Dramatic Birthday Card

I know this is probably the oddest, least festive birthday card ever.... BUT.... My future daughter-in-law is a theater teacher and I am hopeful that this birthday card will appeal to the artsy, theatrical side of her personality.

I used Graphic45 papers on this card.  There are actually two lines of Graphic 45 represented here, but as both are black, white and tan, I felt that they worked well together.

I used Cricut Design Studio with George and Basic Shapes and Base Camp to create this card.  The Happy Birthday tag was created with Base Camp and stamped with a Stampin' Up stamp.  Otherwise, every other element on the card was created with geometric shapes in George.   

The theater comedy and tragedy masks are oval shapes from George with a moon shape cut out of the top.  I used a pen and craft knife to draw and cut the eyes and mouth shapes. I cut the mask bottoms in the mime print cardstock. I cut one mask in the white and black print cardstock, which I cut in half and fashioned the facial features for the masks.

I added a wide black ribbon with a bow around the card and then I added a smaller black print ribbon to attach the tag.  I like the tiny safety pin which attaches the tag to the bow.

Inside the card I used black ink and a generic Happy Birthday stamp I picked up at Hobby Lobby.   And below you can get one more view of the bottom front of the card.

Thanks for stopping by today.  It was nasty hot here today and I am sooo looking forward to the end of this summer and some cooler weather.  Ironically we had one of our coldest winters ever last winter and now this nasty-hot summer.  What can we say?  Thank you, La Nina. 

Gnome Birthday Fun with BBTB2

Happy Monday!  Welcome to another Bitten by the Bug 2 weekly challenge!  This week's challenge cut was selected by my design team sister, the lovely Theresa Kelly, and  is any Gnome from the Freshly Picked cartridge.  I decided to have a bit of birthday fun with the Gnomes - creating this Gnome Pyramid birthday card.  The design for this card was inspired (and by inspired I mean ripped-off) from my friend Donna Mundinger's FABULOUS Penguin Card, which can be found here at her blog and  here at Custom Crops with design studio cut file and complete instructions.  Donna is one of THE MOST AMAZING paper crafters E-V-E-R... and I am thrilled to be able to say I know her! 

This card features six Gnomes each dressed in his favorite summer party outfit!  And just as we women match our shoes and purses (in an ideal world!), the Gnomes have matching hats, belts and shoes.  The well dressed Gnome likes for his outfit to coordinate!  The Gnome faces were stamped in light brown ink with Peachy Keen stamps.  A cherry Copic marker was used to highlight their lips. Their beards were cut in white cardstock, then heat embossed with white with touches of grey embossing powder.  Their ensembles were finished with tiny pom-poms at the top of their hats.

I used three cartridges to cut this card, Freshly Picked, George and Basic Shapes, and Christmas Cheer.  The banner above was cut from Christmas Cheer, then stamped with a rubber stamp from Michaels. 
The photo below is a screen shot of the card top in Cricut Design Studio.  I welded the six Gnome shadows together in a pyramid shape, adding birthday gifts from Christmas cheer.  I cut this layer in red, affixed it to the base card, and built the card front on top of this layer.

Below is the inside of the card.  You can see the red base cut (above) is the upside down red layer in the photo below.  I attached the red layer to the open cut triangle top.

The base card was created using George and Basic Shapes.  I sized and welded to triangles together, then inserted a NON-welded triangle into the middle of the top layer.  This created the cut out so that the blue swirl print shows through the holes in the front of the card.

I used metallic cardstocks to cut the packages and the belt buckles.  I finished the card by using pop dots to attach Happy Birthday banner!
 

Thanks for stopping by today.  Be sure to head over to Bitten by the Bug 2 and check out all of the designer's awesome projects!  And, if you have time, please consider playing along with us this week!!

Birthday Cake Card for BBTB2

Happy Monday and happy Memorial Day to those in the USA.  You may have arrived here from fabulous Theresa's blog if you are following the monthly Bitten by the Bug 2 blog hop.  If you are just dropping by, continue on the blog hop when you leave my blog - after you enter the BLOG CANDY giveaway.  This week's challenge cut at Bitten by the Bug 2 is  the birthday cake from the Celebrations cartridge.  I love this birthday cake - it is one of my favorite cake cuts.  And even though there are newer birthday cartridges, I still love this "go to" original Cricut birthday cartridge!

