Birthday wishes card folder

A couple of months ago, my stamping friend, fellow Krafty Kat and Stampin' UP! upline, Miriam, showed me some card folders she had made, each containing matching cards and envelopes. I thought they were such a cute idea and that they would make wonderful Christmas gifts.

I had the great notion that I could make them themed - one for birthday cards, one for thank you cards, one for thinking of you cards, etc. Well, being the procrastinator that I am, when I finally got started on them, I quickly realized I was going to be lucky to get one folder set done for each person on my list, so there went that idea!

Over the next few posts, I'll show you all the ones I did, starting with the first one I made, when I still thought I'd be doing them by category. It contains four birthday cards, each with the same sentiment.

The first picture shows the folder cover. The ribbon goes through the folder to hold the cards in place, as shown in the next photo, and is tied with a bow to keep it closed up.

This is the open folder with the four cards held in place by the ribbon.

I stamped the focal image from each card on its coordinating envelope. I also decorated the inside of each card with strips of the patterned paper and card stock, but I won't bore you with all of those photos!

For each card there is the matted focal image, the matted patterned paper and the stamped sentiment, but each one is laid out a bit differently, using different Nestability dies.

All of the images were colored with Copic markers and each one was airbrushed while still in its Nestability die to give it a nice background and add the appearance of an additional mat. I was trying to keep them from being too thick so they would fit into the folders better. I did end up revising the folder template that Miriam had given me to deepen the spine and the pockets.

This was a fun project and I really liked how this whole set turned out. I only had one sheet of that beautiful patterned paper, so I'm not sure I will be able to duplicate these cards, but I will be able to create 'refill' cards using the same color scheme once these run out. Assuming the recipient liked them and lets me know when they have been used up, of course!

Card details:
Patterned paper: K&Company Ancestry.com Teal Floral & Newsprint Flat Paper
Card stock: Prism Island Mist Medium and Dark; Papertrey Ink Kraft
Stamps: Stampin' UP! Flores Suaves and Bloomin' Beautiful; Papertrey Ink Butterfly Kisses (sentiment)
Inks: Adirondack Mushroom, Stampin' UP! Baja Breeze
Misc.: Copic Markers (W1,E31, E37,E55,E57,G94,G29,G82,Y38,BG10,BG15,BG72); brads; Nestabilities

Merry Christmas!

This is the Christmas card I sent out this year. All the products are from Stampin' UP!, except for the Cuttlebug embossing folder, the pearls and the rhinestone. It was a fun card to make, but it turned out to be a lot of work to make 50 of them!

Tim's got the coffee made and some raucous Brian Setzer Orchestra Christmas music playing so I'm off to wrap the last two gifts and start my Christmas day!

Hope you have a very merry Christmas and enjoy spending time with your loved ones!

Birthday wishes

OK, I'm running out of things to post....I'm trying to keep the holiday theme going, but I don't have any other holiday cards to share....until I post my Christmas card tomorrow. So here is a birthday card, with holiday colors, that I made earlier this month.

I made this card using the SC205 sketch from Splitcoast Stampers. The patterned paper is all from the BasicGrey Wassail 6x6 pad. The three packages image is from Lockhart Stamp Company - I thought it was a perfect image for the patterned paper with the packages. I colored it with Copic markers to match the paper. I used my colorless blender to make the dots in the background.

Another simple card, but I liked the color scheme and thought it was perfect for a December birthday. This could have just as easily been a Christmas card, if I'd used a different sentiment, of course.

Hope you're having a good week and that you are ready for the big guy in the red suit ;-) I still have a little gift wrapping to do, and one more gift to make and then I'm done and ready to enjoy the long weekend!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Card details:
Patterned paper: BasicGrey Wassail
Card stock: Papertrey Ink Kraft
Stamps: Lockhart Stamp Company Itty Bitty Three Packages; Papertrey Ink Butterfly Kisses (sentiment)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Misc.: Copic Markers; brads; Nestabilities

Christmas Wishes

I'm a bit strapped for things to post at the moment since I've been working on Christmas gifts and Christmas cards exclusively for the last couple of weeks and can't post those just yet. I'll have a lot to share after Christmas! I'm happy to say that I am finished with all of it and now just have a few little things to wrap up and put under the tree.

This is a quick card I made a while ago, but never posted. There's not much to it - the Santa was punched from the same paper I used for this card. I cut the two mat layers using my Nestabilities. I tied the satin ribbon around the flourish patterned background paper and added a bow above the circles - it looks a bit like a Christmas ornament, I think.

Thanks for looking and I hope you have a great day!

Card details:
Patterned paper: Glitz Design - Kringle Santa and Kringle Flourish
Card stock: Stampin' UP!; Stardreams stationery
Stamp: Amuse Artstamps
Ink: Stampin' UP!

Winter bird

As soon as I saw the Winter Birds set from Inkadinkado, I had to have it - I think these birds are gorgeous and just wish I had been able to do more with them this season.

This is a I card I made to take to my massage therapist a couple of weeks ago for her to sell at her spa . Except for the bird stamp, everything on the card is from Stampin' UP!. The card is pretty self explanatory and not complicated, but I like the color combination.

