Cupcake Kit

This "Cupcake Kit" is a birthday gift for my sister-in-law. I got the idea when I was blog surfing one day, but unfortunately, I didn't write down the name of the person or blog where I saw it. If it was your idea, let me know so I can give proper credit! Anyway, the kit contains various items to make and decorate cupcakes. My SIL likes to bake, and her kids love to help, so I thought this would be something fun they could use together. I included some fun cupcake liners, various sprinkles, a spatula, a couple of decorating tips and pastry bags, and a cupcake recipe book (my favorite part!). Everything is contained in an old Stampin' Up! punch box that I altered just a bit.

The original idea I saw included a purchased cookbook. I thought about buying one also but then decided it would be fun to make one with my Bind-It-All. It was quite a bit of work getting all of the recipes together, formatting them, etc., but I love how it turned out! And now that I have it all together, I can use them again (I'm planning to make myself one too).

The book is 6x6 and uses BIA chipboard covers that I altered with cardstock, American Crafts DP, my beloved Big Bold Birthday set, and Jumbo Outline Alpha. The alpha was stamped in Certainly Celery and then colored in with a Versamarker. With the overlapped letters, I like how you can still see the outline of slightly darker color versus the Versamark inside.

The book has 3 recipe sections - cupcakes, icings, and fillings - so each section has a divider. For each one, I used the cupcake from Big Bold Birthday, coordinating American Crafts DP, various colors of cardstock, and the Round Tab Punch. The back of each divider was folded into a pocket to keep any other cupcake-related recipes that might come along.

The recipes themselves came from various sites - Wilton (the majority - they have a great cupcake section), All Recipes, and Very Best Baking. I also included my favorite cake recipe, White Almond Sour Cream Wedding Cake (if made strictly for cupcakes, makes about 5 dozen). The recipes were printed on glossy paper so the pages would hold up a little better than regular printer paper.

The card was based on this week's sketch challenge on SCS. I used 9 squares of striped American Crafts DP and alternated the direction of the stripes. The cupcake layer was adhered to a 3" square of Blue Bayou that has the small happy birthday stamp stamped as a border along each edge. It was adhered to the card with dimensionals. I think everything else on the card is pretty self-explanatory.



This was a really fun gift to put together. I hope she likes it as much as I do!

Thanks for looking!

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday, Jumbo Outline Alpha, So Very, Fancy Flexible Phrases
Cardstock: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Blue Bayou, Certainly Celery, Real Red, So Saffron, Bashful Blue
DP: American Crafts
Ink: Versamark, Versamarker, Certainly Celery, Real Red, So Saffron, Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Red & White Gingham, Red Ric-Rac, Stylized Silver Hodgepodge Hardware, White & Red Eyelets, Irridescent Ice Embossing Powder, Chocolate Chip Taffeta Ribbon
Tools: Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, 1 1/4", 1 3/8" and Scallop Circle Punches, Nestibilities Dies, Corner Rounder, Ticket Corner Punch, Round Tab Punch

Award & Take A Number Birthday Card

Thanks to Nancy Riley for nominating me for the Kreativ Blogger award! If you've never had an opportunity to check out her blog, go take a look. I promise you won't be disappointed!

There are so many great blogs out there which make it hard to choose who to pass on the award to. Here are just a couple that I like to visit.

Jill, Jill's Card Creations
Jenn, Stamp Your Heart Out



I also have a card to share today. We celebrated my niece's 3rd birthday on Monday, and this was the card I made for her. I used the Take A Number wheel again and spotlighted the number 3 in a 1 1/2 in" metal edge circle tag. The bottoms of the cupcakes were embossed with the Swiss Dots embossing folder.

Thanks for looking!

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday, Take A Number Wheel
Cardstock: Old Olive, Whisper White, Brilliant Blue, Pumpkin Pie
DSP: Jersey Shore
Ink: Versamark, Pumpkin Pie, Versamarker
Accessories: 1 1/2 in" Metal Edge Circle Tag, Brilliant Blue Brads, Irridescent Ice Embossing Powder
Tools: Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, 1 1/4" Circle Punch

Big Bold Sketch Challenge

Wow – two posts in one day! Hopefully that makes up for not posting for over a week! Anyway – I was off work today, so I thought I would try the sketch challenge over at SCS. I haven’t done one for quite awhile, so it was fun to do one again.

This card uses some of my favorites – Jersey Shore DSP, Big Bold Birthday, Pumpkin Pie Striped Ribbon, and the Swiss Dots embossing folder. I was just thinking this morning that I need to add some cards to my stash so I’m not always making them at the last minute. Now I at least have a start on that!

