Catching up on Birthday Cards - multiple posts! to come!

I just want you to know that I have not been lazy this past month - I have been BUSY!!  I had forgotten, foolishly, that August was a month FULL of birthdays (including mine!)  So I have been making cards like crazy and trying to get ahead for September so I can end my "late streak".

Still working on the creativity aspect, but it is slowly coming into some sort of a rhythm and I am capitalizing on every second of it, So prepare yourself for a plethora of cards, sprinkled with healthy muffin recipes in between.   I think if I can download my photos from the camera as I take them, or at least the same day, and edit them, it will be a lot easier to just blog and grab the photos to illustrate.  It's the photo editing that takes me the most time - the writing comes easy. So we will see...... I think it will be a better plan if I can stick to it!

I started writing this days ago - why can't I finish one task at a time? I seem to be flitting from thing to thing but I am determined to stick with this and start posting again.  And it's good for me to focus on something other than the heat and humidity here - it's just plain yucky, even on the coast.

So starting September with a post! :)

The first card I would like to share is a birthday card using one of Birds Cards cutting files. I love her files because they cut well and they are so versatile.  The framed greeting is a simple print and cut done in SCAL software on the Silver Bullet.  And then I decided to foil the greeting which made it even more fun and gave the card a little sheen.

The file ready for the print and cut, I foiled it, 

keeping the foil off the registration marks, 

and then cut it out on the SB.

The greeting is popped up on foam dots.  You can see the sheen of the foil at this angle.

The patterned papers were from my stash that I am trying to put to good use!

Little pearls adorn the corners.

The next card I think I posted before, but I changed it up a bit this time.  I don't often use the same design, but I loved the feel of this card and it was for a special couple who both needed get well wishes at the same time (two entirely different medical issues - they so deserved a card - at least!!)

The design is from Dominic (Crafty Vectors) and I cut the butterfly in a frame in several layers, with a foiled acetate layer on top to mimic the flutteriness (is that a word(?) of the wings.

I added pearls on the body and took some flower stamens, cut them off and colored the pearls on the tip to make antennae.  That was fun and something I will definitely do again!

You can see the foiling on the greeting as well as the foiling on the acetate.  

This is one of my favorite cards - but then again I LOVE butterflies and have fun

trying to do different things with them.

This card was delivered with some get well muffins to hopefully brighten their days. They are both doing well and I am so happy to have them as neighbors here at the beach!

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And Even MORE Summer Cards.....

It has been quite a month for card making! And there are still more on my to do list.

Love the soft colors with the vibrant flower.  Dominic's files cut beautifully.

The first card  is another birthday card.  The file is from Crafty Vectors (Dominic) and those of you who know me know I love his files.  Each of his beautiful floral designs have options to make several different cards.  I am partial to the flower in frame design because it just looks so clean and finished.  And his files are so well made that I can always use the remaining pieces to create another card.  That's a win-win!

And the second card was for my daughter in law.  She has been a special education teacher , served the past two years as an assistant principal, and was just promoted to principal of a new school that she helped open two years ago.  This is such a well-deserved honor (albeit an increased work load) but she has worked hard for this and I am so happy for her.  The teachers and children are the real winners here.

You can see the detail of those tiny circle patterns here - so perfect!

So I wanted to make her a card to express how happy I am for her.  This was from a jpeg online that I used as a sort of stencil, cutting the design out of the card front and letting the contrasting color shine through.  Gold stars were popped over the larger stars to give it some dimension .  It's really a simple card, but I love how it came out.

Added some gold stars a little off-centered from the red star background. 

Gold dots are brads with the ends snipped off.

Congratulations is P-Touch labeler TZ tape in gold.

And here is one more birthday card - with a simple birthday wish. This was also a stencil image that I created with a shadow image, tied the flower with simple variegated floss, and added some clear dew drops to add a little interest.  The Happy Birthday was printed through SCAL and then cut out using a tag from the software library.  Remember, when you do a print and cut, be sure to hide the text layer while cutting out the shape or this will happen!!

This is what happens when you forget to "hide" the text layer -

the machine sees it as a font that needs to be cut! Totally user error!

This was a silly mistake, but one I seem to make repeatedly when I haven't done print and cut in a while.  And even though I didn't mean for it to happen, look at the detail of the cuts (before I stopped them!)  My Silver Bullet continues to delight me with its ability to do whatever I ask of it - even if it's ultimately the wrong thing!

And here is the end result when I pay attention to what I am doing!

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