I feel like I’ve been making so many birthday cards lately that I’m having a hard time coming up with something original to say about them in my blog posts. 

Today’s card is on its way to my father-in-law.  It uses this week’s Lizzie Anne Designs sketch challenge and stamps from two different LAD sets.  I drew in the grass by hand, and I sewed the button onto the ribbon before attaching the ribbon to the card. 

I hope my father-in-law likes his card and has a wonderful birthday!

Supplies:
Stamps: Card Quotations, Dream Big (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Whisper White; Delicate Dots designer paper (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Certainly Celery, Sage Shadow, and Chocolate Chip markers (Stampin’ Up)
Other: Seaside Ribbon Originals (Stampin’ Up); embroidery floss (DMC); miscellaneous button

I guess I’m subconsciously stuck on the idea of butterflies on birthday cards right now.  I didn’t think about it until I started writing this post, but today’s card is the second birthday card featuring butterflies I’ve sent out in the last two weeks. 

I’ve had the Sizzix/Stampin’ Up Beautiful Wings die for a while now, but hadn’t used it yet, and when I spotted it on my desk early last week it started seeming like it was calling out to me… “use me… soon… please!”  LOL  So I finally put it to use for this card.  The layout is Lizzie Anne Designs Sketch Challenge #126.  I slightly folded the largest butterfly and glued just the body of it down to the card, so there’s a bit of a 3-D effect going on there.  There isn’t much stamping here – only the sentiment – but I’m pleased with the final result.

Supplies:
Stamps: Card Quotations (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Rich Razzleberry, Very Vanilla, Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, Razzleberry Lemonade designer paper (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Rich Razzleberry (Stampin’ Up)
Other: Beautiful Wings die (Stampin’ Up)

If you are familiar with Stampin’ Up, by now you’ve probably heard that at the end of June 2010, the company is planning to retire many of its current colors of cardstock and ink.  I’ll admit I was pretty stunned at first by the announcement.  I’ll miss some of the colors that are leaving, but I’m also looking forward to seeing the new items.

Remember a few weeks ago I shared the card I made for our elementary school’s retiring music teacher?  Today’s card is the one I made for the PTA Executive Board to give to another retiring teacher, who is a Title 1 reading specialist.  Once again, I used the school’s colors of blue and white, and added some black and red accents.  Stampin’ Up’s Brilliant Blue color is a perfect match to the school’s colors, and it’s one of the retiring colors, so that kind of ties in subtlely to the retiring theme.  For the layout, I used Lizzie Anne Designs Weekly Sketch #124. 

Feel welcome to let me know what you think of it.  🙂

Supplies:
Stamps: School Days (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Brilliant Blue, Basic Black, Whisper White (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Other: Watercolor pencils, blender pens, red grosgrain ribbon (Stampin’ Up)

I’ve mentioned in the past that I make and send cards to the faculty and staff of our elementary school, on behalf of the PTA Executive Board.  This week is Teacher Appreciation Week.  Besides showing the teachers some extra TLC and thanks, it’s also the time that we recognize those who are retiring for all their hard work and dedication over the years. 

This year, our music teacher is retiring.  I wanted to incorporate the school’s colors, bright blue and white, into the card for him.  I also wanted to do something with a musical theme.  So I chose two of my musical stamps.  That was easy.  The stamps lended themselves nicely to Lizzie Anne Designs Sketch #122. The blue and white seemed a little stark just by themselves, so I thought black might make those two colors kind of “pop”.  It helped, but it didn’t quite do the trick.  So I decided to try using my Fiskars border punch that reminds me of a fermata (the symbol over the note shown here).  That helped too, but the card still seemed to be lacking something.

And then for some odd reason, my son’s marching band uniform came to mind.

Since our elementary school feeds into our high school, the school colors are similar.  The difference is that the high school also includes black as one of their colors.  So the marching band uniforms are blue, white and black…

with just a tiny touch of red.

TA-DA!  I added a little bit of red matting to the card.  And finally the card satisfied me. 

Here’s the card for you to see:

Supplies:
Stamps: It’s Good to be Queen (Lizzie Anne Designs); Picture This (Stampin’ Up)
Cardstock: Brilliant Blue, Basic Black, Real Red, Whisper White (SU)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Other: Threading Water border punch (Fiskars)

My son probably won’t like this if he sees it, but I can’t resist also including the inspiration: