HAPPY SEVENTEEN

Next week our grandtwins will be celebrating their 17th birthdays! I used the opportunity of a couple of challenges to make my granddaughter's card - Seize the Birthday "No Stamps Dies Only" and Tic,Tac Toe Challenge. Her brother's card is HERE. 

I wanted to do a card that was dramatic color-wise and decided on black with white and bright pinks - I already had a 6" square bright pink irridescent vellum envelope in my stash that I wanted to use, so I started with that. I made a 5-1/2" square card base with black cardstock and a slightly smaller square panel. I used a 1" wide embossing strip on the top panel to add some dimension and to ground the numbers (PTI die set that I always use for the birthday numbers on my grandkids' cards). I attached this panel with a glitter cardstock mat to the card base. To make the numbers I selected a black and white printed lightweight paper that I glued to heavier stock, die cut, and ayyached them to the card. The Spellbinders bow was die cut twice with two colors of glitter bright cardstocks and layered over the numbers, along with a die cut "Happy" from my stash.

The final step was to line the existing pink vellum envelope with the black and white printed paper to tie everything together.

The glitter cardstock shows up a bit better with this enlarged photo above.

For the Seize the Birthday Challenge, there is no stamping on this card - only dies!

Seize the Birthday: Seize the Birthday #333-No Stamping Dies Only 

Added September 9, 2026:

And for Rosanne's Tic, Tac Toe Challenge, I selected the top row across - Letters/Numbers, Dimension, and Sparkle/Shine.

TTTC300 - Featured Designer Rosanne - Tic Tac Toe Challenge

AND SPEAKING OF CATS (which we weren't), I just changed the number of cats listed in my Profile from six to seven. This is getting a bit insane and I think perhaps I've passed the threshhold for how many cats you can have to qualify as a "crazy old cat lady"!! Last fall one of our kitties, Tux, ran out of the house and joined the other 11 feral cats in the feral cat community that we feed. Once out of the house, he would have nothing to do with us and seemed perfectly happy to stay outside - even through some pretty extreme temperature changes during the winter. While he was lodging himself on our patio, another cute little black character showed up and boldly came into the house to disrupt everything. We named her Bon Bon and had her vaccinated and spayed and she is now a permanent part of the household. Fast forward to yesterday, and Tux has been taking more interest in looking into the house and letting us pet him. Last night he finally came back in and this morning worked his way back into the morning inside cat-feeding frenzy. He appears to be sticking around for a while - at least until the next time he decides to take a runner. So we are now officially living with seven cats - YIKES!

SEVENTEEN

I'm here today as the Surprise Party Guest for the next couple of weeks at Seize the Birthday, and the theme is "One or More Numbers". My grand-twins turn 17 in a couple of months, so I decided to get out ahead and make a card for Colin.

Seize the Birthday: Seize the Birthday #330-One or More Numbers

You might guess from this card that Colin's great passion is soccer, and I think this is the third year in a row I've made soccer-themed cards for him - mostly because a couple of years ago I bought several 12x12 printed soccer-themed papers (Authentique "Soccer Images") that I'm trying to use up! His younger sister, also a major soccer fan and player, has a 12th birthday coming up this fall, so there's another opportunity for these papers. 

This card was started with a black square card base onto which I attached a slightly smaller panel of green printed soccer turf. Then I trimmed a square of cardstock with black and white printed athletic numbers and a smaller square image with netting and player silhouette. I die cut the PTI numbers out of the front panel and touched up the edges with black marker before attaching the assembled and die cut panel to the face of the card base with black dimensional foam. I finished up with a custom square envelope in a coordinating paper. 

Here's a close-up image of the die cut numbers:

I used the same coordinating papers for the previous birthday cards from ages 15 and 16:

 

 

BIRTHDAY JELLY-FISHES

It's been a few weeks since I've worked on cards. June is always a very busy month in our house, with lots of other things to take up my attention. I started this card yesterday and finally finished it this  morning, after many changes of the original idea. At Seize the Birthday the "topping" is to use vellum or acetate sheet. I started out with the idea of doing both, but it just didn't work out well, so vellum it is.

These wonderful jellyfish, kelp and mini-fishes dies are all from Birch Press Design. Last summer my husband and I spent a day at the aquarium in Newport Beach, Oregon and I fell madly in love with the jellyfish there - remarkable creatures! I thought vellum would be perfect for them, and I selected some vellum with silver and copper flecks that I've had in my stash for a number of years. I decided to show them off on sea-green textured cardstock. I blind embossed a square of the textured stock and it roughed the surface up a bit, but I like the textural effect. The lighter teal of the mat and die-cut kelp is an iridescent card stock. I silver heat-embossed the sentiment Penny Black's "Birthday Fishes" stamp set and cut out a square from the textured panel and layered everything on to a square deep sea-green card base. The mini fish were die cut from silver cardstock, and the final touches were clear rhinestones  and custom envelope lined with the same vellum as the jellyfish.

Seize the Birthday: Seize the Birthday #328-Use Vellum or Acetate

Added June 25, 2026:

I added the clear rhinestones so I could combine this challenge with the current Tic, Tac Toe Challenge. I chose the diagonal row of Vellum/Free/Gems, using dies for the "Free" square.

TTTC #294 - Featured Designer Cindy - Tic Tac Toe Challenge

Added June 21, 2026:

ON A PERSONAL NOTE:

I want to share a photo I took last summer of a huge jellyfish made entirely of ocean debris. I stood totally transfixed by this clever use of garbage collected from the Pacific Ocean. It's a sad state of affairs, but this piece of art is incredible.

FOR THE GUYS

Tomorrow will be June already, and I have birthdays and graduations to contend with. So, without further ado, I submit my first birthday card, following instructions over at Inkspirational Challenge #368 - Word Prompt - "For the Guys." This is for my son who is becoming decidedly middle aged. He'll be 52 on Thursday!

These quirky characters are from Whimsy Stamps "So Weird" CWSD473. I stamped the bull in brown on a scrap of white cardstock, then stamped just his face in black on tan paper and fussy-cut it and glued over the brown image. The bird was over-stamped in black and colored with yellow marker. The hog was stamped on tan with black ink, fussy-cut, nose colored, and attached over the bull with an additional thickness of card stock for a bit of dimension. I added the sentiments from Avery Elle's "Peek-a-Boo Pets", die cut the images with a deckle edge die, and attached it with a brown mat to a top-folded black card base.

For the inside, I stamped the sentiment from the "So Weird" stamp set onto a deckle-edged panel. The final step was a custom coordinating tan envelope lined with black and white polka dots.

Inkspirational: Inkspirational Challenge #368 - Word Prompt - For the Guys 

HOW DOES MY GARDEN GROW?

At the Seize the Birthday Challenge #342 we've been called to "Make a Spring Garden", so I had an opportunity to use a Memory Box die that came free with an order sometime last year. It's a fairly ornate die and not really my style, but I didn't use the border and opted for the center circular garden gate, which had been already cut from white cardstock and languishing in my stash.

I made a square white card base and cut a circular opening from a slightly smaller card panel and attached it to the face of the card base. On a scrap of pale blue card stock, I stamped this wonderfully whimsical garden with PTI "Pinefeather" ink and colored it with Copic markers and white gel pen, trimmed it out with a circle die, and attached it to the center of the opening on the card. I added about a hundred tiny pieces of dimensional foam to the back of the circular gate, tied on a PTI "Tiny Tag" with white heat-embossed sentiment, and glued it over the pale blue garden I had created. Having done all of that, it's now time to go out into my real spring garden and do some weeding!

