Summer Birthdays

July 9, 2018

In our family of 11, summer is for birthdays!  In June, July, and August we celebrate a total of 7 birthdays.  The remainder fall in October (3) and December (1).  So since it is summer, I'm focused on birthday cards and I've got a pretty one for you today.

I was inspired by a card that my upline showed on our team website, so I used the same basic layout, but changed the colors to give the card a warm, bright, summery vibe.  

The base of the card is Flirty Flamingo card stock.  The white panel on the front is 5 by 3 3/4.  I cut a large piece of Post-It paper into a strip 1 1/2 inches wide and placed it across the panel as a mask.  Then I used stamps from the Perennial Birthday stamp set (page 71) to stamp flowers in Flirty Flamingo, Blushing Bride, and Mango Melody.  The leaves are stamped in Granny Apple Green and Lemon Lime Twist.  I made sure that I stamped flowers and leaves overlapping the Post-It mask, so that when the mask is removed, you are left with a nice white space to add the sentiment, which is also part of the Perennial Birthday stamp set.  

I used the Stamparatus (page 207 of the annual catalog) to perfectly stamp the sentiment in exactly the spot I had chosen.  I didn't have to worry about getting it crooked and ruining my card.  If you haven't seen how the Stamparatus works, here is a video from Stampin'Up that tells you everything you need to know. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3teCr7Xo4G8

   It really is an amazing tool.  You'll wonder how you ever stamped without it!  

I hope your summer is off to an amazing start!  Here are some of my favorite things about summer: traveling, getting outside, swimming, watermelon, ice cream cones, barbecues, taking the grandchildren to the splash park, reading on the lounge chair in the back yard, and stamping cards for summer birthdays.  All of these things say "summer" to me.  What are your favorite things about summer?  I hope that stamping is on your list of favorite things to do in every season of the year!  Being creative and making beautiful things lifts the spirit in ways that are hard to describe.  

Here's to a great summer of creativity!
Susan