A birthday card!

I've been working on birthday cards this week. We are celebrating a double birthday this evening and another double birthday tomorrow. Here is the card for my step-sister:

Things used in this card:

• Flower Fancy stamp set
• On Your Birthday stamp set
• Perfect Plum textured card stock (cut out to fit over a standard Whisper White card)
• a Rich Razzleberry sheet from the Brights Patterns Designer Series Paper
• Whisper White card stock
• for the Classic Inks: Perfect Plum for the solid part of the flowers, Basic Gray for the outline, Certainly Celery and Rich Razzleberry for the sentiment
• Labels Collection Framelits Dies from the Occasions Mini Catalogue
• mini silver brads

Her son is also having a birthday soon. Here is the card I came up with for him:

For this card, I used:

• standard Whisper White card
• Island Indigo card stock from the 2011-2013 In Colour 
• Real Red card stock for the background circle
• the cupcake is from the Create a Cupcake stamp set and punched out with the Cupcake Builder punch
• the candles are just punched out with the Cupcake Builder with a paper from a no-longer-available 6x6 Patterns Pack
• the lighter aqua paper is from old Stampin' Up paper, too (got to make use of what you have! :D)
• I used the Big Shot Circles #2 die to make the circles. The red circle is actually on a piece of thick card from the back of a Stampin' Up paper pack (boy, can the dies CUT!)
• the sentiment is, again, from the On Your Birthday stamp set

The picture for my niece's card didn't work out very well, but here it is anyhow:

I think the stamps may be from older sets, except the sentiment is from the Pour Ton Anniversaire stamp set (French version of On Your Birthday set). The card is Pretty In Pink textured cardstock, with a bit of trim from, I think, the Brights Patterns Designer Paper, the sentiment is on the same, punched out with the Decorative Label punch, on some Whisper White Satin Ribbon. Colours used: Perfect Plum, Rich Razzleberry, Pretty In Pink and Marina Mist.

Haven't finished my brother-in-law's card yet!

It's Day 5!

Day 5 of our week-long Virtual Party! What shall we have a look at today?

Let's talk about punches!

I love the punches. I wish I had many of them. They make life SO easy.  Not only that, but the cut-out shapes look so much nicer with the punch than by cutting them out with scissors. Okay, well, at least in my case.

There are so many projects in the catalogues and that I find online where there are nice circles, squares, other shapes, so clearly punched and perfect, that I sometimes think I should scrap everything else I think about ordering just to get more punches. Especially since I only have one right now. lol.

If you follow the link, it will take you to Stampin' Up's current punches. They are really so easy to use. I only have the Stampin' Up Cupcake Punch at the moment:

I will, however, be getting this one with my next order:

Both of these punches, as well as other punches, coordinate with a stamp set (or several!). The Cupcake Punch can punch some of the stamped images from the Create a Cupcake set:

If you look in the catalogue on p. 68, you will see that 3 of the images in this set have light outlines around them. Anytime you see that in the catalogue, it means that there is a punch that you can use to have a cut-out of the shape rather than just the stamp! (Also note that in the bar with the price and name, there will be a little note about where to find the coordinating punch or punches.) Of course, you don't have to stamp to use the punch--you might just want to use the punch with coloured card stock or a specific paper. You can see how to use a punch through many YouTube videos. Here is one about the Cupcake Punch. As you can tell, the potential combinations are ENDLESS.

You can see all the shapes you can make with the punches starting on p. 209. If you are looking at the catalogue online, keep in mind that the actual catalogue, the one you can hold in your hands, has the images at the size they will punch out. Online, keep in mind that the actual catalogue pages are 8.5" x 11". If you can get the catalogue to show up that large on your screen, you will have an idea of how big the punches are.

It's getting close to the time to order! What I will need you to email me (those who know my personal email or know me in Facebook can contact me that way, or even just phone me!) are:
*the item code (the little number that goes with the item),
*the name of the item, 
*your phone number and address (so I can make arrangements to drop the items off when they come in!) 
*and how you intend to pay. I can accept PayPal, I can take your credit card information or for people I know personally, I am willing to get payment by cash or cheque when I drop off the order. If you are placing an individual order online, you can just go through my site.