Happy Maculine Birthday!

  The beginning of the week is always busy for me trying to get organized after a lazy weekend but I was able to finish a card last night and work on a few more this morning while both boys were at school.  It's amazing how much more creative I feel when I have a quiet house.  I'm not the only one like this am I?  So while I felt productive with the mundane aspects of life I also felt productive in the card making area too.  Win win for all! 

  Here is the card I finished last night.  It's for my father-in-law's birthday.  I don't think he's into checking out stamping blogs so I think it will still be a surprise when he opens it.   The sketch is from HERE at Create With Connie & Mary.  I should remember to go back and look at the actual sketch before starting my card....usually I just grab a scrap of paper and jot down the challenge or draw the sketch.  I didn't get my layers quite right on my notes....the little banner should be under the circle panel.  Oh well.  I always say a challenge is just a jumping off point so I guess I used my creative license on this one.  The colors I saw HERE on Color Q.  I thought they were perfect for a masculine fall birthday.  What do you think??

  The card base is 4.25 x 4.25 in Soft Suede.  I used strips of Pumpkin Pie (I don't know why it looks so yellow in this photo! I think I need to work on my photo editing skills but that would mean taking time away from stamping...who wants to have less stamping time?  Not me!), Cherry Cobbler and Island Indigo and ran them through the Big Shot with the Square Lattice embossing folder. 

  I used the Circles #2 die to cut the largest circle out of Very Vanilla.  I used my markers to color the "Happy Birthday" stamp from Delightful Dozen so I could get all the colors at one time.  This is a fabulous stamp set that covers all the basic holidays and occasions.  I would definitely suggest this set if you're looking for one that has different fonts and some of the sentiments are larger so you can easily use them on their own like I did with today's card and also this Christmas card.  This particular birthday stamp is great because you have 7 birthday greetings on one stamp.  Just use a marker to ink up whichever one you want to use.

  I added a few fun touches to the focal circle.  Since it's a guy card and I can't dress it up with ribbon I added some hardware.  I stamped another birthday greeting from Bring on the Cake onto Soft Suede and made a quick banner (I'm into those lately aren't I??) attached with a Pumpkin Pie brad.  Since the large stamp is not symmetrical there was a blank space on the right side that was bothering me.  I finally decided to stamp and punch out the "6" and "5" from another stamp in the Bring on the Cake set and held them on the circle with a mini library clip. And of course the whole mess is popped on dimensionals.

  Tomorrow I have my first (of many I'm sure) parent teacher conferences.  I better rest up!  Hopefully the teacher thinks Ryan is as smart as I think he is!  =)

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?


Stamps: Delightful Dozen, Bring on the Cake

Ink: Soft Suede, Island Indigo, Cherry Cobbler, Pumpkin Pie (markers)

Paper: Soft Suede, Island Indigo, Cherry Cobbler, Pumpkin Pie, Very Vanilla

Accessories: Circles #2 die, Square Lattice embossing folder, mini library clip, brad, dimensionals, circle punch