Beyond the kit

Cardmaking kits are a great way to create quick and easy cards. But for me one of the best parts of a kit is that after I've created all the cards, I still have the stamp set to use over and over again. In fact, one of the reasons I bought both the Everyday Occasions and Hip Hip Hooray cardmaking kits from Stampin' Up! was because I loved the different sentiments in the stamp sets. (I actually haven't assembled the Hip Hip Hooray kit yet, but I posted the cards I made with the Everyday Occasions kit on Nov. 9, 2013.) Yesterday I used the birthday stamp from each set to create a couple of cards beyond the kits.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Occasions, Gorgeous Grunge
Paper: Whisper White, So Saffron, Primrose Petals, Raspberry Ripple cardstock; champagne glimmer paper
Ink: So Saffron, Primrose Petals, Raspberry Ripple, Soft Suede
Accessories: Deco Labels Framelits dies, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch, Banner punch, corner rounder, Mono Multi liquid glue, Dimensionals

I had a lot of fun designing this card layout to mimic the focal image: I rounded the top corners of the Primrose Petals card base, trimmed 1/4" off the bottom of the card front to add a scalloped Raspberry Ripple border, and added a So Saffron banner on either side of the focal image.

The mat of champagne glimmer paper behind the focal image adds a great sparkle to this card. After I die cut the label shape from the glimmer paper, I punched a circle out of the middle. Since it's behind the focal image, you can't see the hole, and I saved that circle piece to use on another card.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Hip Hip Hooray
Paper: Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise cardstock; Designer Series Paper (DSP) Patterns Stack - Brights
Ink: Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive
Accessories: Chalk Talk Framelits dies, Real Red striped grosgrain ribbon, white baker's twine, Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware, Dimensionals

As I did with the previous card, I used markers to apply ink directly on the stamp to create the multicolored image. After I stamped the image on Whisper White cardstock, I was excited to realize that it fit perfectly in one of the tag shapes from the set of Chalk Talk Framelits dies. At the top of the tag I added a bit of striped ribbon secured with a piece of white baker's twine.

For the background of this card I used three pieces of DSP that coordinated with the colors of the stamped image. I used the polka dot print in Old Olive and Real Red, and to repeat the stripes in the tag, I used a stripe print in Tempting Turquoise. I adhered the tag to the card with Dimensionals and added a silver brad with a star in the lower right corner.

I think these cards turned out really cute, if I do say so myself. Thanks for stopping by!