We’re celebrating birthdays this week with Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff Several of us DT members as well as Lindsay herself are July babies.  With that in mind, Lindsay is having a birthday sale in honor of her 34th birthday!  With all of the excitement about birthdays, we’ve decided to carry that theme throughout our projects this week.  For my project, I opted to create a birthday card (my sister’s birthday is Monday so the timing works out well) using one of the Breezy Backyard Lever Card cutting files from SVGCuts.com paired with one of the cupcakes from Lindsay’s Sweet Treats 2 digital stamp set .  I’ve never made a lever card before, so this was a little challenging for me – the folding,  not the cutting. My card back is cut from Whisper White CS (SU) and the front is a fabulous new Colorbok paper that I found at WalMart.  I wanted to have a double scallop layer behind my focal image, so I duplicated the scallop in Sure Cuts A Lot and scaled the duplicate down (keeping proportions checked). I cut the larger scallop from the Colorbok paper (using the same piece as the card front since there are only 2 sheets per design in the pad), and the smaller from the Whisper White scrap.  The sentiment is from another of the cards included in the set, cut from coordinating scraps.Since the card set came with an envelop template, I also made a coordinating envelope – but had it not, I would have used Lindsay’s Envelope Bonanza templates to create it.  After cutting my card and envelope pieces, I opened up Photoshop so I could resize the cupcake to fit my mat.  I printed the cupcake 3 times, twice on white Georgia Pacific CS and once on the Colorbok DP (I used Lindsay’s trick of attaching the DP to my printer paper with drafting tape and then printing using the printer paper as the carrier) as I wanted to use the DP as the cupcake wrapper.  I frosted my cupcake with Liquid Pearls and Stickles and used my Spica markers to color the candle and flame. While my cupcake was drying, I embossed the white scallop mat and the sentiment shadow layer with my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and added a bit more shine/shimmer with my Spica markers. For a little extra dimension, I adhered small seed pearls (MS) around the scallop cut-out. Despite my initial folding “issues”, I’m rather happy with the end result.

Challenges I Played In:

• 2 Sisters – Anything Goes
• Beary Sweet Challenge – Emboss It
• Bunny Zoe’s Crafts – Nice and Girly
• Cowgirl’s Sunday – Scallops and Embellishments
• Paper Sundaes– White plus One
• Cupcake Inspirations – #66
• Rosie Dee’s – Summer Birthdays
• Sentimental Sundays – Celebrations

If you haven’t been to Lindsay’s blog be sure to stop by and wish her a Happy Birthday as well as seeing what the other DT members have been up to. There’s probably a freebie for you too!

Have a great day!

It’s the 7th – which means another Tiffany Doodles challenge!  All you have to do to play along (and be eligible for a chance to win up to 7 digital stamps from Tiffany Doodles) is create a project featuring birds and/or windows. Here’s my little bit of inspiration:

I used Tiffany’s Window and Birdies digital stamps along with a fabulous cutting file from Penny Duncan to create my card.  I colored the birds and the window in Photoshop using my favorite Chalkies styles from Jodiann Cates and a Glass style from Bannerwoman (retired). I printed everything on photo paper (as I wanted to maintain the “glass” look of the window panes).

I printed the window ledge 3 times so I could layer them to create the window box for my flowers.  The flowers were really easy to create – I used Flowersoft Spring Mix and PVA glue applied with the handle of an old paintbrush.  After my flowers were dry, I used popdots to attach the birdies.  My mats were also easy to create thanks to Penny Duncan’s fabulous nested shape cutting files – I imported the layers into my Sure Cuts A Lot software, selected the sizes I wanted, and cut with my Cricut.  I used 4 sizes in all – though the top mat is actually 3 die cuts adhered together.  For the top layer, I brayered Brilliance Sky Blue ink over the entire surface and then stamped my Soft Swirls BG (SU- retired) in Whisper White Craft Ink (SU) while the Brilliance was still moist to create an embossed look.  The 2nd mat is dry embossed using the Birds and Swirls Cuttlebug folder and my Big Shot and then colored with my clear Spica marker to add some shimmer. The 3rd mat is a fabulous patterned CS from DCWV Nana’s Nursery set.  The last mat is cut from glittered DCWV CS – the Holiday stack. The card mat is a fabulous shimmered CS, also from DCWV – this time the Luxury stack.  My card base is white Georgia Pacific CS.  I added the pearls (Michaels) in graduated sizes after using mono adhesive and pop dots to attach all of my layers.

