Starry, starry birthdays

We've had almost nonstop rain for the past week, but I am glad to report that the sun is finally shining today. And it's a good thing, too, because as much as I love a good thunderstorm, I think the interminable clouds were beginning to turn me into Oscar the Grouch. We do have a front yard that is now a field of dandelions, but that's a problem for another day. Today I want to share with you a couple of birthday cards featuring sparkling stars.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Cricut Artiste Collection Birthday (Close to My Heart), Sprinkles & Smiles (Penny Black)
Paper: Pacific Point, Whisper White card stock; gold glimmer paper; gold foil sheets
Ink: Pacific Point
Accessories: Confetti Stars embossing folder (Close to My Heart), star dies (Close to My Heart), Dimensionals, Mono Multi Liquid glue

As it turns out, I ended up making a "boy" birthday card and a "girl" birthday card, and this is the masculine version. (Not that you couldn't give a blue card to a girl, of course; I just happen to think that this card would be perfect for several of the boys in my extended family.)

I started with a Pacific Point card base and embossed it with a star embossing folder. I die cut several stars in different sizes using gold glimmer paper and gold foil sheets. For a few of the stars I nested the dies to create the star outlines and add some variety to the solid stars. I adhered the stars to the upper left and lower right corners of the card base, suing Dimensionals to pop up a couple of the stars. For the sentiment, I stamped a banner image with the saing "Hip-hip-hooray," cut it out by hand and attached it near the middle of the card with Dimensionals.

Inside the card I added a layer of white card stock stamped with a sentiment in Pacific Point. A few more small die-cut stars finish off the card and add a little more sparkle.

I do really like the look of the gold glimmer paper combined with the gold foil. The rougher glimmer paper adds a bit of fun texture, and the smooth foil brings lots of shine.

Looking at this card now, I realize that it doesn't even have to be a birthday card. It also would be perfect for celebrating just about any accomplishment, such as graduating from high school or college, receiving an award or honor, getting a new job, or giving an end-of-year school presentation or performance.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Strictly Sentiments (WPlus9 Design Studio)
Paper: Thick Whisper White card stock; Pansy card stock, Kaleidoscope paper (Close to My Heart); gold glimmer paper
Ink: Pansy (Close to My Heart)
Accessories: Stars dies (Close to My Heart), Celebrate die (Close to My Heart), Diamond embossing folder (Close to My Heart), Tiny Attacher (Tim Holtz), Mono Multi liquid glue

And here's the more "girly" starry card. I tried a new technique for this card. I'm not sure if it has an official name, but I'll call it the inlaid die-cut technique. I started with a piece of Pansy card stock that was the size of an A2 card (4-1/4" x 5-1/2") and die cut the word "celebrate" from the middle of the card stock. I set aside the die-cut word to use on a different card, but I made sure to keep all the little pieces from inside the letters. Then I embossed the piece of card stock and layered it on a card base. I used a white card base, but you also could use the same color as the top layer. Note: When you emboss card stock, the paper can "shrink" a little bit, depending on how much of the paper is pushed up into the design. So you may need to trim your card base down just a bit to match the size.

The next step is to cut the same die cut out of a contrasting card stock or patterned paper (I used a fun multi-colored patterned paper called Kaleidoscope). I carefully glue the second die cut into the negative space on the card front. There were a couple of places where it didn't fit exactly because parts of the purple layered moved just slightly while I was gluing the layer onto the card base, but it's nothing too noticeable. The really fun part was then gluing those tiny little purple pieces back in the middle of the letters. Obviously those pieces didn't get embossed like the rest of the purple card stock, but they're so small it's hardly noticeable. Of course you could solve this whole problem by just using a solid die-cut shape.

I finished the front of the card with two narrow banners of coordinating patterned paper stapled in the upper left corner and three gold glimmer paper stars.

Inside the card I stamped a simple birthday sentiment and added a larger gold star. And again, if you wanted to use this card for a non-birthday celebratory occasion, you would just need to change or omit the inside sentiment.

That's it for me today. I'm going to see if I can sit outside and read for a bit before the clouds roll back in. Thanks for stopping by!