In the midst of stamping Easter cards yesterday, I came up with this birthday card stamped with the Petal Palette Stamp Set and colored in with the Stampin’ Blends markers. At first glance, you might not be all that impressed with the Petal Palette Stamp Set (I wasn’t!), but as usual, once I started seeing samples made with this set I was convinced I had to have it!  Besides the images, which are so pretty, there are some very nice words to use in the set.

The card base is Cherry Cobbler Cardstock with a layer of Basic Black.  The flowers are stamped on Whisper White in Memento Black ink and colored in with the Stampin’ Blends markers.  Some of the markers are backordered right now, but I suggest ordering the single markers, even if you want the whole collection, because then you will receive all of the markers that are available now and Stampin’ Up! will ship the backordered ones when they are resupplied. Even if they are backordered, I would suggest putting them in your Shopping Bag now so you will be first in line to get them when they come in stock.

I chose a greeting from Picture Perfect Birthday and die cut with the Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies.  Then that is layered on a scalloped oval die cut from Layering Ovals from Gold Foil. For some extra pizzazz I wound up some Gold Metallic Thread adhered to the back of the greeting.  This thread is only $3.00 so a great thing to have on hand or add to your order when you need a little bit more!

On the inside I put a piece of Whisper White cardstock since the Cherry Cobbler is so dark, and stamped one other flower from Petal Palette.

There you have it!  An easy birthday card made with stamping Petal Palette flowers and coloring in with Stampin’ Blends markers!

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You can make an elegant birthday card for someone special using the Sweet Soiree Specialty Designer Series Paper. I think anything you would make with this fancy foiled paper with handpainted designs would look beautiful and elegant! Even this simple background has silver foil dots, plus the outlines of the flowers and leaves are silver foil.

To make this card, I started with a card base of Calypso Coral, one of the coordinating colors of the designer paper. I liked this dotted paper layered on Silver Foil.  I looked through the papers and decided on the flowered paper with the Marina Mist background and cut out some of the flowers to adhere to the front of the card.  If you have the Paper Snips scissors, it makes cutting out a little easier and you can just do it while you are watching TV!  After I cut out the bigger group of flowers, I also cut some of the smaller ones out of the scraps.

Before I glued down the flowers, I thought a little ribbon might be nice on the card.  The Calypso Coral 1/4″ Ombre Ribbon was perfect! I just adhered one strip across the card and then tied the bow on later.

With the ribbon on, I popped the large group of flowers up on Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals mostly, with a few of the regular size dimensionals. The smaller flowers I fit in alongside the large group and adhered with some Fast Fuse. (Only the Fast Fuse refills are available from now on.)

For the greeting, I chose the “Happy Birthday” from the Beautiful Bouquet Stamp Set. Not only is this stamp set wonderful for all the flowers, but it has a great selection of greetings! I stamped it on a piece of Powder Pink Cardstock with Powder Pink ink, not quite knowing what I was going to do with it!  I ended up die-cutting with the Lots of Labels Framelits Dies but cut off the top of the diecut with the top edge of the card layer. For a little more pizzazz I added a Silver Foil diecut underneath.

I thought the greeting looked a bit plain so I stamped some small flowers on from the Beautiful Bouquet Stamp Set. It’s one of those things where perhaps I should have stopped before doing that! I nearly messed it up and I’m not sure I’m happy with it now.  I thought adding some of the teeniest pearls would help it, but I’m not sure.

As my friend and I used to say back in the day when we were painting t-shirts and wine glasses together, sometimes you have to know when to stop!  I should have stopped with just the stamped greeting on this card! But I doubt the recipient will be so critical!

If you want to make some beautiful, elegant cards and other projects, you might want to consider purchasing this Sweet Soiree Specialty Designer Series Paper.  Now there is also a stamp set and framelit dies in the Cake Soiree Bundle, if you want to get the whole works! If you want to make an elegant card for someone special, this paper will make your job easy!

Celebrate a birthday with the Party Pandas! Make this fun and easy Party Pandas Birthday Card With Balloons to send to a child, an adult, a friend, a loved one, anyone! So many possibilities with this simple stamp set! And you can get it FREE!

Stampin’ Up! has their best promotion going on right now called Sale-A-Bration! All you have to do is spend $50 on any Stampin’ Up! products (which you know you are going to do anyway!) and then choose a FREE product in the Sale-A-Bration Brochure!  Lots of choices, you are sure to find something fun that you like!  I’m guessing that this Party Pandas Stamp Set is going to be one of the most popular sets during Sale-A-Bration!  Everyone seems to love pandas!

