Avant Garde Inspired Birthday Card!!

   First, I want to apologize for being MIA lately. :) Been kinda busy lately. Last week was my sister Angie's Birthday (over at My Paper Productions). I wanted to make something special for her, and this is what I came up with. This is honestly one of my absolute favorite cards that I have ever made! I'm super happy with how it turned out.

I saw this Honeysuckle colored rose ribbon, and immediately knew I wanted to use it on her card. I saw the ribbon up against the vintage olive green and white striped paper, and knew it was a match! I  cut the slanted edge on the top of the card with the Friskars slicer. I cut the chandelier from the Summer in Paris cart, using a gold glitter K&Co. paper. I used an old gold chain from some costume jewelry that I was planning on getting rid of, to make it seem as though the chandelier was hanging.

I cut a corner of the Honeysuckle paper and used an Inkadinkado "Happy Birthday!" clear stamp, mounted it onto a piece of the glitter paper, and used two olive green adhesive gemstones on either side of the sentiment.

  

On the inside of the card, I typed and printed from my computer the sentiment which says, "Every year, you continue to make each of our lives brighter! I am and always will be ever so thankful for you! Happy Birthday!"

At the bottom of the page I decided to mimic the cut of the card with angled pieces of paper, to reinforce the design of the front, and once again I used the gold chain.

By no means am I trying to "talk myself up", but I am in love with this card!!!

Topsy-Turvy Birthday Cake

This bright and cheerful birthday card was simple to create. Nothing was cut using the Cricut. Lets start with the cake. I cut the cake out by hand. I cut 3 large rectangles, and trimmed the edges at an angle. I used a small corner punch for the corners of the cake to imitate a real Topsy-Turvy cake. 

 

The polka dots on the cake were punched out using a Friskars border punch. The candles on top of the cake were also created using the Birthday Candle Friskars border punch. I used Stickles on the polka dots and candles, and then pop-dotted the cake on the card.

I used a large round corner punch for the card and the sentiment. The sentiment came from a Friskars stamp pack, and says "It's Your Birthday!". 

On the inside of the card, I used a scrap of paper I had used to make the cake on the front that already had the border punches punched out of it. I rounded the edges, and used the Studio G stamp that says, "Have your cake and eat it too!"  I used a strip of the colorful striped paper to "tie it all together". 

Overall, I think it turned out to be a cute little card. I also want to share with each of you my cool new stamp my sister Angie won and decided to give to me because she already has one. I'm so lucky!! Every month, Sweet Papery has a stamp giveaway on their Facebook page. You should definitely check it out because they do some great work! 

The stamp says "Made By Ash Dziak" and obtains the URL to my blog. Since it was a giveaway, I was unable to choose the design, but I'm very happy with the stamp and it's size.

New Baby Boy!! Congrats!!!

This card is pretty simple because I had to whip it up last minute just today. I knew I really wanted to use the clothes line from the Strait from the Nest cart. I used a piece of brown rope as the clothes line. The sentiment is a stamp and the corners were pre-cut corners from a stack of Best Occasions papers.

On the inside, I typed "Congratulations on the birth of your new baby boy! We firmly believe that this is just the beginning of a wonderful and promising life!"

Overall, I wish I could have done a little more with the card, but the time constraint limited me... I should have added a bird or two on the front or glue cotton balls on the clouds, but it's cute and the new mom was impressed. LOL Have a great day, all!!!

Happy Birthday, Tiny Dancer!!!

Sorry that it seems as though I have been M.I.A. for a while. I have been working on cards for a couple of family members, whom of which follow my blog. So I can't very well go getting excited, and post them before their birthdays. LOL.

Any Who. Here is one of my latest projects, and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I began with a 5"x7" card. I decided to use the old ballerina cut that was already laying around in my misc. pile. It was cut using the Joys of the Season cart.

I really loved how the ballerina looked on this paper. In the top left-hand corner, it looks as though the sun is shining down on her. And the flowers and swirls, make it seem as though she is standing in a garden. I thought it looked very elegant.

I used some pink tulle for the skirt of the dress, and then attached silver adhesive gemstones all over the tulle. The front "Happy Birthday" sentiment is from the Inkadinkado stamp "Just Saying" stamp set. I cut the layered cartouche from the From My Kitchen cart--the pink cartouche @ 2.5" and the white at 2.75".

I used glitter glue on the white cartouche to match the glittery flowers on the paper. I pop-dotted the sentiment and used the adhesive gemstones again.

I printed the sentiment on the inside from my computer. It says "Throughout your life, I hope you always choose to dance! Happy Birthday!" I used brown ink, French Script font, and more adhesive gems.

Overall, I thought it turned out to be pretty. (:

Pocket Card

I saw a cute cupcake pocket card, and decided to make a flower pot pocket card. To create the flower pot, I began with a 9"x 3.5" card stock base, and scored it at 2" and 5.5". I then folded the score line flaps in opposite directions, other wise known as mountain valley. I border punched the lip of the flower with a Martha Stewart border punch, and used a stamp pad to "dirty-up" the edges of the flower pot.

I used the pink silk ribbon to hold the flower pot together, and just tied it in a not. The card on the inside is 4.5"x 2.5". The greenery is the only Cricut cut; cut from the Strait from the Nest cart. The leaves on the bottom of the flower pot, I cut from the top branches to thin them out a bit.

The flowers were originally white flowers from a Brides Magazine pack. I inked 4 blue and 4 pink. Once the flowers were dry I attached them with yellow brads, and used dimensionals  for the flowers.

The sentiment did not photograph very well. It came from a Kelly Panacci clear stamp pack. Once the sentiment dried, I used a butterfly stamp from a set of Scrappy Cat stamps to put over the sentiment. I really like the added touch this brought to the inside of the card.

Overall, it was a pretty simple card to make, but fun.

Thinking of You/Condolences

I find it a little difficult to create a card for a person's passing. You (the creator) don't want it to be too dark and sad, but you also don't want the card to be too bright and cheerful. This is what I designed, and I'm quite pleased with it.  

I began with a 5"x7" card, and the blue K&Co. papers. I used a brown ink pad to age the edges of every single piece of paper used for this card. I also used a recycled brown silk ribbon from a gift.

Unfortunately, I do not know which cart was used to cut the green cartouche because it was from my sister, Angie's (over at My Paper Productions) miscellaneous pile of non-used Cricut cuts, but I will be sure to check with her later. I used unmounted Friskar stamps for the sentiment and pop-dotted it. The bird brad and the solid brad, used for the cartouche are BasicGrey Glazed Brads.

I used the Strait from the Nest cartridge to cut the feathers. I pop-dotted the smaller feather, and then made a home-made coil out of wire so the larger feather would wobble around. As you can see in the picture below, I used another feather to attach the spring--sort of as a shadow, if you will, and then attached the bottom feather to the card using my ATG gun.

On the inside, I used another feather and aged everything with a brown ink pad once again. I found the sentiment online, and it says "I know for certain that we never lose the people we love, even to death.  They continue to participate in every act, thought and decision we make.  Their love leaves an indelible imprint in our memories.  We find comfort in knowing that our lives have been enriched by having shared their love."   -Leo Buscaglia. I printed the sentiment from my computer using brown ink, and then cut it down to size and mounted it.

I'm very proud of this card. It was fun to create because it was a bit challenging.