Tea Time Birthday Card

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My husband made an unusual request of me last week. He asked me to create a birthday card for his employer. This first-of-its-kind request on his part took me off guard and presented me with a challenge. I now had to create a card that was suitable for a business relationship but personal enough to avoid appearing obligatory.

The birthday girl's favorite color is red (mine, too!) and she loves tea. I came up with this simple easel card layout featuring a stamp from About Art Accents Plate 244B - Tea Pot and Covered Tea Cup on a Tray. The bold red color accents the patterned washi paper. Gold edging gilds all curved edges and the intricate floral design on the teapot and cup are embossed with holographic embossing powder for a little extra bling. The kanji symbol in the lower right corner is the Chinese symbol for tea. The unique fold of this card allows it to stand like a painting on an easel so the recipient can display and view it.

My husband told me his boss loved the card and had made some noises about contracting me to create some cards or invitations for her. Who knows? Maybe I've got another client in the making.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva
Design team member for About Art Accents

Tri-Shutter Card

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One of the crafts groups I belong to offers a weekly layout challenge where its members are invited to create a card according to a featured layout. This week's challenge is called a tri-shutter card, an interesting bit of paper engineering that offers myriad possibilities for decorating. Splitcoast Stampers has a great tutorial for this card and you can see it here.

For my first attempt I created a card for my daughter's friend who has been like family to her during their first summer as camp counselors. I was told the young miss prefers "red and green, like Christmas" as her colors of choice so, armed with that information, I began to create. After staring blankly at the paper for an eternity this is what I came up. After all was said and done, I liked it.

The embossed textures and large flowers were done with Cuttlebug folders and dies. The ovals on the front were cut with Nestabilities dies. It is difficult to see from the photo but the red scalloped oval is flocked, giving it a velvety texture. That was achieved with Fun Flock. It is embellished with self-adhesive rhinestones that I picked up at a local 99 cent store. My thanks to Annette Warkentin at About Art Accents for the sentiment stamp which I received as a generous freebie from her. (She's got beautiful stamps and other goodies at her site. Definitely check it out.)

The smaller flowers and leaves were cut with the Empunchlar hand punch system (I don't recommend this particular punch as it has limited functionality). The swirls and flourishes were hand-drawn with gel pens.

Now that I have cut my teeth on this particular layout, I think I will create another one and submit it to the weekly challenge. That one has to have an Asian theme so this red/green card doesn't qualify. No matter, I'll just have to start crafting again. Yippee!

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva