Airplane Birthday

Entering this card in the following two challenges:

Allsorts: Things With Wings

Less is More: Up in the Air

How perfect!!!

I had a card order for a little boy who was turning 7 and loves jets.

To start, I went through my stash and found this cute airplane diecut so built the card around that.

The base is blue card stock.

The white layer is embossed with dots that I rubbed ink over.

I stamped "Happy Birthday" directly on that.  (It's an acrylic set I got at Michael's.)

I put stickers on the airplane to look like windows and they have the birthday boy's name.

I added his age on the tail.  

The big cloud was traced from a stencil.  The small cloud I cut free hand.  I dabbed ink on them too and I used pop dots under them to make them stand out.

That's it for a nice personalized birthday card.

Thanks for swinging by!

My eyes are brown

Less is More is having a challenge to use the color your eyes are on a card.  My eyes are brown and since I am making my Christmas cards, I immediately thought of a little gingerbread man stamp I had.  And wouldn't you know... one of my favorite challenge sites Do You Stack Up has the color brown as their theme this week too. 

Then I used this simple sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.

So here is my card to play along with all three challenges.

I used pattern paper with holly leaves and swirls as the strip.
The gingerbread man is a foam dollar stamp I acquired somewhere along the way.  I stamped him in SU! Chocolate Chip ink.  I added Stickles glitter to his outfit.  I cut him out using a Nestabilities die on my Big Shot.  Layered red behind that using the next size up.  I love die cuts!
Merry Christmas is stamped in the same Chocolate Chip ink.
I finished it off with little candy canes thanks to Jolie's.  I like how the holly matches that background paper.

Thanks for swinging by!

One layer music themed birthday card

Stampin Sisters in Christ had a challenge to incorporate music or song on our cards.  

And Less Is More wanted us to use ink in a new way.  

They were my inspiration for creating this birthday card for my friend.

I started with the gift.  I rubbed an inked sponge over a stencil.  I colored in the bow with watercolor pencils just to add a little dimension.
The birds and sentiment is from an older Stampin' Up set.  I only inked "happy bird-day" on the 3rd line and hand wrote "dear Andrea".  Then I added the music notes.
That would have been my clean and simple card for the Less Is More challenge but it was so plain that I couldn't just leave it!  hahaha  (So now I don't have white space or qualify for the LIM challenge but they inspired me so hence the credit.)
So I rubbed ink on the edges.  I added the stickers on the corners and the word "Celebrate!" to finish it off.  Now it looks complete!
It was fun to make a one layer card though!

Thanks for swinging by.

Thank you card

My son's 1st birthday was yesterday.  (Click here for the post showing the invitations.)  Not only was it a party for him but a surprise 60th for my mother-in-law.  She loves the east shore of Maine so we did a lighthouse/beach theme for the party.

Here is her cake along with my son's.  My SIL got them from a local bakery.  Amazing! 

The whale was my inspiration for my thank you cards.  I made a whale tail out of paper and cut it out.  I held it in place with reposition tape then brushed dark blue chalk all around the edges.  When I was done I lifted the paper off giving this effect:

I stamped the waves and sentiment in blue ink and that was it.  Clean and simple!

I'm playing along in two challenges: GingerloftChallenge "Under the Sea" and Less is More has a themed challenge: thank you or congrats.  So this fits well!  Thanks for stopping by!

A touch of red

Less is More is having a challenge to use a touch of red.  My friend's little boy Luke is turning 8 and I was inspired after going thru my stamps to create this card.  Less is More is a challenge to create simple cards with few embellishments.  They want us to use white space but that's something I seem to struggle with although my cards are often just a couple steps.

This card is simply a big pocket stamped directly on white paper with 'Not Quite Navy' ink from Stampin' Up!  

I stamped the Happy Birthday using the same ink.  

Then I dabbed a sponge in the ink and rubbed it all over to finish the jeans.  

The tag is so clever it makes me giddy.  Glad Luke's name starts with an L like the famous jean brand!  I used the white gel pen from SU! and handwrote it.  Love that pen!

Even if I don't qualify for white space, I appreciate you stopping by from the Less is More blog!

Baby's 1st birthday invitation

My baby boy is turning one next month and we're having family over to celebrate.  I'm doing a nautical/beach theme (bring on summer!).  I made these invitations today and wasn't planning to enter them in any challenges but there were two that I couldn't resist.  

Annabelle Stamps is hosting a challenge using red, white and blue!  Oh how PERFECT!  haha!  Sometimes I need these challenges for inspiration but I had already designed my card with these colors!  I remembered their post from Friday so I smiled to myself as I worked away today knowing I could enter!

The top of the lighthouse is stamped on the front and then the whole lighthouse is on the inside along with the party details.  I'll spare you the date, time and my address and just show you the inside left side:

I also love the blog Less Is More.  They are all about clean and simple cards and again I didn't make this card with the intention of entering but their theme is "off the edge".  I absolutely couldn't resist because of my lighthouse!!!  I designed this card a couple weeks ago and just made it today.  I decided to do one with lots of white space and one layer to qualify for their contest, but I am mailing the one above to our invitees. 

(Less Is More DT - Per your recent post about your comments, I appreciate the critique and reminders of your rules and take no offense if I don't qualify.  I love your blog and just like sharing with fellow card makers.  Thank you for coming by!)

HOW I MADE IT:

Printed the text from my computer directly onto white cardstock.  The baby is a Close To My Heart stamp that I colored with Crayola colored pencils.  The lighthouse was a random stamp I got from a friend!  I used a fine-tip pen for the black balloon but the red one above is a punch.  For the blue sky, I dipped a cosmetic sponge in a blue ink pad and rubbed it all over.  

Shower card for baby boy

This card will be submitted to:

Pals Paper Arts challenge PPA83 asking us to use 3 colors:  

I didn't have those exact colors but came up with something rather close.  Now that I see my card and the Baja Breeze so close, I realize the blue should be more turquoise than baby blue.  Oh well... it's about what inspired me too!  I saw the challenge before I started and loved the browns with the blue so went with it.

I am also submitting my card to the Less is More challenge for week 5.  It's a color challenge using pastels and since baby blue is my main color - voila.  I love when things just work out.  :o)  I love the Less Is More challenge because C&S (clean and simple) is my style.  

I layered the white, brown and the foot print paper.  The puppy and buttons are stickers.  I love how the buttons match the ones on the puppy.  I stamped congratulations in Stampin Up! Whisper White and inked the edge of the brown layer.  That's it.  Thanks for stopping by.