Thanks for looking!

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday
Cardstock: Whisper White, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive
DSP: Jersey Shore
Ink: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue
Accessories: Pumpkin Pie Striped Ribbon, Black Brads, Irridescent Ice Embossing Powder
Tools: Nestabilities Circle and Scalloped Circle Dies, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder

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

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

Window Birthday Card

I saw a cute window card on Kristina Werner's blog and thought I'd try my own version.

Most of the time I would just eyeball where I wanted to punch my circles, but Kristina had a video on her blog of how she gets hers evenly spaced. I followed her directions and punched a 1 1/2" circle 3 times from scrap paper and placed the circles (with just a small piece of mono adhesive on the back) on my strip of Brilliant Blue cardstock. When I was happy with the placement, I punched them out again from the cardstock. I then drew a light pencil line around the circles onto my Whisper White cardstock so I'd know where to stamp.

After stamping the present from Big Bold Birthday, I erased my pencil marks and added dimensionals to the back of the Brilliant Blue cardstock to adhere it. I added a few strips of Jersey Shore DSP and stamped Happy Birthday at the top. I decided to change my ribbon placement from Kristina's and threaded it through the left circle window.

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday
Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Brilliant Blue, Whisper White
DSP: Jersey Shore
Ink: Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Bashful Blue
Accessories: Pumpkin Pie Striped Ribbon
Tools: 1 1/2" Circle Punch

Coordinating 3-D Items

I think I've mentioned before how much I love to make boxes and bags of all sorts. Anytime I see a new way to make one, I like to give it a try. I saw this box on a couple of different blogs, Cambria Turnbow's, Stamp A Little Love Baby and Danielle Lounds', Fat Cat Stamper.

For the bottom of my box, I used an 8 1/4" square piece of Brilliant Blue cardstock, scored at 2 3/4" on each side. In each corner, I also made a diagonal score to the inside line to be able to fold each corner into a point (to see a picture, check out either of the blogs I mentioned). I then folded the 2 corners together on each end and adhered them with a white eyelet where they overlapped. These are very simple boxes to make - and, no glueing required!

For the lid, I used a 4 7/8" square piece of textured Wild Wasabi cardstock, scored at 1" on each side (the opening of my box was 2 3/4", so I added an 1/8" for the top to slip over and an 1" for each side to come up with my 4 7/8" measurement). I added a slightly smaller piece of Jersey Shore DSP on top of the Wild Wasabi before folding. The top is adhered with eyelets also; however, for the top, I tucked my corner triangles inside and added white eyelets to the corners of 2 of the sides to hold everything together.

After putting the box together, I added some Pumpkin Pie ribbon and a tag made from my Nestabilities dies and the Big Bold Birthday and Happy Everything sets. Such a fun box to coordinate with all of those Jersey Shore and Big Bold Birthday cards I've been making recently!

I had a lot of fun with the tin also. I picked it up during my recent trip to Archiver's (I believe it's made by EK Success.) I think it's similar to the round tins sold by Papertrey, but I like the fact that this one is white instead of silver. I added a couple of different patterns of Jersey Shore DSP around the side of the tin (adhered with sticky strip) and then added the Pumpkin Pie Striped Ribbon around it. The scallop circle is punched out of Jersey Shore also. On it, I layered a 1 1/4" circle stamped with the Enjoy Your Day stamp from Riveting, and a 1/2" circle of just the gift in Pumpkin Pie. The tin is filled with M&M's (only orange, blue and green ones though to match the DSP :) ). I think these would make really cute birthday or wedding favors!

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday, Happy Everything, Riveting (retired)
Cardstock: Brilliant Blue, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White
DSP: Jersey Shore
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black
Accessories: Pumpkin Pie Striped Ribbon, White Eyelets (unknown maker)
Tools: Crop-A-Dile, Nestabilities Rectangle & Scalloped Rectangle Dies, Horizontal Slot Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, 1/2" Circle Punch

New Toys!

I had a chance to go to an Archiver's the other day so I picked up a couple of fun new things. One of the items was a package of American Crafts Thickers - foam letter stickers. I intend to use them in my scrapbooks, but I got the idea for this card so I wanted to try them. I love the way it turned out!

The card itself is pretty straightforward. It's 9"x4", and the Wild Wasabi base is a piece of textured cardstock from the Creative License Level 1 hostess scrapbooking kit from the Fall/Winter catalog. Of course I used Jersey Shore DSP again. I really like the way the 2 patterns look layered together.

