Kids' Week Continues...Minecraft-style!

Happy Hump Day!  Half-way to the weekend...you're almost there! :)

Today I have a Minecraft-themed card to show you.  I made this one a while back for a birthday party my son was invited to.  It was a real stretch for me because nobody in my house is into Minecraft...yet!

Minecraft Creeper Birthday card

Now, I know absolutely nothing about Minecraft, other than the fact that there are little critters called Creepers in it.  So, that is what I designed my card around.  I used some leftover long-retired Gumball Green card stock, along with Basic Black for my colour scheme.  The eyes were punched with the 1" square punch.  The mouth is just three offset rectangles: the middle one is 1" x 1-1/2" and the outer ones are 3/4" x 1-1/2".  To try and capture the pixellated look of the game I ran all of my pieces through the Big Shot with the Square Lattice TIEF (retired).

I made it as a Z-fold with the Creeper on the front.  There is a panel of Whisper White on the inside for a message for the birthday boy.

The sentiment is from the Grunge Rock set (also retired) and is die cut with the Project Life Cards and Labels Framelits.
I'm happy to say this one was a hit with the birthday boy...not bad, considering my extremely limited knowledge of the game!

Revving up to say Good-bye

Can you believe it is almost the end of April??  Where has the month gone?  It seems like last week we were celebrating my boy's birthday and here it is the end of the month already!  The good news for us demonstrators is that the end of April means May 1st...which means NEW GOODIES!!  You see we get to pre-order a selection of new products from the upcoming 2014-15 Annual Catalogue beginning May 1st, which means I need to make the most of these last days with my dearly departing stamps because when the new stuff arrives I'll forget all about my favourites that are leaving!  Today I have the last of the projects from my very successful card buffet last week...

Birthday card featuring the soon-to-be-retired Rev up the Fun stamp set.

I have to say I am on the fence about whether to hold on to this set.  It really is perfect for making boy-birthday cards...and as you know I have a son who gets invited to a lot of birthday parties!  I may just need to hold on to this one for a few years!

I cracked out some of the outgoing In-colours for this one, using Gumball Green and Midnight Muse as my colour pallette.  I am going to miss both of those colours!  Here's hoping they'll come back some day as part of a future colour refresh.  This one is pretty straightfoward to put together...the one piece of advice is to stamp the tire tread BEFORE you emboss the white background piece...I had a few folks at my event last week who missed that step!

On the inside I stamped the green car again and used a sentiment from the (retired) Grunge Rock set. 

Inside view with sentiment from Grunge Rock

Another Angry Birthday

My son was invited to a birthday party today for a friend of his who is almost as into Angry Birds as he is!  So, of course, I had to pull out my punches again and create yet another Angry Birds birthday card! 

Angry birds birthday card for a 4-year old with sentiment from Grunge Rock (retired)

I'm getting pretty good at making these little critters by now!  For those of you looking for instructions, I posted a list of punches I used for various characters in this post.  They really are pretty easy to put together and the Angry Birds fan in your life will love them!

A bunch of BIG cards!

That's what I've been working on all weekend.  I was asked by the social committee at school to make cards for the four members of our staff who are retiring at the end of this school year.  Two are teachers, one is a VP and the fourth is our Office Manager (who totally runs the school!).  All four are wonderful colleagues and will be deeply missed by our staff.  Now the challenge when making cards that more than 60 people have to sign is that they have to be BIG.  Big is hard when most of the products you have to work with are designed for use on a standard 4-1'4" x 5-1/2" card.  I found myself needing to get creative in my designs to that the images weren't lost in the expanse of the large card front.  The first card I did was for a man who is a rocker at heart.  He plays the guitar and is in a band.  So here is the card I designed for him...

Retirement card for a colleague featuring the Extreme Elements, Extreme Guitar, Grunge Rock and Word Play stamp sets.

Inside detail...sentiment is a one I printed in MS Word using RGB codes from MDS so the colours match perfectly!

