Grumpling Birthdays

I spent part of this weekend at a friend's house crafting with some pals. We always have such a great time, and get a lot of cards made. Over the next few days I'll be sharing some of my creations.

First up, I broke out my Taylored Expressions Party Grumplings set to work on my stash of birthday cards. Here's what came out:

 I started out following the Happy Little Stampers January sketch:

but I ended up moving the critter over to the left so his tail hung over the sentiment(s), and then I needed to balance that with a tiny flag at the top. But my card is still in the spirit of the sketch.

I made two of that version of the card and two more with another image:

One critter shifted left and one shifted right. I just couldn't bring myself to center the little guys.

And yes, that's a (gah) pink layer. We voted, and pink really was the best color for me to use here. Naturally I needed to borrow* a piece of (gah) pink card stock, since you know I didn't bring any with me.

That's four more birthday cards added to my stash. Let's see if I can keep this up for more than a week. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

* Have you ever borrowed a tissue? Really? Did you give it back when you were finished with it? No, I suspect you didn't. Same here: I didn't actually borrow that piece of card stock, rather I took it, or was given it, or was allowed to use it. I didn't give it back.

Stuff I used: piece of mystery pink 12x12 card stock, and the following:

InLinkz.com

Happy Birthday And Stuff

The other day I spied my Stampendous Aged Aqua embossing powder, and I started playing around with it, hoping to end up with something passable. This is what came out:

I embossed two strips of card stock, one with the Stampendous Aged Aqua powder and one with plain gold powder, then trimmed them into banners. The top edge looked dumb, so I poked holes across the banners and sewed them with gold thread that made me remember why I don't like sewing with gold thread. At least it wasn't a lot of sewing.

For the sentiment, I stamped one of the birthday sayings from my Taylored Expressions Big Bold Birthday set in Versamark and embossed it with gold. I die-cut it into a circle, and also cut another circle the same size that I embossed with gold. I just offset the gold circle a bit for contrast.

The handsome sequins cover a mystery I-don't-even-know-what on the card front.

I added some gold & silver star washi tape down the sides before mounting the central panel on foam tape.

This card is very shiny, even though I can't seem to capture that easily with my crack photography skills. See:

and:

So much gold, and so much shiny. I'm going to need to play with the Aged Aqua embossing powder some more to see what else I can make with it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stuff I used: SU gold embossing powder, Little B Gold & Silver stars washi tape, misc sequins, gold thread, and the following:

InLinkz.com

From The Ashes

Happy New Year, everyone! Today I ventured into the craft room and came out with three cards. Yep: three! All of them were made from parts-is-parts, from both the UFO pile and the pile of card stock next to my trimmer. The only new things used were the dies that jumped into my cart at Frantic Stamper, and the white card bases.

Here's one of the cards, then I'll explain:

The die is new, and I cut it three times from a remnant of black card stock next to my trimmer.  The background is from the UFO pile, and the red layer was a piece torn off a failed card and sitting on my desk. 

I stuck the three layers of sentiment together, then stuck them to the UFO panel. They looked weird all lined up, so I made them not-lined-up, even slopping over the edge. After I put it all onto a white base, I covered the letters with clear Wink of Stella:

Next up, a different die and a different UFO remnant:

Oh, look, the H is crooked.

For the heart-shaped O in Love, I cut a pink heart from another UFO, set it into the black opening, and filled it with Glossy Accents. I also covered the text with Wink of Stella:

See? Same thing, just different parts.

When I cut that pink heart from the second UFO, I thought I'd cut the whole thing again from the UFO, and that gave me the third card:

Oh, look, the H is crooked, again.

The die fit in this spot on the UFO, and it was a total surprise color-wise when I looked at it. I decided to put it onto an orange panel, but the bottom half blended too well, so I cut a white circle for contrast.  I first put the whole die-cut in the circle, but I liked the die-cut more centered, so I got some slop-over.

I cut an orange heart out of a remnant of the orange panel and put it into the heart-shaped O in Love like I did with the other card. I colored the heart with clear Wink of Stella and filled the opening with Glossy Accents. I did not cover the rest of this die-cut with Wink of Stella:

So don't throw away your failed experiments! Eventually you could use them like I've done here to make fun cards.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stuff I used: Frantic Stamper Live, Love, Laugh die, Frantic Stamper Happy Birthday Script die, Wink of Stella clear brush, Glossy Accents, and lots and lots of UFOs and remnants.