March Madness

March Madness is here folks. Since I am now a resident of Tennessee, I have to say...Go Vols! These birthday cards will be great for your sport fans this season.

One for the Fishermen

With Father's Day around the corner, I need to be thinking about guys cards. This was a birthday card but could easily be made as a father's day card. This image is from Stampin' Up! Backwoods.

Birthday Sketch Challenge from CPS

I am still working on building up my birthday card stash and I used the Sketch Challenge this week at CPS for inspiration.

Masculine birthday cards are a bit of a challenge for me and this sketch helped me with that. This may be one I use a lot.

This image is from Stampin Up!

A Few Happy Birthday's

My stash of birthday cards was running low so I thought today would be a good day to work on a few. There were some ideas on Splitcoast that I have been wanting to try so this snowy wet day seemed to be a good time to work on them.

This card is nearly a copy of another card I saw...here...but I loved it and wanted to try it.


This is another copy...here...but why reinvent the wheel when there have been such good ones already made??


I didn't copy the last two but the layout below I have made before. This layout is so simple and can be used for about anything.

Masculine Birthday Cards

Here are a few masculine birthday cards I worked on today. Masculine cards are difficult for me because I can not use sparkles, ribbon, bows and all the goodies that make a handmade card special. I usually stick with browns, leathers, wood, nature and things like that for my guy cards.

World Card Making Day

I was just thinking how cool it would be if my birthday was on World Card Making Day. I could be given the day to play challenges all day, making cards and go to the stores around town today giving away free stuff to celebrate the special day. OH well, it isn't so my husband took our daughter camping and I am home with my 1 year old today. I love him to death but he does not make it easy to sit and make cards.

Splitcoaststampers.com had a day full of challenges and here are my cards I created while playing along.

Challenge A - Make a quote or saying your focal point.



Challenge B - Make it pop




Challenge C - Go 80's




Challenge D - Gratitude, Chocolate, and a Sketch



Challenge E - Color Challenge



Challenge F - Make an ornament



Challenge G - Color Challenge & Challenge H- Sketch Challenge (I combined them)






Challenge I - Z Fold Card

Challenge J - Color Challenge




Challenge K - Sketch

Challenge L - Sketch

Ahoy Matey

Pirates make me think of gold and treasure! These Pirate birthday invitations are covered in gold treasure paper. The 'bullion' I created is stamped in versamark and then heat embossed with gold embossing powder. The sentiment is gold embossed as well. When you emboss something, it gives it a raised and shiny texture.

I printed the party info on the inside in 'pirate language'.

Let's Go Nuts!

I told you I am not good at coloring, this is proof. My nice beach scene looks a little stormy. But I figure a stormy day at the tiki bar is still a good day, right? This set of stamps is from There She Goes and I colored it with SU markers. I wanted this card to be used for a guy so I left off the bling and ribbons. I still may have to add a little sparkle to the drinks, I just can't help myself!

Happy Birthday Erin

I bought myself a little birthday present the other day, I have had it on my wish list for months. It is a set of Nestibilities. They are a die used to cut paper and each set has about 8 different sizes of the same shape so they mat perfectly. They also emboss so I embossed the blue mat, it is hard to see in the photo. The guitar paper is out of a stack from DCWV and I used my JustRite small letters to create the sentiment.

Happy Birthday Jenn

One of my very best friends from College has her birthday tomorrow (yes, this card will be late) so this is for her. She just had a sweet little baby boy a few months ago so I hope she does remember about her own birthday! Since she has probably been seeing blue from head to toe since little baby boy was born, I thought I would pink her up a little and make sure she does not forget what that color looks like.

The layout for this card was from a sketch challenge from There She Goes Stamps this week.

The sentiment is from Stampin Up Sincere Salutations.

Happy Beachy Birthday

I made this card for the great blog celebration going on at There She Goes Stamps and for the sketch challenge at CPS this week. It took me forever to make this card for some reason. I kept going back and forth on the colors of paper and the patterns. I guess I need to learn to color my image AFTER I pick my papers because I sure was having trouble trying to get paper to work with brown, yellow and blue. I didn't think it would be that difficult but for me it was. Maybe my brain was just not working today!

Guy Cards

Guy cards are difficult and not something I make unless I am either forced to or in this case, am challenged to. Splitcoast had 2 challenges this week for us to make a masculine card and a challenge they are. I usually end up using this set from Stampin Up, Lovely As A Tree for my guy cards. I have some animal sets and things but when I don't know the guy, I hate to put a big buck deer on the front or a guy fishing, it just may not be his thing. So, to the trees I usually go. Thanks for looking and I hope you have an easier time with guy cards than I do.

SC241 Happy Birthday

This card was for Wednesday's Sketch Challenge on Splitcoast. The stamp set is from Inkadinkado and I colored the image with Stampin Up markers. The designer paper is DCWV and was just some scrap I found in the drawer. Gotta love scrap! I added a little bling to the diva's belt to jazz her up just a bit.

You're Only Young Once

Wow, I have been out of town for over a week so it felt good to sit down and make a card today. I didn't play a challenge but I did use a new stamp for the first time. This stamp is from Inkadinkado and I tried to make the lady look like a Red Hat Lady. I don't know much about the group so I hope I did not offend anyone but for some reason, she made me think of them...they seem fun.

I colored her with my SU markers and stamped her in Stazon Black. I used my Cuttlebug to emboss the red background.

Age is only a number, mine is unlisted...

I used a new set from Inkadinkado called Humorous Birthday. I played the Clean and Simple Challenge today on Splitcoast, you can see the challenge here.

I used my Stampin Up markers to color the lizard? gecko? tadpole? Anyway, you know what I am talking about. Not much else to tell.

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Johnny!

My daughter (who is 3) insisted that we make our neighbor, Johnny, a birthday card. He turned 7 last week and his mom mentioned he was having some friends over for a camp out in the back yard. My daughter heard "birthday" and was convinced we were going to a party. I had to explain that we were not going to a party but we could make him a card if she wanted. She was ok with that idea and everyone seemed happy.


I used my JustRite tiny letters, my go to item for any birthday card these days, and a baseball stamp my mom got me from a yard sale. The baseball print paper was scrap and I embossed the red with my cuttlebug. I thought it needed a little more so I added the star brad at the bottom.

Frugal Stamper Tip: The small black strip of paper separating the red and the baseball print...you guessed it, a tiny scrap I found in the scrap drawer. I was tempted to throw it out the day before but I am glad I didn't. Anywhere you may think you need a piece of ribbon, a narrow strip of scrap paper can accomplish the same effect in many instances. Give it a try and see what you think!

Train Birthday Invitation

Choo, Choo, we want to party with you! It's Reed and Millie’s Birthday Party, so don't be late. All aboard, let's celebrate!

I got the wording off the internet for a combined birthday party for my son turning 1 and my daughter turning 4. My daughter is the one who loves trains, she plays with them all day long. So I figured a train theme would work well for both of them.

I used the cuttlebug to cut out both the train and the word party. I also used it to emboss the background. I used Stampin Up Sincere Salutations for the "Your Invited", it is a little fancy for the theme of the card but that is the only stamp I have that says that so I used it anyway.

I raised the train and 'party' up on 3D foam tape. I inked all the panels with brown ink to calm the colors down a little. The yellow, blue and red were kind of harsh and the ink helped that a lot.

JustRite Birthday Card

These tiny letters from JustRite make it simple to create a custom birthday card. My mom wanted me to make a card for her friend who was having a surprise 60th birthday party. I used the wooden stamper to stamp the sentiment and used Year Round Fun from Stampin Up for the cupcake. I embossed the paper with my cuttlebug and there you have it. A simple and custom birthday card anyone would enjoy.

Clean and Simple Celebrate

Splitcoast Stampers has a style of card called Clean and Simple (CAS). They are my favorite type of card, although I don't do them very often when I am making them for other people. I had some time the other day to just make a card for no reason so I came up with this one.

Both stamps are from Stampin Up. The flower is from a set called Daisy that my sister picked up for me at a yard sale and the sentiment is from Wonderful Words. I embossed the frame with my cuttlebug.

30 Sucks

Maybe 30 does not suck, I seem to be doing fine with it, but what a neat birthday gift. I am heading to a surprise party for a friend turning 30 and I just had to make something for her. This is a cute little bucket filled with 30 SUCKERS...get it?

The numbers and letters were cut out with my Cricut and the small 30 sucks on each circle were stamped with my Monogram stamps from Justrite stamps. I had fun making it and I hope she gets a kick out of it and does not think it...sucks.