To make this card, I stamped the panda and his balloon with Memento Black Ink. I colored in the stamped balloon with my Bermuda Bay Stampin’ Blends Markers. For a little extra interest, I punched two balloons with the Balloon Bouquet Punch. One is made with Gold Glimmer Paper and one from the Picture Perfect Party Paper.  Then I just drew in the balloon strings down to the panda’s hand.  For the background I stamped the little confetti stamp in the coordinating colors of the Picture Perfect Party Paper. I decided to make the “Happy Birthday” greeting a little pennant that the panda is holding by using a cut toothpick for the stick!

That’s all there is to this easy Party Pandas Birthday Card With Balloons. So fun to make!

Remember, for every $50 you spend at Stampin’ Up!, from now through March 31, you can earn a FREE Sale-A-Bration product!  Let me know if you have any questions!  There’s a good deal for signing up to be a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator, too!

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When it comes to quick and easy cards, these Quick and Easy Picture Perfect Party Birthday Cards are about as easy as you can get!  The new Picture Perfect Party Designer Series Paper in the Occasions Catalog is just delightful! I didn’t know if I would really like the “photographic” imagery on the one side of all the sheets in the package, but I do!

Sometimes to get your creativity started when you are making a card, it’s a good idea to start with the catalog!  The Stampin’ Up! catalogs are just full of wonderful samples and you are welcome to copy! I suggest start off copying something you like and then make another card almost the same but change something up a bit.  Chances are, once you start making a card, you will come up with something on your own anyway!

The card on the left is one that I copied from the Occasions Catalog on page 4.  It’s even marked “Quick & Easy”!  Even when you are copying, you will probably find that you won’t copy exactly for whatever reason – maybe you don’t have the exact same supplies or you want to use another color or you want to use a different sentiment. Whatever it is, if you need a boost to your creative mojo, just start off copying something in the catalog! While I was trying to “copy” this card, I don’t have that Paper Ribbon used on the sample because Stampin’ Up! isn’t even selling it right now. There was a problem with the production in the factory so it will not be carried in the Online Store. That’s a shame, I thought that was something different and cute, but it was out of Stampin’ Up!’s control.

The sample card base is Peekaboo Peach layered with the Picture Perfect Party Designer Series Paper. This selection of paper comes in the 6″ x 6″ size. It’s really fun to page through and choose either one of the photographic images or the graphic pattern on the reverse side.  The greeting is stamped in Berry Burst with a greeting from the Picture Perfect Birthday Stamp Set. I substituted a piece of Berry Burst 1/2″ Finely Woven Ribbon.

The card on the right is one that I more or less copied from the first card but changed things up.  I chose the balloon paper in the Picture Picture Party pack and layered it on a piece of Berry Burst on top of the card base of Lemon Lime Twist card stock. I tied a piece of ribbon, the Lemon Lime Twist 1/4″ Ombre Ribbon around the layers before adhering to the card base.  The greeting is stamped with Lemon Lime Twist ink on a piece of cardstock the same color. For a little bling, I added some different colors and sizes of the Glitter Enamel Dots.

Copying or at least looking in the Stampin’ Up! catalogs is a great way to get some inspiration if you need it or you just enjoy looking at other samples. For some quick and easy cards, be sure to try some like these Quick and Easy Picture Perfect Party Birthday Cards.

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This is a birthday card I made for my niece with the Birthday Memories Paper, and I loved it when it was finished! Sometimes you make a card or project and it’s fine, and sometimes you make a card or project and you really like it! And this is just a simple card! Anyone can make it!

The interesting part of this card is that part of the front of the card is cut off so that you get a peek at the inside. It’s kind of like a z-fold card without the fold! It’s just half a card front! The greeting is fairly large to decorate the front, partly, but it also hides the greeting that you might stamp on the inside of the card. And then I used cut out images from the Birthday Memories Designer Series Paper to decorate both the front of the card and the inside.

Here are the measurements I used:

Card base: Powder Pink:  5 1/2″ x 6 1/2″, score at 4 1/4″

Basic Black front layer:  2″ x 5 1/4″

Basic Black Inside layer:  5 1/4″ x 4″

Fresh Florals Designer Series Paper Stack:  Powder Pink pattern 1 3/4″ x 5″

Whisper White inside layer:  5″ x 3 3/4″

Greeting on front:

Basic Black:  3″ x 3 1/2″ (depends on your greeting)

Whisper White:  2 3/4″ x 3 1/4″ (depends on your greeting)

You do have to think about the size of the greeting on the front and where to place the greeting on the inside so that the greeting inside doesn’t show.  You might need to make a light pencil mark or use a sticky note to help with placement, whatever works.

The greeting on the front of my card is from Big on Birthdays and the greeting on the inside is from Happy Birthday Gorgeous. To decorate the inside, I cut out some images from the Birthday Memories paper and adhered them to the inside.  Such cute paper!

