Because Christmas birthdays need special cards

In recent years I have met so many friends with Christmas-time birthdays, and so far I am the only one who actually LIKES having a Christmas birthday!  Everyone I know says they hated it growing up because their birthday always got lost in the shuffle of Christmas activities.

I, on the other hand, was blessed with parents who went out of their way to make my birthday special like all my siblings.  We always had birthday cake and presents on Christmas night, so even though I never had a birthday party, I did not miss it!  Even now that I am ?? years old and birthdays get lost in the shuffle for a different reason, I still look forward every year to celebrating my birthday with Jesus' celebration!

That being said, now that I am making greeting cards, I have made a special effort to have something special about each December birthday for which I make a card, hence the title "Because Christmas birthdays need special cards."

I can't seem to get into the habit of photographing every card I make, but I have managed to remember to do this for several of the birthday cards I have made for friends this year.  My goal was to blend a tiny little bit of wintery, Christmasy look into flowery, glittery cards.  So here goes...

First up, snowflakes in the background with a big flower backed by various colored metallic papers.

 It is pretty difficult to get a photo of the metallic paper without that flash of light in the center, so here is another view of it:

The second card also has some snowflakes in the background, but again I used flowers and butterflies for the focal point and I really like how it turned out:

Cheer and Joy stamps

I have a new all-time favorite set of stamps that I've been using this year for Christmas cards.  I have been "captured" by one in particular from the set.  I liked it so much I almost could not stop making cards with it! 

These two cards are samples of what I have done with the "Merry" surrounded by ivy and holly.  Different background papers make a huge difference in the looks of the stamp, as does how I stamp it.  On the red and gold background card I embossed the stamp with gold embossing powder.  I also mounted the message on metallic gold card stock which added to the elegance of the card, I think. The green background was stamped with black.  To be quite honest, I can't decide which one I like better!

Let me show you and you can decide for yourself!

D is for DREAM

After a busy couple of weeks when I have not gotten many cards made, I finally was able to sit down and learn a new technique and in the process, a new card for my ABC cards.

I got a kit that teaches you how to use aqua markers (water-based inks) and I've had fun trying it out.

I used pink, yellow and blue markers to paint the background of this card, and by blending the colors, got some green and purple in there as well.  The kit included die cut words ("dream" being one), and lots of stamps.  I used the dandelion flower stamp and one of the butterflies.  I painted the butterfly using the new markers I had, then I glued the butterfly's body on the card after bending the wings a little bit so the butterfly is more 3-D.

I added a scripture sentiment on the inside that I think goes along with the "dream" on the front: "All things are possible to him who believes."

Grateful for you

 
 I've been thinking and planning for the month of October, which is Pastor Appreciation Month, for many church-goers.  Each year I have tried to create a card to send to each of the pastoral staff of our church to remind them of our appreciation for their faithful and diligent ministry to their congregation, and more specifically to Russ and myself.  As I began thinking about what I wanted to do, I had decided that this year I wanted to challenge myself to make the front of the cards a totally stamped-by-me background, which I have only done one other time.

In the meantime, I found that two of the challenge blogs that I have really enjoyed following are sponsoring fall-themed challenges that fit in perfectly with the ideas I had for the appreciation cards.  One of the blogs is new to me but I have really enjoyed seeing all the cards on that blog ... Creative with Stamps.  This month the challenge to to make an autumn-themed card.



The other blog has been one of my "mostest favoritest" challenge blogs, Retro Rubber Challenge.  I have participated in this challenge in the past and always enjoy seeing how people use the older stamps in their stash since I have lots of those as well!  Their current challenge (#119) is to use the fall colors of red, brown and orange, and that was exactly what I was planning to use!

So... I have made this card as my "test card" to use in October to send to our pastoral staff members (each one will get his/her own card):

The card base is an olive-ish green to which I added a piece of orange card stock.  I stamped the background on plain white card stock using leaves from two different stamp sets, both of which I have had since 2012 (can it really have been so long??? Yep, it has!).  I stamped the leaves with chocolate chip brown, pale red, orange(the pad looked darker orange that it stamped out), and a green that was a pear green according to the name on the old pad!

I embossed the word "grateful" with copper embossing powder and stamped the "for you" with the chocolate chip brown.  The words are from a stamp set I bought on sale in 2017 and have never used.  I thought the words were perfect for the occasion.

On the inside of the card

I used a new stamp set for the words and repeated the old leaf stamp from the front of the card, stamping it twice with the pale red ink  so I could get a shadowy effect on the one leaf.

Anyway, all that to say I like the results and as of now, all 14 of our church ministerial staff will get a version of this card, and if I have the pleasure of having some good "vibes" from the challenge blogs DTs in the process, all the better!  But they have certainly been my inspiration for this year's Pastor Appreciation Month card, so THANK YOU Creative With Stamps challenge and Retro Rubber challenge!!

 

C is for CONGRATULATIONS

This is going to be a busy week and I am not sure I will get much done in the craft room, but on Saturday I made my C card to keep myself on track with this new goal of mine.  One thing I have discovered in the several years now that I have been making cards is that there always seems to come an opportunity to send a card for which I had not anticipated and for which I have no card.  Congratulations is one of those ... every time I have needed a congratulations card I have had to go in the craft room and make one because I had none on hand in my "stash" of extras.  This card is going to go into that box of extras so I can have it when I need one next time, and who knows when that time will come?!

Anyway, here it is:

I heat embossed two blossoms with black , cut them out, and just added a bit of Worn Lipstick distress ink to the centers.  The butterfly is from a die that I cut out from white card stock to which I had applied some Worn Lipstick and a tiny touch of purple.

The card is all red so on the inside I stamped one of the flowers in black and added some white word stickers I had (not sure where they came from).

B is for BIRTHDAY

Maybe I should say, "B is for Butterfly Birthday" since I used some more of some butterfly paper I had in my stash for this card.  I use a lot of birthday cards since I am the designated sender of cards for my Sunday School class, besides all the other birthdays I send cards for.

In any case, it seemed appropriate this time around to make birthday my alphabet card for the B's. 
So here it is:

A is for ANNIVERSARY

One of the blogs that I have really enjoyed following is Just Stampin' and over recent months, Jeanie, the blog author, has been making a series of cards representing each letter of the alphabet.  It has really inspired me to see her creations and the other day I was thinking about how many cards I've made, many of which I have not photographed and shown on my own blog, but this might be a good way to challenge myself to remember to make a record of some of my cards as I make them.

Sooo... starting today I am going to do my own ABC cards.  And I am going to try to remember to record them here as I do them.  We'll see if I am successful!

I have made so many cards in recent months for all sorts of occasions.  I love making cards and scrapbooking because it is never the same thing twice in a row (I would never make a good factory worker!).  The thing about doing an ABC challenge is finding new reasons to make a card, or at least, a reason that I don't often have.

My first submission is a case in point... I have lots of friends who have been married a long time, but we don't exchange anniversary cards.  However, my friend Jane is newly married and coming up on her first anniversary, so this is a great time to make an anniversary card!

Here it is!

 Doesn't look like an anniversary card, does it?!  And of course, it could actually be for any occasion with the little "Just for You" sentiment!  Can you see where I cut a slit in the covering paper there on the left side?  I folded the cut down and put some different butterfly paper on the folded section and cut out a little butterfly from the paper and glued it onto the white section.

As I said, it isn't really clearly an anniversary card from this view, but...

... when you open it up, there it is!  I kept the inside pretty plain and simple after the fancier front, but there it is ...

A is for ANNIVERSARY