Number 100!

It's hard to believe this is my 100th blog post. Some days it seems like I've been doing this for ages and should have passed that landmark long ago. Other days it's hard to believe I made it this far.

At any rate, I wanted to do something special for my 100th post. Something focused on the number one hundred. Maybe make a card with one hundred of something: Brads? Stamps? Rhinestones? Unfortunately I couldn't come up with anything that would realistically work. So instead I decided to use one of my new stamp sets to make a couple of "unexpected" cards.

When the 2011 - 2012 Stampin' Up!^® catalog was released last summer, I fell in love with the stamp set Everybunny. I didn't buy it right away, though, because it's an Easter-themed set, and I don't make too many Easter cards. Yet it seemed as if every time I looked through the catalog I stopped to look at that set. Finally I gave in and decided to just go for it. But I was determined to find a few non-Easter uses for the cute bunnies and chicks in this set.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Everybunny, Crazy for Cupcakes, Birthday Wishes
Card stock: Textured Bashful Blue, Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz
Ink: Bashful Blue pad; markers: Early Espresso, River Rock, Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz
Accessories: 1/8" Old Olive taffeta ribbon, Build a Cupcake punch, corner rounder, Dimensionals, paper snips

In the Everybunny stamp set, this little bunny is carrying an Easter basket in her right hand (or, I suppose, her right paw). To eliminate that part of the image, I used my Early Espresso marker to apply ink directly on the rubber of the stamp, being sure to not color the basket part of the image. Then I stamped the image, colored it and cut it out. To give the bunny something else to hold, I stamped, colored and cut out a balloon from the Crazy for Cupcakes set. I adhered the balloon and bunny to the card with Dimensionals.

For the rest of the scene, I used the Build a Cupcake punch to create a few clouds and my paper snips to trim some blades of grass. A bit of ribbon and a greeting finish off this sweet card, perfect for a little girl's birthday (and I have a few of those coming up in the spring!).

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Everybunny
Card stock: Early Espresso, Whisper White, textured Crushed Curry
Ink: Early Espresso, Peach Parfait and Daffodil Delight markers
Accessories: Crushed Curry polka dot grosgrain ribbon, extra-large oval punch, Decorative Label punch, Sunshiny Yellow Fun Flock (Stampendous!), Stripes embossing folder, 5/16" Neutrals brads, Signo white gel pen, Tombow multi-purpose liquid glue, Dimensionals

This hatching chick seemed like a perfect image for a baby card. In the stamp set, there are a few polka dots on the eggshell part of the image, as if it were an Easter Egg. Using the same method as above, I applied ink directly to the rubber of the stamp, omitting the polka dots on the egg. I colored the image with Peach Parfait and Daffodil Delight. Then I applied a thin layer of liquid glue over the chick's body and sprinked yellow flocking over the glue, pressing it down a bit to make sure it stayed in place. Once it was dry, I punched out the chick with an oval punch and matted it with a Crushed Curry Decorative Label punch.

For the card base, I embossed the lower portion with stripes and used a white gel pen to make faux stitching on the top. I added a piece of ribbon to separate the two sections and a brad in the lower right corner to bring some white to the bottom of the card. The greeting stamps I have didn't seem quite right, so I wrote out my own greeting on a strip of white card stock and trimmed the end to look like a pennant. I really like this fuzzy little chick, and I like the non-traditional color combo of this baby card.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing in my 100th post. I hope you found something -- either in this post or an earlier one --  to inspire you, to help you learn something new or to just make you smile.