Hard to photograph, fun to make...

I made these two simple cards for my daughter's card stash (actually, I made three), and I know they look pretty nondescript on the outside. But wait until you see the inside!

For this male-oriented one, I stamped a tone-on-tone background with a "Celebrate!" stamp on the yellow mat. Then I heat-embossed a circular birthday greeting and layered it on several colors of cardstock.

These cards measure about 4 1/4" X 4 1/4". For this one, I just used a scrap of DSP for my mat and the same layered birthday greeting. Each circular greeting also has a brad in the center. I hardly use brads anymore with all the enamel dots available, but this was a great chance to use a couple. Each of the circles are popped up with foam tape.

As you begin to open the blue card, this is what it looks like inside. I have made an "Explosion Card Insert" (you can easily find a tutorial online- I looked at several). I used some one-sided DSP for my insert and stamped my greeting and assorted images on the white side of the paper.

Fully open, it looks like this. The stamped images come from several birthday stamp sets and the dots were made with a metallic marker.

Here's a look at the pink card from the side as it begins to open. I used the same DSP for the insert as was used for the mat on the front of the card.

This one is more girly with a flower image included in the mix of stamps.

I did make my folds before I did my stamping, just so that I could see approximately where I wanted my sentiment to go. These were incredibly fun to make, and I plan to make some Valentines using this idea, too. The cards actually lay pretty flat when closed. Of course, it depends on the weight of the paper you use inside. I didn't leave any specific area to sign a name, but I figured it could be signed right below the sentiment over top of the dots and other images.

The pictures truly don't do these cards justice. I think it's so much fun to open the card and have the insert "explode" from inside the card. I'm even going to make some of these for the adults in my life. I think they'd get a kick out of them.

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