February Family Birthday: Carter

Our first grandson, Carter will be ten on February 16th! Ten already! My how time flies...

Carter is such a blessing... a real joy to watch him grow and develop. His love of baseball is infectious, but mostly it is his love of life! He so reminds me of his dad when he was his age... kind of like going back in time for me sometimes.

Here's my card for him...

I knew as soon as I saw this stamp set what I wanted to make for Carter- His language and his love of fun made me think of this! He's starting to really want to grow up and become even more cool than he is! Just love him so!

PTI Give Me a Hand stamp and die set pulled this together fast. Everyone in their family has Fitbits so I added some on the wrists. The hands are stamped directly on the card base, but the quotation bubbles are added with foam tape to give that dimension. I really wish the dialog die cut also went the other way, so I turned it around. Then using the ink pads around every cut to make them stand out from the white card.

Kids love getting to double digits, which is where most of us spend the rest of our ages! So I cut the digits out of black adhesive fun foam...  Happy birthday Carter! See you in Florida on your birthday!

February Family Birthdays: John

Our son John, is just so amazing! He's the BEST son ever, always thinking of ways to make our lives better. He helps us to plan our finances, our retirement, and is a constant source of pride and... just ... joy! And what a remarkable father!

For his birthday, I wanted to make a card to help show how much we love and appreciate him. I know Sankaty lighthouse on Nantucket is a very special place for him, so I used PTI Guiding Lights for my card...

Using an idea from Pinterest, I watercolored Tim Holtz Watercolor Distress paper with Distress inks after cutting the lighthouse die out. Then I marked on a white card base where the image needed to be stamped to show through the cut.

The image inks with two different stamps, and I changed the image to match the lighthouse that I needed, as you can see below. 

Using the birthday swoosh die, it is attached on the watercolor paper. Although it is hard to see in this picture, the watercolor paper is attached to the card front with fun foam and foam tape, giving a real depth to the lighthouse. The top of the letters on "birthday" are actually floating free. The word "happy" is stamped directly on the watercolor paper. 

This picture shows a little better the dimension it gave... In real life it is amazing!

One of my all time favorite designs, and I made several for other birthdays. The sentiment inside says "Here's to celebrating you!"

What a blessing he is!

February Family Birthdays: Mason

It's that birthday season again for the Wright Family! This year our son John (11th), his two sons- Mason (6th) and Carter (16th) will all celebrate birthdays while we are in Florida! Erica, our daughter with marriage, celebrates her birthday on March 1st, so I think of her birthday along with theirs... Their daughter Avery is the only "unbirthday" because her day is November 6th!

So I had lots of cards to make before we leave for the sunny south on February 1st! Last week we stayed with the kids and helped out while Erica was away. On the weekend, John took us all to 5 Wits, a great activity for kids in Foxboro, MA where as a group you join up to solve a spy mystery, like 007! The kids loved it- so did we! The Patriots were not at the stadium, so we also got to see it and have a great lunch, too!

That led the way for a perfect card for Mason, who is turning 8! Here is his card...

PTI Secret Agent stamp and die set was just the perfect match! I found this example on Pinterest by Laurie Willison and just went with it, changing the name and age... 

The mission is under the decoded message, "Have a spy-ta-cular birthday! It is first stamped in a light blue ink and then the poppy ink covers it, so when you use the magnifying glass, you can "see" it!

The other message says, "Happy 8th Birthday!"  Hope it works better than the Christmas "I Spy" card that I made and everyone had trouble decoding...

The magnifying glass is diecut twice with black cardstock and a red plastic sheet is attached between the layers to make it. Love how it came out!

The envelope looks really cute with the secret agent on the front! Hope Mason likes it as much as I did!

We got a ping pong table for the whole family as our birthday gift. I think it was masterful the way the whole secret came together, with Amazon delivering the table while we were there babysitting! Then we had a great time playing after DH put it together during our babysitting gig!

We could be some great spies ourselves...

MIM and January Birthdays

It always happens once I switch from Christmas cards to birthdays... I forget to take a picture of the cards! Drives me nuts to have the card mailed and then think "OMG! I didn't record it!" Then with my sieve-like mind, I can't remember what I did.

This year was no different. However- I made four very similar cards! So although a bit different... I should be able to get the idea :)

Using PTI Botanical Blocks III, and with the matching dies for the blocks, this card whips up very quickly. I did get the idea from Lizzie Jones' card that I saw on Pinterest. 

Laurie's MIM Challenge is on adding color to a stamped image, so this fits the requirements. I used Versamark to emboss the image in black, then colored the background, flower center and leaves with Copic Markers. Using the lager die, I backed the block with fun foam before adding a darker layer to the card base. On the white I used a pattern paper for Tropical Teal and for the blue, I used a black back.

The sentiment of both cards is embossed to give it another dimension. I just love the look of this card!

These birthday cards worked well for all four cards that I needed for January. I'm also discovering the more that I color with Copics, the more I am liking them!

Happy birthday to our "baby" who turns 34 today!  And what a gift she has been to us... blessed is what we are for sure!

Christmas Cards- Card number five!

Last is definitely my favorite this year! I really felt like I splurged with PTI Botanical Blocks III stamp set and the dies for the blocks. But after seeing Nicole Heady's example, I knew what I wanted to do...

Here's number 5...

This is definitely my favorite card of all! The red card base has the sentiment embossed in silver. The white larger die is embossed in silver along the edges and attached to the card with scor-tape to hold it in place. Then the block is fussy cut and backed with fun foam to add a bit of dimension to the design.

Copic markers were used to color and that was the largest amount of time involved with making this card. I embossed the inside greeting "May Joy and Peace be yours this holiday season."

And that is a wrap for this holiday season... and as usual I will promise myself not to wait until the last minute to finish cards next year, but I probably will! I hope I enjoy it next year as much as I did this year...

Christmas Cards- Card Number Four

So by this time, I still didn't have the card I wanted for the grand kids! I always like them to be different and interactive if I can find a way...

So PTI Secret Agent stamp set was the perfect solution! I spy is a favorite game with all of them...

Here's the card...

Tricky, right? Each window is showing a picture of something stamped on the card base in a light brown and then scrambled with red ink. You must look with the red lens to "unscramble" the code! Isn't that lens the cutest ever???

The wreath on the front was an added extra when I had an ink mistake and needed to cover it up! I do think it looks a lot better with it!

Here's what the inside card base looks like... I also included an answer sheet :) taped on the back of the card!

The response from the kids so far has been so fun! The pictures are Mary and Baby Jesus, Santa, and a Christmas tree...

Love this set! Will definitely use it for birthdays coming up...

Christmas Cards- Card Number Three

By now I have made about 30 cards, and I feel like I am on a roll! Now for the Wreath...

I ordered PTI Tropical Teal paper ages ago. I never really thought of it as a green for holiday cards until I saw it used on Papertrey Ink's website ...

Here's card three....

Using PTI Deck The Halls stamp and die set, this card worked up very quickly! Using Versamark ink, I stamped the wreath and the greeting and then gold embossed both. The die cut ribbon and hanger are from red glitter and really set off the colors. 

The added embellishments on the wreath are red and silver stickles and I put them in the place of the berries stamp. 

The sentiment inside is in silver, because i think it is a bit easier to read. I really fell in love with the silver embossing powder!

This was an easy card to mass produce, and being one layer was also easy to mail. I was very pleased with the final result on this one!