Full Moon Silhouette Birthday Card

Hello Crafters! I can't believe that I've neglected my poor blog for such a long time but sometimes life just gets in the way. We went on an Alaska cruise which was incredibly beautiful and now it's something that we can check off of our bucket list and another state visited leaving just 7 more to go! Plus our "little" girl got married earlier this year which took up a lot of time planning during the last couple of years but it was so much fun! It was such a joyful wedding and she was such a gorgeous bride! Now I have a little more time to craft. It has taken me some time to get organized again and get my mojo back after a long hiatus but I had to start somewhere. And what better way than to finally use some of the crafting supplies that I've been buying, um collecting, all of these past months. 

The first set I pulled out was Harvest of Happiness from Gina K. Designs. I needed a birthday card for my son but I have some trouble creating masculine cards. So I 'CASED' a card created by Gina K herself! This is a 5x7 card.

I used the moon stamp in Harvest of Happiness and the largest part of the GKD Masked Circle Stencil to create a moon using GKD Sweet Corn & Pinkfresh Studio Bay Leaf ink colors. Then using the smaller part of the circle stencil over the moon, I ink blended GKD Bubblegum Pink, Peach Bellini, Wild Lilac, Blue Denim, In The Navy, PFS Sapphire & Stargazer ink colors to create the night sky over GKD Blue Denim cardstock. I used VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink to stamp the silhouette branches twice over the moon and the silhouette background image from the GKD Friendly Silhouettes stamp set at the bottom of the card. To add the "stars", I splattered white gauche paint mixed with a little water with a paint brush over the entire card. After drying I die cut the panel and a piece of white cardstock with GKD Master Layout #8 and layered the two then adhered those onto a side folded 5x7 card base. The 'Happy Birthday' sentiment strip is from Mixed Messages Sentiment Sheet from GKD which I adhered to my card with dimensional foam tape.

I'm really trying to do a better job of making the inside of my cards as nice as the outside so I stamped a sentiment from the GKD Birthday Greetings stamp set and also stamped the same silhouette branches from the front of the card also on the inside.

Well that's all for today. I'll be back soon to share more cards that I've made recently. 

Until next time, Happy Crafting! 

Navy & Lime Birthday Card

Hello Crafters! Today's card uses just two colors - Navy & Lime Green for the Color Hues Challenge and their 2nd birthday celebration. 

I used Altenew's Vintage Lace stencil and embossing folder set. This is such a fun set to use and I have been using it a lot lately. So when I saw this navy and lime challenge I knew that I wanted to create a card with it again. 

After embossing my Gina K Designs Ivory cardstock with the embossing folder, I used the stencils to add color to the embossed flower with only two ink colors - Gina K's Blue Denim and Key Lime. I started inking with a very light hand and as I changed stencils I put more and more ink color on my blending brush to achieve a gradient of color from light to dark with both the Blue Denim and Key Lime inks. 

I cut the embossed and stenciled cardstock to 5 1/2" x 3 3/4" then adhered it to a slightly wider piece of Key Lime cardstock. These layers were adhered to a piece of Blue Denim cardstock and then to an A2 card base.  Since Color Hues is celebrating their birthday I added a 'Birthday' die cut to the front of the card. I cut the Gina K word die three times and glued them together to create some dimension and adhered that to the shadow that I die cut out in vellum. I stamped the word 'Blessings' from a brand new Gina K stamp set called Doodled Autumn in Blue Denim ink onto a strip of Key Lime cardstock and glued it right under the birthday die cut. 

I added a few Soft Ivory pearls from Little Things/Lucy's Card to the front of my card. 

I had fun working on this card for the challenge. I will also be linking my card to the Color Hues sister challenge, Seize the Birthday.

Thank you for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Time To Coast Masculine Birthday Card

Hello Crafters! I made this card for my nephews birthday. It was out of my comfort zone - I rarely make masculine cards!

I am also entering this card on the Seize the Birthday Challenge - #221 By the Sea! 

So here is my masculine birthday card!

I don't make too many masculine cards so when I need them I struggle with creating them. But I recently bought a new stamp set from Gina K Designs called Time to Coast and it is perfect for so many occasions including masculine cards.

This card is for my "little" nephew. Not really! Even though I am his Aunt, I am younger — by six months! So we grew up almost like brother & sister. 

I stamped the sailboat on a piece of white cardstock that is 5.5" x 4.25". I like to start with my cardstock a little bit bigger than I need because I will be die cutting it down later. I also stamped another sailboat onto a piece of GKD masking magic masking paper that I fussy cut out. I carefully placed my masking paper sailboat over the stamped one on the cardstock. With the masked boat in place, I take a piece of scratch paper and place the straight edge on the cardstock where the 'horizon' would be and hold it in place. Using my blending brush I ink the bottom half with GKD Sea Glass, Blue Lagoon and Tranquil Teal. After I was satisfied with my 'water' I replaced the scratch paper to the bottom and lined up the straight edge with the top of the blue 'water' to start working on the sky.

