Birthdays and Birth Days and Celebrations!

A surprise 40th Birthday was the perfect excuse for using a Gate style card with simply some Celebrations Designer Series Paper (IB&C p89) on the two fronts, some Pacific Point card stock for the 4x4cm squares and then my favorite Party this Way stamp set (IB&C p31) for the Real Red balloon and spinning party arrow. Trying to get into the habit of making two cards at a time with the idea of selling the second one, or having it to hand in case of need ;-) I hope David enjoyed his party as much as we enjoyed attending it ;-)

And from 40 years to celebration to the first celebration of life . . . .A warm Welcome to the World for the Gorgeous Gwion, second son for Owain and Rhi and little brother to Tudur. I am yet to meet this gorgeous bundle, but sent along this card to let them know I was thinking of them. As you have probably gathered, I love natural colours and recycled things and much of this card illustrates that. I have coloured the teddy bear using an Aqua Painter and Soft Suede ink.

As always I have to print a little sentiment on the envelope and here I have printed the sentiment that is inside the card. All the confetti stamps (IB&C p60) are getting serious use at the moment, but these heart ones are very versatile. I'm enjoying them so much it made a good starting point for me with this Anniversary card. I used the confetti stamp down the left hand side of the card, here in Riding Hood Red and then for the top hearts, hand cut slightly smaller than the base punched card stock. The sentiment stamps I have used here are retired, but would look good with the Heard from the Heart set (IB&C p74).

With my next card I've used the confetti flower stamp on the envelope of the card once more, always good to give the postie something to look at ;-) Here I've used the Beautiful Just Believe set (IB&C p57), with watercolour paper (IB&C p87) and simply colouring in the stamp with Stampin Write markers then spritzing the stamp with water to create this watercolour effect for the print. I then used textured card stock for the Old Olive background tearing both in an arc shape around the print. The finishing touch here was addition of Basic Pearls for the flower centres and then a line for the base of the print. I think they go quite well with the colour of the watercolour paper :-)