birthday

Open Me Already!

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

These two guys do nothing but make me grin!  I haven’t used them together before, but here they are in all their glory.  Also, I changed up the big monster by turning his closed eyes into eyebrows and giving him some google eyes as well.  Thought that was cute.

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This kit was a birthday card and I think this one could work for that as well.  But any type of celebration could enjoy a project like this.  The hexagon dynamic texture embossing folder got to work in a different way.  I used the debossed side, the normal version has the hexagons raised up instead of recessed.  To bring in a little color I lightly sponged over the top of the embossed paper and look what happened!  What a great effect.  Also, I couldn’t wait to get my chicken stamps back out and use this background like it was chicken wire.  What a fun find.

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The confetti image from the balloon adventures stamp set really got some work.  It was used on the sentiment tag, the card front as well as the inside.  Pretty darn fun if you ask me.  I have another one of these kits left, I think I will get that put together pretty quick.

Have a creative day!

Moana

Sweet Happy Birthday

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This recycled kit was originally a valentines card with all kinds of little die cuts and stamping.  Real big difference and I am totally in love with it.  It is so sweet, and I came across a stamping technique that it going to be used again and again.  It isn’t new I am sure, but new to me, so it counts.

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I love this particular balloon stamp set.  The outline images and then the fill stamp to give it a little interest and fun.  My first thought for the card front involved several free floating balloons with hand drawn strings.  Those strings just didn’t do it for me, they were distracting from the pretty balloons.  So I tried again using the bouquet of strings for the balloons.  That worked much better for me.  I then adhered punched out balloons over the top of the stamping using a glue dot at the base of each balloon.  It was enough to hold it in place and I don’t even mind that you can see the adhesive, totally worth it.

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I had to add some on the inside as well.  Giving the interest I love without a lot of bulk. Don’t get me wrong, when it is time to pile it on I go for it, but sometimes it is nice to not worry about putting something through the mail.

The tag was fun to add.  The stitched framelits are adorable.  They give a lovely finished edge so easily.  I wanted to use the ribbon from the kit but I didn’t want to interrupt the lines of the balloons, so I kept the ribbon to the tag.  I thought that worked out nicely.

While I love the look of a clean and simple card, the tag had a burst of color and it left the balloons out of balance.  So I went back to the stamp set looking for some help. There are these two little dandelion flower guys that I thought could work.  I placed them on the same block and stamped them across the bottom of the card in a bit of an upward angle.  I thought it looked like the breeze was blowing them gently up into the air.  The tag looked a bit bleak, so I gave it the same treatment.  For me, the new technique was to carry the look of motion, or the flowers blowing, across the front of the tag.  So fun!

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Taking these old kits and putting them to work in a different way has been so much fun. Only two more days of sharing this little series, but I think it will change how I work. I always want to have kits on hand to play with.

Have a creative day!

Moana

You Deserve a Happy Birthday!

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

Here we go with day two of this little seven day adventure.  Use up my extra kits and make them look different.  Some parts I like better than others, but here it is just the same.

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The background cardstock had some floral stamping from the flower shop stamp set and then was run through the big shot with the lovely lace embossing folder.  The patterns might not have gone the best, but I stuck with it.  When I continued the stamping on the sentiment layer I wasn’t sure again.  I thought black wording would look too similar to the night of navy so I went with flirty flamingo.  Wouldn’t you know it that one of the words got hidden in a flower. So I stamped the sentiment again offset with versamark and then sprinkled on copper embossing powder.  It coordinates nicely with the foiled pattern on the designer series paper.

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It did give it a bit of a 3-D look, but you could read it easier.  I still wasn’t sure about all of the patterns going on here.  It seems like they are fighting for attention.  I don’t think I could tell you who won, but I kept on with it anyway.  I tilted the card a bit for this photo trying to show the foiled paper and matching embossing, you get the idea I think.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Make a Wish

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

This last weekend was my card workshop and this was one of the projects we made.  Some of my ladies get intimidated easily, so I do try to keep it fun and simple.  This one fit the bill quite nicely.

