No Time To Stamp?

Today is the 20th, and on the 20th of each month the Dirty Girls, both current and alumni, participate in a challenge among themselves.  I haven’t played for so many months, and was so happy to be able to play along today!   The challenge this month is to:

1. Make a birthday card
2. Include numbers on your card
3. Do NOT use the word *birthday* on your card

Well, it’ll be fun to see what everyone comes up with — here’s mine:

Well, I met all the requirements, though I’m not so sure a casual observer would realize this IS a birthday card; however, anyone receiving this on their birthday would certainly *get it* — LOL!!!

It’s another super simple card — it’s 5.5″ square, the numbers are Cuttlebug embossed, and the sentiment, I think, is appropriate for a birthday, and the greeting of *Best Wishes* stands in place of *Happy Birthday*!  My sentiment is one of the centers included in the Harmony Classic Circle Stamper III  ensemble by JustRite.  If you’ll remember from my previous posts, that is the 3.25″ circle wood mount stamper.  It comes with 6 interchangeable borders and 6 centers, and this is one of the centers.  To keep the size down for today’s card I chose NOT to use the border, only the center — options, options — I love it!  I then cut and embossed this sentiment (which includes this gorgeous butterfly) with my Petite Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinders; however, if you look at this image, I could just as easily have used a square, rectangle or oval Nestability or punch — again, options, options!!!  Once my circle was matted in black, then matted again in a scalloped blue, I further accented it by piercing holes into the scallops — fun!!!  My butterfly is colored with Copics and  then gone over with a Clear Spica Glitter pen — wish the camera would have picked up the nice delicate sparkle on  her wings!!!

• Stamps:  Harmony Classic Circle Stamper III by JustRite (shipping in September, but available as a pre-order NOW from JustRite) and Sincere Salutations by SU
• Paper:  White, Black, Bashful Blue, Bashful Blue Prints DP from SU
• Ink:  Versa Fine Onyx Black, Copics to Color
• Accessories:  Sheer Ribbon, Brad, Cuttlebug and Embossing Folder, Petite Circle Nestabilites by Spellbinders, Piercer, Mat Pack, Mounting Squares

If you’d like to check out all the other uploads coming into this fun challenge, the keyword is DCB808.  They will be uploading all day long, so check back often!!!  Can’t wait to see what they all do!!!

Now, I’m off to do some shopping and I’ll even be able to hit a Michael’s, and for me — that’s a real treat!!!  Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday!!!  As always, thanks so much for stopping in — I love knowing that you were here!!!

Today is my Dad’s 77th birthday.  Happy Birthday, Dad!!!  I made this birthday card for him using the 95 pt. Times New Roman font, with some 50 pt. letters thrown into the mix.  JustRite has their Harmony Rectangle Stamper coming out in September, but I just couldn’t wait any longer, so I made due with what I had to accomplish what will soon be so easy with the new Harmony Rectangle Stamper.  Here’s my card:

My card is 5.5″ square.

• Stamps:  Times New Roman Font by JustRite
• Paper:  SU Black, Wal-Mart Ivory, Crafty Secrets HVC Earthy Pad
• Ink:  Versa Fine Onyx Black
• Accessories:  Petite Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinders, SU Key Tag Punch, Piercer and Mat Pack, Sewing Machine and Thread, Mounting Squares

The layout is from Jen Del Muro’s Sketch for You to Try.  I flipped the sketch on its side, but did follow it exactly — what a great and fun sketch to play with.  As you can see all of my panels are text or numbers (JustRite Times New Roman font),  interest being added by the use of various shapes, stitches and pierced holes.  To create my Happy Birthday, I combined 95 pt. and 50 pt. font (Times New Roman).  This panel was sewn into place with a sewing machine. The DAD is punched with SU’s Key Tag Punch, so this gives you a visual of how large these 95 pt. letters are — they are 7/8″ high. The 77 was punched and embossed with a Circle Nestability by Spellbinders.  I intentionally did not center the numbers on the circle as I wanted room beneath for the pierced line, just for a bit of interest.  I put a little piece of black paper behind the pierced holes so they would show black.

JustRite currently has 3 different fonts available, with 2 new fonts being added once the shipment arrives in September (though they are available for pre-order now!).  The fonts are also now packaged in nice, stackable trays for easy storage and retrieval.    Trompe, one of the new fonts coming soon, is pictured above, in the new storage trays.  And in each box of font purchased, 3 different sizes are included, giving you so many options.  Below is a side view of the storage trays so you can see how handy they are:

And one thing I am so excited about is the new Harmony Rectangle Stamper that is coming soon as well.  Sure could have used it for this project, but I made due with what I had and I’ll show you both.  First, to see the new Harmony Rectangle Stamper, you can see it and check out this fabulous project by Debbie Olson.  She used one of the new fonts, Brayton, on her project.  The large size of the Harmony Rectangle Stampers will allow us to create sentiments of our own, easily getting them evenly spaced and straight.  It can’t get much easier!!!  But, in the absence of the Harmony Rectangle Stamper, here’s what I did to accomplish the same thing. 