Seize the Birthday: Seize the Birthday #324-Make a Spring Garden

Added April 24, 2026:

I'm also entering this card in the current Tic, Tac Toe Challenge #290, using the center down row - Embellishment/Free/Circles:

TTTC290- Featured Designer Rosanne - Tic Tac Toe Challenge

π = 3.14

Pi Day! Today is my husband's nephew's birthday and the family always gets together to celebrate with pie. This morning it's a pie brunch! And, as always, I do a pie/pi birthday card for him - and how fun that I can also enter it in the current Shopping Our Stash Challenge #569 - I'm Counting on You", in which we are challenged to use numbers on our card!

This is supposed to look like a freshly-baked pie, but I had to make do with whatever circle dies that I have available to me. The background came from the internet and is part of the numerical value of π that I copied and printed in gray tones on beige and die cut into a stitched rectangle. I glued the panel to the face of a kraft wood-grained card base. I cut the various circles in silver and beige, hand-cut a pi symbol into the center, wiped a bit of kraft-colored ink at the edges, and layered together.

 

The die cut sentiment is from PTI, as is the one on the interior of the card.

Shopping Our Stash Weekly Challenge Blog: SOS569 - I'm counting on you

Added April 11, 2026:

TIME OUT CHALLENGE

 When I saw the current card challenge at Time Out Challenges: Challenge #307, I knew exactly what I wanted to use this great idea for. Kim Heggins of Running Stitch Designs has offered up one of her wonderful handmade bags for both inspiration and prize. 

I decided to take the challenge literally and make a coin purse from Spellbinders "Gorgeous You Makeup Bag" cutting die set. This one is hinged on the left to open, revealing slots for a gift card. At Christmas I made one of these for my granddaughter and included a Sephora gift card. It was a great hit!

I had some lavender polka dot cardstock and some scraps of a rainbow-striped paper. I started this card by die-cutting the polka dot cardstock 3 times - front and both sides of the inside. To make the stitched and scalloped edge for the stripe, I used Spellbinders "Winter Borders" detailed cutting dies and then used the purse outline die to trim out the bottom portion of the bag, which I glued over the front. The metal edge and tag were cut from silver metallic card stock, and the final step was to trim the bag with a bit of satin ribbon. After I finished the card and photographed it, I realized I had forgotten to add a label like Kim's bag - oh well!

This was fun and easy! I think I'll set this aside for my youngest granddaughter's 12th birthday in October.  

TIME OUT Challenges: Challenge #307

Added March 12, 2026:

EMBRACING MY WEIRDNESS!

This morning I was inspired by the challenge over at The Paper Players CAS Challenge "Birthdays and Balloons". Great idea, Stef! As it happens, my younger brother turns 78 in just a couple of weeks. 

I started this card with a sheet of kraft wood-embossed cardstock, making a card base and then due-cutting a rectangle from the back of the same stock so that I could stamp on it. I love these animals with attitude from Whimsy Stamps "So Weird" #CWSD473 and knew I wanted to use one of the images and sentiments for a BD card for my brother. I stamped the bull directly on the kraft panel with black ink and touched him up with a bit of white gel pen. I stamped a spatter of stars and confetti with black ink on a white scrap and then over-stamped Tim Holtz's balloons on a white scrap. I colored them with Copic markers and fussy cut them. I glued the yellow one directly on the panel and attached the red-orange one with a bit of cardstock behind for a bit of dimension. Using the white gel pen, I added strings from the balloons down to the bull. The final step for the front was to attached the sentiment after white heat-embossing it on black cardstock and cutting it with a die-cut strip.

Inside the card is very simple - sentiments stamped in black and the splatter with red-orange. As a finishing touch, I inked the outside edge of the card with my black ink pad.  

The Paper Players: PP773 - A CAS Challenge from Stef

And because I used a couple of simple dies on this card, I'm also sharing it over at Seize the Birthday!

Seize the Birthday: Seize the Birthday #320- CAS with Dies

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER CARD!

I'm playing with challenges again today, and using the layout at Freshly Made Sketches #701 - A sketch by Jen and the colors by Seize the Birthday #312 - Black & White. 

