Jersey Shore Birthday Layout

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! We had a very busy weekend, but it was good! I haven't done very much scrapbooking lately, so I made it my goal to do at least one page amidst all of the other activities of the weekend. So - here it is!

The layout is of my DH's grandma's 90th birthday celebration. The title was created with the Headline Alphabet stamped in Bashful Blue and Happy Birthday from the It's Your Birthday set stamped over it in Brilliant Blue. I used six 2 1/2" squares of CS - Bashful Blue, Brilliant Blue, Pumpkin Pie, and Wild Wasabi (all colors from the Jersey Shore DSP) - to make up the left side of the layout. On the squares I layered 2" pictures or squares of Whisper White CS. I used various stamps from It's Your Birthday, Big Bold Birthday, and Short Order Numbers on the Whisper White squares. The right side of the layout is a 5 x 7 1/2" piece of Brilliant Blue cardstock with a 4 1/2 x 7" picture layered on top.

The Pumpkin Pie strip at the bottom was created with the Take A Number wheel, wheeled in Versamark. (I use an uninked cartridge filled with the Versamark reinker to wheel longer areas. It has worked fairly well for me. I read somewhere that you need to keep it in a Ziploc bag to keep from drying out, so that is what I do.) After wheeling it on the Pumpkin Pie, I wheeled a portion onto Brilliant Blue as well and punched out the 9 and 0 with a circle punch. The numbers were then colored in with my Versamarker, adhered to a 2" circle metal edge tag, and adhered to the strip with dimensionals. I've done this with a single number on a birthday card also. You can see it here. The DSP strip underneath the numbers is from Jersey Shore.

To add a little sparkle, I embossed the top of the cupcake with Irridescent Ice embossing powder. On a couple of the squares, I also used the slit punch and inserted the white CS behind the slit with a Brilliant Blue brad in the middle. This idea came from the layout on the cover of the most recent Stampin' Success.

Recipe:
Stamps: Headline Alphabet, It's Your Birthday, Short Order Numbers, Big Bold Birthday, Take A Number Wheel
Cardstock: Whisper White, Brilliant Blue, Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Wild Wasabi
DSP: Jersey Shore
Ink: Bashful Blue, Brilliant Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Versamark, Versamarker
Accessories: Brilliant Blue Brads, 2" Metal Edge Tag, Irridescent Ice Embossing Powder
Tools: Slit Punch, Circle Punch
Technique: Spotlighting

Grid Technique

I used the recent Grid Technique tutorial on Splitcoast to create this card for my husband’s aunt who is retiring after many years of teaching. I’ve had a Scor-pal for awhile now, but this is the first time I’ve used it to create the background for a card. This card of Beate's also served as my inspiration.

My card base is a standard size piece of Chocolate Chip with a layer of Basic Black and Whisper White adhered on top. To create the focal background, I stamped the swirl from Baroque Motifs in River Rock and the small flower in Ruby Red and then sponged all over the cardstock in River Rock as well. I then scored the cardstock with my Scor-pal, every ½” on the diagonal (in both directions).

The small rectangle and scalloped rectangle were cut out with Nestibilities dies and stamped with Happy Retirement from Papertrey’s Mixed Messages set. The card was finished with some Chocolate Chip Taffeta Ribbon.

Recipe:
Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Mixed Messages (Papertrey)
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: River Rock, Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Chocolate Chip Taffeta Ribbon, Vintage Brads
Tools: Nestibilities Dies, Scor-pal

Big Bold Genie Bag

My original thought for this project was to use it as a small door prize I needed for my stamp club last night. However, as I was in the middle of finishing it, I decided I might use it instead for one of our next projects. Combined with any of these birthday cards, (1, 2, 3, or 4), I think it would make a fun set for the group to make.

I used the Genie Bag instructions from Splitcoast to create the bag. My bag is a normal size white lunch sack (for some reason we have 3 almost completely full bags of lunch sacks at my house – who knows why!). The dimensions are a little larger than the ones in the tutorial, so the finished size of my cardstock front and back is 5½ x 5½.

