Handmade Birthday Cards for Little Girls and Boys

My daughter and her family came up to visit us for a week this summer.  We had so much fun, like we always do, and I promise someday soon I will blog about it.  I've been saying that a lot lately.  I don't know why it's been so hard for me this year to find the time to blog, but it has.  Anyway, while they were here we celebrated Atlethea's and Atticus' birthdays because they are both summer babies.  Here are the cards I made for them:

Atticus' card was made using the retired Stampin' Up! set "Ahoy, Matey".  I have always loved this set.  It is so cute!

To make this card, I created a little pirate scene.  I used a stencil and markers to create a sea and sky.  The clouds were cut using an MFT die.  Everything else was in the set.  I simply stamped the images, colored them in, and cut them out.  I popped the pirate on dimensionals but glued the chest and ship onto the card.  I stamped the sentiment onto the cloud.

For Alethea's card I used a Pure Innocence image from MFT.  I also created a background using markers.  The grass is a stamp.  The clouds are the same MFT die used in the pirate card above.  The butterfly and flowers are Cuttlebug dies.

For this card, I didn't use any dimensionals.  I just glued everything onto the card after coloring it in and cutting it out.  Once again I stamped the sentiment onto the cloud.

And here are the little rugrats proudly displaying their cards.  They are so CUTE!

Here's some snapshots of the kids opening their presents.  They sure had fun!

Alethea has been really getting into painting her fingernails, so her mom bought her some pretty colors of nail polish.  

Atticus was super excited to get this "Action Bible"...perfect for little boys.  It is loaded with comic book style illustrations.  I would love to read this bible myself!

But perhaps Atticus' favorite gift of all was "The Armor of God".  He has been wanting this dress up set for so long!  He has the whole armor of God from Ephesians 6 completely memorized and he's only four years old.  Be sure to watch the second video below.  It's so adorable because he is so excited to put on this costume and he tells the significance of each piece.

And finally, here are some family videos.  Enjoy!

                                                            Alethea Opening Her Gifts:

Atticus Putting On the Armor of God

Singing Happy Birthday to the Grandkids

I hope you liked the cards and enjoyed this brief snapshot into my family.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

A Handmade Boy’s Birthday Card

This is a card I made with no specific person in mind.  I thought about giving it to my son as he has a birthday coming up on Thursday, but I think it's too young for him, he'll be 28.   I made the card because I had scraps left over from another card I just finished.  Rather than just toss the scraps in the garbage, I threw together another card.  So, since I don't have a recipient in mind, it will just sit in my stash until I need it.   It's always nice to have extra cards on-hand when the needs arise.

For this card I used all old supplies.  The paper is from an old Cosmo Cricket stack and the image is retired Stampin' Up!   "Kids at Play".

To make the card, I just glued the kite designer paper to a white card base and added another coordinating piece of dp to the side.  I then stamped the kite and little boy onto separate card stock, colored them in with Copic markers, then fussy cut them out.  They were then popped up on dimensionals onto the card.

A sentiment was stamped right onto the designer paper.



What about you?  Do you often pre-make cards for future occasions?  I'd love to hear from you!

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Have a Great Day!  Amy

A Birthday Card For My Husband

Last month was my husband's birthday and this was the card I made for him.

This adorable deer die cut was made using a die from MFT.  I just love this die.  These deer are so pretty and just the right size.  The tree I made using a Circuit Expression.

I stamped the sentiment directly on the tree.   I sponged the edges of the tree with a dark green ink.  I scattered heart die cuts on the tree using one in the sentiment for the word "heart" and one actually on the deer representing one heart.

And here is the happy birthday boy with his card and the gift I gave him.  I purchased this gift at a gift shop, but it would be so easy to make yourself.  The frame is just stained pallet board.  The "Home" is a 3D piece glued to the pallet board.  You can find these words at any craft store.  The state of Wisconsin is stained with a darker stain than what was used on the board.  A red tack indicates where our home is.  

My husband absolutely loved this gift for after all our travels he is always happy to come home.  

 Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

"You Rock!": A Handmade Card For A Male Musician

My son turned 27 in August and this is the card I made for him.  He is a percussionist, so I used a drum image and a "rock" sentiment stamp from Inkadinkado.

I chose masculine colors and papers from DCWV "Rock Star" MatStack.  I stamped the drum image on tan card stock and cut it into a circular shape using Spellbinder's Nestabilities.  I cut a larger more jagged shape out of brown card stock using Spellbinder's again and placed it behind the drum image panel.

The sentiment was stamped on blue card stock and cut with a MFT banner die.

I finished the card off by putting the designer paper on dark brown card stock and adhering the entire thing to a vanilla card stock base.

And there you have it!  An easy, simple, masculine card for the musical in your life!

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

30th Birthday Cards

My daughter and son-in-law both turned thirty this summer and these are the cards I made for them.  But first let me say, I can't believe I have a thirty year old kid!  Geez, I'm old.  Anyway, onto the cards!

This is the card I made for my daughter.  I used an old retired Stampin' Up! set called "Girlfriends" for the stamped image.  I thought her body expression expressed my feelings exactly.  haha!   I personalized the card using my Cricut Expression machine to cut out the "30".  The "Happy Birthday" sentiment is a MFT die, and the black circle is a Spellbinder's die.

 I added a few sequins for sparkle!

For my son-in-law's card I used the same dies and Cricuit cartridge to make the sentiment.  The balloons are a stamp.   

  I stamped the balloon image directly on the white card stock, then stamped one balloon separately, colored, cut it out, and popped it up on dimensionals.  I put "Crystal Effects" on all of them.  Also added some yellow glitter glue randomly in little dots in the background.

We had a little party for the kids at my house.  I hung a banner, cut some fresh flowers from my garden, and cut more balloon shapes and signs with my Cricut.  Of course, I forgot to take pictures.  haha!  I'm such a bad blogger.  In my defense, the party didn't quite turn out the way I planned because it interfered with Alethea's bedtime schedule, so that's probably why I wasn't in picture-taking-mode.  The kids seemed to appreciate it though.

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

A Birthday Card For My Daughter

This is the birthday card I made for my daughter's 29th birthday.  Yikes!  I can't believe next year my baby will be 30!  Where did the time go?  

Because it's summer and I am always overwhelmed with garden chores, I cased this card HERE to make it easy on myself.

Of course I just cased the "idea" of the original card but I didn't have Laurie's exact supplies so I used what I had on-hand.  My ferns are retired Stampin' Up! and the butterfly sticker is an old K & Co 3d Sticker.

My sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.  I used an old Halloween string to make the bow because it went perfectly with the monarch butterfly.

The sentiment panel is popped up on dimesnionals.

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!
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A Card For A Very Special Friend

 It takes a very special friend to drag me into my craft room to make a card these days since I no longer do a card ministry.  Last Easter my hubby and I went to Milwaukee to visit old friends and meet up with our kids.  It happened to be my friend's birthday just a few days earlier so I purchased a pot of pretty yellow tulips and I made this card to give to her when I saw her.

Because I don't have a lot of time to spend in my craft room in the spring I kept the card very simple. I used two different stamp sets on this card.  The Penny Black mouse and sentiment are from one set and the florals are from another.  I love it when I can mix and match stamp sets, don't you?

To add interest to my clean and simple card, I used dimensionals and popped up the flower heads and mouse.  I also added sparkle with some Stickles in the flower centers, and by also using pink glitter paper to frame my main image.

This pop up technique is done by stamping the image twice.  Stamp once onto your main image panel.  Then stamp again on a separate piece of card stock, color, cut out, and place over the same image on the main image panel.

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!
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Celebrating My Birthday and Birthday RAKS

Yesterday was my 54th birthday.  Being a Thanksgiving baby, like Christmas babies, my birthday usually gets lost in the holiday so I have learned never to expect much.  The plus side is that family is always around when it's my birthday because they have to be...it's Thanksgiving.  But the birthday celebration itself usually becomes a part of the Thanksgiving feast rather than a separate party.  Although, I did have my "big" birthdays remembered in a special way...you know "Sweet 16", "40", and "50".  

This birthday was a normal one.   My husband had the week off.  Normally we would have taken a vacation but thanks to the "Affordable Health Care Act" (that will hopefully be "Repealed and Replaced" next year) we were surprisingly stuck with thousands of dollars of medical bills and had to cancel two vacations as a result of it.  So in place of a vacation, we went to Chicago for a few days to visit our children and then spent the rest of the week at home with Ashley and Jason (Jordan had to stay behind in Chicago because of work).

We decided to take our kitty to Chicago so that Jordan could spend some time with him;  he hadn't seen him since we brought him home from the shelter.  I was so worried that he wouldn't be able to handle the six hour car drive, but he did surprisingly well.  He spent part of the drive in his little carrier, but most of the trip he spent sitting on my lap.

Below is a picture I posted on Instagram.  The picture on the left is my son-in-law Jason.  We were playing a game of Aggravation and my kitten Jackson was just enamored watching us roll the dice.  The top picture on the right is my son Jordan napping after church.  Jackson jumped on his lap while he was sleeping.  And the bottom right picture is Jackson in his carrier in our car.

Well, by now your probably all wondering what I got for my birthday.

My husband bought me a pair of burgundy booties for my birthday earlier when we were out shopping.  I've shown them to you before HERE.  My daughter got me a fantastic metallic gold handbag and a modern geometric necklace.  I'll show you the bag in a future fashion post, but the necklace is pictured below.

Jackson was so excited to see my present.  He thought the gift was for him!  He loved peeking in the bag and seeing what was inside.  And of course the bag and tissue paper became a toy once the present was removed.

If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen this picture on Instastories.  This is the necklace my daughter bought me.  I absolutely LOVE it!

Since my birthday was on a work day, we celebrated on a Sunday.  By now all the kids went home, so it was just my husband and I.  We went to church, out to my favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch, shopping, and a movie.  We bought a few Christmas presents for the kids and Jackson, and walked around a store's displays of Christmas trees.  I absolutely loved this flocked country-themed tree.

I've been debating whether or not to even put up Christmas decorations this year with a new kitty in the house.  He gets into everything!  The kids will be so disappointed if I don't, but I seriously don't know if it's worth the trouble.  When I saw this tree, it gave me a little bit of hope.  Perhaps if I use bigger ornaments like this on our tree, Jackson will not be nearly as destructive.

And now for the Birthday RAKS.  "What is a RAK?" some of you non-paper-crafters might ask.  It stands for "Random Acts Of Kindness".  I belong to a on-line paper-crafting community called Splitcoaststampers and one of the nice things they do is send hand-made birthday cards to their members.  This year I was lucky enough to receive four of them.

My first one is a fall-themed birthday card from Annehem715.  I love the fun leaves and the glittered panel.

This unique card stands up and the birthday greeting pops out.  It's from 2Cute Cats.

I absolutely adored this cute birdie card from Anniepanda.

The cute birdie is popped up on dimensionals.

And finally, I love the floral card from Annsforte3.  Isn't it beautiful?

All-in-all it was another wonderful birthday.  My daughter surprised me and left me the most wonderful birthday tribute on Facebook.  I was so shocked, because we as a family do not usually display our affection publicly that way...but it certainly made my day!  Every day I am filled with gratitude over the wonderful little family I have.  I may not have a great, close, extended family, nor a lot of friends, but I have the best nuclear family anyone could ever ask for.

Have a Great Day!  Amy