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The card base and ink are bermuda bay, even the glimmer paper that is hi-lighting the candles.  That glimmer paper has been super fun to work with, I will be sad to see it go away at the end of sale-a-bration this month. I will probably get one more pack with my order this month.  Maybe it will be put into the new catalog this summer?  One can only hope.

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I die cut the candle framelit three times along the strip of very vanilla and adhered a strip of glimmer paper and daffodil delight paper underneath.  Such a nice accent.  That little set was then added to another strip of bermuda bay for the top layer.  The sentiment was direct enough, stamp and punch, my favorite.

The background piece is from a great paper stack.  I must have used half of it so far.  That is unusual for me, I don’t always love so many of the patterns.  Yes for sure this time around. I gave the ladies several choices for their cards and they all looked so different depending on the background piece.  Fun stuff there!  The inside earned a stamping of ‘Happy Birthday’ from the coordinating stamp set, window shopping, because I didn’t like it on the front.  It was a distraction. Can’t have that!

Have a creative day!

Moana

Celebrate

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

A simple card can look quite complicated at the same time.  That is definitely the case with this project.  It is all about color, and only a few for the front.  That is the beauty of color blending, you always get more than you started with.

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I grabbed a few distress markers from my stash that I liked together, a purple and two pinks.  I just scribbled them on a pallet and used an aqua painter to start painting wet on wet.  The purple was at the left, a bright pink in the middle with the lightest at the right.  I kept adding layers to each colors until they were vibrant enough and then began to blend. It was so fun to watch the pretty colors come together.

I had planned this card to be a shaker card with the candle border punch as a focus.  The inside color needed to contrast, so I chose green.  I tried to measure my coloring to have green candles with a yellow flame.  At certain angles you can see it, but not very easily. The acetate sheet distracts it, especially in the photos. I used liquid metal green and gold to give them a little extra sparkle.  Since the gold looked so nice I decided to do a quick overlay to give a lot of sparkle.  It worked wonderfully.

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The shaker frame went just around the candle punch area and was filled with a small amount of sequins.  I think it turned out great.  I ended up stamping a birthday sentiment on the inside of the card because I couldn’t bring myself to add anything that would distract from the front.  With the candles there, it could be any kind of celebration card, I happened to make it a birthday card.

Have a creative day!

Moana

 

Flourish Wishes

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

Such a perfect combination here. Nearly all of my favorite things combined into one project. The only thing missing would be some water coloring, but with paper this beautiful I don’t feel like there is anything lacking here. Even better, this took almost no time at all.

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I just received an order that had this glimmer paper in it, one of the new free items during Sale-a-bration right now, and I couldn’t wait to enjoy it.  It comes in three colors, but the bermuda bay tone was on top so it was literally that simple. I knew there was the same color included in the cupcakes and carousel dsp stack and that became step two, pick a pattern. I probably spent the longest just deciding which one to choose.

The die cut was not as easy to decide because there are so many wonderful ones to choose from.  I kept it simple though and went for a favorite. The glimmer paper was cut to size and then I did the die cutting from the center, knowing it wouldn’t show, and I could make that paper last longer.  Glimmer paper is such a weakness for me, especially in colors like this. The flourish was glued down with tombo and then the designer paper adhered to the glimmer paper with fast fuse.  Regular adhesive and glimmer paper aren’t friends, it needs something stronger.

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The sentiment was stamped in the same ink color, die cut, layered zippity quick and raised up on dimensionals.  How easy is that? I had a bit of room for another little die cut before I adhered it down, so that had to happen, hence the need for a matching gift box to use that piece. No problem, just get another piece of the same paper and happiness was achieved. What a great way to launch National Craft Month!

Have a creative day!

Moana

You’re How Old?!

