Under the sea slider birthday card

A special young lady turned 6 a few days ago. And she's totally into axolotls right now.  So I created this card for her with a slider mechanism so that the axolotl can explore its world. The base of the card is created using the Seabed 3D Embossing Folder and I used watercolor pencils to add color and dimension:

And here the axolotl is gliding down and to the left:

and close to the left edge of the card:

The axolotl can also twirl and do somersaults as it moves through the undersea world...but I didn't think to photograph that! (I'm sure the recipient will have it "dance" around!)

and last but not least, a glimpse of the inside of the card. The images are from the retired Whale Done stamp set. Oh and the axolotl was copied from the listing that I bought as a gift.

Thanks for stopping by....have a wonderful day. I hope you slip in a moment to do something creative!

Floral & Gingham Vellum cheery Happy Birthday card

I typically don’t work with vellum too often. Like many folks, I find it somewhat daunting to use in that vellum isn’t porous (like paper or card stock is) and adhesive usually  is visible through it. Plus writing also shows through it. So, there are  many issues related to using vellum to consider in your card design. But I loved the new Floral and Gingham Vellum pack, and decided to overcome my hesitations!

So here’s the card I ended up designing:

I don't have the corresponding stamp and die set so I had to improvise and punched flowers using a long ago retired flower punch using Daffodil Delight and Lemon Lolly card stock colors. 

The embossing folder used for the Balmy Blue strips is the Distressed Tile embossing folder. I've used this folder many a times and have loved the look each time. And the Hexagon Punch was used for the sentiment. I didn't like the white edge of the sentiment label on the vellum so I punched an "edge" of hexagon punch and adhered it behind it. This added a border "mat" and at the same time, a touch of dimension!

Normally when you write in a card with the vellum on the top, you can see through it and see the personal words written in it. So I added another card layer, 10.5x4" and scored in half, and adhered that to the inside of the card base. This allowed for a layer of card stock that would hide any hand written words. 

and rather than do my usual of adding a scrap strip of the DSP on the inside of the card I decided to STAMP the borrow border. I used a stamp from the January 2021 Paper Pumpkin Kit called Sending Hearts. It had an adorable combo of 6 mini flowers and hearts. Stamping it repeatedly created the perfect border! And to reduce any confusion, I also stamped on the "cover" of this inside flap:

And to show the border off, I cut off about 1" off the top of the inner panel. Well I think I covered it all. Hope you enjoyed this card! And remember to have an awesome day!

Splendid Day Celebration Card in Fresh Freesia

The Splendid Day Specialty Designer Series Paper pack is so elegant with its pastel colors in foil and white! Though I loved the set from the moment I set eyes on it, I wasn't able to use it until recently. Part of the "too nice to use" mental block...I wanted to do it justice and so...I had difficulty starting to use it. So two years or so after it retired, I finally got the courage to...And I loved the way it turned out!!

I used two Deckled Rectangles dies in Fresh Freesia and Basic White. For the ink, I used the retired Mint Macaron and for accents, I used the negative "leaf" pieces that I normally would have discarded. Love the look of them. I added a small white leafy die cut in front to tie all the "white" elements on the background foil, and the white focal panel together and added a few jewels.

If you have this set and haven't used it yet or played with it in a while, bring it out and make something beautiful with it!