I'm making progress on all my Christmas preparations, but still have more to do than I'd like. Today I am planning to gift wrap and pack up all the boxes for mailing, then it's back to the Christmas cards....

Hope your week is going well!

Card details:
Patterned paper: Stampin' UP! Ski Slope
Card stock: Stampin' UP! Whisper White, Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red
Stamp: Inkadinkado
Ink: Stampin' UP! Baja Breeze
Ribbon: Stampin' UP! Riding Hood Red

Merry Christmas dear friend....again...

Here's a quick little Christmas card I made using some coordinating papers from Frances Meyer and the Merry Christmas dear friend stamp I used on a previous card. The ribbon is from Stampin' UP!.

I'm still way behind on all my Christmas preparations, so I'm taking some time off from work this week to get finished up in time to put everything in the mail. Hope you're in better shape for your Christmas preparations than I am!

Sorry, this is just a quick post to let you know I'm still alive! Thanks for looking and have a great week!

Card details:
Patterned papers: Frances Meyer
Cardstock: Stampin' UP!; Papertrey Ink Kraft
Ribbon: Stampin' UP!
Stamp: Stampin' UP!
Ink: Stampin' UP! Riding Hood Red

From the guy with the red suit

Here's another all-Stampin' UP! Christmas card that I made last week. The patterned paper is from the Ski Slope pack. I stamped the Santa image using Riding Hood Red ink and cut it and its mat with my Nestabilities.

I layered 3 Stampin' UP! felt snowflakes and put a silver snowflake brad through the center. For the blue snowflake, I added some new blue glitter I picked up a couple of weeks ago, when I took my husband with me to see Scrap Chic Boutique's new shop. While I was chatting with the owners, he was looking around and picked up this container of glitter and insisted on getting it for me. He always likes it when there is a bit of glitter on my cards, so he has been dubbed 'the glitter king'. Unfortunately, I think I got more of it on me and around my stamp room than I did on the snowflake!

This is obviously a pretty simple card, but it was nice to get a few done fairly quickly.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you're having a good week!

Card Details:
Patterned paper: Stampin' UP!
Stamps: Stampin' UP!
Ink: Stampin' UP! Riding Hood Red
Snowflakes: Stampin' UP!
Ribbon: Stampin' UP! Riding Hood Red
Misc.: Brad - JoAnn's; glitter - Powder Keg

Merry Christmas, dear friend

This card is a Stampin' UP! only card, which I think is a first for me so far. I really like the Ski Slope papers, so I've made a few cards with them this week. My massage therapist sells some of my cards at her spa and I needed to get a few Christmas cards ready to take to her when I go for my appointment tomorrow. I also used the sketch challenge from this week's card sketch challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers.

There isn't much to this card - I layered the three strips of patterned paper on top of another layer of patterned paper - too busy, maybe? I wrapped a bit of brown felt ribbon around the bottom of the middle strip.

Next, I stamped the Merry Christmas stamp from the Curly Label set twice, once in Old Olive and once in Riding Hood Red. I cut the sentiment from the Riding Hood Red version and popped it up with some foam tape on top of the Old Olive version, which I had cut out with the curly label punch. The panel was added to the card with some foam tape under the bottom so it rests flat against the ribbon.

I layered three of the felt snowflakes and stuck a rhinestone brad through the center for a little sparkle. I then adhered it all to a white card base.

Hope you've had a good week - mine has been busy and somewhat productive but I'm still ridiculously far behind...

Card details:
Patterned paper: Stampin' UP! Ski Slope
Stamp: Stampin' UP! Curly label punch set
Ink: Stampin' UP! Old Olive and Riding Hood Red
Misc. : Curly label punch; felt snowflakes and felt ribbon - Stampin' UP!

Snowmen fall...

I can't believe it's December already. I'm so behind on my Christmas cards, shopping, etc. Every year it's the same thing - I think I have so much time and then all of a sudden I'm in a panic because I've procrastinated and suddenly Christmas is right around the corner! So, forgive me if I'm a little spotty in my posting for a while as I try to get some things done.

This card is for Repeat Impressions. The main image is the Tiny Twig Hair Snowman, which I stamped three times - one just looked too lonely! I had some little 'snowballs' that I decided to use to make it look like my little snowmen are in the middle of a snowball fight. Their scarves are Liquid Pearls and their noses are orange Stickles. I went over the outline of the snowmen with my silver Copic Spica glitter pen. The image and its mat were cut out using my new Labels One Nestabilities - this is my favorite of the new shapes.

The red and white striped twine is from Martha Stewart and the bow has a snowflake brad in the center of it. The background paper is from the Stampin' UP! Ski Slope collection.

Hope those of you in the US had a nice Thanksgiving weekend! Happy December and thanks for looking!

Card Details:

Stamps: Repeat Impressions: 2016-D, Tiny Twig Hair Snowman, 4601-H, Snowmen fall...

Patterned Paper: Stampin' UP! Ski Slope

Card stock: Stampin' UP! Old Olive, Riding Hood Red

Ink: Memento Cottage Ivy, London Fog

Misc.: Martha Stewart twine; Ranger Stickles, Liquid Pearls; Snowflake brad; Copic Spica glitter pen; Nestabilities