I just snapped my letters into the storage tray, or using the older gridded rubber the letters come on also works (probably better than the trays).  But, it got the job done!  And, as you can see, I changed my mind and rather than combining two different fonts I went with the same font but in two different sizes for my card.

Over the next couple days I’m going to be working on some Christmas projects and kitchen type goodies using JustRite’s new large Classic Stampers!!!  I’m so anxious to dig in and play!!!  All new JustRite product is available for pre-order at the JustRite site.

That’s it for today!!!  We are still enjoying beautiful weather here - hope you are as well, wherever you might be!!! As always, thank you so much for stopping in!  Hope to see you again soon!

Celebrate Who:     Jan Marie — the original Flourish!

Celebrate What:    Her birthday!

Celebrate When:   All day Monday, February 25, 2008

Celebrate Where:   In the Flourishes Forum at SCS

How to Play:  On Monday, February 25, upload any card or item made with ANY stamp by Flourishes.  Use the keyword:  fllcjanmariesbirthday  Then post a link to your project in the Flourishes Forum at SCS.  This is especially important if you are posting to your Blog only and not SCS.  Without linking in the Flourishes Forum at SCS, no one will find you. 

What You Can Win: Throughout the day on Monday, Jan Marie will be doing random drawings for small prizes, and there will be a lot!!! Then on Tuesday, she will make selections for the big prizes.  The big prizes are:

1 Xyron 900
1 Nestabilities-Standard Classic Circles
1 Nestabilities-Classic Scallop Circles-LG
A pair of Fiskar scissors engraved with Flourishes,LLC
Various Flourishes,llc stamp sets

Now are these great prizes, or what!!! Gosh, wish I was eligible to enter!!!  But I made a cake anyway to wish Jan Marie a Happy Birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAN!!!  HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT ONE!!!

This card was made with Cake Decorating 101.  I paper pieced the cake on Two Scoops paper and the plate and stand on Prism paper.  The white base card is Cuttlebug embossed with the new Swiss Dots folder, as is the upper portion of the main image base, which was cut and embossd on a Rectangle Nesabilities Die by Spellbinders.  The main image panel is then framed with a Scallop Nestabilites Die.  I just added a sentiment panel, some pretty organdy ribbon and I was done!!!!  A simple, but pretty, birthday cake!!  Oops!  Almost forgot — all the swirlies on the cake itself were gone over with a variety of Spica Glitter Pens — it is sooooo pretty IRL!

This card was also made for the Featured Stamper Challenge posted for Sunday, and this week the Feaured Stamper is Mary Jo Albright — love her work.  Here is here little ATC. I used her basic layout with a few minor changes.  It was the perfect layout for my cake!!! Thanks so much, Mary Jo!!!

• Stamps:  Cake Decorating 101 by Flourishes
• Paper:  PTI White, Prism Prismatics Perfect Baby Pink, Basic Grey Two Scoops DP
• Ink:  Versa Mark and Versa Fine Onyx Black, Spica Glitter Pens
• Accessories:  White Embossing Powder, Flower, Brad, Organdy, Ticket Corner Punch, Rectangle Nestability Dies by Spellbinders, Cuttlebug and Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Mini Glue Dots, Dimensionals, Pop Dot, Mounting Tape

Thanks much for looking — now go and break out your Flourishes stamps and enter to win — there are a LOT of prizes!!! You just might be one of the lucky ones!!!  I’m working on a fun Cuttlebug gift pack of cards in a box using the new seashell embossing folder, a little folder with a sand dollar and SU’s new Seaside (shell) set.  Fun!!!  They should be up tomorrow, if all goes well!!!

Just a quick post tonight — this is a card I did for my hostess club ladies to do this week, showcasing one the the SAB sets, Birthday Whimsy.  Love how quick and easy it is to produce a card with this set by paper piecing.  Also, I used the layout of my last Friday’ challenge, which was this fun and easy sketch by Leslie Miller.  And although Wild Wasabi was the least favorite of the new colors for me this year, it has really grown on me.  I find it pairs up so well with so many of the colors.  Here I’m using it again with Soft Sky — just love that combo!  Here’s my card:

The Designer Paper used is Spring Silhouettes.  The background is stamped tone on tone Soft Sky with the Floral background stamp.  Again, the layout is from Leslie Miller, as used in my ssnotime22 challenge.  The cake was first stamped on the white panel with Soft Sky, then stamped again on a white scrap with Wild Wasabi ink and cut out, then mounted on the panel over the Soft Sky cake with Dimensionals.  However, just for fun, and because my Cuttlebug was out, I ran the green cake through the Cuttelbug after I cut it out,  before adhering it.  It gives a fun texure to the cake!  The cake plate was lightly colored with a Soft Sky reinker and an aquapainter.  The cake panel is mounted onto the card, over the ribbon, with mounting tape.

• Stamps:  Birthday Whimsy, Floral (background)
• Paper:  Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White, Spring Silhouettes DP
• Ink:  Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi, Black Stazon, So Saffron Marker (for flames)
• Accessories:  Ribbon, Glue Pen, Dazzling Diamonds (the flames) , Aquapainter (the cake plate), Mounting Tape.

Thanks much for looking!!!  Should get another SU sample up tomorrow!