Birthday candle tag card using Stampin' Up!'s Build A Birthday Stamp set.

Today I have a bright and cheery birthday card for you which was inspired by an image of a gift tag I saw in the new Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue (on page 11), featuring the "Build A Birthday" photopolymer stamp set. I think it would be great for a teenager or a male birthday, or anyone, really - I think it would suit ANY birthday actually, don't you? 

The card base and envelope are from a pack of Crumb Cake Notecards and Envelopes. I dry embossed the front of the card with the Lucky Stars textured embossing folder. The colours I have used are Watermelon Wonder, Daffodil Delight, Cucumber Crush, Pool Party and Tip Top Taupe. The coloured stars are punched out using the little star punch from the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack and stuck on with mini glue dots and "blinged-up" with rhinestone gems:

The top of the tag was shaped with the fabby Scalloped Tag Topper Punch and I tied the bow using a doubled-up duo of Whisper White Baker's Twine and Natural Linen Thread:

I stamped the flames using my Daffodil Delight Ink Pad and then I drew over the stamped wicks with the fine end of my Tip Top Taupe Stampin' Write Marker, as they didn't look quite right in the yellow, plus, I wanted to tie-in the taupe "birthday wishes" greeting with the wicks and the card base.

In the photograph below, you can just see that I have decorated the flap of the envelope with a piece of Cherry On Top DSP Stack. I discovered by accident that the cute little candle paper matches my card perfectly! I do LOVE how Stampin' Up! products coordinate so perfectly with each other. Those clever people have done all the hard work for us and make choosing bits for our projects so much easier - so, thank you, lovely Stampin' Up! product design people for that! 

You can get enough paper to decorate three notecard-sized envelopes in this way and have an extra strip left over, out of just ONE sheet of the 6x6" designer paper stack - so a little does go a long way.

I used this as one of my recent class projects and I think everyone really enjoyed making it. I was having such a great time teaching and chatting, that I totally forgot to take photos of everyone's cards to show you though! Doh! There were some lovely variations too, as I gave the ladies different options for the coloured card behind the whisper white sentiment banner; also some people chose to add more stars and upped the 'bling' on their cards. I love how everyone's cards come out a little different each time we make a project together! The classes are always nice and sociable too. I love our classes (thanks, ladies)! We all had quite a chuckle over a joke about there being only three, not "fork-handles", on the card, well, that is we were laughing until we realised that we were maybe showing our ages and if there had been anyone younger at the class, then they would not have got the "Two Ronnies" reference at all! Eek! Hehe!

On a brighter note: we also agreed that the above card would make a great Christmas card with just a few tweaks to the sentiment,  the addition of narrow gold ribbon instead of the twine, some gold heat embossed or glitter paper stars and maybe a bit of Dazzling Details glitter on the card base too... Hmm... Must remember to try that soon!  - I make no apology for mentioning Christmas, by the way, afterall, we are only six months away from it now, so I don't consider it swearing anymore! hehe!

Anyway, moving swiftly along... that is it for today. I do hope you liked today's project? Come back soon to see what else I have been making.

Until next time - happy crafting everyone!

Lucy x

P.S. There is only one more week left to get TWO FREE STAMP SETS with your Starter Kit if you join my team. This fabulous offer ends on 30th June 2015, so don't delay if you want to take advantage of it. You can choose any two stamp sets from Stampin' Up!'s current Annual Catalogue! I think that this is such a good offer, so don't miss it, order your starter kit today! Click on the image below to go to the joining page, or, feel free to contact me for more information.

Rolling Marbles - a beast of a technique!

A little while ago I discovered a great technique for making a patterned background, that I had not tried before and I must say that I love it! It involves the use of a plastic tub (the old-style wood-mount stamp containers from Stampin' Up! are ideal!) a handful of glass marbles, a few drops of Classic Stampin' Ink Refill and a LOT of fun! I have to say it is one of my all-time favourite techniques for making really interesting backgrounds...

 

Here are a couple of cards I've made using the giraffe and the lion from the fabulously versatile Zoo Review stamp set - hope you like them!

 

 

I used the colours Soft Suede, Old Olive and Crumb Cake for the rolling marble background to give it an African savanna grassland feel - perfect for the lion and giraffe to hide in! I coloured the magnificent beasts in with a blender pen and the same colour palette plus a little So Saffron and Pumpkin Pie, then roughed the edges slightly with the Stampin' Distress tool, Finally I  sponged around the edges of the Naturals Ivory cardstock to soften the look and wrapped a little Natural Linen Thread around the card before assembling it together!

 

Here is a closer look at the magnificient King of Beasts:

 

Over at SUO Challenges they have a challenge (#79) for showing your favourite technique on a project using only Stampin' Up! products...hopefully these cards will qualify as they use two of my favourite techniques - the rollling marble background technique plus the use of blender pens to 'water colour' paint in stamped images...

Shaking marbles around in a case is great fun - although can be a little noisy if you are teaching several people how to do it and they are rattling their boxes vigorously whilst giggling at the fun of it all!

I love the Zoo Review stamp set and have several more projects to show you over the next few weeks, so please do come back and visit my blog again soon and please feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what your favourite paper-crafting techniques are in the meantime.

Top tip: don't lose your marbles - you never know when you might need them to rustle up a cool card or two!!

Lucy