Happy Birthday Ryan!

ryan

Ryan - 13 years old

Yesterday was Ryan’s 13th birthday!

Yep – I have THREE teenage boys!  Oh my!

ryan-cakeI made Ryan a Tennis Racket Cake and Tennis Ball cupcakes. Actually, my mom helped me with the cake.  She put on the frosting and did the writing.   He took about 2 dozen cupcakes to tennis camp.  And then my parents and Greg’s mom came for dinner and the cake.

I made Ryan a birthday card using the new Stampin’ Up! Pop-Up LOOK HERE die for the Big Shot.  The die creates the inside part of the card that is a pop-up with arrows and a gift card holder – all the arrows point to the gift card – as in “look here there is a gift card for you”.

You could just put a piece of card stock with a message right there too or a picture.  You could cut off the arrows and use them on cards or scrapbook pages.  This should be a fun die to play with.  Look-Here-Birthday

Here are pictures of the outside of the card and the inside.  The colors I used are Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie and Whisper White.

The stamp set is Party Hearty and I added orange beads from the Bead Duos to the cupcake for the sprinkles.  The way I did this was put a small puddle of Crystal Effects on a piece of scratch paper.  Use a straight pin or toothpick and pick up a tiny bit of Crystal Effects and put it on the stamped image where you want the bead.  I used a straight pin to grab a bead from the container and then placed it in the Crystal Effects on the card.  This was I don’t get too much Crystal Effects in places where I don’t want it.  You need a very small amount and it will hold the beads tight.  I used markers to ink the candle – Yep – the new In-Colors come in a set of markers this year!  A very popular request from both demonstrators and customers alike.  The arrow on the front is one of the punch outs from the Look Here die.  The actual cut of the die is on the inside of the card.look-here-birthday-inside

I did find a matching gift card.  Well actually I had my die-cut piece done in the Pumpkin Pie.  So when I looked for a gift card I found one with orange in it.  Then came home to make the card and Crushed Curry was the other color in the gift card so it worked out perfect.  It was a quick card that I made in just a few minutes.  I could have dressed it up but decided to keep it pretty simple.

The Happy Birthday stamp is one of the Under $10 stamps that were in the last catalog.  Most of these are still available to order they just aren’t shown in the new catalog.  I have been using this one  a lot.

Ryan is headed to California tomorrow with Greg’s mom.  Thank you to anyone that offered suggestions on places he should visit.  He has a long list. I have to finish getting him packed.

Have a great day!

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Party Hearty

party-hearty I made this card several months ago (before I started my blog) for Kyle’s birthday.  I sort-of pulled the colors from the wrapping paper.  I decided to use Brilliant Blue instead of Tempting Turquoise (that was in the paper) to make it more of a boy card than a girl card.

Supplies:

– Party Hearty stamp set

– Only Orange card stock

– Brilliant Blue card stock

– Whisper White card stock

– Stampin’ Write Markers: Only Orange, Real Red, Summer Sun, Brilliant Blue, Green Galore

– Brilliant Blue Classic Ink pad

This is a super simple card – just takes some time to color the party hats with the markers.  Color, “huff” on the stamp to re-moisten all the ink, then stamp.  Repeat each time until the strip is completed.

Happy Stamping!

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A Jack-in-the Box

At my Fun With Punches class we not only enjoyed stamping the projects I had planned but also talked about other ideas and things to try with punches.  While working with the accordian flower (see earlier post) a thought occurred to me.  Actually I had my accordian all folded up and my finger slipped and it popped loose – and what did I think of – a Jack-in-the Box!  What if I created the accordian put it inside a box and added a punched clown face to the top.  So an idea sprang out and of course I had to play with it.  So I came up with a box – basically a 2-4-6-8 box that I scored and cut to create a lid.  And then to create the clown face – with punches of course – and bright colors.  Then to work on the accordian and the mechanics of it.  Well that part took the longest because it wouldn’t pop the way I wanted – I shorten the accordian, made it wider, attached it in different places in the bottom of the box – this little clown wasn’t going to win the battle – he was going to pop.  So finally I could get him to pop sort of how I wanted but I had to make it happen more than once  – and I finally did – I decided it had more to do with how I put him in the box than anything.  And after working a long time on this decided it would NOT be a project to do in a class but I will share it here in case you want to tackle this on your own – I was good with the creative part, but didn’t want to spend more time on the mechanics of it – but maybe someone else does.   So here is the box closed:

Clown Box closed

Clown Box closed

 

You pull up on the little tab (punched with the Word Window Punch) to lift the top and …..

POP!

Clown Box open

Clown Box open

 

Colors used are Real Red, Summer Sun, Green Galore, and white and black.

Stamp set is Party Hearty. 

Punches used are Scallop Circle, 1-1/4″ Circle, 1/2″ Circle, 1/4″ circle, Heart to Heart Punch.  I clipped inbetween the scallops on the clown face.  Added accents with the Gel Pen for the eyes and nose.  Mouth was drawn with a black marker.

The accordian strip on the inside is 1″ wide and 7-1/2″ long and scored every 1/2″ and attached in the center of the box with sticky strip and the back of the clown a dimensional.

The box is a 2-4-6-8 box.  Start with card stock that is 5-1/2″ x 8-1/2″.  Score at 2″, 4″, 6″, and 8″.  On the other side score at 1″, 3″, and 5″.   Then you have to imagine the box and where the lid would be and cut away the extra squares – leaving the two sides with a 1/2″ strip for the flaps on the lid.  I cut each of the flaps onthe lid at and angle so the box would close easily.   I hope that makes sense. 

Have fun and let me know if you give it a try!

Monika

monikastamp@bellsouth.net

www.monika.stampinup.net