Life of the Party!

We have had Basic Grey's 'Life of the Party' line in for a while, but it is so cute I had to make something with it. Here are directions on how to make a birthday card with matching gift bag. You will need the following supplies: 2 different pattern papers, solid cardstock, solid color bag, happy birthday stamp, ink pad, scissors, twine or ribbon, dimensional foam tape, hole punch, 1" circle punch, and the Epic Six Letterpress machine used to diecut the banners.

In the picture above you can see the whole array of papers from this line, basic cardstock, the $.99 birthday stamp, and the twine. Start off by cutting your green cardstock to 10"X7". Next, score it right in the middle so you make a 5"X7" folded card.

Next, using the Epic Six machine and the banner cutting dies cut out five of the smallest size; three of one pattern and two of the other.

Next, arrange the cut out triangles in an angular pattern acorss the length of your green 5"X7" card and adhere down using the double sided foam adhesive to give the banner dimension.
Then, punch two holes at either end of your card just above the line of the banner. Tie knots on the underside so it stays put.

After that, cut a small piece of solid cardstock to 1.5"X2.5" and stamp 'Happy Birthday' on it. I prefer to use VersaFine ink because it goes on the easiest and it stamps clearly.

Lastly, mount the sentiment with the foam tape and adhere it to the bottom right corner of the card and Voila!

Now it's time to make the matching bag! First, I printed out the word 'HAPPY' on pink text weight paper. I also cut out the second smallest size of the banners from the cutting dies.

Next, using your 1" hole punch, cut out the letters you printed making sure they are centered.

Now, mount the cut out letters using the same dimensional foam tape and adhere them to the little banners.

Next, we need to thread the twine through the banners. The dies do cut out a little notch which works great for flat ribbon. However, since I am using a fibery twine, it is much easier to punch holes and thread them through that way.

Again, punch small holes in the top of the bag so that the twine can thread through. Make sure to tie knots so it will stay put. I also used more foam tape to hold the banner onto the bag. Next, I stamped 'birthday' on plain red cardstock and attached it under the banner.

Here is the completed bag! One great way to personalize this is to spell out the gift recipient's name or any other sentiment on the banner.

Happy Crafting!

-Malyse

Social Club from Cosmo Cricket!

Happy Monday everyone! I was inspired by this new fabulous line, Social Club. This new line from Cosmo Cricket is inspired by Ol' Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra! Social Club celebrates the appeal of a cool gentleman. With images of martinis, dancing, and fedoras, this line sure has a fun and retro appeal to it! Tomorrow is my birthday and I am going to Vegas to celebrate it, so I decided to use this line to come up with a birthday invitation and matching thank you card.

For this project I used a red card from our new Create-A-Card line from Doodlebug as the base for my invitation. (for more ideas using this card line see Christina's cute blog here
I used 5 out of the 8 12X12 patterned papers, the matching sticker sheet, glossy accents (not pictured), a peacock feather stamp (only $.99!), a couple pieces of solid colored cardstock, and an ATG gun to glue everything together.

I started by cutting 3 strips of paper from my two favorite patterns and a dark brown wood grained cardtock in 3.75", 3.5", and 3" strips. I arranged them in such a way that they gave a staircase look, pictured above.

Then, I peeled off one of the blank tabs from the sticker sheet and stuck it down to the tab on the card and wrote, 'You're Invited'. What I love most about this file folder card, is that when it's placed in the envelope, you can see this little message even before you pull the card out!

After that, I peeled off a border sticker and cut a 4.5" strip and placed it at the bottom of the card to add a little martini olive accent.

Next, using the same dark brown woodgrain cardstock cut a square about 1.75" in size. I peeled off a frame sticker and placed it on the brown square. I then placed this on the right side of my card and used a little bit of foam tape to make it pop out.

Then, I added a little bit of Glossy Accents to the top of a martini sticker to give the impression of liquid. This type of dimensional adhesive is a great way to give any embellishment more personality. Although Diamond Glaze can do the same thing, I prefer to use Glossy Accents because it is a little thicker and tends to stay right where you place it. Also, the fine point tip of the bottle ensures accurate placement.

