Hamsterific Birthday | September 2023

For this birthday card, I’m using some supplies that were already in my stash from My Favorite Things (MFT) and Mama Elephant that I just didn’t think I showed enough love to during their initial release.

I started this project by cutting a piece of diagonal striped patterned paper from the My Favorite Things “Time to Celebrate” paper pad and trimmed it to measure 5” x 5”. I took the paper and cut a hole in the center using a circle die from the Hero Arts “Nested Circle Infinity Dies. For the decorative trim for the circular hole, I used the “Nested Decorative Circles” dies (the middle sized one that looks rainbow-ish) from Scrapbook.com and a piece of black cardstock, then glued this trim piece to what will be my card front.

Using a scrap piece of white cardstock and the hamster with balloons stamp from Mama Elephant’s “Celebration Hamsters” stamp set, I stamped and used my Prismacolor Premier colored pencils to color the balloons in colors that closely resembled the stripes of the MFT paper for the card front, as well as colored in the little hamster. I also stamped a sentiment from MFT’s “Itty Bitty Celebrations” onto white cardstock, used Simon Says Stamp Black Ultra Fine Embossing Powder, and heat set the birthday greeting. When the heat embossing cooled, I cut out the sentiment using Avery Elle’s “Simple Sentiment” dies.

Since this card was going to be a shaker, I cut a piece of acetate and glued it to the back side of the hole in the card front and added strips of foam tape around the edges of the card front and around the edges of the hole in the middle. I filled the well (the center of the cardstock that is covered with acetate and surrounded by foam tape) with a few different types of clay bits I had in my stash and carefully placed this aside so I could work on the card base.

For the card base, I cut a piece of 110# cardstock to measure 10” x 5” and scored it on the long measurement at five inches. I used another piece of patterned paper from the MFT “Time to Celebrate” paper pad and glued it to the front side of the card base. Next, I carefully removed the backing from all the foam tape and adhered the card base to the shaker card front. WHEW!! That part is always sketchy for me!

Now for final assembly. I added Simon Says Stamp 3D Foam Squares to the back of the sentiment strip and hamster with balloons image and adhered those to the card front.

My final touch was adding Pink & Main “Musical” enamel dots in random places on the card front for some additional interest. Project complete!

I hope you enjoyed the card. Thank you so much for stopping by to see me - I appreciate you doing so!

Until next time…

Happy Birthday Bear

I purchased this adorable Gerda Steiner stamp set when it was released, but only now am I getting the opportunity to use it. Shame on me!

I began creating this card by using Waffle Flower's "Confetti Foil Plate" and the Gemini Foil Press along with Spellbinder's "Rainbow" foil to hot foil the metallic-looking confetti on the base panel for the card. I trimmed this panel to be 4-1/4" x 5-1/2". Next, I cut two more cardstock panels - one from turquoise cardstock and the other from white Canson Bristol Smooth cardstock.

My next step was to stamp the images I wanted to use on the card front from Gerda Steiner's "Birthday Bear" stamp set using Lawn Fawn's Jet Black ink pad onto the Bristol Smooth cardstock. I colored the images using a combination of Prismacolor Premier colored pencils, Karin Star Sparks DecoGel pens and Sakura Glaze pens. Once the gel pens dried, I cut out the image using the Brother Scan 'N Cut and attached it to the card front using Spellbinders White Foam Squares.

I attached the stamped card panel to the turquoise panel, followed by adhering those two to the hot foiled panel, then glued all the panels to an A2 size top folding card base. My last task was to add some Pink & Main "Floral Pumpkin Sparkle Dots" to random locations on the decorated panel for a touch a magic.

Thanks again for stopping by to check out my card... I appreciate you doing so!

Halloween 2023 | The Boo Crew

Simon Says Stamp released this adorable stamp set last year (I think) and I think the images are absolutely the cutest!

I stamped the Halloween image from Simon Says Stamps' The Boo Crew" stamp set onto a piece of Kraft cardstock from my collection, then stamped it a second time onto Gina K. Designs masking paper. I fussy cut the masking paper version and applied the 'mask' over the Kraft cardstock stamped version. My next step was to stamp my little witch and black cat to overlap just slightly onto the masking paper covered stamp on the Kraft cardstock. I removed the masking paper to reveal the images to be colored.

Using Prismacolor Premier colored pencils, I colored the images and outlined the Halloween letters with a grey Uni Posca paint pen to cover the line work. Once that was completed I grabbed a piece of Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress Black Two-Tone Woodgrain cardstock and cut it to be 4-1/4" by 5-1/2". I then used the Paper Rose "Stitched Rectangles" dies to cut out the Kraft cardstock panel to be smaller than the woodgrain cardstock. To complete the card, I used my Scotch ATG to adhere the stamped/colored panel to the woodgrain panel and glued the card front to an A2, top folding card base.

Thank you so much for stopping by... I appreciate you doing so!

Until next time... :)