Paper Pieced Birthday Cards

Hi Everyone!



I spent the day cooking, baking, and creating cards. I was in the mood to do some paper piecing and decided to make some birthday cards.


Paper piecing is easy and fun to do. You just need a pair of small sharp scissors and some patterns. You can find a variety of free paper piecing patterns on the Scrapbooks, ETC. web site. The patterns for the cake and cupcake are from "Birthday Paper-Piecing Patterns" in the Events section and the dog pattern is from "Animals Paper-Piecing Patterns" in the Animals & Nature section.

The patterned papers I used on today's three cards are from the American Crafts awesome "Abode" collection. I ran the white tag on this card through a Cuttlebug Spots & Dots embossing folder and then used a Martha Stewart Scallop Dot edger punch to embellish one side of it. "Make a Wish" was stamped with A Country Welcome wooden stamp. Before I adhered the assembled cake to the layering paper I put dimensional tape on it so that it would "pop" off the card.

The "Happy Birthday" text on this card was created with a Heartfelt Creations wooden stamp. I ran the "muffin wrapper" through one of my paper crimpers before I assembled the cupcake.

I used Martha Stewart's Zig Zag edger punch to embellish the white tag on this card. "Have a doggone great day!" was stamped with an Inky Antics stamp. I adhered dimensional tape behind the message and the dog's face. The dog's eyes are created with small black brads and the heart nose was punched from a small heart punch.  The tag on the dog's collar is a brad. 



Have a great night!
Carol

Gift Card Holders

Hi Everyone!

Talk about going out of your mind! We didn’t have cable TV or Internet service for more than 24 hours so I couldn’t read or write e-mails, couldn’t post my blog, and couldn’t read the blogs that I follow. I contacted our provider and was told that more than 4000 people didn’t have service. Happily everything is working again.

Sometimes, when you want to give someone a gift, it’s hard to know what they may want or need so you might decide to give them a gift card to a store or to their favorite restaurant. To personalize that gift card it’s nice to create a special holder for it. Today I thought I’d share some gift card holders that I recently created.

I found the template for this holiday stocking gift card holder on the Splitcoast Stampers web site. It was created by waltzingmouse. I adapted the template just a little to transform the stocking into a sock. I trimmed the sides of the stocking’s cuff to make it look more like the cuff on a sock. I crimped some scrapbook tag and glued it onto the cuff and also used it for the sock’s heel and toe. I used paper from the dcwv "Guy Paper Stack" for this sock. If you study the template you will see where the gift card is placed. When you lift up the sock’s cuff you will see the gift card. A greeting can be stamped on the inside of the cuff. This card will fit in a 4.75" x 6.5’’ standard envelope.

When I read the Hero Arts blog on Monday, I realized that it’s been a while (last one I made was on May 7 for a friend’s birthday) since I created a gift card holder with a pocket. To make this card I cut a sheet of 8.5" x 11" white tag so that it measured 4.25’" x 11". I used my Scor-Pal and scored a line at 1.75" and at 6.25". I folded the paper at the 1.75" line and put some Scor-Pal tape on the edges to create a pocket. I folded the paper along the 6.25" line to create the card. I used one of my Martha Stewart edger punches to create a decorative edge. I stamped the heart bouquet image from a Heartfelt Creations stamp onto some dcwv sky paper. I used my Marvy Twinklette markers to color the balloons. Then I filled in the balloons with Glossy Accents to give them dimension. The "Thanks a Bunch" stamp is from Stamp of Excellence. The gift card is placed in the pocket. It can be seen when you lift up the front of the card. This card will fit in an A2 envelope.


It’s not too early to be thinking about the holidays so why not give these ideas a try and turn them into gift card holders for the holidays. Talk to you soon!
Carol