Happy Birthday Susan! Birthday Card Blog Hop

The Paper Craft Industry is full of some pretty amazing ladies.  One of those at the very top of the list is my friend Susan McShirley.  She is kind, supportive, talented, and full of awesome ideas. She is the owner of SRM Stickers and we think she is the best! She has been hard at work this week in Salt Lake City at a trade show and is headed home today.  We wanted to send her home knowing how much we love her!  So several of us from the SRM design team (both the current team and the team that just wrapped up) got together a blog hop to wish her a Happy Birthday!  You will see a whole bunch of posts with Birthday cards that were made just for Susan AND use her fabulous products!  We love you Susan - enjoy the hop!!!

Here's the Hop List:

Christine Meyer ***You Are Here***

Juliana Michaels  ***Head Here Next***

Lesley Croghan

Cathy Harper 

Cassonda Tadlock

Tenia Nelson

Shannon Morgan

Stacey Schafer

Michele Kovack

Shantaie Caudill-Fowler 

Tessa Wise 

Angi Barrs

And Now On to My Card!

I recently created a card with a vintage feel using goodies from SRM and Susan said I should play in that style more!  So of course I had to do just that for her birthday card!

I decorated the base of the card with the new 2 inch lace from SRM and some white sticker stitches.  I then added some vellum leaves (cut with my die cut machine) and then of course some flowers.  I topped the whole thing with Fancy Birthday Sentiment!

It's time to head to the next stop: Juliana Michaels

Enjoy the inspiration!

50th Birthday Card

One of my favorite people turned 50 last month.  Her and I have a long standing joke about stars so I thought it would be appropriate to create a card with 50 stars on it!  Little did I realize it would take me a month to blog it :)

I started off with the glittered blue cardstock from Core'dinations and used my die cut machine to cut that shape out.  I loved it because it already had lots of stars done for me and it had the perfect spot to slide in a sentiment!  Using a couple different sized punches I used more Core'dinations cardstock to add more stars.  I finalized the count with some wood veneer stars that added just the right amount of dimension.  Using an SRM Sticker as the sentiment was the perfect final touch!  Isn't it fun!?! And she didn't realize I put 50 stars on there until I told her :)

SRM Challenge Blog - Happy Birthday Card

 Had a little time to play so I thought I would join in the SRM Challenge Blog this month.  The challenge was to create a Happy Birthday project.  

I used bakers twine, a sticker sentiment, and little hearts (that I fussy cut from a border) from SRM Stickers. I also used washi tape, enamel dots, heart pearls,  and patterned paper from Doodlebug Design. And there's that gorgeous kite again from Leaky Shed Studio!  Love that chipboard piece!

Happy Birthday Card

I have a slower week design team wise - so I am going through my files to see what I haven't already shared! Today I have a bright birthday card that showcases some Imaginisce and American Crafts!

I used a round "Happy Birthday" cut and cut it in half, putting the scalloped paper in between.  I fussy cut out some of the scallops and popped them up to give a ruffled appearance.  I also created a pinwheel as an accent.  Chipboard, enamel dots, hot rocks, and twine help to add some dimension and texture while bringing the colors together.  I love the way that Navy and Bright Pink can play off of each other and coordinate with so many different colors!

Supplies Used:

Patterned Paper: American Crafts, Imaginisce

Stickers: Imaginisce

Chipboard: Studio Calico

Hot rocks: Imaginisce

Enamel Dots: Studio Calico

Cardstock: American Crafts

Spring Birthday Card

***If you are looking for the Samantha Walker Blog Hop, You can find it here***

I have some new Doodlebug goodies that were just screaming to be played with, so the other night I made some time to just play!  Today I have a happy little birthday card to share with you from that!
I am also linking this up at the current issue of Paper Issues!

I love this style of card from Doodlebug because it is ready made and not just a traditional A2 card.  The square in the center is a cut out and the card is folded over three ways...I made it to stand like an easel by adding of their doilies at the bottom.  I love the little Doodlepop Bug too because he is just plain cute!  I used stickers from several different lines from them.  Everything on the card is actually from Doodlebug except for the enamel dots.

Easy Birthday Card Ideas

Hi CutCardStock Fans!  Christine joining you today to share a couple of quick (yes, really) birthday cards!

First up we have one that utilizes washi tape!  To form your chevrons you will want to do the following:

1) Line up the washi tape diagonally with a top corner and go down diagonally

2) Repeat on the opposite side so that the two tapes meet

3) Trim so that they have space (lightly using a craft knife works really well) or leave no space.

4) Then do two additional chevrons below that and one above.

Embellish with a lot of a little!  I have used several supplies on this one - but I have also stopped at just words!

This one is even easier!  I simply used a die cut for my "Happy Birthday" words but before attaching it to my card base, I added some doilies underneath.  It adds some texture and makes it more interesting than just a die cut!  Once again, you could add a lot to it, or you could go simple as I did with just a few additional embellishments to bring in some color!

CutCardStock Supplies Used:

Cardstock: CutCardstock

Stickers: American Crafts, Little Yellow Bicycle, SRM Stickers, 

Washi Tape: My Mind's Eye & Doodlebug

Happy Birthday Card

Last week was heavy on layouts and this week is going to be heavy on cards!  Today I have a birthday card  idea to share with you!

