There is so much going on in Lake Charles, La. this month. Not only is it the month of Mardi Gras, Valentines, and who can forget President's Day...I have quite a few Pisces friends with birthdays in February. This is the first of hopefully many musings about the cards I create. Not only do I make custom birthday cards, but also anniversary, sympathy, just because, baby, wedding..you name it, I can do it.
The stamp sets used in this card are Inked & Tiled and Sending Smiles. How did I choose these two to go with? How do I choose anything...mostly feeling. I wanted something that fit the friend that I was making the card for. I also liked the corresponding die set that goes with Sending Smiles.
Now comes the playing...and really, that's what I do. I play until my design comes together. First I made my background using Wild Wheat and a mini blending brush. I saw this background in the 23-24 Annual Catalog on page 94 and decided to do something similar using Cajun Craze, Pretty Peacock, and Wild Wheat. I then tried to figure out what I wanted to be the main color of the card. I tried all the colors I used in the background...and they didn't really do the trick. Next thing I know, a piece of Garden Green cardstock jumps off the shelf and pretty much into my lap. So I took the sign and used Garden Green with a ripped piece of Basic White underneath my background.
The thing with playing, is that not everything works out. I initially embossed 'Sending' on white cardstock and then used a blending brush to give the background color. I didn't like this at all. So I took my mini blending brush to some white Shimmer Paper with the Wild Wheat ink. Using both dies I cut the surrounding 'Sending' out of the now yellow shimmer paper and I used Early Espresso cardstock for the super thin inside writing. Finally I stamped "SMILES ACROSS THE MILES" with Early Espresso and used the thin die from Sending Dies pack to cut out the sentiment. Because I offset the sentiment over the background and the base card, I used two mini dimensionals on one side of the sentiment and one on the other side so that it would be even.
I decided to do the interior similar to the exterior in that I used Wild Wheat and a blending brush to color the white cardstock. I then used Cajun Craze with the flower stamp in the Inked & Tiled stamp set. I used the 'Happy Birthday' stamp and stamped directly on the Wild Wheat inked paper with the Pretty Peacock. Again, I didn't like this. I saw another die on my magnetic bar that worked perfectly for the Happy Birthday stamp. This die is from a retired set, but the following die sets have dies that would work just as well: Labels Aglow, Natural Prints, Scalloped Contours, Something Fancy.
I now deemed this card done so I stamped the ©STAMPIN' UP! followed by my hanko and HANDCRAFTED above that on the back of the card. For the envelope, I will use the last of the flower stamps from Inked & Tiled along with the stamen stamp to pull it altogether.
If you like this card or want me to create a custom birthday card for your Pisces friend, just contact me here and let me know what your friend is into; I'm sure I can accommodate.
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