I thought that the swooping design of this week’s Lizzie Anne Designs sketch challenge was really neat, and I’ve had time to make two cards with it already. I’ll share them with you today. They both use the Vintage Birthday stamp set, which is one of Lizzie Anne Designs’ newest sets. I normally don’t get into the vintage theme but I really do like this set and I can see myself using it often. I chose to keep these cards pretty simple, without bling or bulky embellishments, so I can add them to the package I’m getting together for Operation Write Home.

The first card also uses some LAD digital paper. I spent a lot of time searching through my supplies trying to find a shade of blue cardstock to coordinate with the digital paper. Finally I decided to try something completely different and went with a sunshiny yellow instead. Everything seemed to fall into place after that.

The second card is a little simpler, with one less layer. I wanted to keep this one monochromatic, kind of like the vintage sepia-tone photographs. I decided to make this one as a mirror image of the original sketch, just for something a little different. The sentiment, “Birthdays are nature’s way of telling us to eat more cake”, makes me smile every time I read it. Seriously.

Supplies – balloon card:
Stamps: Vintage Birthday (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Daffodil Delight, Whisper White (Stampin’ Up); Vintage Birthday digital paper (LAD)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Other: Premier colored pencils (Prismacolor); petite oval and petite scalloped oval dies (Nestabilities)

Supplies – cake card:
Stamps: Vintage Birthday (LAD)
Cardstock: Naturals Ivory, Chocolate Chip, Afternoon Tea designer paper (SU)
Ink: Chocolate Chip (SU)
Other: petite oval and petite scalloped oval dies (Nestabilities); sponge