I designed my card in Cricut Design Studio, welding two of the cake shadow cuts to create the base card and cut the card in aqua Bazzill cardstock.  I used the Hide Select Contour feature and removed the cut space inside the tray legs on the the shadow, creating a solid, one piece shadow cut.  Using Imaginisce B-day Bash line I cut a base layer in chocolate birthday candle cardstock.  I build the rest of the cake on the chocoate birthday candle layer.

The top layers of the cake was created in three layers: back layer in lime green Core'dination cardstock, main cake layer in Imaginisce B-day Bash cardstock, and gold tray layer cut in metallic cardstock.  After affixing the three laters together I tied a length of red Imaginisce ribbon around the cake and added the Happy Birthday phase (cut from the Batman cartridge) to the front of the cake.  I then used pop dots and attached the cake to the base card.

I cut the background cake layer in smooth white cardstock and affixed it inside the card and added another Happy Birthday cut.  This is the perfect surface the shape on which to write a personal birthday message.
To finish the front of the card I added two of the three candles from the cake cut.  I also added an Imaginisce cardstock embellishment birthday cake to the top of the cricut cake - turning my cake into a four tiered cake!!  The cake was then blinged out with various sizes of gems.

Did I mention BLOG CANDY and blog hop???  Thanks to the AMAZING CUSTOM CROPS I have wonderful blog candy to offer you!  How about a $20 gift voucher for shopping at Custom Crops???  I would love that so I bet you would too!  All you have to do to be entered into the random drawing for the blog candy is

1. Be a follower of this blog, and

2. Leave a comment under this post.  

I will be posting the winner on Thursday.

When you finish the blog hop you may want to hop by Custom Crops and check out all of their new in stock items.  You may also be interested in their DVD, Cricut for Beginners, a wonderful DVD which teaches you to use all of the features on your Cricut.

Now that you have enjoyed (??) my blog post, you have become a blog follower, left your comment below and taken note of the Custom Crops it is time to continue on to the next stop on the blog hop.  You are off to see the lovely Penny of PenniAnnie's. Enjoy the rest of the blog hop and if you have not already done so, please drop by Bitten by the Bug 2 look at all of the design team projects.

Toy Story's Woody Birthday Card

Hey there cowpokes!  I have a rootin' tootin' third birthday card for Carter, my adorable nephew to share with you today.  Carter really likes his rocking horse and his cowboy hat, not to mention his addiction to Toy Story, so this card is perfect for him.

Some of you may recall that when I made a Woody layout for Carter's scrapbook I forgot to look at the photo of Woody and I "sort-of" dressed him in his laundry day outfit.  I got it together this time and checked the photo before cutting.  My only edit was to change his shirt from yellow plaid to yellow with dots.  

My issue with this particular Woody, other than all of those teeny-tiny pieces, is the make up job.  I hope Carter understands that Aunt Susan was a bit heavy handed with Woody's stage make up!

I chose a few coordinating pieces of cardstock from my scraps to use a layered embellishments.  I added brads to the center of the design on the brown print.  I used a Stampin' Up happy birthday stamp on the aqua wood grain cardstock.

Inside the card I used Theresa Collins phrase/word stamps that came in a three sheet set from HSN.  I love this set because it has so many useful words and phrases for so many occasions.

I have completed a 12x12 scrapbook full of fun layouts and cute Carter photos to send for Carter's birthday party later this week.  I had forgotten how fun it is to scrap for a younger child.  Alas, maybe someday I will have grandchildren to scrap for!!

Happy Birthday Card to Wrap Up a Fun Week

What a week it has been!  The only think that could possibly top Cricut's 5th Birthday Party and release of the Expression 2 was a Royal Wedding!  I may need the weekend to recover from this fun, fun week.  I thought I would wrap up the week with a fun birthday card.

The card was created using Imaginesce cardstock and chipboard stickers, the I-Top tool, Stampin' Up stamps, and a Stampin' Up punch.   I really like the bright and festive look of this card.  The cake and present chipboard stickers really pop off of the brown cardstock on the cover, but then I took the card to the next step.  I added a stamped and punch tag, color coordinating flowers, and an I-Top brad. 

I like the fold of the card.  Begin with a 12" strip of cardstock.  Fold the cardstock in half.  Then fold the top half of the card in half again, folding back toward the fold.  You will create an uneven Z fold.  You then attach a small rectangle to the top half of the card.  The photo above shows this fold far better than I could possibly explain it to you.

The top of the card pulls to the left to open.  Inside the card I stamped Happy Birthday again and left plenty of space to write a personalized message.