Hope you like it! Have a great weekend!

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday
CS: Wild Wasabi (textured), Whisper White, Brilliant Blue
DSP: Jersey Shore
Ink: Whisper White, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: American Crafts Thickers, White Brads (unknown maker), Iridescent Ice embossing powder

Big Bold Pocket Card

I hadn’t made a pocket card in awhile, so I decided it would be fun to make one with the cupcake from Big Bold Birthday. And of course, I continued my trend with the Jersey Shore DSP.

The cupcake was stamped on a couple of Whisper White scraps and then cut out before adhering to the card with dimensionals. The top was created the same way as the one of my previous cards – inked in Versamark and then Pumpkin Pie Classic ink before embossing with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. (The only craft ink I own is White, so this is my solution when I want to emboss with a different color.) The candle is stamped directly on the insert, and the tab is one of the other patterns in Jersey Shore.

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday
CS: Bashful Blue, Whisper White
DSP: Jersey Shore
Ink: Versamark, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Brilliant Blue
Accessories: Pumpkin Pie Striped Ribbon, Bold Brights Brads
Tools: Round Tab Punch, Word Window Punch, Corner Rounder

Another Jersey Shore Birthday

This time I paired the Jersey Shore DSP with Big Bold Birthday. The sketch I used is from Anna Wight’s blog, Sassy & Sweet.

I cut the DSP into 2 ¼” squares and layered them on Basic Black cardstock, alternating the stripes for a little more interest. The cupcake is stamped on a 2 ½” square of Whisper White and is also layered on Basic Black. I stamped the bottom of the cupcake in Old Olive (technically, I think the green in the DSP is Wild Wasabi, but I don’t have that color). The cupcake top was stamped on a scrap – I inked it in Versamark and then in Pumpkin Pie Classic Ink before embossing with the Iridescent Ice embossing powder. It was cut out and then adhered to the card with the Bashful Blue heart on top.

The 2 in the sentiment is from Short Order numbers, and the you is from the Thank You stamp in the Much Appreciated set. The sentiment was punched out with a 1” circle punch and then layered on a 1 ¼” circle of Pumpkin Pie. And of course, I had to add some of that fun striped ribbon! I hope Stampin' Up! comes out with even more colors in the next catalog!

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday, Short Order Numbers, Much Appreciated
CS: Whisper White, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie
DSP: Jersey Shore
Ink: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Versamark, Bashful Blue
Accessories: Pumpkin Pie Striped Ribbon

Big Bold 4th Birthday

My nephew's 4th birthday is next week, so I decided to get his card done a little early and not wait until the last minute like usual. His card is similar to a Christmas card I made with the Big Bold birthday set. On the birthday card I used 4 presents though since he will be 4 (and I knew he'd notice if there were less than that). I stamped the various presents in Old Olive, second generation Blue Bayou and Pumpkin Pie and added the bow in Basic Black. The designer paper on the bottom is from the Creative License Simply Scrappin' kit from the Fall/Winter catalog. I added a strip of Pumpkin Pie to separate the DSP from the presents and added Blue Bayou double-stitched ribbon on top of the Pumpkin Pie.

To create the sentiment, I used a Pumpkin Pie marker to ink the word Happy from one of the sentiments in the It's Your Birthday set. I then added the 4th from Short Order Numbers in Blue Bayou. I punched it out with the 1 1/4" circle punch, added it to a Blue Bayou scallop circle, and adhered it to the card with the black brad.

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday, It's Your Birthday, Short Order Numbers
Paper: Blue Bayou, Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie, Creative License Simply Scrappin' Kit
Ink: Old Olive, Blue Bayou, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black
Other, Blue Bayou Double-Stitched Ribbon, Black Brad, Pumpkin Pie Marker
Tools: 1 1/4" Circle Punch, Scallop Circle Punch

Featured Stamper Bold Birthday

Sunday's featured stamper on SCS was Carole Burrage aka TruCarMa. She has some great cards, so I had a little trouble choosing which one I wanted to CASE. I finally settled on this one.

Carole uses lots of bright colors in her cards, so this challenge was exactly that for me. It was fun to break out of my mold a little though and brighten things up a bit. I also made a long card, another thing I don't usually do, to mirror her sample.

