Tiddly Inks Birthday Project

A few weeks ago I volunteered (since I need the practice!) to make a birthday card as part of a project for Christy Croll aka Tiddly Inks.  She's collecting 40 cards from her blog followers for her friend's 40th birthday.  Sweet, huh?  She provided this digi and these background papers (now available on her site)

although she did say we could do whatever we wanted.  Her friend's fave colors are red and black.

I seem to be developing a "thing" for square cards. And having this box of dry-embossed DCWV cards is just too easy.  I knew I'd be covering up a lot of the embossing, but I liked the square idea too much. So I picked Retro Squares and created this:
(My camera lens has what I thought was a smudge but what may be something more nefarious, so please excuse the not-so-great photos. Sigh.)

Everything was prepped in Word and printed on cardstock... I picked some birthday and age-related quotations from one of my favorite websites QuoteGarden.com. (I found the site when it was so brand new it practically smelled like plastic shrinkwrap!)  I used my Chicken Salad font from the Pizza Dude, another site where I am a long-time visitor, and created a simple text box that I filled in with a red gradient to match the red background square, then used deckle scissors to cut it out.  I added a "Happy Birthday!" in a quote-shaped bubble text box. I picked one particular quote I really liked to repeat on the inside of the card.  (I wrote in "May each year that passes be your best year ever!" after I took the pictures.)

I colored and paper-pieced and cut out the digi. I'll admit I'm not in love with the background papers, but I found a way to incorporate them... I paper-pieced Kellie's top and skirt with them!  I loved the effect at that teeny size, although lesson learned: Use lighter weight paper and not cardstock when paper piecing, at least definitely at that small size. I also glittered up the boots with Frosted Lace Stickles and added Glossy Accents to the glasses.  Unfortunately something must have brushed across one because there's a tiny blemish, but shhhhh! Maybe they'll never see it. LOL  The card looked it needed something, so I ended up using that same Stickles all around the outer edge of the card.

Then I made a one-layer red square with the quote bubble, this time with her friend's name in it, printed that on 20 or 24-lb paper and glued it to the envelope, which you see in the first photo. Oh so matchy-matchy. LOL

So. Square cards and lots of dimension using foam squares. I'm detecting a trend. LOL  Actually... I used to create flyers and newsletters at my last job (the lack of that kind of creative outlet at my current job is what led me to start making cards in the first place) and working with the computer this way feels like I'm doing much the same thing, except in three dimensions as I cut out pieces and layer them up rather than having them all in one layer on the printed page.  Not that I haven't invested (somewhat more than I expected, quelle surprise!) in inks and stamps that I'm dying to delve into, but it's nice that all the fonts I've collected over the years and my Word skills aren't going to go to waste.

So... hopefully Christy and her friend Kellie like it. I do. =)

I'm nearly finished getting organized and finishing off the dreaded household 'stuff' that stands between me and some really good times in the craft room, so I'm expecting to be crafting and posting regularly soon and filling up my mom's digital fridge. =)  Til next time, happy crafting!