Birthday Package Cards..

Today I thought I would whip up a few more cards for the stash basket. One for You, One for Me style. I really love the Papertrey sets Make a Wish + Make A Wish Additions + the coordinating dies. Melissa really had her thinking cap on when she designed this set and the fun dies. Looking for birthday type sets? Check out the birthday category of stamps at Papertrey Ink. I must ink up Piece of Cake soon. I LOVE that set that Nichole designed.

I set out first to create some whimsical, stacked packages. I die cut two sizes of square packages using Cosmo Cricket and some other unknown patterned paper (maybe Jillibean?). I then die cut the topper ribbon and cut the *stem* part off a bit. This will tuck behind the packages. Since I'm stacking two packages, I wanted a longer piece of paper that looked like both packages were tied up together with a bow on top. I simply cut a thin strip of paper from some scraps to get the look.

Next up, I stamped the cute, scalloped present stand in Dark Chocolate ink and adhered the pile of presents on top. This makes for a very tall accent piece...a little more tricky to work with because it's hard to add a lot of other accents or background paper because this element takes up a lot of space. I stitched around the present accent piece for some added texture then placed this piece on my card front to eye ball how much space I had left to work with. I ended up using the largest of the scalloped dies to create a vertical border piece along the left edge of my cards.
Next up, I wanted some sort of sentiment on the card front. I used the smaller of the pennant die from the Double-Ended Banners collection. I stamped my sentiment, added a little machine stitching and tied up some Aqua Mist Vintage Buttons with Rustic Cream Twine.
I added some more patterned paper to the background for that mixy match look that I love so much. Sometimes it's fun to create your backgrounds first then decided what to add for a focal point. It's a good way to get the creativity flowing.
And here are my cards all finished. I just love the colors and patterns.
I ended up placing the little pennant piece over the legs of the cake stand....no room anywhere else if I wanted to keep a sentiment on the front. I love the overlapping look though
And I really love the litte stack of cards that I created. One for You, One for Me style.
Hope you enjoy! Thanks for stopping by today.

Warm Happiness

Back today with a handful of cards. I am making progress (my One Little Word for 2011) in stock piling cards for gifts this year. I realize that every December I try to gather up cards for my mom and mother-in-law, etc and always run short. So this this year I'm making a better effort to create a few extra cards here and there. You'll be seeing my stash grow as I share another new feature on the blog called One for Me, One for You. A few of these will also go into my Etsy shop....including a few of these and another warm and cozy design today. :)
About this time of year when it's freezing cold I like to make coffee/tea themed cards. I think they give that warm and cozy feeling...but could definitely fit any occasion or work all year long too. A few bright and cheery papers, like these from October Afternoon, also perk us up this time of year. We're all ready for something other than red and green, right?
For my cards today, I'm using Warm Happiness Too. Such a cute little set...and even better now that there is a coordinating die to cut out the cute cup. To create fun accents that look store bought, I used the Fillable Frames #5 stamp set and coordinating die cut. The hearts have a little glitter applied.
For my card backgrounds, I used a few Dainty Doilies and the cute paper from October Afternoon. Cindy, at Star Lit Studio, has a great selection of the OA papers.

For the sentiment, I used the Photo Labels Large Punch from Two Peas. This item is On The Shelf so I was happy to use it for this project. Ribbon is from Papertrey Ink.

Hope you enjoy. Join me here tomorrow for a group post from the Papertrey girls. :) It's almost release time...January 15th. :)