...not exactly your typical retirement card, eh?  I think it is perfect for the recipient, though!  As I mentioned, this card is big.  It the base is a full sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" card stock folded in half.  I added additional space by making the inner white layers fold out...two 8 1/2" x 11" pieces again.  Hopefully this will be enough space for everyone to sign and wish him well.  I don't think I could have made it any bigger if I'd tried!
Stay tuned for more Plus-sized  cards later this week...

Teenage boy b-day card

I seem to be on a roll with the juvenile birthday cards this week!  I have a workshop tomorrow night and the hostess requested a card appropriate for a teenaged boy.  So I got out my Well Worn DSP and this is what I came up with:

Birthday card for a teenaged boy using Extreme Elements and Grunge Rock stamp sets along with Well Worn DSP.

These sets are sure getting a workout this week!  I do love how versatile they are...and how different they look in various colour palettes.  For this card I stuck to the earthy tones in the paper:  cajun craze, early espresso, river rock and not quite navy.  I added lots of interest and texture by roughing up the edges of both the card base and the DSP and sponged the edges of pretty much every element.  The hemp twine and little aged brass clip (from my stash, bought who-knows-when!) add the perfect finishing touches without being too fussy.  I will replace the clip with one of Stampin' Up's mini library clips when my order arrives...I just used this in the meantime!  I hope my hostess and her guests like it!  Now I've gotta run and prep for my Watercolouring 101 class tonight!

What a party...and still more to come!

Well, my nephew celebrated his birthday in fine style last night with a big (17 kids!) bash at Chuck E Cheese.  Max had a great time because his aunt and uncle kept handing him game tokens...he never ran out!  He'd still be there if we hadn't dragged him out!  Now we're gearing up for yet another birthday party tomorrow!  This is for my friend's daughter who is turning 7;  Max sure does get around!  Tomorrow's event is supposed to be a pool party, though the weather may be a wee bit cool for swimming.  I know Max's mommy isn't going anywhere near the water, which likely means Max won't be either!  In any case, I sat down this evening to make a card for Katelyn.  Since I don't have any little girls in my life, I'm not really up on what a 7 year old might like so this was a challenge!  Last year she was VERY into Hannah Montana so I kept with a "pop star" theme and came up with something I hope she'll like.  Since it is so sparkly it also works for this week's challenge over at Stampin' Royalty.  I was actually inspired by one of the guest designer's cards.  Anyhow, here is my card for a 7-year old:

Blingy Birthday card for a 7-year old girl using the Best Friends Forever and Grunge Rock sets.

Inside of card using sentiment from Delightful Dozen set.

So, whaddya think?  Do you think she'll like it?  Do me a favour...if you have a 7'ish-year-old girl around can you get her opinion for me? 

This card was a wee bit of work.  The glitter stripes were fairly easy as I used sticky strip, peeling the backing off one at a time to apply the various colours of glitter.  Kind of a cool look, but mighty messy to create...my house will be glittery for weeks...and so will I!!  My Circle Scissors Plus got a workout cutting all those circles...how I love that little contraption!  Makes layering circles SO easy!!  No need for a ton of different sizes dies!  The guitar is embossed using the new tempting turquoise embossing powder. I think my favourite thing about this card is the colour combo:  melon mambo, tempting turquoise, lucky limeade and basic black.  So bright and fun...and not entirely girlie.  Here's hoping this is a hit with the recipient...and that the party is a huge success!

A promise kept...

