Masculine birthday cards for young and old...

 

The thrift store gave me some random car stickers--I think they are VW Beetles--so I decided to use them to make a couple of birthday cards for boys.

These cards were part of my continuing effort to use scraps. The blue plaid and the strip were both scrap pieces laying on my desk. I cut the "Happy Birthday" and the number 5 from some glossy cardstock and glued them to the card front. The little clouds were in the same sticker set as the cars.

I used a leftover piece of sky-patterned DSP for the background on this card and added a strip of self-stick, fabric-like paper at the bottom to resemble a paved road. Once again, "Happy Birthday" and "3" were die-cut, but this time from some polka-dotted DSP.

Each card had a stamped sentiment on the inside.

This card is for the "mature" birthday celebrant. My first step was to cover the card front with some of that self-stick, fabric-like paper that looks a bit like pavement or, perhaps, stone. 

I cut a piece from one of my seaside scene papers. I believe it was 2 3/4" X 4". I matted it in black and centered it on the card front. I stamped "Happy Birthday." punched it out and popped it up on the bottom corner of my scene. I die-cut a seashell, added a few details with some ink, a blending brush and a beige marker. The seashell is also popped up with some foam tape.

To finish the scene, I die-cut some seagulls and glued them on.

I added a panel with a stamped sentiment and a strip of the self-stick paper on the inside.

I find it calming to create cards with scenes of the sea. Maybe that's why I make so many of them! I just hope that you're not tired of seeing them here on the blog.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

You're like a rainbow...

 

This card idea came to me one day when I was thinking about one of my granddaughters. She truly is like a lovely rainbow, and I wanted to somehow make a card to express that (even though I didn't give this card to her).

I happened to have a rainbow die-cut that had been left over after making the cards in this post. I needed to use it before all the parts and pieces of it got lost in the mess on my desk!

I started by using a cloud stencil to create a somewhat stormy sky with blue ink on a white panel. Then I printed a sentiment with my computer before using a cloud die to cut it out along with a couple more clouds.

I also cut out a few seagulls to add to the scene.

I adhered the rainbow and arranged the clouds beneath it, popping up the one with the sentiment on it.

Once done, this panel was added to a blue A2 card base.

I still had a small portion of another rainbow on my desk, so I added it on the inside to the white panel with my computer-generated sentiment.

I know a lot of cardmakers create really unique, one-of-a-kind cards with their own sentiments and design ideas. I don't do that nearly often enough, but it definitely feels like an accomplishment when I do!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

Personalized birthday cards...

I recently got a stamp set that is just too much fun. I made two cards with it so far for two of my grandsons who had birthdays this month. I'm happy to report, they loved the cards!

This stamp set is available on Amazon here. It can be used for birthdays, retirements, weddings, births, graduations and anniversaries.  

For these birthday cards, I printed a photo of each grandson and adhered it in the 2" X 2" box to personalize the card. You could also stamp an image there or add some fitting die-cut images, stickers or ephemera.

The yellow sun was added with one of the optional stamps in the set. I like the pop of color it provides.

Each card is 4 1/2" X 6" in size. This size seemed to best fit the stamp set. 

On the inside I added a die-cut pocket in which I could add some cash or a gift card. On the white panel, I stamped some stars and a couple of sentiments.

These cards were very quick to make, and I plan to use this set to make several cards for other occasions which I can donate to the thrift store. 

We celebrated our grandson Patrick's (the blond pictured in the second card) birthday last night. He turns 19 on August 20th and is heading to Massachusetts for college in just a few days.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

Using up more scraps and stickers...

 

I have a die that cuts the white frame you see in the photo above. It also cuts a stitched rectangle for each of the open spaces in the frame. I thought it would be fun to cut the frame and then select a few scraps of DSP--a different one for each opening--and cut them out to adhere back into the frame.

I glued the white frame to a card base and then glued the appropriate DSP rectangle into each open space. Once that was done, I started adding some stickers to embellish these spaces.

The sentiment was stamped onto a white scrap of cardstock and cut to fit over the DSP in the tallest rectangle, leaving a narrow border of the green patterned paper beneath it.

I had a few of the tiny flower stickers left over so I used them near my stamped sentiment on the inside.

I really like how this card turned out. I think this idea could work well for Christmas cards, too. I could use some of the holiday ephemera in my stash, or maybe even some small die-cuts. I'm definitely going to give that idea a try!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

Sunburst technique on a masculine card...

