Happy Birthday Nathan!

Today is my sweet little Nathan's 1st birthday!

Waow, where did that year go? One thing for sure is that there was way less papercrafting and sleep than the year before!... :-(

But he's obviously worth it, my little ray of sun, and I absolutely wanted to make a card for him today, even though all 3 kids are sick and so am I.

I was very proud of my clever gingham bear (whose purpose was to match the lovely ribbon...), until I remembered, halfway through the process, that Nichole (Heady, who created this set) made a card with a Copic-colored-gingham-look bear when the stamps set was introduced. Oh well... Guess it made its way into my subconscient... ;-)

I also tried to do a fuzzy brown bear with fun flock but I don't have a glue pad so it didn't go well... LOL

Now this isn't any ordinary bear, it's stamped 4 times actually, once on cardstock for rigidity, once on the gingham paper, then once on blue vellum to kind of give a more weathered look (didn't want a new bear, wanted a 1 year old bear ;-)...), then the last detail is the nose stamped on cardstock again. And then of course the bear is mounted on foam tape.The "one" is colored with markers and then I added a tiny higlight on each letter with my white gel pen (also on the bear's nose).

Now I wish you could have seen the smile Nathan gave that little blue bear when he saw it! Priceless!... HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHAN, love you to pieces!

The Love Boat

I love that card, simple and colorful. It's a mini that I made yesterday to leave on hubby's nightstand. The boat circle is on foam tape. Love the vintage carstock, also from PTI, with little flecks in the paper.

Pink, pink, pink...

Another simple card for "my soldier". I used scraps of paper I found while attempting to clear my desk, LOL! I just adore polka dots and gingham, and especially together.
I am not personally a fan of hot pink actually, but I think it makes for a happy card.
It would be perfect for a cold rainy day, wouldn't it?...

Lauren's butterfly

This is my 1st card with Lauren's new set "Flutter-by". If you read my blog you are familiar with Lauren's templates... what you might not know is that she's now flying solo and just opened her own business called My Time Made Easy (www.mytimemadeeasy.com). She sells templates, photopolymer stamps, and digital paper. This butterfly and sentiment are from her 1st stamp set, so I had to use them with purple, which is her favorite color, even though the card isn't actually for her, (it's for "my soldier" ;-))!

So for the details, easy background with Cuttlebug and DP, then a little flourish made with the Cricut Expression and a double butterfly. Stamped once on the same DP, added little rhinestones and some Stickles, then stamped on a piece of light blue vellum then cuttlebugged and glued over the 1st one that was raised with foam tape.

Now I am aware that butterflies look nothing like that in real life, with 2 sets of wings, but that's called creative freedom right?... ;-D

Condolences

This is one of those cards that don't photograph well (at least not in my crappy setting, LOL!), but I love it anyway because it's simple. The sentiment is heat embossed with silver powder and there is a tiny bit of silver also on the flower buds.
I love that sentiment from PTI, it reads: "Perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings in Heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us, to let us know they are happy."