My card base is a 9 x 8" piece of Purely Pomegranate cardstock folded in half. The focal image is a variety of gifts and cakes stamped with the Big Bold Birthday set. The cakes are the gift stamp just stamped upside down. The small flower on the Certainly Celery cake is adhered with a Target $1 spot brad. After stamping the images, I stamped Happy Birthday repeatedly at the bottom in Basic Black. I then layered this piece on Basic Black and Bashful Blue and added some American Crafts ribbon. I've had this ribbon for quite awhile, and I can't ever remember using it. I pulled all the colors for the card from the ribbon.

This was a fun challenge - Carole was a great choice for the featured stamper! Be sure to check out her gallery if you get a chance.

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday
Cardstock: Purely Pomegranate, Basic Black, Bashful Blue, Whisper White
Ink: Purely Pomegranate, Basic Black, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery
Other: Target $1 Spot Brad, American Crafts Ribbon

Birthday Slider

Monday's technique challenge was to create a treat slider. If you aren't familiar with these, they can hold bags of microwave popcorn, candy bars, or some other type of flat candy. Well - I thought they were really cute, but I couldn't think of anything I could use it for soon, so I decided to make mine a card. My niece's 5th birthday is next week, so I needed to start working on a card for her anyway. And I thought she might enjoy an interactive card like this.

I used the dimensions from Nichole Heady's blog Capture the Moment for my card. The outside of the slider is a 4 1/4 x 9" piece of Rose Red cardstock scored at 4 1/4 and 8 1/2. I used sticky strip to adhere the 1/2" flap to the other side of the slider. For my front layout, I used Jen del Muro's weekend sketch. I don't remember the exact dimensions of all the pieces because I played around with them a little bit until I was happy with the layout. The striped DSP is from the Cutie Pie package. It is matted on Basic Black cardstock. The bottom DSP is from the Rose Red Prints package. I loved that paper in the 6x6 pack, so I had to buy a whole package. The focal image is the cupcake from Big Bold Birthday. The cupcake bottom is stamped in Certainly Celery, and the top is stamped in 2nd generation Rose Red with Rose Red polka dots. The small flower was stamped in Rose Red, cut out, and adhered with a black brad. I added doodling around the cupcake and then matted it on Certainly Celery cardstock.

The one thing I changed from the layout is the bottom strip. I moved mine to the middle of the card since I thought it would look more balanced to have the ribbon in the pull out be an extension of this strip. For the strip, I stamped the Happy Birthday stamp multiple times in Basic Black and then matted it on a small strip of Basic Black cardstock.

After the front layout was adhered to the card, I set black eyelets on the center right edge to thread the ribbon through for the inside message. I used sentiments from It's Your Birthday for the inside and just made sure to stamp them above and below where the ribbon would be. I added doodling around the inside card as well.

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday, It's Your Birthday
Cardstock: Rose Red, Basic Black, Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Cutie Pie DSP, Rose Red Prints DSP
Ink: Rose Red, Certainly Celery, Basic Black Marker
Other: Vintage Brad, Black Ribbon, Black Eyelets
Technique: Treat Slider

Big Bold Birthday Sketch

I needed some birthday cards, so I decided to do one for Beate's weekend sketch challenge. I realized after I finished the card, though, that my two panels are flipped. I made the one on the right higher than the one on the left, so it's opposite of the original sketch. I think it's fairly close, so hopefully it still qualifies.

My card base is a standard 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 from Rose Red cardstock. The striped panel at the bottom is from the Cutie Pie DSP. I've had such a hard time using that paper for some reason, so I was glad that I was able to finally add it to a card and like the end result! The Cutie Pie DSP is matted on Basic Black. The right panel is from the Rose Red Prints DSP. I loved the 6x6 sample pack that I got during Stampin' Up!'s promotion, so I had to have a full package of that paper. I love it and would love to have even more colors of it! It is also matted on Basic Black. I then added Basic Black grosgrain to this piece.

For the focal image, I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp the Happy Birthday stamp around the square. I then added the cupcake bottom in So Saffron, cut out, folded accordian-style (like a true cupcake holder), and adhered with glue dots. The cupcake top was stamped in 2nd generation Rose Red, and then I added the polka dots in Rose Red, cut it out, and adhered it with dimensionals. The candle is stamped in Certainly Celery. I used the out-of-the-box cutting technique to cut around the candle flame.

Finally, I used my Rose Red marker to selectively ink words from the Make a Wish stamp, so I could stack the words on top of each other. It was punched with the 1" circle punch and matted on a 1 1/4" circle of Certainly Celery. The bling in the lower-right corner are gems from Target's $1 spot. I've had them for quite awhile and always forget to use them.

