Cards with a Child!

Hey there, everyone!

It's the Blog Hogger here. Yesterday I invited one of the neighbor children to make cards with me. Olivia is nine years old (almost ten tho' as she was quick to point ou) and has seen the many "toys" I have here for making cards. Last week we chatted about making some birthday cards for her friends . . . and I quickly realized I had opened Pandora's box!  :)

Olivia had very definite ideas on what she wanted to make for each friend . . . VERY definite ideas! lol So, yesterday we got together for a while and I absolutely had a blast with her! Her ideas were awesome and she was quick to identify new ways to use some of my product. Ah, to be young and able to quickly think outside the box!  :)  She is definitely a natural at making cards and I'm already looking forward to our next session.

I told her I was going to post her cards on Katherine's blog and she was really excited about it!

Anyway, here's one of the two cards we made:

This was one of the cards she had envisioned even before we started. I had made a Pikachu  (Pokemon) card for her brother's birthday and she wanted to make a "minion" card for her friend. I proudly showed her the one I had made (http://inkinbythebay.blogspot.ca/2014/10/minions-card.html), but she wanted the minion to use up the whole card front, like I had done for the Pikachu one.

We googled it and found this one on www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2421242. We stayed true to the original and Olivia came up with the idea of punching out a 1 1/4" circle to help her draw the mouth. I got elected to do the hair! lol

Her second card was a more traditional cupcake card:

We used the Create a Cupcake stamp set, along with the corresponding Build a Cupcake punch. This one was very much her design, and I really liked her idea of putting candles along the edges. Luckily her friend is turning ten so it made for a nice even number of candles. The candles were made from some scrap Designer Paper. When Olivia saw the pattern on each side, she quickly decided to alternate the side used for each candle.

So, there you have it! Two pretty cards and one fun afternoon!  :)

Childlike hugs,
Colleen

Four Levels of a Birthday Card

Hi there again!

Today I thought I'd show you a birthday card I made, and how I worked through four different designs of the same card before I glued it together. (Gluing it together is what I do only after I'm completely, absolutely, certain-sure it's how I want the card to look!. Yup, learned that lesson the hard way, folks! lol)

So, here's the first sample:

I used Cajun Craze and Crumb Cake cardstock (cs), along with some Whisper White. I cut the card 9 1/2" x 4 1/4" (scored at 5 1/2"). If you look closely at the picture you can see the Cajun Craze cs doesn't completely cover the front of the card. The Whisper White cs pieces are 2" x 2", 1 1/2" x 2", 2 1/2" x 1" and 1" x 1". The Crumb Cake cs is 3 3/4" x 3 1/4".

All I did for this sample was assemble some images from the Create-A-Cupcake and Party This Way stamp sets on the Crumb Cake section. It's pretty plain and, to me, it looks like a great "Man Card". :)

However, I was making this card for a very special friend of mine so I started playing with other options. Here's my next idea:

So, it's the same layout, I just added two pieces of Daffodil Delight cs, with one piece run through the Scallop Trim Borderpunch. It's a small change but it really looks different, doesn't it?

I really like that look and may actually make that one in the future, but I wanted something a little more special for this card. I could have blinged it up by adding some Dazzling Diamonds to the images but decided to check out my stash of "free things I got during some random Sale-A-Bration that I hesitate to ever use because then it will be gone". lol Guess what? I found the perfect thing!

Yup, looks totally different now, doesn't it? The background "paper" is actually cs that came as part of a kit, already cut and scored to make a number of cards. However I thought it was too pretty to just use it that way. What the picture doesn't show is that some of the dots are gold! That makes it all shiny, especially since I punched out more gold dots on coordinating paper (that also came with the kit) and the flame on the candle. (I used the Cupcake Builder punch for that.)

I also punched out some Pacific Point and Pistachio Pudding dots, and stamped and cut out a Pistachio Pudding balloon. So I was almost happy with it but felt it needed one more thing...

I added some gold cord on the left side, glued it together and then was happy with it! Yay!

And here's a shinier look at the finished project:

Now I'm happy and hope the birthday girl liked it!

Four shiny hugs,
Colleen, aka the Blog Hogger

Men Like Cupcakes Too!

Hi everyone,

After making the cupcake card, using the Create a Cupcake stamp set, (you know, the one I dubbed "A Dozen Colors") I showed it to my husband and he said, "Men like cupcakes too!" (I had to agree that it was a very girly and/or childlike card. lol)

Well, needless to say, I latched onto that statement and proceeded to come up with the following card:

Look how manly it is . . . even though it's sporting a cupcake as the main image! But that's okay 'cause "Men like cupcakes too!" lol

The base is Chocolate Chip . . . which is a manly color! The next layer is Marina Mist . . . which, since it's a shade of blue, it also a manly color! I scored the edges of the Whisper White cardstock (cs), being careful to keep the card clean and (you guessed it) manly.

There's only one one cupcake, instead of a bunch of them, and it's a chocolate cupcake! (The coordinating punch, Cupcake Builder, is such a time saver!)

I popped up the Whisper White layer and A-L-L of the cupcake parts using Dimensionals. Yes, that means even the itty-bitty candle and the itty-bittier flame! It involved cutting tiny pieces of a Dimensional and using tweezers. Oh, such fun! lol

It's simple, clean and manly! Tada!!! Mission accomplished!

Well, I showed it to my husband and he said, "I meant men like cupcakes they can put in their mouths!"

Oh. Seems as though I'm not terribly good as picking up on hints. But I sure can turn an innocent statement into a card quickly! lol

Got to go now. I'm heading to our local bakery to pick up some cupcakes! lol

Cupcake hugs,
Colleen

A Dozen Colors!

Hi everybody,

It's the Blog Hogger, back with another card. This one earned the title of "A Dozen Colors" because . . . ah, well . . . I used a dozen colors of cardstock in it! lol

I used the stamp set Create a Cupcake, and decided to make a card that was colorful, quirky and fun! See what you think:

Brace yourselves, 'cause the list of cardstock (cs) colors is lengthy:

1. Melon Mambo
2. Whisper White
3. Chocolate Chip
4. Certainly Celery
5. Marina Mist
6. Perfect Plum
7. More Mustard
8. Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point, Wild Wasabi and Pumpkin Pie (for the confetti)

See, if you count each one it adds up to a dozen colors! And don't think the flames (also made from Daffodil Delight cs) and the confetti weren't "fun" to glue onto the card! lol

I used designer paper for the pink "icing" and Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake and Soft Suede ink for the bottoms of the cupcakes. I used oval punches for the sentiment, as well as the Stripes Folder for the "table" and the Square Lattice Folder to texture-up (Sure, that's a word! lol) the More Mustard icing.

The Crimper was used to texture-up (I've decided I like my new word and plan on using it as often as possible! lol) the Certainly Celery icing. The middle cupcake was popped up on Dimensionals.

It was a bit of work to make this card, but using the Cupcake Builder punch helped a lot! Mostly, it was gluing all those little pieces down that caused me to say some naughty words . . . but I also really like the final project so it was worth it! It's bright, it's cheerful, it's quirky! (Hmmmm, describes me perfectly! lol)

Texture-up your life hugs, (See how I casually worked my new word in once again? lol)
Colleen