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

This was an experiment all the way around.  The only thing I hadn’t used yet was the paper. The color burst powder is some crazy cool stuff, but new to me.  That was an adventure. Well, the brushing of color, adding and removing, stamping, spritzing and general mess making left me with this. I wasn’t quite happy with it, but let it be shared anyway. It is so silly after all.

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I began the adventure with some of the color powder on a pallet, added water and began to apply to the background area.  It was actually very dark purple to start with. The blue came second, and then both were lightened tremendously.  Then I tried tapping bits of powder here and there on the piece and spritzing with water.  A cool, and very different look happened then.  That is where it looks like sprinkles of color.

It ended up making my wording look very muddled and hard to read.  I had to outline the stamping with a pen and chose a brush tip just too wide.  That is why it looks so very wonky. Like I said, I stuck with it.  I painted the adorable little bird and was getting pleased again.  Then I went too far and applied wink of stella to that bird.  The gold wasn’t a problem, it was the white area.  It got onto the stamp lines and instead of stamping over again, because I would have had to use my stamp-a-majig, and I didn’t feel that adventurous.  My mistake, because my pen drawing over the goofed edges really didn’t do the stamp justice at all.  Like I said, mistakes were made, products were experimented with, and I still thought I wouldn’t get judged too much on the final product.

My card base was made with pacific point card stock and layered with basic black. Nothing was layered up, just adhered heavily with fast fuse to keep that paper under control. It really got a proper working over. I do want to try again though.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Balloon Adventures

~ moanaj ~ 2 Comments

This is how things look when I am feeling creative, but not sure just which direction to go. No sentiment, hardly a stamp in sight, just pretty flowing color.  That is really so satisfying. This could be for a birthday, but really any celebration would be a good fit.  Balloons are so happy after all.

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The project began with water color paper being masked to a board and spritzed with water lightly.  The rich razzleberry went down first in the bottom corner pretty heavy.  Pacific point was the blue I chose for the opposite corner.  The center section got crushed curry, but I didn’t blend just yet.  I wanted it to kind of mix with the help of water, not my brush so much.  It was nice, but I did push some of the color around to make the green show up more. I would have like a bit more orange to have mixed, but the green kind of took over and I didn’t want the infamous brown to appear.

The balloon bouquet punch and the balloons inside the balloon pop-up thinlits set match perfectly.  I painted a couple of swatches, punched them out and layered them under the thinlit cut balloons.  A bit of layered fun there.  I wanted to go with velum cardstock, but didn’t feel up to the adhesive hiding game.  The glimmer paper is always pretty though.

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I used the metallic thread for the balloon strings and loved it!  It was a bit tricky since it isn’t the easiest stuff to work with.  But how it looked wrapped around the bottom of the balloons was too great to not.  There it is!

Have a creative day!

Moana

 

Enjoy Your Special Day

~ moanaj ~ 2 Comments

With all of the crazy flood problems and evacuation orders in our area (Northern California), writing this blog almost seemed silly.  But, instead of constantly worrying, I thought I would try to do something a bit more productive.  This project was actually for Saturday, but I never seem to be able to get a blog in on workshop day.  Just a bit much for a Saturday morning I think.  So here you go!

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The ladies sure did love making these.  I was kind and did the die cutting for them, but that was just so the big shot would be available for the hot air balloon birthday card.  That was blogged the other day, and they loved it too!  I know how to challenge them, make them a bit crazy, and help them have a wonderful creative time.

This project idea came from another Stampin’Up! demonstrator, who got it from one of her friends.  Either way, Dawn’s Stamping Thoughts is the inspiration behind this project.  She used different colors and the white wink of stella covering the entire dragonfly, so only a tiny touch different. I added a bit of inside stamping.

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It looks so much more complicated than in really is.  The back piece of the dragonfly was die cut from whisper white and the detailed overlay from basic black.  They were glued together and the sections were colored in with the brush end of the marker.  I then went over all of the sections with gold wink of stella.  How easy is that!  It is so beautiful in person. I tried to get an angled photo just right to show off the shimmer, but it is so hard to capture those tiny little glimmers.  You really have to try it out.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Cloud Nine Birthday

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

Birthday gift sets really make me smile.  I love everything have a theme and coordinating, very satisfying.  Another workshop project all ready to go.  Should be a large group and this will be the detailed project for sure, not a hard one, but a bit time consuming.