I used the Cloud Edger Stencil from A Colorful Life Designs and GKD Ocean Mist to create billowing clouds. I then used the Sunshine Stencil from GKD and Lemon Drop ink to create the sun and sun rays. After the sky and water are finished I carefully peel the sailboat mask off. Now it doesn't have any of the inks on it and I can color it in with another coloring medium.

I used GKD Master Layout #1 to die cut the panel out and a piece of Tranquil Teal. I stamped the sentiment onto the bottom of the front panel but made a little mistake. Instead of starting all over, I re-stamped part of the sentiment onto a piece of Tranquil Teal Cardstock and die cut it out with a banner from GKD Master Layout #3 and adhered it over the 'mistake'! I stamped a few birds in black ink in the sky and used a Sakura white Gelly Roll pen to draw in some whitecaps into the blue water. I asked my nephew what his favorite colors are and that's what I choose to color the sailboat. I used my Prismacolor Pencils and Gamsol. 

Now that the coloring and inking are done, I adhered the layers together and put them onto a Kraft top folding card base. 

I even continued the theme to the inside of the card and on the outside of the envelope (which I forgot to photograph). This stamp is also from the Time to Coast stamp set.

Hop on over to the Seize the Birthday Challenge and have a little fun with their challenges!

I hope that he enjoys it and you do as well! Thank you for visiting and until next time,

Happy Crafting! 

Happy Birthday Slimline Card

Hello Crafters! I have another card to share with you today (yes, I am on a crafting roll)! My little blog hasn't seen this much activity in a long time but crafting is my outlet and personal therapy. 

Today I have a slimline birthday card that I made for the Seize the Birthday blog. Slimline cards are not new but they have made a very popular comeback recently and I love making them. Since they came back on the scene in the last couple of years many companies have released slimline dies. I bought one set in 2020 but ONLY one since I figured that I could always cut a rectangle with my paper trimmer. Hahaha, THAT didn't last long! I now have several slimline die sets! Slimline cards are usually 9"x4" or 8.5"x3.5". I have only made the latter size since it uses a little less cardstock. Slimline cards will fit into a regular sized business envelope (a #9 or a #10) without any extra postage. 

For this card I used one of my new favorite companies, Pinkfresh Studio. They have the most amazing layering stencils! They make me feel like a 'real' artist after I finish. This stencil set is called Heartfelt Thanks and I stenciled it with Pinkfresh Studio inks in three different shades of pink, two shades of green and a yellow. After I stenciled the design I fussy cut it out on the right side only and popped it up with pop dots it over another panel that I stenciled with the Pinkfresh stencil called Horizontal Stripes. I then layered them over a panel that I die cut with a Catherine Pooler die called Post This (thanks Sue 😊).

For the sentiment, I inked a piece of white cardstock with the darkest pink that I used in my stenciling and die cut the word 'Birthday' from Gina K Designs from it. If you ever need a certain color of cardstock to die cut but don't have it just use your inks! I also die cut the word out of white cardstock four more times and adhered them all on top of each other to create a very dimensional die cut. I then die cut the shadow out of vellum. I stamped the phrase "wishing you a happy" from Gina K Designs Lace Flowers stamp set in the same pink color and die cut it out with the banner die from GKD Master Layout #3 die set.

After putting the card together I added pink jewels from Queen & Co. 

If you get a chance check out the Seize the Birthday blog! I am adding this card there for their card challenge using stripes in a birthday card. 

Thank you for visiting! I will be posting another card again very soon. 

So until next time, Happy Crafting!

Cityscape Birthday Card

Hello crafty friends! It's been a few months since I last posted anything. There was Christmas, a Christmas card exchange (I made 30 cards for that plus even more for family and friends!), getting both vaccines (YEA!), and then 'Snowmageddon' here in North Texas 😖 and we had to find warm accommodations since our home had no electricity and no heat for several days! But now I'm back in my craft room and crafting away!

These City Landscape dies from Impression Obsession has been in my stash for quite some time and I decided that it was time to use it! It reminds me of the year that I lived in NYC. For this card I needed something a little more masculine so I kept the colors muted and I also wanted to create a slimline card. These are so much fun to make and they have a lot more 'real estate' than the smaller A2 cards! I used Tim Holtz Distress Inks for the background and used the Tim Holtz Distress Sprayer to spritz some water droplets on it. The die was cut a few times in each color to stretch it out across the bottom of the card. I added strip sentiments from Simon Says Stamp (so quick and easy) and two enamel dots at the bottom. There are also Clear Droplets from Kat Scrappiness scattered through the sky.

I am entering this card in the following challenge: 

ModSquad Challenge - Fairytale Castle: The challenge is to incorporate a building or some type of architecture. 

Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!