For the layout, I rotated the sketch 90 degrees and used an old PTI birthday die as the columns on the FMS sketch. Starting with a white card base, I attached a die cut stitched rectangular panel. The birthday dies were cut twice and layered in black, silver, and gray card stock and attached to the face. The final "greetings" sentiment was heat embossed in silver, cut in a strip, and attached with black dimensional foam to stand out from the face a bit.

Freshly Made Sketches: Freshly Made Sketches #701 - A Sketch by Jen B

Seize the Birthday: Seize the Birthday #312-Black and White

Added 9/12/25:

DONNA'S BIRTHDAY

We're sitting here in record-breaking heat today - 107 degrees F yesterday and expecting the same for the next couple of days. I worry about our feral cats, but they always seem to manage to survive. I'll make sure they have plenty of cool water on the covered patio.

Today is my friend Donna's birthday, and for inspiration I went to a couple of challenges:  AAA Cards Challenge Game #296 "Sketch" and Tic, Tac Toe Challenge #276.

I started this card with a white A2 card base. I die cut an oval out of a piece of tissue to provide a mask and taped it to the front of the card, stamping the Hero Arts sun image in black. Using my Copic markers, I colored the sun and sky. The PTI sentiment was over-stamped and black heat embossed. That's it! I'll just lay low for the rest of the day and stay inside.

Here are the challenges:

   AAA Cards: AAA Card Challenge #296: Sketch Challenge  

Added August 24, 2025:

For this challenge, my card will fit into a couple of these rows - right down, CAS/Sentiment/Embossing and middle down, Summer/Free/Single Layer.

TTTC276- Featured Designer Design Team X - Tic Tac Toe Challenge

BIRTHDAY WISHES

I'm in need of a couple of birthday cards this week and decided to make two at the same time to save myself some grief. I was inspired by Color Throwdown Challenge #823 - kraft, fuscia, and orange. I made an A2 card base and matching envelope from some kraft paper I had in my stash.

I'm fond of the spotlight technique and stamped the Hampton Art #SC1013 flower-filled envelope with black ink twice - once on the face of the card and the second time on an extra scrap. I colored the scrap with markers, cut the image out with stitched die, and attached it over the uncolored image. the final step was to white heat emboss a PTI sentiment on a strip of black cardstock and glue it to the face. 

I finished the inside off with a small portion of the same image in black, die cut it with a rectangular stitched die, matted it with black cardstock, and attached it to the inside where I'll hand write a message, I lined the matching envelope with some fuscia-colored printed paper.

Color Throwdown: Color Throwdown Challenge #836

OUR BIRTHDAY BOY

Our grandson hits the magic age of 16 in September and he'll be down to the DMV at 8:00 AM to take his driver's license test, and of course he'll pass. His dad has an older model silver-toned pickup truck that will become his "new" wheels. As far as his parents are concerned, it can't come a moment too soon because they're sick of running him, his twin sister, and younger sister back and forth between school and soccer practice. So, you can guess where I was going with this birthday card!

I started with a bunch of coordinating soccer papers by Authentique that I purchased last year before his 15th birthday. The pickup die set is new to me from Whimsy Stamps ("Truck Die Set" #WSD122) and I die cut the pieces from dull silver vellum and added bright silver accents, which don't show up very well with this photo. I got the idea that I wanted to cut an opening through the card base and background soccer field and slip a black and white photo of him inside the truck. Of course, he's hauling soccer balls and die cut numbers (PTI).

When the card is opened, there's his photo and die-cut sentiment (PTI) with more of the coordinating papers. I found a sheet of paper that's printed grass to use as lining in the black square envelope.

There are a couple of challenges I wanted to share this with:

NBUS because of the brand new truck die:

NBUS: NBUS Challenge #76

And the Pretty Papers challenge. I'm not sure how "pretty" these papers are, but they are definitely coordinated:

Love Those Pretty Papers Challenge: ATG Using Pretty Patterned Paper July 2025

 Challenge