Vintage Green Birthday; Card

A little teaser of the card I made earlier today.  Yeah, still fighting with the internet.  Gotta love it!  It's teaching me how to have patience, and good old fashion reading from a book.  {smile}

Us ladies at work, are throwing a birthday party for one of our co-workers.  And, I was asked to make a card.  Me? Easy peasy!

I went to one of my favorite sketch challenge sites to help get the creative juices flowing:  Mojo Monday.  The sketches these ladies create are just so easy to work with.  And the design team will not disappoint you, they will inspire you!

here is the current sketch:

I did flip the sketch, so the star element is on the right side, instead of the left.

Here is what I crafted!

Once again, I used crafting supplies I already had on hand.  I originally started with a pink and green pattern papers.  But, something just didn't look 'right'.  So, I decided not to fight with it, and look at other options.  The pattern paper is Stella Rose.  I used three different papers, but four patterns.  The butterflies are the flip side of the dark wood grain pattern paper.

I used my favorite kraft card stock by Paper Studio.  This card is 6" x 4 1/4".  And uses an A6 envelope.  I layered the pattern papers, sponged the edges, and distressed.  

I used the Tasteful Trim die from Stampin' Up! to create that beautiful scallop piece.  I added a scrap piece of a delicate cream and gold lace trim to the scallop piece.  

For the star element, I used a teal paper flower.  I tucked a simple bow tied with Aqua Mist satin ribbon, by Paper Trey Ink.  

I added a trio of tiny vintage buttons is cream, aqua mist, and linen.  I tied a simple knot with kraft twine.

For the sentiment, I stamped 'Birthday Wishes' from the Watercolor Trio stamp set, in Baked Brown Sugar classic ink.  I hand cut the banner end.  I layered the cream card stock onto a scrap piece of kraft card stock, and adhered it to the top left corner of the butterfly pattern paper.

a different view

I hope our friend and co-worker likes her card, and our little party.  She is really sweet, easy to talk to, has your back, and is always willing to help you with whatever comes along.

Well, let me get this posted while I still have working internet {smile}.

Spring Roses

A dear girlfriend is celebrating her birthday this week.  And, yeah, she is pretty crafty.  In fact, she taught me how to do scrapbook pages.  So, I really want to make her something special.  I created a card and box combination.  That way, one creation does two jobs.

To help get my mojo working, I visited a few different challenge sites, to see what their challenges are this week.  I really needed a starting point: a color combo, a sketch, and a technique or embellishment requirement.  And here is what I found: the Shabby Tea Room (#166),  Mojo Monday (#293), and Just Us GirlS challenge (#188).

color combo:  pink and green

(and include a sewing element):

a button and machine stitching

the sketch:

rotated veritcle

a technique:

(use white ink)

white craft ink and white paint

and here is what I made:

Wow, so where do I start, with my notes.  These card-box combos are alot of fun to create.  You create a card, add on a box, and let you gift 'shine' {smile}.  This template was purchased here.

The card/box base is Vanilla cardstock.  I used Paper Trey Ink cardstock.  It's a heavier weight than Stampin' Up!, because I needed a heavy weight cardstock to hold up to the layers.

We'll start with the front.  I rotated the sketch 90 degrees, so it would be a portrait orientation.  I used a piece of sage shadow card stock, hand-stamped the text with white craft ink, and heat embossed white embossing powder.  I used some digital papers I had on hand.  I selected rose prints that have pinks and greens in them.  I matted the larger paper with shell card stock.  To define it from the main panel.  I then  added some machine stitching.  I didn't use two circles like the sketch.  Instead, I used a circle and a square.  The back square in a text pattern paper.  The forward circle is actually a digital image of pink macaroons.  I think these little cookies are a fabulously-glamorous birthday cookie.  I matted this circle onto a darker green cardstock.  I used white paint to distress the edge of the circle.  I also hand-stamped the doily in white ink and used white embossing powder, on vellum card stock, to create the lace doily.

I used a white/black text pattern paper for my strip.  I also matted it with a beige and ivory floral pattern paper.  I took a strip of pom-pom trim and machine stitched that piece on, too.  I added a hand-made white clay blossom to this strip.

I used two different shades of pink seam binding.  The lighter pink seam binding was tied into a multi-loop and one of my hand-made white clay buttons was tied onto the bow with cream twine.  I added a circle tag.  I hand-stamped 'celebrate' on a circle tag.  I distressed this tag with white paint, and tied it to the bow.  The darker pink seam binding was tied around the card-box combo.  I used a rhinestone brad to secure the seam binding to the spine of the box.  

Ok, for the inside, I continued the white stamping and white embossing.  I used a flourish stamp to add the white swirl to the rose digital paper.  The 'happy birthday' square is hand-stamped in black ink on vanilla cardstock.  The cupcake image is cut from a digital paper.

The front of the box, is decorated with a cream and green pattern paper.  I stamped text onto it, with white craft ink and heat embossed with white embossing powder.  I matted the pattern paper onto mellow moss cardstock.  I added a decorative label with stamped 'Birthday Wishes'.  I added a circle of pink roses.  I also stamped 'friends' in black classic ink onto a different pink floral pattern paper.  I added a heart of silver glimmer paper.

Inside of the box, is two glassine bags of hand-made white clay buttons.  I altered a clothes pin with silver glitter.  I used this glitter clothes pin to hold the two glassine bags closed and together.

I left the back au natural.  Thank you for looking.  I hope you have a chance to play along with your favorite challenge site, too!  It's alot of fun, to create something beautiful for someone.