Topsy-Turvy Birthday Invitation

Thanks to those of you who went and voted for our little costume contest that I mentioned in the previous post.  So far we are in the lead and voting continues until the 7th, so hopefully we can keep that lead.

I wasn't able to sneak away and stamp today, but I did realize that I haven't posted this idea yet.  We celebrated a birthday in our home last month and I hand-stamped the invitations.  I wanted to keep it pretty simple since I was in a hurry to get the invitations out, but I had to make it cute since I'm a stamper, so this is what I came up with. 

I used the Topsy-Turvy Celebration set for all of the stamping--I love that the "Celebrate" comes with that set too.  I stamped my cake layers in Pretty in Pink, Wisteria Wonder, and Certainly Celery and used the coordinating papers.  The polka-dot paper is from the In Color Patterns DSP stack (I know surprise, surprise).  Have I convinced you that you NEED some of the Patterns DSP stacks?  What did I ever do without them?!  I stamped the celebrate on white card stock and then punched it with the modern label punch and then glued everything onto my card base that I textured with the perfect polka dot embossing folder.  In this case my card base is just a postcard with the party info pasted onto the back.  I figured a bunch of little girls wouldn't care if I just did a card front and not a full card.  Luckily, I just handed the invitations to the parents as we delivered them, so they weren't in envelopes.  When we were about finished passing them out, I realized that the last two didn't have the party info on the back.  I'm glad I noticed, and am especially glad that I didn't just shove them in envelopes.  If someone wasn't home, it would be awful to leave a cute invitation without any info because they wouldn't know what or who it was for.  I'm glad I caught it and I know we won't make that mistake again.  It was definitely something to laugh about!  Do you stamp your invitations?

Banner Birthday Cake

We have a birthday coming up in our family.  In fact, I need to get busy and make some birthday party invitations!  When I saw that sketch challenge on the Stampin' Royalty blog, I knew I wanted to make my card a birthday card.  I chose my colors (Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, and Lucky Limeade) and the Topsy-Turvy Celebration stamp set and went to work.  I love the Patterns Designer Series Paper Stacks, so I had to incorporate some of those papers (in Melon Mambo and Lucky Limeade) and I also used some of the Daffodil Delight paper from the Polka Dot Party dsp pack.  I tied some Daffodil Delight seam binding ribbon around my card and then added in some hand-cut pennants to make my birthday banner.  I stamped the greeting from the Made for You set and punched it with the oval and scalloped oval punch and adhered it with some Stampin' Dimensionals.  I think a special someone in my family will like her birthday card, I know I do!

Primary Topsy-Turvy Cake

When I started making this card, I decided that I wanted to use the Polka-Dot Parade Designer Series Paper--I just love that pack of paper!  I picked the Real Red and Daffodil Delight pieces and layered them on their matching card stocks and added a scallop edge (done with my punch) along the bottom of the red.  I knew I needed a third color and wanted this to be a bright and fun card, so I went for a primary colors color scheme and chose Tempting Turquoise.  I wasn't trying to make a gender neutral or more "boyish" card, but that is how it turned out (I'm glad, most of my birthday cards are more feminine and I need some good boy cards!  I was going for kind of a circle theme, but the stripes on the turquoise patterns stack seemed to work well.  I used the labels framelits to punch out my stamped panel, but then cut of the top and bottom so that it was straight instead of pointy.  I stamped the cake from Topsy-Turvy Celebrations along with the "celebrate" from the same set.  Thanks for the fun sketch Stampin' Royalty!

Double Layer Cake

I love Summer!  Okay, I'm not crazy about the 100 degree days that we have, but I love the more carefree feeling and the long days and warm nights.  I find that when I'm stamping in the Summer, I have a tendency to use bright colors, which are my favorite!  I chose bright colors for this birthday card--Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, and Daffodil Delight.  I used my Chevron Textured Impressions embossing folder on my card base then layered some pumpkin stripes dsp (from the brights patterns dsp stack) and the daffodil polka dot (from the Polka-Dot Parade dsp pack) on top of the base.  My stamped images all come from the Topsy-Turvy Celebration stamp set.  I cut out the flowers to stick on the cake and then continued the flower theme with the Boho Blossoms punch (with brads in the center).  My layout was inspired by this week's Pals Paper Arts sketch challenge.  

Celebrate Birthdays

I realized last night that I needed to make a birthday card for a dear friend (who shares my birthday) and get it in today's mail.  So, I decided it would be fun to use the current sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and combine it with my need for the birthday card.  I turned the sketch vertically so that it would fit my cake stack that I made with the Stampin' Up! set Topsy-Turvy Celebration.  I just love how I can make multi-colored cake stacks of various sizes with that set.  I have it in clear mount so that I can easily place one layer on top of another.  For this card, I combined Daffodil Delight with the new Raspberry Ripple.  I textured the bottom layer of Raspberry with the polka dot textured impressions folder.  I added some striped dsp from the current In Color Patterns stack and placed that on top of a strip of white card stock punched with the scalloped edge punch.  My yellow polka dots come from the Polka Dot Party designer series paper and have a bit of white stitched grosgrain tied just above.  I'd better go get this card in the mail now.  Happy Birthday Connie and to any others out there who have their birthday coming up!

