February Birthdays

Since I used the ice cream cones on all of the cards I made for January (and one for February), I thought I'd try something else for most of my other February birthdays. The party elephant and sentiment are from the "Life is a Circus" stamp set made by Taylored Expressions. The circle die cuts are Star Circles by Spellbinders, and the sentiment labels below are Sweet Stack Labels 3 along with Layered Labels 3 from My Favorite Things. The patterned paper is Happy Trails from Cosmo Cricket. (In keeping with my New Year's Resolution, the die cuts and stamps are all items I haven't used before.)

On the inside, I used the same basic design but changed the sentiment labels to "Circus Panels" made by The Cat's Pajamas.

I liked the end result so much that I decided to make a few more. Naturally, I didn't have enough patterned paper to make an exact duplicate, so I had to change the orientation of the stripes from vertical to horizontal. At first I wasn't sure I liked the horizontal as much as the vertical, but now I do...maybe more :)

After making two cards exactly alike in terms of colors, I thought I'd try stripes of a different color. Below is a card made with paper from American Crafts - it's called City Park: Balboa Park. (Funny, when I was a kid growing up in San Diego, Balboa Park was one of my favorite places.)

I have one more card to make before the end of February - ice cream cones or elephant? Right now, it's a toss up.

Happy 11th Birthday

My niece's younger son is turning 11 soon, and since I'm liking the ice cream cone die set from Taylored Expressions so much, I decided to use it for his card. I did add the cute little cherry which is a die from Taylored Expressions "Tiny Toppers" set. The edge of the card is punched with a Martha Stewart punch, and the sentiment, inside and out, is on the Spellbinders Wonky Rectangle shape. Below, is a view of the simple interior:

It's a New Year

Whew, another year has flown by. Hello 2012!

I'm pretty happy that last year I posted more times than the previous two years put together. While I don't have any specific goals in terms of numbers of postings for this year, I would like to use some new techniques and continue to use stamps and other products that are still in their original packaging :) The most important thing is to continue to enjoy cardmaking.

Knowing that I have three friends with birthdays in the first 10 days of January, I got busy before the end of the year and actually got their cards done.

Once I figured out the layout and design - always the most time-consuming part of the process for me - I altered the colors a bit so that the three cards were just a little different, one from the other. Keeping true to my 'resolution,' I used new templates and stamps: the Oval Open Scallop Doily is from My Favorite Things; the sentiment is from Taylored Expressions "Build a Treat" along with their coordinating dies, "Building a Treat Tops and Bottoms." I added a little interest to the cone portion of the ice cream cone by embossing it with Cuttlebug's Tiny Mosaic embossing folder - I think it makes it look like a waffle pattern. Finally, the scalloped edge along the bottom is from an EK Success punch.

Though the colors vary, here is the basic look for the interior of these three birthday cards. The row of cupcakes is a stamp, "Build a Treat Borders," from Taylored Expressions, the "Hooray Hooray" ticket is a stamp from Hero Arts, "Life of the Party Birthday" set, and the "Enjoy" is also from Hero Arts.