Whew – now that you have all of the details, be sure to visit the Tiffany Doodles blog for all of the details and links to all of the fabulous DT projects.  When you’ve finished your project, link back to the Tiffany Doodles blog so we can all admire your art!

Have a fabulous day!

Challenges I Played In:

• Wee Memories – Anything Goes
• Mark’s Finest Papers – Use a Die Cut
• Paper Make Up Stamps – Window Card
• Lexi’s Creations – Layers
• If The Shoe Fits Scrap It – Wings
• Prairie Fairy Designs – Anything Goes
• Elephantastic Challenges – It’s Up To You
• Creative Card Crew – To Die For
• The Crafty Pad – Animal Fun
• Clearly Delightful – Pearls Bling and Button Things
• Bee-Crafty – 3D
• Aly’s Sunday Sketch – Red or White or Blue

Nope, nothing sports related, just the 3 cards my DH received for Father’s Day today – a collaborative effort between Nadya and I – just for him.  It’s been a long-standing tradition to share both a  “fun” card and a serious/ sentimental card, hence the double cards from me plus one from the entire reason he gets to celebrate Father’s Day! I’ll start with Nadya’s as hers is the star of the show: One of her favorite characters (if not her most favorite) is Lightning McQueen from the Disney/Pixar Cars movie.  So, naturally, one of the few Cricut cartridges I own is Cars.  After much discussion, Nadya settled on a Lightning McQueen card for Daddy – so I went to work in Design Studio (my first attempt with the Cricut software and using an actual Cricut cart – I’m a SCAL girl myself). I used the shadow feature to create the card base and then cut the detail layer for Nadya to color.  Yes, she knows Lightning McQueen is red, but she informed me that since Daddy’s Mustang is yellow, McQueen needed to be yellow on Daddy’s card.  So, she colored him yellow, and attached him to the card base.  When I asked her what she wanted it to say on the inside she said “I love Lightning McQueen.  I love Daddy even more than Lightning McQueen.” So there you have it – Daddy is more loved and popular than Lightning McQueen. For my “sentimental” card, I started with a sketch I found on Moe Joe’s blog and some fabulous digital papers from Designs By Kristine’s new Kit Spring Fling (on sale for 35% off right now). I created and layered everything in Photoshop – using clipping masks to digitally “paper-piece” my card layers.  I chose the adorable lemon ant image from Doodle Pantry’s Lemon Ants digital stamp set (which is free right now) and pieced it as well – though my lemon looks more like a lime! Here’s a close-up from Photoshop: After I printed everything out, I added sparkle to the ants with my clear glitter Spica marker, and colored the pebbles with Sand and the ants’ mouths with Red Spica markers. I coated the lemon/lime with Glossy Accents for shine. I used my white gel pen to add the stitching around the circles and my moonlight smooch to add the dots on the scallop mat.

Challenges I Played In (Ant Card):

• Moe Joe’s Design Blog – Sketch
• Character Cafe – Paper Piecing
• Craft Your Passion – Paper Piecing
• Crafty Creations – Stitching

For my “fun” card, I started with the Classic Car card from Cliff’s Clubhouse Cards set at SVGCuts.com and my Sure Cuts A Lot software.  Instead of cutting the car layers, I added the 66 for Route 66.  I cut the card base from textured black CS and the accents in GP white.  I added some black pearlescent baubles from my friend Suzanne at Crafting Connection.  I really had fun on the inside: The mustang is a coloring page I found on the net – though it’s not the exact year my DH has, it’s close enough!  The “lady” is Lady Luck, a digital stamp I was lucky enough to win from Holly over at Squigglefly.  I started out by layering the images in Photoshop so that I could get the scaling right, but then printed them out individually on white CS and colored them with my Copic and Spica markers.  I added the chrome accents with a silver Zebra gel pen. Again, I don’t have all of the details 100% accurate as compared to his Mustang, but definitely close enough to get the point across.

That’s all from me! I hope everyone has a relaxing Sunday – I know we plan to!

Challenges I Played In – Mustang/Route 66 Card:

• Cards for Men – Father’s Day
• CAS-tastic Challenges – Father’s Day
• Creative Craft Challenges – Man In Your Life
• Daisy Doodles – Father’s Day/Manly
• Fab n Funky Challenges – Father’s Day
• Incy Wincy – One for the Guys
• Magical Crafts – Something for a Male/Father’s Day
• One Stop  Craft – One for the Boys