Black and Red Wedding

I found this fun card sketch layout over at splitcoast (it's this week's sketch challenge) and decided that I needed to play along.  I haven't made a card with a triangle in the background, so I decided that I should try it.  I knew I wanted to use some designer series paper, but the problem was that I didn't want to chop it up into odd angles and waste any.  My solution was to pick some paper that I could use both sides of, so that is what I did.  I grabbed a piece of red dsp from the Polka Dot Parade pack and started cutting.  I flipped the two corners over and swapped them places so that they fit back together for my background.  I love this pack of paper and I also love that the two patterns coordinate well together.  Since this paper dictated my colors, I decided to add some black and make it a wedding card.  I thought it was kind of strange to have a black cake, but it is what worked with this card, it also seems like cakes are done up in any color these days, so maybe black and red isn't too over the top.  My cake comes from Topsy-Turvy Celebration and the Congrats comes from Sassy Salutations.  Can you tell that I really like those two sets together?  To finish off the card, I added a bit of 1/8" black taffeta ribbon.  Have you made a triangle backgound before?

Duo Cake Take 2

I find that most of my cards are more feminine (or "girly") and I try to come up with options at my classes for more boy cards.  A few weeks ago we made this card at my class, but I offered it in this color combo as well.  You can see the recipe and tips on the link for the original card.  The only difference here is that my colors are Pool Party and Basic Gray.  I sure do like the Topsy Turvy Celebration set--those cake stamps are just so fun!

Summer Cake Stack

Ooooh, these colors just scream Summer!  We're in the midst of hot summer 90+ degree days around here.  These colors are so rich and juicy, they make such a great trio!  They (lucky limeade, calypso coral, and daffodil delight) are the color challenge this week over at The Paper Players.  Thanks for the great color combo!  My calypso coral ink pad has been very neglected until just recently, now it is one of my favorite colors!

For my card, I used the Topsy-Turvy Celebration set and made a 4-layer cake.  Instead of adding the typical candles at the top of the cake, I used the bow stamp from the same set.  I embellished the cake a bit with flowers that I cut out (also from the same set).  The top layer of the cake is actually the same stamp as the next two layers, but I masked off a side of it so that it wouldn't be as wide.  The greeting comes from my fav Sassy Salutations set and I stamped it directly on the patterned paper.  I've combined the Polka Dot Parade designer series paper with my traditional patterns designer series paper for the prints. I added a bit of white card stock that I punched with the scallop edge punch to the daffodil papers.  Lately I've gotten into not having my card base be plain, so I've run this one through my big shot with the polka dot textured impressions folder to pick up on the dot theme on this card.  Hope you enjoy!

Bold Bright Birthday

I find that I am always wanting more birthday card ideas.  I love the cake in the Topsy-Turvy Celebration set.  I wanted to make this card bright, so I used Daffodil Delight and Tangerine Tango.  The bottom daffodil layer has a chevron pattern on it (sorry, it doesn't show up well in the photo, but I textured it with the new chevron textured embossing folder.  The greeting comes is punched with the word window punch and is layered on the modern label punch.  The ribbon is the new stitched grosgrain in daffodil delight. 

Dynamic Duo Cake

I came across a fun new challenge that I'm looking forward to participating in over the next few weeks.  I love fun color combinations and it is fun to be given a few colors and make myself use them.  This challenge is the Dynamic Duos challenge that can be found here.  This week's challenge was to use Regal Rose and Basic Gray on a card.  These two colors really pop together and I'm sure I'll be combining them a little more often now. 

I made this card with the new Topsy Turvy Celebrations set.  I just love the cake in this set (and I seem to like it as a 3-layered cake as that is all I've done so far).  I used the Sassy Salutations set for the greeting and punched the edges with the designer label punch (you have to cut a 1-1/4" strip and then insert it in the back of the punch to just punch one side at a time, that way you can use the punch for even bigger images than the punch normally allows).  I used the Chevron embossing folder for the gray background, the scallop edge punch on the rose card stock under the cake, and the brights patterns dsp stack for the polka dot paper. 

Polka-dot Party Cake

New stamps are so much fun!  I saw yesterday's color combo challenge on Splitcoaststampers.com and decided that it would be a perfect combo for some of my new stamps.  This color combo is Daffodil Delight, Certainly Celery, and Pool Party.  I used the new Topsy-Turvy Celebration set to make this card.  To help some of the layers stand out more, I added a bit of Basic Gray card stock and some basic gray stitched grosgrain ribbon.  The polka-dot background is done with punches (it's a bit more tedious than most of my cards, but the end result was worth it)!  I was inspired to do the circles from the bottom layer of the birthday cake, so I used the 1/2", 3/4", and 1" circle punches.