I created the background by weaving black ribbon.  Do not attempt this when you are tired or crabby.  It requires patience - but the finished product is definitely worth it!  I punched a variety of pretty patterned papers and added those.  Then came the dimension!  Cork, enamel dots, and pins all add some extra umph to it!  I opted for the cork to calm down all the bright colors a bit (yes sometimes I opt to calm things down :))) 

Supplies Used: 

Ribbon: Ribbons Unlimited

Patterned Paper: Paper House Productions

Enamel Dots: My Mind's Eye

Stickers: Pebbles & SRM Stickers

Pins: My Mind's Eye

His and Hers Birthday Cards for CutCardStock

I had a post up on Friday at CutCardStock and didn't share it yet because of the Practical Scrappers blog hop.  I had fun putting together his and hers cards and using another one of my sketches :)) Today I created a couple cards using pieces from our Brown Bag line.  I actually created two cards - one for a man and one for a woman - and they are both based on the same sketch.  I wanted to show you how easy it can be to take a simple sketch and make it work for you over and over again!

Here the cards are side by side and here is the sketch I worked off of.  

You can see that I followed it somewhat loosely.  Using the initial base to create and then letting my creativity roll from there!  But I wasn't done with just creating the cards, I wanted to have matching envelopes!

 I used items that coordinated with what I had done on each card and the same basic "sketch" for my design but they each work for a man and a woman.

 These brown bag envelopes are fabulous and a little bit of coordinating washi tape to dress them up even more can make them extra special!

Supplies Used:

Patterned Paper: Teresa Collins

Die Cuts: Teresa Collins, Elle's Studio

Stickers: SRM Stickers

Washi Tape: Bella Blvd, My Mind's Eye

Wood: Studio Calico

Enamel Dots: My Mind's Eye

Zap Dots: Helmar

Using Scraps to Create Cards

Ahhhhh so excited!  Today is my premiere day at Imaginisce and I am thrilled to share these projects with you!  The theme there this week is to use scraps - something I love to do!  Here's my cards!

My favorite thing to do with scraps is to cut them up and put them back together to make something interesting ( I know this is shocking to you regulars :))!  For the background of this card I cut triangles out of the light blue paper and then applied them to the card leaving spaces between, allowing the base to peek through!  I also fussy cut some snowflakes from scraps and surrounded those by small snowflakes punched in a complementary color.  I'm finding that I am going to kraft colored items a lot right now...be it in the form of actual kraft paper, burlap, twine....you get my drift!  

Supplies Used:

Stickers: Imaginisce Childhood Memories

Patterned Paper: Imaginisce Colors of Christmas

Cardstock: CutCardStock

Gems: Queen & Co.

Twine

Doily: Wilton

Adhesive: Helmar

I am almost always creating birthday cards from scraps.  It is easy to use scraps to make the colors and style match the personality of the recipient.  This simple card was created by combining a Silhouette cut file from Samantha Walker and some simple Imaginisce die cuts.  Under a few random circles I added some colored scrap papers. Adding a ribbon and some enamel dots helps create some different textures and tie the whole thing together.

Supplies Used:

Die Cuts: Imaginisce Birthday Bash 

Patterned Paper: Imaginisce Berrylicious

Cardstock: American Crafts

Enamel Dots: My Mind's Eye

Ribbon: Ribbons Unlimited

Paper House Productions Birthday Card - Using Little to No Patterned Paper

Since it is my hubby's birthday it seems like a good day to share a birthday card.  This one is obviously not for my husband :)

Tips: Sometimes you don't have to use a lot of patterned paper to create a beautiful project - all you need is some layers of several smaller items and that takes care of it!  In my case, layers of leftover tags, die cut, and doily!

Techniques: If you look at almost anything I have made you will notice I almost always work in threes and triangles.  This is especially true if I am doing something in a freestyle collage style!  Look carefully and you can see that my wood hearts form a triangle and each one is part of a cluster of embellishments.  This doesn't mean every single item you use has to have three of them - because that will make things crrrrazy!  But a couplet significant elements this works really well with!

Supplies Used:

Stickers: Paper House Productions

Marquee Die Cut: Paper House Productions (cut from patterned paper)

Enamel Dots: My Minds Eye

Wood Hearts: Studio Calico

Handstitched Birthday Card

As I was sorting thru a stack of layouts today, I found a whole bunch of cards and layouts I haven't shared with you yet!  This first one is perfect for the last day of summer (my kids go back to school tomorrow!)

As I've mentioned before I have been playing with long hand stitches and seeing what kinds of fun backgrounds I can create with them.  For this card I created by sunburst first.  All the bursts go back to one hole....which was ginormous and had to be covered!  I didn't want to go with just a sun because I wanted a contrast in color so I decided to use some pretty blue cloud stickers from Echo Park.  I also added a chipboard banner piece from Pebbles.  I used some liquid pearls to create my little dots and added a birthday sentiment.  This might just be the perfect birthday card for my hubby in a few weeks!

Supplies Used:

Patterned Paper: Echo Park, Pebbles, Simple Stories

Stickers: Pebbles, Echo Park

Happy Birthday Card

I was so excited to receive an email saying that I had a card picked up for the July/August issue of Paper Crafts Magazine!  This card is another one that I had sent in for their sketch challenge.  It combines a lot of my favorite things:  Washi Tape (by Bella Blvd!), Bella Blvd Letter Stickers, and SRM Stickers!  It obviously didn't get picked up but it still makes me Happy :)