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I have found myself staying away from peekaboo peach because it is so bright.  Almost too bright for my taste.  So, I thought I would take it head on and go for it.  Also, this main pattern of designer paper overwhelmed me like crazy.  Keeping the view controlled really made a difference and I love how it turned out!  Of course it helps to have such a wonderful die cut to focus on.  These balloons are so great.

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The matching gift bag used a whole sheet of paper.  I do try to use and not horde fun paper and this is one of the ways to do that.  Just use it!  It is a bit of therapy for my card group too, they aren’t the best about using up their paper either.  We all need a nudge now and again.  The gift bag is simple, letting the balloon accents take front stage.  The ribbon is a nice accent, but really just a closure.  No bow or focus up there, letting it all fall around the balloons and clouds.

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While this card requires some patience, I think it is worth it.  I love how the die cuts let me decorate the balloon as I would like.  I simply used portions of the same designer series paper that was more solid to fill those spaces.  That way it really coordinates well. I used tiny dots of tombo glue on the back of the balloon to adhere my pieces.  That way I had some wiggle room to put them just where I wanted.  I also used foam adhesive strips to layer it up.  That way there was an extra bit of adhesive to keep those pieces in place and the balloon got extra lift, more height than dimensions alone offer.  I thought that to be appropriate.  I didn’t plan on using basic rhinestones, but I had a tiny dot of ink in a spot I couldn’t get past, so I covered it up.  Job well done!

Have a creative day!

Moana

 

Fiesta Like There’s No Manana

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

I haven’t made a card and bag set for a while, but today called for it.  A special birthday for a special someone.  When a birthday isn’t looked forward to what do you do?  Find an adorable llama stamp set and put it to work.  Mission accomplished.

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This bag was made in a particular size for a special gift.  It only needed one piece of cardstock, but I fiddled with the measurements until it was just the right size.  There are two bars of home made soap inside and they fit perfectly.  It also had to be made from card stock instead of designer series paper, which might have been a bit more festive, but I needed it to be stronger for the weight of the soap.

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I mixed my coloring a bit here to put color to the llama image. He was stamped on the heavy weight whisper white card stock so I could have a smooth stamp and water color a bit too.  The stamping was done in black stazon, accented in emerald envy with the rope and blanket.  I colored some with the water color pencils and brushed the color around.

Where did that little hat come from?  I dug into the No Bones About It set, the ones with the dinosaurs and so funny sentiments, and there it was.  The perfect size for the perfect llama. And now he is ready to party, as much as a llama can.  How adorable, right?

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Here’s to Another Year Full of Adventures!

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

That sounds like a perfect theme for the year, doesn’t it?  Well, it also makes one great statement for a birthday card.  I made this card along with yesterday’s project so they definitely go together.

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I wanted to use both sides of the designer series paper just to see the differences.  The polka dots were a bit more whimsy with this side definitely leaning towards the masculine side. This new candle border punch could keep me busy for days!  Doesn’t it give such a great look both inside and out?  I had to restrain myself from keeping all of the punched pieces to build little candles on other things.  Another time perhaps.

I kept the stamping light as well as the water coloring.  Just one color here, delightful dijon, and I love the simplicity of it.  I did have to tie some metallic thread though, it needed it.  When I looked at the stamping I wanted a bit more with some of the words, so I had a couple of ideas.  I colored in the ‘another year’ portion with the daffodil delight water color pencil, it matched great!  I also went over the ‘full’ portion with the gold wink of stella brush pen and loved it.