Last night I was just too tired to stamp anything to post.  Tonight I was too busy!  I just finished my Hostess Appreciation event and it was a blast!  My hostesses from the past year got spoiled silly and we had lots of fun, games and, of course, stamping!  Now don't click away mad...I do have a card for you!  It is the card I designed for my guest design gig over at A La Card Monkey.  The theme and sketch were a little tough, given that I am Canadian.  Have a look and see what I mean:

Interestingly, the challenge at the Pals Paper Arts this week is to use stars as a design element.  So, I don't have much in the way of patriotic American stamps, but I do have lots of red, white, and blue ink and cardstock and I have stars....so here is what I came up with:

"Patriotic" Red, White, and Blue card for Monkey62 and PPA99 using Grunge Rock and Extreme Elements stamp sets

Close up of focal image

Inside of card

I really love working with these two stamp sets.  They are so easy to layer and have fun with and, let's face it, they're cool!  I also got to use my spritzer tool on this card, which ALWAYS makes me happy!  The sentiment is from a retired Level 2 hostess set called Something to Celebrate and was just perfect for this card.  In the end, what started out as a major challenge ended up as something I really like!  Thanks so much to the ladies over at A La Card Monkey for giving me another guest designer experience...always such fun!

Rockin' Birthday card

I was excited when I saw this week's challenge at A La Card Monkey.  I loved the sketch because it is so versatile and easy to use and the theme of a kid card was perfect!  I've been wanting a reason to crack out my Grunge Rock set that I just got on sale for 30% off as part of Stampin' Up's National Scrapbooking Month promotion.  I decided to do a birthday card for a tween boy...but first, here's the sketch:

I wanted something bright and colourful and fun...here is what I came up with:

Card for Monkey Challenge #56 using Extreme Elements, Grunge Rock and Extreme Guitar sets

Close up of focal image...believe it or not, this is the first time I've used my Extreme Elements set!  I loved, bought it and haven't inked it up till now!  I know...shame on me!

Inside of card

Fun, eh?  I had a great time with this card!  You know when something just comes together exactly the way you picture it in your head?  That's what happened with this.  So here is what I did...

I started by cutting a 3" circle in whisper white cardstock  and a 3 1/4" circle in real red using my Circle Scissors Plus (yet another item that  has sat unloved for AGES!).  I then inked the splatter image from the Extreme Elements set in baja breeze and then sponged real red around the outer edges  before stamping it on my white circle.  I then stamped the stars in pumpkin pie, the diamonds in pear pizzazz and the guitar player in chocolate chip.  I distressed the edges and then sponged then with chocolate chip ink.  I layered it over the real red circle, which I had also  distressed using the tool from my cutter kit.  Setting this aside, I cut a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of the psychedelic chevron pattern from the Greenhouse Gala DSP pack.  I distressed and sponged the edges again in chocolate chip.  I then took a 2 1/4" piece of baja breeze cardstock, ran it through my Big Shot with the harlequin texture plate and then distress and sponged the edges.  I also lightly sponged the embossing to bring out the pattern.  I adhered the baja breeze piece to the DSP and then adhered the whole thing to a real red mat  4 1/8" x 5 3/8" in size.  Wanting to use the ribbon element in the sketch but not wanting anything froo-froo, I wrapped some baker's twine around the cardfront several times, tying a knot slightly off-centre.  I added the trinket crown, tying it on with the twine. I then adhered the entire caardfront to base in chocolate chip. The final element on the front is the stamped crown image, which I stamped in baja breeze ink on whisper white.  I punched it out with my 1 1/4" circle punch.  I distressed and inked the edges in chocolate chip.  I layered it on a 1 3/8" circle that I had also distressed and inked.  I adhered it to the card using dimensionals.
For the inside, I cut a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of whisper white, stamped the diamond image in baja breeze, the stars in pumpkin pie (stamped off once), and the guitar in chocolate chip; all in the lower right corner.  I inked the edges in chocolate chip and adhered it inside the card.  I then cut out a strip of the chevron DSP and adhered it.  I stamped the sentiment, some stars and some diamonds on a scrap of whisper white, notched the ends and distressed and inked the edges.  I rolled the ends slightly around a pencil to make them curl and then adhered the sentiment over the chevron strip.

Now if only I had someone in my life of an age to appreciate this card!  I may have to save it until my son gets a bit older!