Birthday Cards

My family had a couple of birthdays this past week. And they were both men. Masculine cards are not my strong point. But I recently purchased a new Stampin' Up set called Nature Silhouettes and got to use it for the very first time to make my husband this birthday card. I was pretty happy with how it turned out and he loved it (and had to show it off to everyone), so that made me really happy.

I got the inspiration from a post on the Splitcoast website. Here is the card that inspired me - by member cmc2stamp. I didn't use quite the same color blues and didn't get my background as dark, and my moon was smaller but what a great idea to do with this set. I also used the new Curvy Label punch and one of the stamps that come inthe bundle with the punch. I am disappointed that there isn't another size of this punch to allow for layering, but I compromised by punching out two additional black labels and layering them behind the stamped label to give a layered look.
Then I used one of the oval label holders from the Stylized Silver Hodgepodge Hardware set. The background I used - Weathered - is unfortunately retired. I also used the Photo Corners punch and in each one I used a star brad, also from the Stylized Silver Hodgepodge Hardware set. The cardstock is an old In-Color - Buckaroo Blue. There are so many blue shades in the In-Colors but I do love this one, and I thought I had ordered an extra package of it before it retired, but I could only find a few sheets of it, so I guess I won't be using it much more!
Oh, and I used glossy white card stock, embossed the tree and grass stamp with black, also embossed the wolf, then cut him out and popped him up on dimensionals. The photo corners are also popped up with foam tape.

And there is the card I made for my stepson Ben, who turned 18 on Sunday. I struggle with knowing how to make cards for men, but teenagers are even harder.
There's an old SU set called Pocket Fun, which I've never owned, but my awesome sister (and fellow stamping addict) Kathy had let me stamp a bunch of pockets from her set onto some demin patterned paper - a LONG time ago, and I pulled that out to make this card.
I used the new Riding Hood Red card stock, and used the Linen background stamp (which I'm also very sad to say is now retired). I also used the Photo Corners punch once again, but this time added some star eyelets. Wow, has it been a long time since I've used eyelets, but it was fun to get them out again. I used a Sale-A-Bration stamp set (I think it's called Lots of Notes, but not totally sure on the name - sorry) for the greeting and used markers to ink it up in different colors.
If you look close you might notice that it's only a one dollar bill in the pocket, that is because I had to send this card in the mail and didn't want to send cash, so I wrote a check and then wrapped a dollar around it so it would like a pocket full of cash. I used foam tape around the edges of the pocket to make an actual pocket out of it, and silver brads in the corners to mimic rivets on jeans. That's it!
And the best part - I actually got both cards to the birthday boys on time. Made my husband's the night before so I could give it to him before he went to work on his birthday, and my stepson's I actually got to him two days early. That's unheard of for me, I'm always late. Like with my stepdaugther Heather and her husband Brandon's wedding anniversary, which is tomorrow, and I *thought* was Saturday (ughh 40 is hitting me hard I tell ya!) and still haven't gotten a card made to mail. I'm so bad, but she understands, since her dad is the same way, well no he's actually worse, in regard to procrastination. But I will make a *fabulous* card for them and get it in the mail, it will just be a few days late. Sigh.

Ok, now I'll leave you with a picture of my husband, Joe, and I before I took him out for dinner on his birthday, which was this past Friday. We actually got a bit dressed up and that doesn't happen very often so I had to document the occassion. Besides, I will, someday, get back to scrapbooking. I will. Someday.

I have so many things to post, I had a great workshop for one of my hostess groups yesterday so I can post about those projects, and a few to catch up from my non-blogging time, but I can barely sneak time to get the current stuff posted. So much going on right now, and this is the busiest time of year for me at work. I've been working late and trying to get in early this week. I should be in bed by now, I'll be dragging in the morning, but this always takes longer to do than I expect. Hope you all enjoy it, I was feeling like I was doing this for nothing, but then I got so many comments from my club members yesterday (Hi gals!), saying how glad they were that I was blogging again, so that made me feel like I should continue. Even if they are the only ones that look, at least I know someone is.
Ok, that's it for now - take care everyone!