Birthday Card Making – Paper Smooches Nine Lives Card Idea – Vicky Papaioannou Inspired

This card I made for my cowgirl friend’s sister. They both have birthdays in February. Similarly to the previous card post, I was strapped for time and so once again fell back on Vicky Papaionnou to inspire me with her creations. This was another card I’ve been wanted to make. I didn’t have the ‘My Minds Eye’ paper pack that Vicky uses but I still had my go to papers, the Lawn Fawn Hello Sunshine 6 x 6 paper pack.

I really liked this card because it was simple and came together really quickly, but as well as that it was a way to use up some scraps that had been accumulating. I used a scrap piece of grey pattern paper with a polkadot pattern and stamped the adorable cat stamp from the Paper Smooches Nine Lives stamp set. I shaded him using my Gunmetal Grey Derwent Studio pencil. I stamped the cat again onto a scrap of white card stock and used Memento ink pens in black and red to colour the mouth and then I adhered it. He’s so cute and happy!

Using some scraps I had a wider piece of blue pattern paper already the perfect size for the card. I cut two strips of the yellow ‘hello sunshine’ paper and then using the Fiskars scallop border punch I punched a scallop border on two scrap strips of pink pattern paper. One of the borders I punched wonky, but it’s not to bad and the other side the punch had a hiccup and so a bit of the white paper showed through. I used my finger nail to tuck it under and hide it away after it was adhered to the card.

Speaking of adhering things to the card. I had to use black card stock as I have run out of white card stock but I think if anything the black enhances the colour as they’re so drastically bright in comparison and so the colours really stand out, in my opinion.

Once I had it adhered down I used Rangers Heat It Embossing Ink and I stamped the milk bottles, fish bones and bowls onto the blue strip. I possibly should have done it in sections as I was having trouble seeing where I had stamped, and better yet should have done it on the blue strip before adhering it on the card as I heat set some spots onto the black background of the card accidentally, but I that’s all hindsight and I was rushed! I used WOW white embossing powder and the Heat It Craft Tool to emboss and heat set.

Once the embossing was complete, including the sentiment ‘have a purrrfect day’, I used some stickles glitter to fill in the milk bottles. I cut the sentiment into a ribbon shape (I can never get the triangles equal) and then I adhered the cute kitty cat and the sentiment ribbon using foam squares. I was super pleased with the outcome and I really love the look of this card.

Just like the previous unicorn card, I’d love to recreate this card with a few variations. If struggling through my mistakes, this was a fun card to make.

Link to Vicky Papaioannou’s Clips-n-Cuts website; the inspiration for this card:
http://www.clips-n-cuts.com/2013/03/how-to-video-and-giveaway/

Birthday Card Making – Paper Smooches Spectrum – Vicky Papaioannou Inspired

This card I made for my cowgirl friend for her birthday and I wanted to do something really clean, simple and pretty for her. I’ve been so flat out recently because I’ve been sick and with work and trying to catch up, etc, etc, etc. I just haven’t had much time for anything so I didn’t want to waste too much time being creative. Or I should say, I would have liked to have ‘wasted’ a lot of time being creative but I didn’t have the luxury.

Vicky Papaioannou is incredibly creative and inspirational and a card she created I have actually wanted to try to recreate and so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity as I can make a quick card, under guidance, for my girlfriend and so save time and still make something pretty and I also get to try a little project. Feel free to check out Vicky’s blog as I’ve put a link at the end of this post.

I started with a plain white card and then I cut a rectangle from pink pattern paper using the second biggest Lawn Fawn Large Stitched Rectangles Die so that there would be plenty of white space. The pink pattern paper is from the Lawn Fawn Hello Sunshine paper pad, my go to for birthday cards.

I then stamped the unicorn and one large and one small cloud from the Paper Smooches Spectrum stamp set and fussy cut them out.

I traced over the lines with the Memento tuxedo black pen to darken the lines and really make them pop. I stamped the ‘you’re awesome’ sentiment on the front. I had stupidly adhered the pattern paper with foam squares already so the ‘u’r’ & ‘eso’ didn’t stamp so I had flip the card and try and press that part in without making a mess. Unfortunately I made a bit of smudge in the middle of the pink pattern paper so I positioned the unicorn’s nose over the smudge to hide it. Once I was happy with the position of the clouds and the unicorn I took them back off and coloured them in.

I love these Derwent Studio pencils. My father brought them for me for my birthday. The photo shows all the colours I used on the unicorn. I used the Gunmental grey to make the clouds look a little puffier. I drew a tiny heart onto a scrap piece of white card stock and coloured it in using Geranium Lake.

I am, similar to Vicky, addicted to the Wink of Stella Glitter Pens. I glittered up the heart and the entirety of the unicorn and then I used some stickles to add a bit of extra glitter to the tail and horn and a dabbed a few spots on the haunch. I was really happy with how quickly it came together and how cute and simple it looks. I would love to remake this card and do a few variation cards.

Link to Vicky Papaioannou’s Clips-n-Cuts website; the inspiration for this card:
http://www.clips-n-cuts.com/2014/03/awesome/

Birthday Card Making – Paper Smooches 9 Lives & Lawn Fawn Hello Sunshine Idea

This card I slapped together for a co-worker’s birthday. It didn’t turn out exactly as I had hoped, but I think the finished result still looks fun and happy. I used papers from the Lawn Fawn Hello Sunshine card pack.

I cut the multi-coloured spot paper to fit within the card dimensions as the main background then using scrap papers. I cut strips to make the middle orange and blue stripes and I cut balloon shapes. I used Ranger Inkessentials Glossy Accents on the ballons to try and give them a bit more interest and dimension. The paper just kind of curled and looked weird though, haha.

I adhered the balloons to the orange strip of paper and drew the strings in a stitch pattern using a white gel pen. I used a versamark embossing ink pen to write ‘Happy Birthday’ on another scrap bit of paper and then I used embossing powder and heat set the powder with a Heat It Craft Tool.

The happy, cheeky cat is stamp from the Paper Smooches 9 Lives stamp set. I stamped him onto the orange pattern paper and I also stamped his face onto white card stock. I cut the eyes and teeth from the white card stock then adhered it over the orange pattern paper. I adhered the cat using foam squares. I think the cat really ties the card together and makes it look like he’s let the balloons go by running past them.

This was a good card to use up scraps and I’m really surprised by how many cards a 6×6 paper pack can make!