Squares to the back sides of the Penny Black foliage dies and adhered them down the card front starting in the upper right corner and letting them cascade toward the lower right of the card front.

Lastly, I glued the “It’s Your Birthday” sentiment onto the lower right corner of the card and adhered a scattering of Studio Katia “Arctic Breeze” white pearls around the foliage.

I hope you enjoyed the card and found inspiration for some of your own card making projects!  Until next time… happy making!

July 2024 | Pandamonium Birthday

I’m back with another fun birthday card project using Pink & Main’s “Pandamonium” stamp and die set.  

The Pandamonium stamp set features several pandas in cute and unique positions, so I decided to use VersaFine Clair Nocturne pigment ink to stamp the four I wanted to use onto Paul Rubens hot press watercolor cardstock then used clear heat embossing powder and a heat gun to emboss all the little images.

I watercolored the pandas using a non-traditional color scheme and I based the colors upon the piece of patterned cardstock that I loved from the My Favorite Things “Time to Celebrate” 6x6 paper pad which I will be using as the background paper for my card front.  I selected Tim Holtz/Ranger’s Distress Watercolor Pencils for my watercolor medium and used the colors:  Mustard Seed, Peeled Paint, Lumberjack Plaid, and Tumbled Glass for the panda bodies.

Using the Spellbinders “Precision Layering A2 A” die set, I cut a 4-1/4” x 5-1/2” panel from Cardstock Warehouse’s Sirio Black cardstock and using the next to largest die I cut a panel of patterned cardstock from the My Favorite Things cardstock mentioned above.  For the sentiment balloons, I used the Pretty Pink Posh “Balloon Alphabet” stamp and die set and stamped out the letters I needed using Tim Holtz/Ranger’s Black Soot Archival Ink on white cardstock, then applied a layer of Nuvo Glitter Drops in the colors Dazzling Blue and Sunlit Meadow to fill in the balloons.  I also used the heart balloon shape from the same Pretty Pink Posh die set and cut it out of Altenew’s Tourmaline Glitter Cardstock to put on the inside with one more the of the pandas.

Back to the pandas… I painted a thin coat of Nuvo Aqua Shimmer to all the panda’s bodies and added Ranger Glossy Accents to the whites of their eyes.  After that dried, I glued each of the four pandas to the card front.  I added a piece of black metallic DMC Diamant embroidery thread to the back side of each balloon letter and added Simon Says Stamp’s 3D Foam Adhesive to the backs of the balloons for dimension on the card.  I aligned the sentiment letters the way I wanted them on the card front, then used Glad Press ‘n Seal over the card front to pick up all the balloons, flipped that over and removed the adhesive backing and placed the balloons on the card front. 

My final embellishment was when I added a scattering of Rainbow Splash “Rainbow Gem Stickers” for a touch more blingity bling.

Thanks for stopping by… I appreciate you doing so.  Until next time, happy making!

June 2024 | Make a Wish

Birthday cards are so much fun to make. You can make them without a recipient in mind and still have an amazing useable card... or you can cater the card specifically toward your favorite nephew - lol.

I started this card with a piece of Paul Rubens hot press watercolor paper taped to a hardboard to help prevent warping, Sarah Renae Clark's Color Cube card #203 and Simon Says Stamp's Pawsitively Saturated Inks in the colors Zest, Sweets, and Sangria. I used a #16 round watercolor brush to thoroughly saturate my watercolor paper and, using that same brush, added the three ink colors to the paper by adding them in large water-laden inky drops to the top of the watercolor cardstock while I held the hardboard vertically so that the inks would literrally run down the cardstock in a freeform, striped fashion. Once I was satisfied with the amount of color I added, I used the Tim Holtz/Ranger Heat Tool to dry the cardstock then I removed it from the hardboard.

Next, I pulled out the Spellbinders BetterPress system and Pinkfresh Studio's "Make a Wish" press plate. I inked up the press plate with Spellbinder's Betterpress Black ink and taped my watercolor panel to the BetterPress's clear plate then ran the system through my Spellbinder's Platinum 6 die cutting machine.

For the matting layers, I used Your Paper Insider cardstocks in the colors Favini Black Gloss, Canary Yellow, and Dark Red from their subscription packs. I used alternating dies from two Spellbinders die sets to cut the matting layers - Precision Layering A2 A and Precision Layering A2 B (these two die sets are AMAZING and must haves in my creative stash). I glued the matting layers to the watercolored panel and set it aside while I created the other elements for the card front.

I selected the Gerda Steiner Designs stamp set called "Birthday Bear" for the bear's arm holding a balloon. I stamped the image onto white cardstock using Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink and colored it with Copic markers: arm - C9, C6, C4 and balloon - YR16, Y17, Y02. After that, I used my Brother Scan N Cut to cut out the image. I placed foam adhesive squares to the back and adhered it to my card front.

I used the Heffy Doodle "Happy Birthday - Shadow" die set for my sentiment. I cut the words three times and the shadow once from Your Paper Insider's Pale Pink Shimmer Vellum (shadow) and a black sort of rubbery cardstock (words). I used Distress Collage Medium in a fine point bottle and adhered all the sentiment layers together and then adhered it to the shadow and card front.

My final touches were adding Ranger Glossy Accents to the balloon in the bear's hand and staggered a few Pinkfresh Twilight Ombre Glitter Drops across the card front.

Thank you so much for stopping by... I hope you enjoyed the card :)