I did distress the water coloring a bit with water drops, just can’t help myself sometimes.  I do what I love and I love what I do.  Can’t wait to try this one again.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

No One Deserves a Happier Birthday

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

No one deserves a happier birthday than you.  Wouldn’t you feel special getting a birthday card that said that?  Absolutely!  I tend to make a bigger deal out of other people’s birthday than my own, but don’t we all?  I am trying to build up my birthday card stash, it has seriously been neglected.

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What a great way to get going again though, right?  This stamp and thinlit bundle is just the best.  I love how it also coordinates with the balloon bouquet punch, perfectly.  It is awesome to have new product work with old, especially punches.  I didn’t mind my inside work very well and had a couple of learning opportunities, several actually.  I made creative decisions after I had adhered the pop-up to the card base.  Not my best idea, but I wanted to make changes.  I also didn’t get the thinlit totally straight on the paper, so my card doesn’t fold as flat as I would like, but I don’t think I will get judged for it.

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All kinds of layers here and a touch of painting.  The background paper is from a designer series paper pack that is quite masculine.  I love using product as intended, and then trying it out totally different.  These lovely dots work either way.  It made a fun card with the ability to be for a man or woman, even a really cool teenager would like it.  Win win!

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I couldn’t get this blog done this morning, I just ran out of time before work!  No biggie, afternoons are a great time to share too, right?

Have a creative day!

Moana

Crazy Cake with Balloon Adventures

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Birthday cards are just the best!  This totally adorable stamp set builds one great cake, don’t you think?  And this card only shows about half of the stamps.  I love, love, love it!

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The three bottom layers were done with two stamps.  Good thing they are photopolymer, or totally clear, for super easy placement.  There is no way I would be this patient or exact without great stamps like that.  And yes, the top stamp is a set of three candles that I stamped a little flame for each one.  Normally I don’t go for all the extra work, but I loved it and it was so easy!  Easy enough that I included this project in the lineup for this weekends workshop.

The embossing folder is another new product from the spring catalog.  It is shown with a bunch of manly stuff, and it is manly of course, but I loved it here too.  My daughter thought I should be stamping bees because it reminded her of a honeycomb.  Cute idea!

The sentiment is from another great birthday stamp set called Balloon Adventures.  Also from the spring catalog, but it has a great trick of its own.  That will be for another blog project for sure.  I stamped on a strip of cardstock and put the triple banner punch to work. Of course I had to layer it as well.  What is with me and layers these days?  Oh well!

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I couldn’t resist.  I had to stamp all along the inside with those darn candles again.  And I didn’t even mind stamping all of the little flames.  I am telling you, it really was fun!

Have a creative day!

Moana

It’s Your Birthday!

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Shaker cards are so much fun, and they really are quite trendy in card making.  I finally broke down and had my card ladies make one for one of our workshop projects this last weekend.  They did great!

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Of course it helps when you have a great stamp set to work with.  This set has a few fun combinations that fit perfectly with this style.  Cutting out the window was made super easy with the layering squares framelits.  I don’t mind fussy cutting things out, but I would rather not.  It also kept the edges nice an clean.  Now we have a card that is neutral enough for anyone, yet fun for most ages.  Great project!

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Have a creative day!

Moana

We Age Not by Years, but by Stories

~ moanaj ~ 1 Comment

Well, I survived the first couple of days back to school.  Time to get other things back into place as well.  Seems like there isn’t enough time for the fun things.  I will just have to sneak it in when I can.  Like this little project.

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I opened a new dsp stack and found a bunch of great paper.  One side is a variety of printed photo images and the other is designer paper.  I intended on using a distressed wood pattern, but looked on the other side and found this one.  It reminded me of a stamp in my new Fresh Fruit set and the project was on its way.

