Impossible cards: unique birthday cards!

Have you ever made or received an “impossible card“? I received one for Christmas and was reminded that I had always wanted to make one! It’s called that because upon examination, there’s no explanation as to how the card base is a single piece of card stock and yet, it is!! It took a while for me to figure out and rather than sift through way too many Pinterest pins to find a tutorial, I figured it out with the card I had received.

So here are a few cards that I’ve made since, all of them for birthdays: 

Here’s the first one that I made for a special friend’s birthday:

Here’s a closeup that shows the fireworks (from the Light The Sky stamp set) that have been heat embossed in rich gold and the numbers were die cut from the Birthday Celebration dies.

I left the back blank so that I could write a personalized message: 

And here’s proof that the card does fit into an A2 envelope:

Here’s the second impossible card I created. I used the the stamp from Hey Birthday Chick

And the third card:

And yet another epic birthday card: this one using the Symbols of Fortune DSP:

I have one more to share but…I’m suddenly having issues accessing my photos. So the last card (for now) to share using this design will have to wait. Until then….

 

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!

Cocktails card for a 21st birthday

I had a special order of a card for a 21st birthday…the celebration was going to include *responsible* drinking with a chauffeured limousine. (I was quite relieved to hear that of course!) With black and pink as the fave colors, I knew that I wanted to use the “Nothing’s Better Than” stamp set and the corresponding “Love You More Than” dies. I love the silly but oh so much fun drink umbrellas,  so of course I had to use the stamp of the cocktail glass with them…And here’s the final product:

I double cut the word “Cocktails” in black then mounted the pink on top to create a shadowed effect. And for the background, I simply stamped the same cocktail glass randomly everywhere on the background.

And I LOVED how the sentiments in this set worked so well with the theme….being awesome and celebrating a birthday! Here’s the inside: 

And the last detail was to stamp the envelope:

Since this would be hand delivered, I didn’t have to worry about the stamped image on the front of the envelope being problematic with the post office, but I think it would have been fine anyhow.

Thanks for stopping by & (as the card said)…have an awesome day !

Notes of Kindness Kit Alternates

I’ve been trying to use up items in my stash….and came across this neat kit from years back called Notes of Kindness. The kit made thank you cards and came with an exclusive stamp set. But I decided to make birthday cards instead. The kit made note sized cards 3.5”x5” but AFTER making them, I decided to revamp them into standard A2 cards. So I mostly trimmed and added a backing and some embellishments and turned them into these:

The top left card is mounted on an embossed Basic White panel (Textured Textile) and card base. The sentiment panel is mounted on dimensionals and is from the Beautiful Friendship stamp set (retired). A few pearls and a bow completes the card. Here’s a closeup of it:

The top right card has a card base in Blackberry Bliss with a panel in Bubble Bath and embossed with the Distressed Tile embossing folder. I added a velum lace panel and applied some Blackberry Bliss ink using a sponge dauber. I really like the way this one turned out:

And last but not least, the third card was created using a card base in Bubble Bath, adding a Blackberry Bliss panel, a velum lace square (non colored) and everything adhered to the card base on an angle: 

I doubt there are many of these kits floating around still unused, but if you do have one, it’s a wonderful kit so …start creating! And I hope these alternate designs inspire you to adapt the kit to make A2 sized cards instead. 

Magical Meadow Birthday Circle Easel Card

There’s a *beautiful* Designer Series Paper pack called Winter Meadow with six different beautiful prints with soft watercolor foliage! There is a corresponding stamp and die set called Magical Meadow too. Don't laugh.....but I tried to resist buying it for the longest time! And then I caved in (of course) as Pinterest kept showing me all the gorgeous cards made with the paper pack alone, and even more designs with the corresponding stamp set. 

Most recently, Pinterest presented several renditions of easel cards using this set and the Deckled Circles dies. So I decided to make a special birthday card using it. 

For the card base, I laid the largest circle die that would fit in an A2 envelope (approximately 4") on a folded piece of Lost Lagoon but moved the die so that the top part of the circle on the fold would not get cut off but both pieces would remain attached by a half inch or so. I then folded just the top layer of the circle in half so that the bottom of the circle reached the top of the fold where the circles attached and then reversed the fold so that it would fold under instead of over. Then I opened the card again to lay flat.

Next I cut another circle of the same size also out of Lost Lagoon and glued it only to the lower half circle I had just folded on the card base. 

Then came the layers of Berry Burst then the DSP, in incrementally smaller sizes of the Deckled Circles.

The card front was stamped with "Winter Wishes", which is a sentiment in the corresponding stamp set. 

Inside, I used the sentiment from the "Friendly Hello" set and popped it up using foam dimensionals to be the "stopper" for the easel card. Here's the card opened like an easel:

I also made a second card at the same time, but sent it off without photographing the finished product. I stamped the greeting on a label and added it to the center of the card front, embellishing the front with some greenery cut from vellum so as to not block the pretty DSP print. 

Hoping you love this card as much as I do! I still have DSP left to make more...LOL

Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful day!

Card Class August 2023

Today I'm sharing today three cards that were made in my card class last month. It was the first class for most of the attendees and I think everyone had a fun time! And though I haven't posted the class projects before, I've been offering card making classes since June of 2022. 

The first card involved a quick lesson in stamping, gluing, dry embossing using an embossing folder and my Stampin'UP! Cut & Emboss machine and punching. It featured the beautiful Designer Series Paper (DSP) called Awash in Beauty on a Balmy Blue card base. For a subtle effect, a small panel of Balmy Blue was embossed using the Pretty Flowers embossing folder and added to the front  The greeting was stamped and punch with the Double Oval punch and branches were punched using the Bough punch:

The second card is a favorite split angle design and featured the gorgeous Hues of Happiness DSP. This card introduced the concept of adding dimension to a card by using double sided foam stickers. Three flowers from the DSP pack were fussy cut and then added on top as the focal:

The last card we made was a Z-fold using the Sweet as a Peach DSP...I had to share this fun paper since it was peach season! Everyone stamped the branch & leaves, and then the peaches using clear photopolymer stamps. Some folks opted to use the flip side of the DSP (which was white dots on a peachy background) while others kept it at the same peach design for both the front panel as well as the inside panel. And I shared a tip on positioning the white inside panel exactly so as to not show when the card was closed!

While I’ve designed these cards and prepped its components, I always encourage everyone to change up the design if they want to, to make it their own! Some do, and others prefer to make it as the example. It's all good!

I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into one of my classes and that it inspires you! Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day.

Petal Park -Trio of birthday cards

Ever have one of those months when you need a surprising number of cards? That's how September has been! I discovered that I needed 8 birthday cards this month! I've been playing with the Petal Park stamp set and punch lately and while I usually avoid solid stamps, I decided to try the trio of solid flowers in the Petal Park stamp set. Here are the cards I created:

The first one, on the left is the simplest of the cards. Just one mat under the focal layer. And only the trio of flowers punched and added on top. Even the sentiment was stamped on the card front itself. I liked how it turned out so I decided to keep working on it. Here’s a close up of that first card:

Second was the card on the bottom, in Calypso Coral. Similar to the first card but I embossed the top layer using the Exposed Brick 3D Embossing Folder. Then I decided to stamp the greeting and punch it out with the Double Oval punch and added a simple twine bow:

Last is the card on the right with a split design of flowers along the top and bottom with the greeting stamped in the middle. Highland Heather and Fresh Freesia along with Coastal Cabana colors. Love that combination:

If you received one of these cards from me for your September birthday, I hope you liked the card! As always, I had fun making them. Thanks for stopping by & have a wonderful day!