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

Happy Friday!

Good Morning Everyone!

I often purchase stamps that have specific messages such as "Happy Birthday", "Congratulations" or "Get Well", but the stamps I want to share with you today are just for fun. I’ve learned that humor works as well in cards as it does in life. We smile, we laugh, sometimes we nod our heads in agreement when we read a humorous card or one that "plays with words".

I order many of my stamps from http://www.addictedtorubberstamps.com/ which is one of my favorite sources for stamps. I think their search engine is fantastic. Sometimes I get an idea for a card and think I’d like a stamp for it so I search on their web site and more often than not I find exactly what I wanted. They ship quickly and protect the stamps by placing them on corrugated cardboard and shrink wrapping them. The stamps arrive with a couple of pieces of hard candy and a sample sheet of scrapbook paper. If you are a member of their "Red Carpet Club" your order gets priority shipping and arrives with a surprise in it. Sometimes the surprise is a stamp or some ink. I ordered all of the stamps that I am writing about in today’s blog through addictedtorubberstamps.

First up, "I like you better than flies!" This stamp is manufactured by Penny Black and is called "better than flies!" "Inky the Frog" is manufactured by Inkadinkado. I didn’t have any "flies" handy, so I substituted some dragonfly gems from Favorite Findings. I figured the frogs wouldn’t mind. I used my Twinkling H20s to paint my frogs

Next up, "Life’s a beach" from A Country Welcome stamps. I’ve had that stamp for a while, but hadn’t used it recently. I picked up some Jolee’s "Beach Bikini" dimensional stickers in the clearance section of Michaels the other day, and thought they’d work well with my stamp. I threaded the clothesline onto the "pebbles" paper before I attached it to the card. The clothespins are just strips of adhesive labels. I know that there are mini clothespins, but decided that the other embellishments added enough dimension to the card.

Now that I am creating more and more cards when I am stamping an image, I stamp extras, emboss them, and set them aside so I can "grab" one when I need it. I have extra images of "Life’s a Beach" so I decided to use one for the next card.

My July/August 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine arrived in the mail the other day. I love the sandcastle idea that is shown on pages 27 and 28 of that issue. You can print out the template for free on the Creating Keepsakes website. The sandcastle is created from sandpaper. I’ve used sandpaper on other cards so I store some sheets of it with my scrapbook paper. The different grades of paper have different shades and textures. You can pick up packages of sandpaper at the dollar stores. There will be several grades of paper in each package. To create the sand on the beach just tear strips of sandpaper. Don’t try to tear it straight...just tear it!

I used Cloud9Design rub ons on my card. I was amazed that they stuck so easily to the sandpaper. I backed some scraps of red and blue paper with Scor-Pal tape and then cut out the flags for the castle. The backing for the tape peeled off easily and then I attached the flags to the card.
And that’s it for today! Have a great day!
Carol