Banners, balloons and cake

A couple of nights ago I went through my card stash and did some updating. I had piles of new cards that I hadn't sorted into the appropriate categories in my card boxes, and I also had quite a few cards in the boxes that I decided to recycle (some were pretty dated -- five to ten years old -- and some I just didn't really care for). When all was said and done, I discovered that I have plenty of birthday and thank-you cards (thanks to the Hooray It's Your Day Project Kit and the February 2015 Paper Pumpkin Kit), but I'm short on baby, get-well, anniversary, and sympathy cards. I don't usually keep too many of those types on hand, but I like to have a few, just in case. So one of my next projects will be to stock up on those cards. But for today, I thought I'd share three of my many birthday cards.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Picture Perfect (Unity Stamp Co.), Distressed Dots
Paper: Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Old Olive, Whisper White card stock
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Old Olive
Accessories: Ovals Collection Framelits dies, Balloon Framelits dies, Banner punch, Pool Party ruffled ribbon, Mono Multi liquid glue

I like the graphic style of this birthday stamp with the different patterns in the chunky letters. It's a quick and easy way to add color, and you can stamp a pattern on the background, like I did here with Distressed Dots, to play off a pattern in the letters.

After I stamped and colored the focal image, I cut it out with an oval die then drew a faux stitched border around the edge. I used the Banner punch to create two pennants and glued them to the back of the focal image, then I adhered the whole piece to the card base. I wanted to bring in a little more Pool Party, so I added a die-cut banner in the upper left corner and a piece of ruffled ribbon along the bottom.

Supplies (all Stampin' up!):
Stamps: Celebrate Today
Paper: Whisper White, Real Red card stick
Ink: Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry, Pool Party, Bermuda Bay, Real Red, Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Gold sequin trim, corner rounder, Glue Dots, Dimensionals

I love these big bold balloons and the different elements you can add to them. For this card I stamped two of the balloons on a panel of Whisper White card stock. I stamped the third balloon on a separate piece and cut it out. (There are coordinating Framelits dies for this stamp set, and I own them, but it was just as fast for me to cut this balloon out by hand. I actually like to hand-cut items.) I stamped the string in black between the first two balloons -- because this set is photopolymer, I was able to curve the stamp on the clear block rather than having just a straight string -- and then adhered the third with Dimensionals. I rounded the corners of the layer, added a few sequins and adhered the panel to a Real Red card base.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Big Day
Paper: Smoky Slate, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White card stock; All Abloom Designer Series Paper (DSP) Stack
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad, Smoky Slate and Daffodil Delight markers
Accessories: Large Polka Dot embossing folder, Smoky Slate chevron ribbon, rhinestones, Dimensionals

Gray and yellow is always a fun color combination, and I think it's perfect for this card. For the focal layer, I stamped three of the images (sentiment, cake and candle) on Whisper White card stock. I also stamped the sentiment again on Daffodil Delight. I cut out just the banner part of the Daffodil Delight image and used Dimensionals to adhere it to the focal image. Then I used markers to color in a few details on the rest of the image.

To assemble the card, I embossed the card base with polka dots and added a layer of patterned paper (I used one of the non-floral prints from the All Abloom DSP Stack). Then I adhered a piece of chevron ribbon across the card and used Dimensionals to adhere the focal layer over the ribbon. A few rhinestones add just a little sparkle.

Thanks for stopping by!