Welcome little bird

I realized the other day that although I have quite a prolific stash of birthday cards now, I'm completely out of baby themed cards.  People around me are having too many babies for me to keep up with!  So I thought I'd make a gender neutral baby card to add into my stash.

I cut the birds and the branch both from Zooballoo.  What a fun cartridge that I don't use nearly often enough!  I added some detail to the leaves and to the bodies of the birds with gel pens.  I wanted to add a little dimension, so I strung some of my favorite kraft Trendy Twine around the nest haphazardly.  It made me think of twigs and things that the birds would make their nest out of.

I added a stamp from Jaded Blossom's Simple Sayings 2 in the top corner and three brown pearls in the other corner, and then finished the bottom off with some washi tape.  I have to start using up some washi tape so I have room to buy more!

I'm entering this card into the following challenges 
Krafty Girls- Birds of a Feather
Fantabulous Cricut- Set the Scene
Scrappy Moms Stamps- The Great Outdoors               

Penguin box

Here's a cute little penguin box I made for a few challenges.  First, I made a box using "fit to page" on my Expression.  I cut it from the Life's a Party cartridge in purple cardstock, then put some polka dotted Doodlebug Designs paper around the outside of the box.

Next, I cut the three trees from Winter Woodland at 1.75 inches.  I adhered them onto the three front panels on the box.  Next, I cut the three penguins from Zooballoo. Because of the way they are situated in the image, I had to cut at 3 inches to get them to be about 1 inch tall each.  I put their eyes and beaks on with gel pen and then put each of them with a tree.  I had a leftover snowflake in my "extra die cuts" bin from the tag I made last week, so I put that on the top as a little extra decoration.

This project will be entered into the following challenges:
Exploring Cricut- Baby It’s Cold Outside 

Die Cuttin Divas- Penguins                                                                          

Scrappy Moms Stamps- Out of the Box  

Hugs and kisses

Another elephant card!  This time the elephant is from Zooballoo.  I cut her at 3.5 inches.  I added her googly eyes, and then decided to make her a "her" and gave her red lips and some pink cheeks.  Now that I'm looking at her on the card, I notice that her trunk has a crease in it.  I guess it gives her character.  :)  I gave her a hair flower from some Dollar Tree puffy stickers.  I love these for hair flowers, because they give just a pop of depth.

Her flowers and the butterfly are cut from Sugar and Spice.  I can't remember if these are the ones cut at 2 inches or 1.5 inches.  I tried both.  I used a stripe of purple WRMK washi tape to ground the card, and then I stamped the sentiment from Everyday Expressions (Hobby Lobby stamp) in dark purple ink.  

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
DL.Art- Use a flower
Creative Cutter Room- Googly eyes

March and April birthdays!

It's that time again...birthday cards! First, a piece of housekeeping: I've decided not to continue to list my cardstock on every post. This is for a few reasons. First, I bought a pack of Recollections cardstock and it is mixed in with my Paper Studio because I sort by color. I now have no idea which is which, and I realized that's ok.  This leads to my second reason: I'm finding that cardstock is a personal choice.  Every person already knows what kind of cardstock they like, and what stores they will be going to in order to get it.  I like smooth cardstock in most cases, so I get brands that reflect that.  Others might like textured.  So nobody is likely to care which type I chose for which project, because they are going to use the kind they like best.  So, from here on out know this: unless otherwise stated, my cardstock is either from a value pack of Paper Studio or Recollections.  :)

Now, on to the fun!

Both my husband's and my father have birthdays in these two months, so I made them identical cards.  I figured it would be easier to make them the same cards each year, in order to make sure that I wasn't duplicating in future years.  For this card, I used the Birthday Bash cartridge for the candles.  Behind it is a scrap of patterned paper from my scraps.  I think it might have been Doodlebug?  Or else it is Miss Elizabeth's (the Dollar Tree brand).  I've had it for years.  Regardless, I thought this card was sufficiently masculine.  Since it was pretty busy on the front, I decided to put the sentiment inside.  I cut this from Zooballoo.  It's such a fun font!

Surprisingly, both of our mothers also have March/April birthdays.  So again, they're each getting the same card.  I've just been introduced to the wonderful world of kraft paper as a background (late to the game, I know!) and was really excited for these cards because I had just bought a value pack. 

Anyway, I used my Birthday Bash cartridge again for this card.  I just got it, and was excited to use many of the cuts.  They're so cute!  The piece of ribbon is from American Crafts, and I used my brand new Pink by Design "Scripted Year" stamps for the sentiment.  I don't know if I've mentioned yet that I love Pink by Design stamps, but I do.  I never realized how clear stamping could be until I bought Pink by Design.  Love!

Last, but certainly not least, is the birthday card for one of my sister-in-laws.  (Yes, I have many.)  She turned 19 in April.  This card uses some patterned paper from Paper Studio's The Basics stack.  The cuts are from Four Legged Friends (hamster), Create a Critter (chick) and Life is a Beach (lizard).  A little backstory: this particular sister-in-law has a long history of having had many small pets as a child that she loved but eventually escaped from her (multiple hamsters and the lizard) or turned out to be roosters and had to be given to a farm (chick).  The point of this card is that her previous pets have returned to wish her a happy birthday.  Plus, I had just gotten Four Legged Friends and that hamster is ridiculously cute!

You may notice the baker's twine (aka leash- it's part of the lizard story).  I actually made it myself, based on an awesome tutorial that I found on pinterest.  If you're interested, you can watch the original video here.  Basically, you use plain cotton thread #10 (I found mine in the yarn section at HL on sale for $2.22), wrap it around a ruler that has been covered with masking tape, and then color it in straight lines with some form of permanent marker.  I have a ton of Sharpies that I got in a pack, so with those few supplies I now have a lifetime supply of whatever color of baker's twine I want.  Word to the wise: color the lines kind of thin.  This pink was my first attempt and some of the marker did bleed together and didn't leave as much white as I wanted.  My second attempt (light green) turned out much better.

Get "Whale" Soon card

Just one card for you today!  There are quite a few birthdays coming up in March and April, so there will be awhile before the next birthday card post.

I made this card for my sister, who hasn't been feeling too well lately.  I hope she likes getting cards, because I LOVE sending them to her.  She's my #1 card recipient.

This card was cut to fit in an A2 envelope.  The cardstock was from Paper Studio.  The patterned paper behind the whale is from the Cricut Celebrations paper pad.  I used the D'Vine Swirls embossing folder and my Cuttlebug to add to the waves, which were cut from the Zooballoo cartridge.  This was the first time I had used my "Cut to Length" feature on my Expression and it worked so well!  It fit the card just right.

I cut the whale from Create a Critter and used some Glossy Accents on the water coming out of his blow-hole to make it shine.  I wrote the pun "Get Whale Soon!" with black Fiskars gel pen.  I hope it brightened her day.