Once the Glossy Accents is dry (this might take a while) I placed the martini sticker inside the frame. You can also stick it down first and add the Glossy Accents at the end.

Now it is time to do the inside! I cut out one of the blocks with lines so I could write the party information for the inside of the invite. I mounted this on a martini olive pattern paper with about a .25" border.

Then I added the other martini sticker to the inside of the card to add a little more decoration.

Next, I wanted to decorate the envelope so it wasn't so boring. I started by cutting out the word "Celebrate" and glued it to the center of the envelope.

After that, using the letters from the sticker sheet I spelled out "Let Us" and placed it above the "celebrate" image in another staircase pattern.

And....Voila! Your invite and envelope are done! Wasn't that easy?!

Now it's time to make your matching thank you card to give a Thanks! to all those people who came out to celebrate! I started by cutting out another image from the 12X12 pattern paper. I chose to use the image of a man and woman cheers-ing!

I cut out an A-2 card from a green cardstock for the base of the card. Then I cut out a 3.37"X5" sized piece from the same peacock feather design paper I used on the invitation. I placed both this piece and the image onto the card unevenly.

Then I used a blank banner sticker from the sheet, wrote 'Thanks!', and placed it on my card.

Then, using Glossy Accents again, I gave dimension to the champagne glasses on the image.

I like to add a little surprise to the inside of my cards, so I decided to stamp the peacock feather stamps to the inside of the card using a turquoise colored ink.

And.....Voila! Your Thank You card is finished!

I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did making them. I want to thank Whitney, the Manager at our Tukwila store, for giving me the inspiration for the invite. She always has such great ideas!

Happy Crafting everyone!
-Malyse

Split Fold Birthday Card

Hi Everyone

This upcoming weekend will be my Dad's 80th birthday party. I wanted to create a special card for him. I decided on a split fold card, and am very happy with the results. I think it turned out masculine and classic. Those were the qualities I was going for. I had never used this fold for a card before, but I can already tell it is going to be one of my favorites.

It is simple to create if you would want to create a card that is similar!

Ingredients for this card
1 piece of 5.5x8.5 neutral cardstock to be used as the base of the card.
2 pieces of 2 1/8x5.5 cardstock. Once piece is your background color while the other piece is a coordinating pattern
1 piece of 2x5.25 cardstock in a coordinating pattern
1 piece of 2x2 carstock in your background color
1 piece of 1.75x1.75 neutral cardstock
Ribbon
Scoring Tool
Adhesive

Assorted Embellishments

***1 piece of 2x.75 cardstock in the background color
***1 piece of 1.75x.5 neutral cardstock
***Small birthday Stamp
***Large Number Stickers
***Large Rhinestone

items marked with *** were the items I used to create this as a birthday card

Step 1

Score your 8.5 x 5.5 piece of cardstock at the 2 1/8 inch mark and the 4.25 inch mark.


Step 2

Fold the card over like a normal card at the 4.25 inch score line. Fold the card back at the 2 1/8 inch score line. Your card should look like the image to the left.


Step 3

I stamped my birthday message on the 1.75x.5 piece of neutral cardstock. Then using adhesive centered it on the 2x.75 piece of background cardstock.


Step 4

Adhere the ribbon to the 2x5.25 piece of coordinating cardstock. Adhere this piece to the 2 1/8x 5.5 piece of background cardstock


Step 5

Adhere the numbers on the 1.75x1.75 piece of neutral cardstock. Adhere this piece to the 2x2 piece of background cardstock.


Step 6

Adhere the layered piece with ribbon on to the right base of the card. Adhere the 2 1/8x 5.5 piece of coordinating cardstock to the folded back piece of your card.




Step 7

Adhere the square number piece to the folded back piece of the card. Adhere the small layered greeting on the top right of the ribbon and embellish with a rhinestone.







Happy Crafting

Sandra