The cardstock base is Brilliant Blue with layers of Pumpkin Pie and Whisper White adhered on top. I added a strip of Jersey Shore DSP and Bashful Blue (scallops created with the corner rounder) and then some Pumpkin Pie striped ribbon. My focal image was created with the cupcake from Big Bold Birthday and some Brilliant Blue brads and is adhered with dimensionals. I then stamped the sentiment from It's Your Birthday in Pumpkin Pie. The Pumpkin Pie ribbon was added for the bag handles before I added the finished cardstock to the bag. To adhere the ribbon, I used the slot punch, threaded the ribbon through and then used double-sided tape so the ribbon would stick to itself. (The slots could also be done after the cardstock is added to the bag, but I didn't want the holes to show this time.)

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday, It's Your Birthday
Cardstock: Brilliant Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Bashful Blue
DSP: Jersey Shore
Ink: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue
Accessories: Pumpkin Pie Striped Ribbon, Brilliant Blue Brads, White Lunch Sack
Tools: Corner Rounder, Slot Punch

Congrats to the Grad!

Since my husband is a teacher, we get at least a few graduation announcements every year. This year was a little slower than others - only one, so this is a card for his former student.

I had almost forgotten about this graduation cap in the Event Full hostess set, but I thought it would work perfectly for yesterday's Ways to Use It challenge to use "inchies". I was also inspired by this card by Silke Ledlow.

The card is pretty straightforward, so I would go into a lot of details. It is a 4x4" gift card holder. The sentiment is from Papertrey's Mixed Messages, and the 2008 at the bottom is from a small "dial" date stamp I have (with the month and day masked off).

For the inside, I just adhered a piece of black and white patterned paper on the fold of the pocket. Nothing fancy, since the important part will be what's in the pocket!

Recipe:
Stamps: Event Full, Mixed Messages, date stamp (maker unknown)
Cardstock: Basic Black, Whisper White
DSP: maker unknown
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: Black & White ribbon (maker unknown), Silver Brads

So Sweet!

This is a thank you card for a sweet friend who sent me an unexpected card and package. The main panel is matted on Chocolate Chip cardstock and raised up on dimensionals. The eyelets are Sahara Sand, but I figured they were close enough to the River Rock cardstock that they'd work. I don't have a curved stem stamp in my Stampin' Up! sets, so I used Papertrey's Green Thumb set for the stem and leaves.

Overall it's a fairly simple card, but I like the way it turned out. Now I just need to write my note and get it in the mail! My DH and I were discussing the other day how lax people have become in sending thank you cards, so I want to make sure to get this in the mail quickly to let her know how much I appreciated her gesture.

Thanks for looking!

Recipe:
Stamps: So Many Scallops, Enjoy Every Moment, Green Thumb (Papertrey)
Cardstock: Groovy Guava, Ruby Red, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, River Rock
Ink: Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive
Accessories: Chocolate Chip Taffeta Ribbon, Sahara Sand Eyelets
Tools: Swiss Dots Cuttlebug Embossing Folder, Crop-a-dile

Happy (Belated) Mother's Day!

I had these cards ready to post over the weekend, but we were without Internet access for a couple of days. Oh well – better late than never.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day and was able to spend the day with the special women in your life. These cards were for my mom and mother-in-law. I won’t go into a lot of detail since they didn’t use any special techniques. I was excited to finally use the bird from the Always set though.

Recipe:
Stamps: Always, Mixed Messages (Papertrey)
Cardstock: Ruby Red, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, River Rock
DSP: Basic Grey Infuse
Ink: Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Chocolate Chip Taffeta Ribbon, Jumbo Eyelets
Tools: Rectangle Nestibilities

No Stamping Required!

It's extremely rare that I do a scrapbook page, let alone a card, with no stamping at all, but here is one. A friend asked me to make some graduation cards for her and requested the Mahatma Ghandi quote "...be the change you want to see in the world." Since I didn't have a stamp with the quote, I generated it on my computer, and then used the Textile Cuttlebug embossing folder as my background. I used the "negative effect" for the embossed layer - inking up the negative side of the embossing folder before inserting the cardstock and running it through the machine. This technique was featured in TLC160 in mid-March.

Recipe:
Cardstock: Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Basic Grey
Ink: Basic Grey
Accessories: Basic Grey Taffeta Ribbon, Silver Brads
Other: Cuttlebug Textile Embossing Folder