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday
Cardstock: Rose Red, Basic Black, Certainly Celery, Cutie Pie DSP, Rose Red Prints DSP
Ink: Basic Black, So Saffron, Rose Red, Certainly Celery
Other: Basic Black Grosgrain, Gems

A Dashing Christmas Set

I didn't have many Christmas sample cards yet, so these are just a few that I came up with. The first card, and the gum holder (shown next), are done with one of my current favorite sets, In the Spotlight. I love creating backgrounds with these stamps. They look great regardless of the colors used.

For these 2 projects, I used Real Red, Old Olive and River Rock ink to go with the Dashing Designer Series Paper. The rest is pretty self-explanatory, so I won't bore you with the details.


Recipe:
Stamps: In the Spotlight, Holidays & Wishes
Cardstock: River Rock, Real Red, Old Olive, Dashing DSP
Ink: Old Olive, Real Red, River Rock
Other: Real Red Grosgrain





The next card is a holiday thank you card done with the All About Gratitude Jumbo Wheel. I kept it pretty simple - just added some Real Red and Basic Black cardstock and a small strip of dots from the Dashing DSP. The square Thanks was popped up with a dimensional.

Recipe:
Stamps: All About Gratitude Jumbo Wheel
Cardstock: Old Olive, Real Red, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Dashing DSP
Ink: Old Olive, Real Red
Other: Basic Black Grosgrain, Vintage Brad

The final card was done with the gift stamps from Big Bold Birthday. I only own one Christmas set (Snowflake Spot), so I am always looking for ways to use other sets for holiday cards. I was looking for a straightforward card that a new, or busy, stamper could recreate, so I hope this one fits that description.

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday, Holidays & Wishes
Cardstock: Old Olive, Real Red, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Dashing DSP
Ink: Basic Black, River Rock, Old Olive, Real Red
Other: Basic Black Grosgrain

Big Bold Birthday

I loved the Big Bold Birthday set when I first saw it in the new Stampin' Up! catalog. So, when I saw the article in Stampin' Success about the Scratch and Sniff technique, this set moved right up to the top of my list. I was excited to get it this week as part of my stamp club order and set out to try the technique. I tried a couple of different things but am not totally happy with the results so I need to keep experimenting. In the meantime though, I played around with the set a little bit and came up with these 3 cards.

This first card is done on Groovy Guava. The patterned paper was done with the polka dot stamp in the set. I randomly stamped it on Whisper White with Groovy Guava, Purely Pomegranate, Blue Bayou, and So Saffron. I then used my Basic Black marker to ink one dot at a time to add a few black dots throughout the piece. It was then layered on Basic Black.

For the focal image, I stamped the cupcake bottom in Guava and the top in Pomegranate. I then stamped them both again on a scrap and cut them out for some dimension. For the bottom piece, I also accordian folded it to look more like a cupcake cup. It just didn't seem right to be flat. This piece was then layered on Pomegranate and Basic Black. I used my ticket corner punch on the corners of the white and added black brads before layering. The doodling around the edges was an afterthought - it just seemed like it needed a little something else.

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday
Cardstock: Groovy Guava, Purely Pomegranate, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Groovy Guava, Purely Pomegranate, Blue Bayou, So Saffron, Basic Black
Other: Basic Black marker, Black Brads

This second card uses the same colors as the first. It is pretty straightforward, but I am happy with the results. The Blue Bayou package was stamped directly on the card, and then I stamped another one on a scrap and cut it out for some added dimension.

This layout was inspired by a card I saw on Splitcoast. It used a different set and different colors but was the same basic idea.

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday
Cardstock: Groovy Guava, Purely Pomegranate, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Groovy Guava, Purely Pomegranate, Blue Bayou, So Saffron, Basic Black
Other: Black Brads, Black Gingham Ribbon

This 3rd card uses the All About Birthdays jumbo wheel in addition to Big Bold Birthday. I wheeled it in Pretty in Pink on Whisper White and then added it to a strip of Creamy Caramel and Basic Black. The focal image was done in the same way as the first card, except this one was done with Creamy Caramel and Pretty in Pink. A little piece of Black Gingham Ribbon was attached with a black brad.

Before the focal image was added to the card, I stamped the Happy Birthday stamp above and below the wheeled image in Basic Black. I originally was just going to add a single Happy Birthday sentiment from It's Your Birthday, but I like how this smaller font frames that part of the card.

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday, All About Birthdays
Cardstock: Pretty in Pink, Creamy Caramel, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Creamy Caramel, Basic Black,
Other: Black Brad, Black Gingham Ribbon