I was really excited to get this month's Paper Pumpkin, I am always running low on birthday cards. I struggle with items that have a lot of colors - 3 is usually my ideal then mixed with neutrals & probably something shiny, so this one was color overload! The key I have found is focus on one of the main colors & let the others fall to the background. The papers & envelopes were really cute, but I was a little disappointed with the stamps. I mean, who already doesn't own Happy Birthday in all caps & a serif font? To top it off I lost my candle for the entire process & then found it when I was cleaning up. I usually make one of each card per the sample but I just could not get on board this month, so here come LOTS of alternatives.
~Enjoy
I will start with my favorite pink card I made and I think it was the last one. I absolutely love this little "hairy" cupcake from the Hello Cupcake set (I am sad it will be retiring soon). It is stamped in Flirty Flamingo & then I hand traced it with Poppy Parade. And I topped it off with a generous helping of Wink of Stella and popped it up with dimensional.
I am trying to grunge up my cards a little more to add interest, so for this one I applied some Poppy Parade to a sponge & very lightly tapped around the edge of the white cardstock giving it a slightly speckled appearance as well as adding some color. All of the background papers are torn, some top & bottom. The polka dot is from the inside of the envelope, the strip is from the kit as a stripe, I added Flirty Flamingo stamped hats to Flirty Flamingo cardstock and the white is embossed with the Swirls & Curls embossing folder. Tying the whole thing together is some retired Seam Binding Ribbon - I LOVE this ribbon - it is my favorite!!!
The envelope is stamped with Powder Pink, Soft Sky and Poppy Parade using the Amazing Life & Hello Cupcake stamp sets and I added single dots of Bermuda Bay.
This is the 3rd pink card I made & my second favorite pink card, it is pretty simple using the envelope for the background. I trimmed the inside of the card and removed the presents/cakes which left me these 2 inch strips of light yellow & light pink. I embossed the pink with Swirls & Curls (Actually - I could not find my embossing folder - so I think this one is another brand - but the intention was S&C). I had cut off the scallop border on the fish-tail banner for one of the other projects, so I added that to the soft pink.
I cut one of the label in half and stamped with Flirty Flamingo and a sentiment from the Hello Cupcake stamp set. I trimmed the obnoxiously large borders from the hats & bow and added some Poppy Parade pen detailing for the bow. Topping the whole thing off is some iridescent sequins from my stash. All of these I popped up with dimensionals.
The envelope is stamped with the set in the kit and Poppy Parade & Flirty Flamingo.
Next come some "also-rans", not my favorite cards but there are some good techniques here, so I will chat about those. This one used the presents theme and I again trimmed the border down on the bows & added pen detailing with Poppy Parade. I had some leftover trimmed scallop pieces and applied wink of Stella for some sparkle.
The background was made with two 2" strips of the soft pink card insides trimmed and placed next to each other. Then I stacked the Happy Birthday sentiment & stamped with Powder Pink and then stamped again before re-inking. Photopolymer is not a really big fan of this technique. Even though my lines were not incredibly straight its ok, it gives the feeling of whimsy and for this card that is ok.
Have the kids look away now if they are squeamish about cutting stamps apart. For the sentiment I trimmed off YOU! and stamped with Poppy Parade. I die cut YOU from the Celebrate You Thinlits Dies. The striped border is actually the leftover pieces from the striped borders and I added small Powder Pink dots around the outside of the sentiment tag. It is topped off with some Silver & White Bakers Twine.
I used the same background technique above for this one. The one thing I wanted showcase here was the cute little candles!
I took the strip of red & white candles & turned them over to the back. I then took the hat stamp & carefully positioned it so the stripes would line up to be stripes on the candles and miss the flame. Make sure that you do not get in on the top part of the hat where the pom-pom is. I then added the flames with the outside in Daffodil Delight and the inside of the flame with So Saffron. I loved the way they turned out and used this technique several times with this kit.
I can't help it - that red and white banner just screamed Christmas to me. Here is a half sheet of the striped banners as the background on Real Red cardstock.
The sentiment and snowflakes are from the Snowflake Sentiments stamp set stamped in Real Red. Rudy is from Seasonal Chums. Topping it off is some retired red and white Baker's Twine and Silver Glimmer paper. The envelope is stamped with Read Red and the Amazing Life stamp set.
Here is a birthday version using the retired Birthday Blast and the cupcakes are made from the Lift Me Up stamp set
This was the first pink card I made & absolutely my least favorite & probably made the decision to go completely away from the presents & cake idea and create alternatives.
The pink collection
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