B is for Birthday

I was in a birthday card mood today and created a small stack of birthday cards, so you'll be seeing a few birthday cards this week.  We can never have too many ideas for birthday cards so I'm guessing you won't mind.

The first card is a very simple card, great for a quick card when you are on your way to a party or realized you forgot somone's birthday and need to get a card in the mailbox before the mailman arrives!



 The ingredients for this card are:

• Stamp Sets:  Party Hearty, Full of Life
• Card Stock:  Very Vanilla, Bermuda Bay, So Saffron
• Designer Series Paper:  Sweet Pea
• Classic Stamp Pad:  Bermuda Bay

As I said, this card is as easy as it looks.   Cut your Very Vanilla to  size and stamp the b is for birthday stamp using the Bermuda Bay and then layer it onto a slightly larger piece of Bermuda Bay cardstock.  I distressed the card stock with my fingernails.  I glued a piece of Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper to the front of the card and added the image to the left hand side.

For the inside, I layered some of my scrap pieces and stamped the birthday sentiment from Full of Life. 

See, pretty simple. 

God Bless and Happy Stampin'!
Charity

Olympic Fever

I know some of you out there have been wondering, where is an Olympic Bear?  Well, wonder no more!  I have indeed created a bear inspired by the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.   This bear is dressed for a debut in the Opening Ceremonies, ready to compete for Team USA.  I tried my best to recreate/mimic the Team USA gear for the Opening Ceremonies.  This bear is taking her place on a card stock frame that I received free from a friend and are samples from a popular printer manufacturer. 

As I have done with other bears, I used the Bear Essentials to cut the clothing, cutting extra pieces in the complimentary colors to add the collar, pockets and embelleshments to the clothing.  In terms of color choices, select the colors that best represent the uniform/costume you are trying best to mimic.  For example, you could just as easily create a figure skating costume or skiing uniform.  You could even add some equipment like skis.

You need to use either your favorite circle cutter or punches to create the Olympic Rings.  I looked up on google the colors of the rings: blue, yellow, black, green, and red.  I was using scrap pieces of card stock for my rings and again, it is just important to select your colors to best mimic the shades of the rings.  This will be subject to your opinion and tastes

Since my frame had a company logo in one corner that I needed to hide, I stamped the snowflake from Best Wishes and More and then punched them with my 1 3/8 punch.  I glued these around the frame adding an oval and scallop oval at the bottom where I hand wrote the 2010 Winter Games, Vancouver. 

If you like this project and think you would like to do a similar project with your child for either Mother's or Father's Day, please email me and let me know.  I'm thinking of adding this to my class schedule for Mother's and/or Father's Day.

God Bless and Happy Stampin'!
Charity

That's a Whole Lot of Candles Grandpa!

My father-in-law is celebrating his 65th birthday later this week, a perfect chance for me to use the Sale-A-Bration Whimsical Words set.  The more the candles, the bigger wish, well, he has a really big wish coming this year, at least according to his grandchildren!

For this card you will need:

• Stamp Sets:  Party Harty, Whimsical Words
• Card Stock: Crushed Curry, Bermuda Bay, and Whisper White
• Classic Stampin' Pads:  Crushed Curry, Bermuda Bay
• Tools and Accessories:  Stamp-A-Ma-Jig

This card is very simple, but a little time consuming.  I wanted to stamp 65 candles on the front of the card and I used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to help me line them up.  I stamped more candles in the first two rows so that I had space for the sentiment in the lower right hand corner.  I stamped the sentiment in Bermuda Bay onto Whisper White and then layered this at a slight angle onto another piece of Bermuda Bay.  This went in my lower right hand corner.  I stamped the little presents from Party Hearty using Bermuda Bay onto Bermuda Bay card stock and then cut around the presents.  I wanted these to pop up a bit but I was out of Stampin' Dimensionals so I used some sticky strip folded over on itself a few times. 

I think I might try another version of this design but I might tear the upper edge and brush it with some Chocolate Chip ink to make it look like the card caught fire from all the candles.  Lots of potential with this sentiment. 

God Bless and Happy Stampin'!
Charity 

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

Liam's birthday is coming up in March so I've begun work on party planning- designing favors, invitations, etc.  His choice for party theme: Disney's Cars/Race Car.  Stampin' Up!® doesn't have any current sets that I thought would work for a race car theme so I'm going to be relying on punches, die cuts, paper snips, and card stock.

Today's project was the party favors.  Liam and I both thought it would be fun to have a car made using the matchbox die.  Get it?  A matchbox car!  Our plan is to find a car to fit into the box and give that out as the party favor along with a few stickers.  Here is the prototype of our special matchbox car for his party. 

Since Lightening McQueen is Liam's favorite character, this car will eventually be made using Real Red, but my card stock is on order so our prototype was made using Brilliant Blue.  Again, this is our prototype so I will post the final version with full measurements and a template in a few days.

The ingredients for this prototype are:

• Card stocks:  Brilliant Blue, Very Vanilla, Basic Black
• Dusty Durango Stampin' Write Marker
• Tools and Accessories:  Big Shot, Matchbox Die, Hole Punch/Crop-A-Dile, 3/4" Circle Punch

As I mentioned, I'll post a full tutorial and measurements later in the week, but I'll give you a little insight on how this guy came together.  I cut the matchbox and assembled per the normal instructions.  I created the top by cutting a piece of card stock to the same width as the box and then scored it so I could fold and glue to the top of the box.  Similiarly, I did the same to create a spoiler, trimming and cutting until the proportions were correct.  I cut the "whites" of the eyes free hand with my paper snips, starting with a piece of Very Vanilla card stock that matched the dimensions of the car front.  I punched two black dots uing a Standard Sized Hole Punch (retired), but you could also use the Crop-A-Dile.  For the wheels, use the 3/4 inch Circle Punch and then the standard size punch to add a Very Vanilla circle to the center.

Liam loves it and fortunately, I got the photos before he played with it.  Now, Tim will have the mission of finding a car to fit inside!

Come back later in the week for the tuturials and a sneak peek of the invitations!  Then, mid March, the full details of the party. 

God Bless and Happy Stampin'!
Charity