Click HERE to see a very similar card with a z-fold using this Birthday Memories Designer Series Paper.

This designer paper is one of the many selections on the Buy 3 Get 1 Free Designer Series Paper Sale.  Be sure to check out the choices and stock up!  There are a couple of papers priced at $10.00, most at $11.00, and one at $13.00. When you order, put in the least expensive 3 papers first so that when you enter the 4th one, which will be free, it will be the more expensive one.  If you have any questions, just let me know.

Stock up on all the paper you want, but don’t just hoard it…….use it!  Make a batch of cards like this Birthday Memories Birthday Card and mail them out to your friends!

Making a Z-Fold Card for a birthday is easy and with the Birthday Memories Designer Series Paper, your card will be so cute and fun! Z-Fold cards give an added dimension to cardmaking and thereby make you look like such an expert and professional! And yet, if they only knew, it is SO EASY!

To make the Z-Fold card base, just make a regular card. Then fold the front of the card base back on itself in half! In other words, score the front of the 4  1/4″ x 5 1/2″ card front at 2 1/8″ (in the middle of the 4 1/4″ card front) and fold the right side backwards toward the card fold. This is easy to see on the photo above. You can add whatever designer pieces of paper, if you want, to decorate the panels.

As you design the front square or rectangle which is the focal point of the card, consider what size the greeting on the inside of the card will be. You will want that focal point to cover the greeting when the card is closed. Once I decided on the size I wanted that focal panel to be and cut the pieces, I closed the card with the focal piece on top and lightly penciled in the outline of it on the Whisper White layer that was going to be inside the card so that I could see where I had to stamp my greeting inside the card.

As you can see, I used the Birthday Memories Designer Series Paper, which is such a happy and whimsical collection of papers. I don’t think we have had anything quite like it in the past.  I just love it!  The Birthday Delivery Photopolymer Stamp Set coordinates with the paper, and that is what I used to stamp the greeting on the fox’s banner and on the inside of the card. The other amazing product is the Birthday Friends Framelits Dies. These dies not only cut some of the stamped images, but also some of the images in the Birthday Memories Designer Series Paper.

You do have to have it all, you know you do!!  Get the Birthday Delivery Photopolymer Bundle and get the stamp set and framelits all at a 10% savings. Also order the Birthday Memories Designer Series Paper and if you like, get some embellishments you can use like ribbons or Balloon Honeycomb Embellishments.

You can see another birthday card I made with this set HERE in this post!

Be sure to use any July Bonus Coupons you have before the end of August!

Also, check the Clearance Rack as new products were added the other day!  Only available while supplies last!

Place your Stampin’ Up! order today so you can get your hands on this fun Birthday Memories Designer Series Paper, stamp set and dies and start creating!

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After a  trip to the West Coast to visit our faraway kids, it’s time to get back to stamping and blogging!  Why not start with stamping an Easy Icing on the Cake Birthday Card? This card is all stamping, nothing else! Sometimes it is good to just stamp, as I also said in THIS POST.

I actually won this stamp set as a prize in an online event I was participating in!  How fun is that?!  I think the Icing on the Cake Stamp Set is one that could be overlooked, but is actually a fun one to use for birthdays and other occasions.

When you get back from vacation, and need a little inspiration to get back into stamping, be sure to remember to consult the Stampin’ Up! Catalog!  That’s what all those sample projects inside are for!  Use them! I opened my catalog and in just a second I came upon page 79 where I found the Icing on the Cake Stamp Set and was inspired to make a card almost exactly like the sample.  I think the sample might have used a Note Card for the card base as it looks a little bit smaller, but I made mine the regular card size 5 1/2″ x 4 1/4″. I chose Powder Pink for the card base and Whisper White for the top layer with the stamping.  I was planning to change the colors from the sample, so I looked on the chart provided by Stampin’ Up! with 2017 InColor Combinations for ideas. I suggest you print out this chart on Whisper White cardstock and keep it handy for reference! I decided to stamp with Powder Pink, Soft Sky, and So Saffron. I considered making the card with just one color ink, Powder Pink, a monochromatic card. Maybe I will try that next time! I think it would also be fun to stamp the “Happy” and “Birthday” on another scrap of paper and cut out each word in a rectangle to fit in the space and have the words popped up on Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Warning:  This stamp set will make you hungry for cake and icing! Stamping pretty rows of colored frosting just looks yummy!

If you need a birthday stamp set or a set for many congratulatory occasions, check out the Icing on the Cake Photopolymer Stamp Set. Then have fun stamping with it!

Shop Stampin’ Up! Online Today! Remember, you have about one more week to get $5 bonus coupons to use in August for every $50 you spend in July!