I have an entire bag of strips of metallic colored papers. Most of them are about an inch wide, but some are wider, some are narrower. They have a layer of fibrous metallic threads embedded in them, giving them a unique metallic luster. They are all in masculine colors, so I thought I'd use some of them to make a masculine card. I cut a 6-inch length of each strip and then cut them diagonally from a top left corner to the bottom right corner, creating elongated triangular shapes.

I glued the bottom piece of striped DSP in place and made a small pencil mark at the center of its top. Then I started with my triangular pieces, placing the point of each at the pencil mark and gluing them tightly against each other.

When I reached the DSP on both the left and the right, I stopped and added a 1/4" piece across the card to hide the seam. Then I trimmed all the extra paper off the edges of the card base with a scissor.                                   

The sentiment was die-cut and glued to a die-cut circle. The circle was then glued to a die-cut starburst which had been cut from some copper glitter cardstock.

I added some very thin (1 ml) foam tape to the back of the starburst and added it to the center of the radiating strips.

I stamped a sentiment on the inside and added a narrow strip of the glitter cardstock.

This was such a fun technique. It can be made to look feminine or masculine and is a great way to use paper scraps. I also want to try it for a child's card. I have a "superboy" stamp and a fairy stamp, and I think they'd be perfect to stamp on the circle.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

Using up some scraps and stickers on masculine cards...

 

I had two adirondack chair stickers and some scraps of DSP that badly needed to be used. 

Since I had decided to make masculine cards, and the woodgrain paper was laying on my desk, it was almost imperative that I use it. At first I thought about using it on the bottom half of this card, but that didn't seem to work well. Then I thought, "Why not use it as the background to the upper portion of the card?"

The green stripe paper was also a scrap in my "green" folder, and it was just the right size for the bottom half of my card front. 

The two dots on the upper right were originally a lighter shade of green, so I colored them with an alcohol marker.

The sentiments for both cards were printed with my computer, cut out, and popped up with foam tape.

This card was made much the same way as the first one with a blue polka-dot scrap of DSP

I die-cut two clouds and popped them up with foam squares, and the grass was created for both cards with an old Fiskars border punch. I've had that punch for years and years and still use it whenever I need some grass!

The chair stickers were actually put in place on the card fronts before I added the grass. I wanted them to look as though they were sitting in the grass, not on top of it.

I printed the inside sentiments with my computer.

Since there were a couple narrow strips of the green stripe paper left over, I added them to the insides.

These are really simple, straightforward cards, but I think guys will appreciate them.                             

We had our AC turned off last week and really enjoyed opening the windows and letting the fresh air waft in. The heat and humidity returned yesterday, however, and we're back to mechanically cooling the house. I do appreciate the convenience, though, and often think back to my growing up years--living in an old, poorly insulated home with no AC, only gravity heating for the upstairs, no dishwasher (other than six kids!) and one bathroom (just a tub, no shower) for eight people. Kids today might wonder how we survived! lol

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl

Cards with lots of sparkle...

I had a sheet of very sparkly, dimensional flower stickers, given to me by the thrift store. I decided to use as many of them as I could on a couple of birthday cards.

I really liked the colors in the stickers so I went with the lilac and aqua for the card base. I also added a 1/8" strip of double-sided tape down each side of the lilace paper on this card and rubbed some clear glitter into it. I figured a little more sparkle wouldn't hurt!

The sentiment was die-cut from the same cardstock as the card base and glued to the card front.

You can really see the dimension of the stickers in the photo at left. Each flower had a gem at its center, too.

Because this flower was so large, I decided it could stand alone as a focal point. I used up some scraps of aqua and lavendar paper to frame it, along with a short length of die-cut lace edging.

Again, the sentiment was die-cut and glued to the card front.

See all that dimension? I hope, if these are mailed, that the sender realizes they will need extra postage because of it.

I stamped a sentiment on the inside of each card and added another flower. I removed most of the dimension (another layer and some double-sided foam squares) from these inside stickers, so that the cards would close nicely.

It's fun to use the supplies given to me. I don't feel it stifles creativity at all, and may even heighten it. Stickers like these set the color palette and suggest a general approach (lots of sparkle!), but the rest has to be figured out.

Do you like using pre-made items like this, or would you rather start everything from scratch?

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl