There’s a lovely new photo inspiration at The Card Concept.

In need of multiple thank you notes earlier this month, I pulled out some butterflies I had embossed and die cut earlier, and colored them with Copic markers. I added a thin strip of black cardstock to a premade card from Paper Source and added the butterfly to the center. 

Then I stamped the sentiment from Papertrey Ink’s “Never Enough Thanks” in black in. I love this font and wish I had other sentiments that used it.

This is clearly a quick Clean and Simple design—right up my alley.

It’s not often that I have a card to share for three different challenges, but tonight I do! While we’re away a good friend is celebrating an very special birthday. We’ll be missing the party, but we’ll be toasting to his big day later in our trip.

The new challenge at Seize the Birthday is “Just a Number.”  At AAA Birthday it’s “Use a Stencil,” and at Simon Says Wednesday Challenge it’s “Stamp It.” This card meets all three:

I used two Simon Says stamp sets, “Birthday Numbers” and “Party Like a Panda” and a bit of masking to stamp the number and the balloons onto watercolor paper. It’s harder to see in this photo, but after watercoloring the numbers and balloons, I used a My Favorite Things cloud stencil to add some interest to the background. It’s a bit easier to see in this photo:

Finally I die cut the panel W+9’s Gift Card Layers die and adhered it to a bright green card made from PTI’s New Leaf cardstock.

It’s a pretty whimsical card for a guy, but the recipient is one lighthearted, fun-loving guy, so I think he’ll like it.

Linking up with:

I have an unusual spare moment on our road trip, and an email reminder that there’s still time to enter a card into the current Seize the Birthday challenge for a square card. Right before we left I had to make a number of birthday cards to send while we are away. One went in the mailbox in Cannon Beach today. 

Once again the main image comes from Altenew’s Weekend Doodles. I stamped it on watercolor paper and painted it with Altenew’s 36 pan watercolors. After fussy cutting a lot of images from this set, I took advantage of a sale and bought the dies. The week before we left, however, Sarah helped me figure out how to die cut stamped and scanned images with my Cameo, so there’ll be a lot less money spent on dies after this!

I backed the wreath with a strip of ombre striped patterned paper from Papertrey Ink. stamped the sentiment (also PTI) and mounted the wreath with foam tape.

I’m linking this card to the Seize the Birthday Challenge right here.

The current challenge (with toppings) at Seize the Birthday is Butterflies. 

Papertrey Ink has several great sets with butterflies. I pulled out “Butterfly Blooms” for this card.

After coloring the butterfly with Copic markers and die cutting it, I die cut Papertrey’s “Bold Borders: Wave” from True Black cardstock. I adhered it to a white card and stamped the greeting from Gina K’s “Wreath Builder” set in the center.

There have been several Monarch butterflies in our yard recently which inspired the color choices for the butterfly. It’s a good contrast with the white and black background. 

Hope you have a great weekend ahead!

I have another card for the AAA Birthday Challenge: For the Girls.

This one is a bright pink, and one of the more simple cards I’ve created recently. I do like the vellum embossed flowers though on the pretty cardstock. I die cut the Raspberry Fizz cardstock with a Stitched Rectangle die and adhered it to a white card. Then I add the white embossed flowers.

Once again, the flowers are from the Simon Says “Delicate Flowers” set. I fussy cut them right up against the white embossing, although I do have the dies for this set now.  

The sentiment, also white embossed, is from the Papertrey Ink “Just Desserts” set.

Hope your weekend is off to a good start. We’re off to Niagara-on-the-Lake to celebrate our anniversary.

The current Color Throwdown is pink, gray, silver, and white. I’m in need of several anniversary cards, and these seemed like appropriate colors.

I started by diecutting Simon Says “Hearts Trio” in a piece of white cardstock, and then die cutting it again with “Stitched Rectangles.” I cut a piece of Sunny Studios “Silly Stripes” paper to back the hearts and added the piece to a card base made from Papertrey Ink’s Weathervane.

For the sentiment, I die cut a Weathervane banner from The Greetery’s “Sentiment Suite: Basics” and embossed the greeting in silver. To add a bit more silver, I die cut two small hearts with Simon Says “Large Holiday Shapes” from beautiful silver paper from Paper Source.

The sentiment is from an old Papertrey Ink set “Mat Stack #3.” It’s an oldie that I turn to over and over for small font sentiments. Finally I added some Rainstones for a bit of sparkle.

I’m off to link up to the challenge which ends in just a few hours!

The current challenge at CASology is “Shimmer.” It was a chance to pull out Altenew’s “Needlework Motif” in my ongoing determination to use stamps that have seen little love or have never been used. 

I also pulled out a piece of shimmery bronze cardstock for the card base. The gorgeous design was stamped in black on white cardstock and watercolored with beautiful shimmery metallic paints that I acquired many years ago during a class at a new defunct stamp store here. The paints were hand-labeled and I have no memory of who the manufacturer might have been. I used just two colors: gold and bronze.

Here’s a closer look, although the shimmer of the cardstock and paints are much more beautiful IRL.

I’ve been away from the craft room for a few days, and it’s good to be back!

The current Time Out Challenge features this quote:

My card features a bouquet of bright summery flowers—who could not be happy surrounded by such beautiful blooms? It’s also another candidate for AAA Birthday: For the Girls.

With the exception of the embossed sentiment from Papertrey Ink’s “Balloon Bash,” all the elements for this card were laying on my desk. The flowers  from Altenew’s “Adore” were colored with Copics some time ago, and the Pink Fresh Studio “Essentials: Braided Tag” was from an earlier failed card design. 

I’m a huge fan of Pink Fresh Studio’s braided die cut designs. I love the subtle color that comes through from the card itself, and there are multiple layers to each one. In this case, I used all three of the pieces for this tag. I’m also a huge fan of bright colors set against a black background, so this card makes me pretty happy.

This big bouquet of blooms is a bit of a departure from my more CAS card designs, but it seems like a perfect summer birthday card!