Birthday Cards

I really want to get back into my scrapbooking and paper crafting groove again.  My husband and I talked about it, because if I'm in my room working on a project that means it's up to him to watch both children.  He said he's okay with that, because creating is what seems to make me happiest and more balanced.  I think I have to agree.  I've always enjoyed my creativity, and these past few months I just haven't been making time for that therapy.  Especially now that I don't have knitting club anymore and I've stopped going to physical therapy twice a week, I am going to need some alone time.

Of course, I'm all sorts of rusty.  It's been a while!  I decided today that I'd start off by making a few birthday cards to have on hand.  You can always use birthday cards, right?  

I turned to my Pinterest boards for inspiration.  Honestly, if it's been a while, I find the easiest way to get back into the groove of things is to just scraplift something that someone else has done.  It's kind of like priming a pump for me.  I need to have a game plan in place while I reacquaint myself with the supplies.

I ended up making two each of four designs.

This one was inspired by this card.  The center is raised slightly on pop dots, giving it a frame effect that's kind of hard to see in this photo.  It's just a couple of strips of washi tape at an angle, a stamped sentiment, and a flower punched from cardstock with a pearl center.  BOOM.  Done.  Nice and quick.

The design for this card was inspired by this one.  I have had this Stampin' Up set for YEARS (it was retired in 2002) and have never, not even one time, used it before tonight.  Terrible.

This card was inspired by this one.  (Man, I had to HUNT to find the proper link.  What's up with people not knowing how to Pin properly???) I need a new white stamp pad.  I have a Staz-On one and it was all dried out.  I reinked it, but it's sort of sticky and I can't remember if that's how it was when I bought it.

This card was modeled off this one.  I really got some use out of my washi tape tonight!  I left off the butterfly so that it would look more masculine.

That's it for tonight.  Hopefully I'll have some stuff to share later in the week too!