I created a coordinating piece of white card stock double stamping the swirly circles in pool party.  I thought that was pretty cool.  Then I stamped two sentiment parts and layered the lot of them.  A simple arrangement stuck together and then raised up all together on dimensionals.  With a little bit of stamping inside as well, of course.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Happiest of Birthdays to You

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

Who doesn’t need a simple, yet lovely, birthday card?  It is always useful to have one on hand for those last minute gifts, or even the birthday you forgot.  I keep a few cards on hand at all times, you just never know.  I recently got to share creating a simple card with my daughter-in-love and it was the best.  This is yet another one of the cards I made to rebuild the stash I gave her.  She loves using them, and now making them.  Woo hooo!

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The paper is lovely, the sentiment sweet, layered tags are one of my favorite, but this ribbon.  It is so beautiful.  It has texture yet shines, is thick but ties beautiful bows and knots, and the colors are the best.  I normally don’t go through my ribbons too quickly, I try to make them last.  But these won’t with me, I see having to replace them sooner than later.

Having great tools and beautiful paper really makes quick work of a card like this.  One layer of designer series paper layered on a piece of crumb cake card stock, a ribbon tied in a bow around it, and then raised up on dimensionals on the coordinating card base.  The tag was stamped and die cut super quick and layered up again.  The inside has a clean piece of very vanilla and that makes it complete.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Happy Birthday

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

When you have beautiful paper you really don’t need to worry about much else.  This particular specialty designer series paper is exceptionally beautiful.  Truly beautiful.

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What does that mean for this card?  You don’t really need much else.  I kept the copper theme going along and embossed the outline and happy birthday sentiment.  Then, the coordinating die cut from the rose garden thinlits set made it very easy.  A few loops of copper metallic thread off to the side and this project was done.  So elegant with all of the foil and copper.  It will be enjoyed I am sure.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

My Happy Day

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday was my birthday, and it was most certainly my happy day.  I made this project with that in mind.  Using my favorite go to ideas and things that make me happy.  Water coloring is awesome, both intricate and simple cards, and a myriad of other projects all bring me joy.  However, there is nothing more satisfying than a beautiful crisp gift box or bag.  I love making and sharing these, they really do bring me joy.  So I indulged myself a little bit here.

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Using an entire piece of designer series paper goes against my “make it last” mentality, but it was my birthday after all.  So I pulled out a piece that I loved and created just what I wanted.  I like to maximize the height so it can hold more of whatever I have in mind.  This one did get a bit of switching around.  The top of the bag needed to have enough space to hold the large ribbon and bow I had in mind, so it ended up losing just a touch of volume, but it was well worth it.

This ribbon though…it is so very nice.  It looks great in a knot, a simple bow, and creates lovely larger bows just like this.  While I may hesitate using my paper, I do not hold back using ribbon.  I love large bows and could put them on everything.  Something I learned from my mother to be certain.  In a workshop situation I wouldn’t go this large, my ladies would just get frustrated trying to make it pretty.  Can’t have that, but since this was for me, I let it slide a bit.  Then of course a simple layered circle tag set, stamped off once and sponged around the edges.

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Again, my favorite types of things.  Second only to sharing them that is.  The bow of course can just slide off so the box can be filled easily and used again.  I always try to make my gift bags and boxes that way.  They are too lovely to be used just once.  So, I make sure the recipient knows how easy it is to re-gift them.

Have a creative day!

Moana

Happiest of Birthdays!

~ moanaj ~ 2 Comments

Birthday cards for children are so fun to make.  I guess you wouldn’t have to put an age limit on these though, my oldest daughter would think they are just right.  Either way, these two bright and cheery cards will bring smiles to some darling little girls.

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I used to make two cards at a time to show them differently, but I kind of got away from that.  I have had a request for some birthday cards and though it would serve well to make more than one.  I certainly had fun though.  I used a new stamp set and a couple of older ones that hadn’t come off the shelf for a while.

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I was struggling a bit with the birthday block letters for a while until I decided to sponge the edges.  Sometimes the oldest techniques are the best.  I also did a bit of stamping off to get the different tones.  All of the shades were done from one ink pad.  The lighter rectangles were stamped off twice and the darker were stamped off once.  The letters were done full strength.  I do like these letters for sure.

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Have a creative day!