Two Birthday Cards

Hello!  Whew, it is good to get back to crafting- I have missed it so much!  Yesterday, my husband took the kids over to the coast for the day, leaving me at home all alone for several hours.  I could have used the time to clean, or organize all the medical bills, or balance the checkbook.....but I didn't.  I went to Michael's and Craft Warehouse and browsed to my heart's content, and picked up some new papers in pretty spring colors.  I figured that I could use some inspiration for my first projects after my break from crafting, and new paper always inspires me!  Plus, it's a pretty cheap way to go for inspiration.

I have two family birthdays coming up in the immediate future- well, three, but I only got around to making two cards yesterday.  One is for my dad, who turned 71 yesterday.  We just saw him a couple of weeks ago when he came out to help out during hubby's surgery and recovery, but I still wanted to send him a card to wish him a happy birthday.

This one was fun to do!  The striped paper is one that I've had for awhile but never used, and when I picked it up, I did so with the thought in mind that it had a lot of nice, masculine colors.  I love being able to work with multiple colors- though it usually takes me longer to come up with a design, because there are so many choices!  I went with some simple, clean lines here, with the exception of the torn brown paper.  The blue paper has a sort of crinkly texture that adds some interest.  I printed the Happy Birthday message on the computer and cut it and the black and green frames out with the oval Spellbinders Nestabilities dies.

Next up was a card for my cousin, Trina, whose birthday (the big 4-0) is April 1.  Trina is the cousin who lives in Montana and we see every summer for vacation- last year, we met up in Leavenworth, WA.  This year, we will be going up to see them in Montana in their brand new vacation cabin- woohoo!  Anyway, here is Trina's card:

This was made with one of the new papers I got yesterday, the leafy patterned one in shades of green and turquoise.  Or maybe that's teal, it's kind of a fine line, isn't it?  I thought it was pretty and kind of tropical-looking.  I used one of the Martha Stewart punches for the palm leaves, and another for the flowers- hydrangeas, maybe?  I don't know, but they were more tropical-looking than the daisies, lol.  Here's the inside of the card:

I printed this out on the computer, and we'll all sign our names individually as well.  I'm going to make a bookmark and include it in the card before getting it in the mail.

So much to do!  It's almost April already, and then May, and that's Mother's Day!  I opened my Etsy shop in April of last year, and didn't have the inventory or presence to take advantage of Mother's Day sales, so I'm hoping to stock up my inventory with some new designs early and not miss the boat this time!  I have one more birthday card to make in the short term, for hubby's neice Rachel, who turns 18 on the 31st, and then I will be focusing on bookmarks for awhile.  I mentioned before that I joined a spring bookmark swap with the PBS Swappers group, and I was excited to find out that there will also be another card swap scheduled for April, so I want to do that one too.  I got a neat paper that I want to use for the bookmark swap, and I'll try to give a sneak preview next time.

Happy crafting!