Big Bold Birthday

Hello!

Well, look at that  . . . I can remember how to use Blogger! Even I was quite shocked when I looked and saw how long since I last posted. Life got in the way one way or another, and blogging took a back seat for a long while, but hopefully I'm back now - although I can't promise every day! I would just like to say thankyou to the people who have sent messages of concern. It was very thoughtful and I really appreciate them. Some of the reasons were not so good, but I'd prefer to talk about one of the good reasons for being absent, which was this in May this year:

My eldest daughter's wedding. Some of you may recognise the youngest bridesmaid - my daughter Amy who does the drawing of names out of the hat for me. My second eldest daughter was chief bridesmaid (second from the right) and my son is third from the right in the back row. Of course that's hubby with me on the right.

I was very busy for a while with all the wedding stationery, which I'll show another day. In fact, at the moment I don't think I have a photo of the invitation, or even one in my posession!

Today I'm showing cards all made with the SU stamp set Big Bold Birthday. It's one of the sets on the Last Chance list (click on the 'Say Goodbye' link above to see the list). Some items are already sold out, and no longer available, and more are going out each day, but at the time of writing this Big Bold Birthday is still available - and at 40% off. There are other items which have also been reduced by up to 40%. Items on the list are only available whilst stocks last, or until the end of this month, whichever comes sooner! So take a look and see if something you love is on there.

Anyway, back to Big Bold Birthday. I'm sad to see this set go. It's such a versatile set, and I have used it many times to create different looks on cards. This first one is nice and glittery and pink! I stamped the frosting part of the cakes with Pretty in Pink ink and then Versamark over the top. I added Heat'n'Stick powder, melted it with my hot air gun and then sprinkled on Dazzling Diamonds. It really twinkles! The cake cases were stamped in Chocolate Chip, cut out and run through the crimper to make them look like real cases. Finally I punched a Real Red card circle for a cherry and covered in in a nice thick blob of Crystal Effects, with a little strip of Chocolate Chip card behind for a stalk. The spotty background was stamped using another stamp from the set. Apart from drying time for the cherries, this was a very quick card, although it sounds like more work. If you click on the image to enlarge it you can see the sparkle better.

Another girly, twinkly card. This time I used the stamp in the set which is intended for a bow on top of a present. If you stamp the image, and then rotate the bow upside down and stamp again, it makes a lovely flower. I stamped these in Versamark onto Pretty in Pink card and then embossed with white embossing powder. I sprayed the card with homemade shimmer spray using isopropyl alchohol and Champagne Shimmer paint. The twinkle just about shows up if you click to enlarge, but it is so much prettier 'in the flesh'. I finished off the flowers by colouring them in with a Versamarker pen to make them darker than the surrounding card. The greeting from the set was stamped four times in Rose Red ink to frame the image, finished off with Rose Red brads and mounted on a Rose Red card base.

 Are you bored yet?! More of the same bow flowers on this card, but instead stamped in Pear Pizzazz and coloured in with Peach Parfait and a blender pen. Finished off with Clear Rhinestone Gems. The 'leaves' surrounding the flowers were stamped with the curly end of the party blower stamp. A little bit of trim made with the Scallop Trim Border punch and the greeting stamped in Peach Parfait to finish off this clean and simple card.

Finally, a stack of presents in a bolder colour scheme suitable for man, woman or child! The card base is Concord Crush, and the two mat layers are Peach Parfait and Pear Pizzazz. The Peach present is a square roughly handcut from the stamped cupcake base image. The green present is a piece of green card stamped with the circle present pattern image and again roughly hand cut. And the Concord present is a punched square stamped with the spotty stamp in Whisper White Craft ink. The bow stamp used to make the flowers above was stamped at the top of the pile in Concord Crush ink, and then using the matching marker and a ruler I drew in the line of string down the stack of presents. This is a really speedy card to make!

Here are some links to previous cards I've made with Big Bold Birthday:

Blue Birthday Balloons
More Birthday Cake
Bright and Cheery Balloons
Big Cake Little Guy

Some more which never got posted on my blog:

Thinking Outside the Box Challenge on ILWS
Inspiration Challenge on ILWS
Limited Supplies Challenge on ILWS
Quick and Simple card on ILWS

And finally, found one more that I made a couple of years ago, and can't see if I posted it or not. I made this for my nephew's birthday, and it also uses my much loved Sanded background stamp which is retiring. It's stamped on the computer generated 16 which I cut out with my Silhouette, and also on the strip of Not Quite Navy at the side. The metallic brads are also retiring. The greeting is an old one from my stash, not part of the Big Bold Birthday set, but the candles are from BBB.

Ok  .  . so you're either sick to death of this stamp set now, or I've convinced you you need it. So talk to your favourite SU demo, about getting one! Or if you don't have one, (or I'm your favourite demo) use the contact me tab above to talk to me!

Maybe the next post should be shorter!

Thanks for visiting,