Our next door neighbors have just have their first child, and they are, of course, overjoyed. I wanted to be sure to have a card and gift ready to take when they are up to a visit. I found the onesie in an envelope of die cuts I made when I borrowed Concord & 9th’s Bitty Banners from a friend. I loved the patterned paper I used, and knew I had a wooden stamp that read “A Star is Born.” The wooden stamp was too large, so I created the sentiment on the computer and die cut it with one of the dies in The Greetery’s Pretext Banners.

The inspiration for the design came from a Clean and Simple challenge where they wanted a center focus. By the time I finished, I decided the card didn’t meet the challenge requirements, but it does it does work for two other challenges which I’ll link below.  I die cut several stitched shapes and ended up with one of the the Reverse Confetti Pierced Round Top dies. The stars were cut with Ellen Hutson’s Essential Stars. I added dimension behind the Pierced Rounded die as well as behind the sentiment banner. It will be hand delivered so I don’t need to worry about putting it in the mail. I do think this is a very Clean and Simple card, but I did lose the center focus in the end.

Here’s a look at the inside of the card. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink’s Tucked In: Baby stamp set which I stamped on a Simon Says Stitched Square.

I’m sending this off to A Cut Above Challenge–almost all die cuts, once again, and also to Addicted to Stamps and More: Any Occasion.

Once again, I’m coming to The Paper Players Challenge right at the end of the challenge. I had a terrific trip over the weekend, and our group flew home from Jacksonville Sunday just ahead of the big winter storm and snow. Being away, however, always throws me a bit off course. But I knew as soon as I saw this prompt I wanted to play along. 

I’ve had The Greetery’s Sent With Love dies for well over a year, and although I have die cut and assembled many pieces of it, they’ve never made it onto a card. I knew this time exactly where I wanted to go, and I only needed to cut the liner for the open envelope. 

I die cut two panels from The Greetery’s Postal Frames as well as the postmark die. The postmark is attached to a circle on the die. Once I had the part I wanted adhered to the card, I snipped off the circle. The envelopes and pen are from Sent With Love. I added a bit of dimensional tape to the back of the white envelope.

The sentiment from The Greetery’s Tagged Elegance was stamped directly on the white panel in black. I added another tiny heart to the postmark and called it done.

In addition to The Paper Players, I’m adding this to the gallery at A Cut Above which always includes an Anything Goes Challenge, and NBUS since I finally have put the Sent With Love dies to use!

It is now a very unusual day as this is my third post. As I wrote in the previous post, I’m due at the airport tomorrow at 5:15 am, so there’s no hope of posting it tomorrow. This is a card specifically created for two challenges: The Paper Players Color Challenge, and Seize the Birthday with the topping: Something New. 

I had some money to spend at Simon Says that needed to be spent by the end of last year. I could have purchased just one Penny Black die, but I ordered three. I’m quite sure all three will get regular use: All in One Hexagon, Flower Family, and Ascending. So that’s the Something New for Seize the Birthday. The colors at The Paper Players were so bright and cheerful, I really wanted to play along. Fortunately, my to-do list didn’t take as long as I expected, so I had a bit of crafting time. I ink blended the greenery and flowers, using two shades of all three colors. 

I love the texture in the Hexagon cover plate. The frame cuts at the same time, but separately, and I die cut three and stacked them for some dimension. After tucking the greenery and flowers in the frame, I carefully added some dimensional tape behind the flowers, and glued selected leaves. The sentiment is another of Memory Box’s Black Greeting Tabs. They so often look just right. 

It’s not often that I post twice in a day, but I have a few Christmas cards I haven’t shared, and this one is perfect for the AAA Card Challenge: CAS; optional Flies in the Air.

The Greetery’s Nordic Bird was a must-have in November when Betsy released the new products for Christmas. I combined it with The Greetery’s Nordic Frames, a long time favorite and some sprigs from The Greetery’s Botani-cut: Juniper.

The card base and frame were cut from Bazzi’s Orange Peel cardstock. I found a stack of it recently, and remembered how much I liked the texture. The bird is die cut from metallic silver with a gold metallic wing which you can see better in the closer view below.

Once again, I chose one of Memory Box’s Black Greeting Tabs which are a gift to CAS designs. 

I’m off to Georgia very early tomorrow morning with a group from our church for the weekend conference, Southern Lights. Tracy has to get my friend, Cathy, and I to the airport by 5:15 tomorrow morning. It’s been awhile since I had to get up so early!

Yesterday Tracy was skiing with my granddaughters so after church I had the afternoon to craft away. I needed three masculine card for birthdays at the end of this month. I made two of the first card, and then a separate one since I didn’t want to send the same card to my brother-in-law and his son-in-law. Not that they see one another’s cards, but it also gave me a chance to make a card for the Color Throwdown Challenge. 

The first card started from the bottom up—I had pinned a card with these colors a long time ago. It’s a technique I don’t think I’ve ever tried. I die cut the dark gray panel and added it to a dark brown card base. Then I pulled out Pinkfresh Studio’s Nested Hexagons Blanket Stitch and die cut two. That proved to be the perfect place for a sentiment.

I embossed a gold sentiment from an old Papertrey Ink set: Scene It Celebration. Three gold 3-D stars finished it off. I like this design, and think I’ll use it again for masculine cards.

The second card is another CAS design. The Color Throwdown Challenge is to use black, white, and gray. I layered the black panel onto a gray card, and added a strip of patterned paper from My Favorite Things Black and White Basics paper pad.

The sentiment is white embossed and die cut with the Altenew One-Go Birthday Greetings.

Both cards are off to The Just Us Girls Challenge where the call is for masculine cards. And the second one is off to The Color Throwdown Challenge which ends this evening.

Time got away from me again, and I needed a birthday card for a two-year old quickly. Luckily, I had the Jane’s Doodle stamp set, Greetings.  The little boy is fond of cars, and I’m guessing he’ll be happy with all the animals piled in on their way to his party.

It has been awhile since I did any coloring with Copics, but it was a great thing to do while I watched the Cotton Bowl. I’m a big Ohio State fan, stemming back to my childhood when we were lucky enough to attend games there on a regular basis. I was happy to finish the card, and equally happy that my team won the game. 

Once the coloring was done, I die cut the panel with Simon Says Stitched Rectangles as well as a mat in bright blue. Adding them to a bright orange card base made for a colorful card. I’m not sure any two year old will spend much time with any of his cards, but it might hold his attention for a minute or two. 

The sentiment is from MFT Bitty Birthday Blessings. After stamping it on orange cardstock, I die cut it with the MFT Itty Bitty Strips die. 

I’m sending this off to the Seize the Birthday Challenge. The optional challenge is Somthing New. I hope to be back again using something new, but this time it will be Anything Goes! It’s also off to Addicted to Stamps and More where Birthdays is the current call and my last entry to Double D’s Birthday or Anniversary Challenge (It’s their 9th! birthday.)