Birthday Kitty with Balloons

My daughter's birthday was last week.  Her favorite things in the whole world are baseball and cats which she comes by honestly having inherited her love of baseball from her daddy and her love of cats from her mama.  After several years of making baseball themed birthday cards for her I decided to use this sketch from Try Stamping on Tuesday to make a cat card.

I started by embossing this adorable stamp from Inkadinkado and covering the stamped balloons with ones that I cut using Close to My Heart's Artiste Cricut cartridge (page 70) and sponged with ink to give them dimension.  I popped up the Honey colored balloon with thin foam tape and the Lagoon one with regular foam tape.  The sentiment was cut using the same key and sponged.  Lastly I stitched around the edges of the panel with black upholstery thread.  The paper comes from the Cloud Nine paperpack from years ago.  Here is the inside:

Yes, my cats sign cards.  Don't yours?  Thank you for stopping by!   Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:

Paper:  Cloud Nine (retired), Honey (retired), Lagoon, Sunset (retired), and White Daisy cardstock

Ink:  Honey (retired), Lagoon, Sunset (retired), LePen

Stamp:  from Inkadinkado

Embellishment:  Black upholstery thread bought from somewhere I can't remember

Other:  Artisite Cricut cartridge

Round and Round and Round We Go

The ladies over at Heart 2 Heart Challenges must have had a sneak peak at this Freshly Made Sketch when they selected "Round and Round" as a challenge theme:

This note card uses an old Stamp of the Month, "A Happy Hello" to showcase some of Close to My Heart's newer colors plus an oldie but goodie.  The Lemon ring was stamped directly onto the card.  The other circles were stamped onto White Daisy cardstock and cut out.  The flower is from my stash of Just Blooms paper shapes.  Here is the inside:

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:
Paper:  White Daisy, Lemon, Willow, Blossom, and Pansy cardstock
Ink:  Lemon, Pansy, Blossom, Willow, Lagoon
Stamp:  A Happy Hello (retired)
Embellishment:  Just Blooms paper shape

Penguin with Cold Hands, Warm Heart

If you have been following my blog for a few years you may have noticed that every January I post a card featuring a penguin, not a Christmas card mind you, but a birthday card for my nephew who has loved penguins since he was a baby.  Some kids have Teddy bears; he had a penguin named Mr. Popper.  A Penguin fits the Heart 2 Heart Cold Hands, Warm Heart challenge, so using this Atlantic Hearts sketch I made the 2017 Penguin Birthday Not Christmas Card.

Now the first thing I noticed about this sketch was the striped background.  The striped paper in the Snowhaven (retired) pack has been my go to paper for penguin themed cards.  I cut the stripes apart so I can pick and choose the pattern according what I need.  Often I select only stripes that have red, black and white for penguins as in this card.  For today's card I wanted primarily blue, black, and white to keep the background cold with just a few pops of red to provide continuity without competing with the heart shaped balloon.  I wanted that balloon to pop.  To make the balloon I stamped the outline in the Happy for You set on Cranberry cardstock, cut it out, and sponged the edge with Cranberry ink to give it some dimension.  The highlight is a sliver of White Daisy cardstock painted with a shimmer brush and glued in place.

Now about the penguin:  Whenever I am heat embossing a stamped image, I emboss a few extra and keep them in the envelope the stamp is stored in to save time on future projects.  Rather than stamping the penguin directly on the card after masking off the snowball, I fussy cut one from my Wintry Wishes (retired) stash, lopping off the snowball in the process so he could hold a balloon instead. I attached the balloon with some foam tape and drew string.

Here is the inside:

For the sentiments I made liberal use of the masking technique where you put a sticky note or washi tape over the parts of the stamp that you do not want before inking it.  The trick is to remember to remove the inky mask before stamping on your project.  Ask me how I know...  The sentiment on the front from Scandinavian Wishes (retired) is actually "Warm Wishes this holiday season" and, of course, the stamp used inside usually says "Happy" along with "Birthday"  The "on your" comes from the Happy for You set.

Now to write a check and get this in the mail.  After all, his birthday was last week!  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:

Paper:  Snowhaven (retired), Glacier, Cranberry, and White Daisy Cardstock

Ink:  Black, Cranberry, Black pigment (penguin),Black LePen

Stamps:  Happy for You, Birthday Sparkles, Wintry Wishes (retired), Scandinavian Wishes (retired)

Embellishments:  Shimmer Pen, Clear Embossing powder