Balloon cards

Stenciling

I used the Neat & Tangled Balloon Duo stencil to make some birthday cards.  

I used Strathmore Bristol paper so I could blend with Distress Oxide inks.  Two colours per card created a nice mix.  

I added balloon strings with a Copic Multiliner pen, added a sentiment from a variety of sources (Stamp of Approval, Concord & 9^th), rounded the corners of the card panel and the card base with a corner chomper from We R Memory Keepers.

The last step was to pop the card panels up on 3M foam tape and add them to a card base.  I love how vibrant these simple cards can be.  This is one of my favourite stencil sets because it is easy and quick to use.  You can create beautiful birthday cards in minutes.

Simple birthday cards

Birthday cards are always good to have in your stash, so I made a few.  I used the Young at Heart stamp set and dies from one of the Stamp of Approval collections to create a colourful card front.  

I masked off a strip on the card front for the sentiment and stamped a pattern around with the circle stamps using Catherine Pooler Designs inks.  I added an embossed line on each side of the sentiment strip and used the fine tip of a Tim Holtz distress marker to trace either side of the embossed line.  

The last step was to add a die cut sentiment on the card front and a stamped sentiment on the inside.

Cards for my nephew to give as gifts

My nephew is in grade one this year and two of his friends have moved away.  Both are big changes in his life.  I asked him if he would like me to make some cards to send to his friends and he liked that idea, so I am going to send him a set of cards with his Valentine's Day card.  Pictures and details of the cards are below.

Cute Birdies

I used the Concord & 9th Birdie Banners and Alpha Bits sets for both cards and, on the card on the right side, I added a tree from the Gina K. Designs set Friends 'til the End.  I stamped with a variety of Lawn Fawn inks and used Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Markers to draw the grass and colour the wings and tail on the birds.  The clouds were blended in using Distress Ink and the My Favorite Things mini clouds stencil.  The last step was to score a line around the edge of the front of the card.

Cute critter cards

These one-layer cards were made using the Gina K. Designs stamp set Friends 'til the End.  I stamped the images on the left card with Momento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured the images with Chameleon coloured pencils.  The card on the right was stamped using a combination of Lawn Fawn coloured inks and Momento Tuxedo Black ink.  The owl was coloured with coloured pencils and the grass was drawn in with a Ranger Distress marker.  I masked the owl with a trimmed post-it note and blended the clouds onto the card panel using Ranger Distress ink and the MFT mini cloud stencil.  The last step was, again, to score a line around the edge of the card.

Airplane cards

One of my nephew's interests is things that fly so I used this cute Lawn Fawn set, Plane and Simple, to stamp and die cut the images.  They were coloured with Copic markers and adhered to a card panel that was embossed using the Lawn Fawn Stitched Cloud Backdrop (Landscape) after being cut down to size with the second largest die from the Lawn Fawn 4-bar sized Stitched Rectangle Stackables.

Buzy Bees

The cute little bees from the Honey Bee stamp set Build-a-Bee set make me smile.  I hope they make my nephew smile, too.  I coloured the bees with Copic markers, embossed the coloured card panel with a Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder and used a sentiment on the inside from the Honey Bee Bee-You-Tiful Sentiments set.

Monster Truck cards

And, since he loves them, I had to make a couple of cards with monster trucks that he could send to his friends.  The notecard is a 4-bar sized Lawn Fawn card and the panel was cut with the second largest of the 4-bar sized Stitched Rectangle Stackables and embossed with the Stitched Cloud Backdrop (Portrait).  The grass and the label were also both Lawn Fawn dies. The trucks are from the Your Next Stamp set called "Got Mud?" and were coloured with Chameleon coloured pencils.