Even Sweeter Seventeen!

It is so hard to believe that my oldest granddaughter turned 17 the end of October.  How could that be possible when I still remember the day she was born so clearly??  Where has the time gone?  She is now a senior in high school and making college plans - yikes!

So what do you get a 17 year old for her birthday. For many years, when the girls were little, I got them clothes for their birthdays and toys for Christmas.  But Kendra is too old to have her Grammy picking out her clothes so I had to find something else to do for her that she would like.  She loves mandalas, so I had fun finding some great coloring books for her to enjoy and got her a huge collection of glitter gel pens.  I had started doing a little coloring on cards myself, so I at least had an idea of what products were good.  She was thrilled with the Amazon birthday delivery!

And I used her love of mandalas as inspiration for her birthday card.  I found a cool site - Monday Mandala.  They have a lot of downloadable mandalas and saved quite a few of them.  I like the variety and the one I chose for her.  This one is called Sunny Day - just right for a "happy" birthday card!

I printed it out and did a print and cut to make it a little more interesting on the card.  I did all of the coloring with glitter gel pens (they are addicting so consider yourself warned...) and enjoyed every minute of it.  Every time I color a card like this, I understand the popularity of adult coloring books.  It is relaxing and stress relieving. 

Here is the mandala all ready to be cut. I printed it on Paper Temptress

Cryogen  - it has a beautiful sparkle and is the perfect media for coloring 

with pencils, markers or gel pens and more.

You can see the perfect precision of the print and cut.

Here is the cut out mandala all ready to be colored. 

I tend to cut out first just in case I make a mistake setting

up the print and cut. I don't want to go to all of the work of coloring 

and then make a user error setting up the print and cut.

Almost finished - I like leaving some white for contrast - I think it lets 

the other colors shine be the stars!

I added two shadow layers to compliment the colors in the mandala and used small pearls to accent the outer edges. Foam dots were added to the back of the mandala when mounting it to the card front.

I was really happy to send this to my granddaughter, and happier that she loved it as much as I did!

Pin It Now!

Happy 6 Year Anniversary!

I try to do something special when it comes to anniversary cards for my kids, and this time was no different.  But it was actually the first time I had ever made a gate-fold card. What was I waiting for?  Monica's files are SO detailed, but this cut beautifully with the Silver Bullet.  I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to pull it all together, but I am happy with the final results.

I can hardly believe that Megan and Scott have been married for six years.  Where has the time gone?  For their anniversary card this year, I turned to the beautiful and intricate files from Monica's Creative Room.  She has a wide variety of projects and cards and you can tell she puts many hours into the creation of each one. I have never been disappointed by her work and am in awe of it!

You can see the detail even with it still on the cutting mat. The 

card stock is Paper Temptress Vintage Luster - one of my all time favorites

You can see the beautiful texture in all of the photos...

Here is the file all cut out and ready to become a card.

I cannot get over the beautiful detail.

I cut a sheet of colored vellum just inside the card dimensions 

(choose inner shadow in SCAL) and glued it around the edges  

 to line the card and highlight the cut areas.

A closeup of the front all finished and ready for the mail.  

The pearls gave it a bit of elegance and interest.

I tried to "spotlight" the Happy Anniversary greeting,

 but it still didn't show up very well.

I wrote my personal message on a separate piece of paper and tucked it in the envelope behind the card so it wouldn't interfere with the design!  

May they have many more happy anniversaries!💕💕💕

Pin It Now!