Celebrating Sentiments--a SIMPLE birthday card!

Welcome to the Celebrating Sentiments theme week.  I am trying a couple of different things this week.  First, I am trying the traffic on Friday instead of my usual Thursday.  There are no stencils on this card, so no need to participate on Dreamweaver Thursday.  Secondly, I am making probably my EASIEST card ever!   After all, these stamps that include the sentiment are super simple to use. Here it is:

Have you ever colored in one of those very trendy adult coloring books?  Well, this is the same thing, only better!  Why?  Because when you are done with your relaxing therapy, you can give this away, and save yourself a little money on a birthday card.   This is how it was done:

MATERIALS:
Birthday Balloons Rubber Stamp RS-R259
White Mixed Media Paper
Momento Tuxedo Black Ink
Prisamcolor Pencils in Grass Green, Poppy Red, Orange, Ultramarine and Violet
May Arts Ribbon
Black Card Stock
White Card Stock
Red Cork Paper (Optional, I just added a little texture)
Adhesive

1)  Stamp the image on the mixed media paper.
2)  Have a fun, relaxing time coloring your image.
3)  Tie ribbon around the bottom.
4)  Assemble the card.  This card has a standard 4 1/4" by 5 1/2" front.

See how easy?  Give it a try with stamps that have a built in sentiment!

Here are the rest of the players for today, check out the fun:

Stampendous Blog

Pam Bray

Kristine Reynolds

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

Clean and Simple and NEW Stencil!

The Dreamweaver January monthly challenge, in honor of all those resolutions we hope to achieve, is "Losing the Weight...AKA Clean and Simple (CAS)". If we all try really hard to simplify our design-work without losing our creativity, we can all say at the end of the month that we've lost some weight! Maybe not off of our waistlines, but at least off of our cards! Gotta start somewhere!
Of course, CHA, the Craft and Hobby Association Convention was this past week.  I don't know about my fellow design team members, but I would definitely fall off the resolution wagon at that fun event!  For the purposes of my blog, though, I am going to continue my best efforts to be Clean and Simple.  I am also presenting one of the NEW RELEASES for Dreamweaver, and I couldn't be more excited about this beautiful heart stencil.

Yep, super simple and very clean.  I used two stencils:  the new and gorgeous LJ928 Swirly Hearts and the classic LS22 Congratulations.  The other materials that I needed were Fuschia Coated Mercart Aluminum, the Stamping Details Rubber Embossing Mat, a manual die cut machine (I used a Cuttlebug), Mercart Teflon Tool (optional, but from the Beginner Kit), sandpaper, scissors, adhesive and card stock.  How quick was it?  Well, it took me longer to write this post!  First, I ran both stencils through the die cut machine with metal and the embossing mat.  I just switched up the order.  For the heart, I put the stencil face down with the metal pink side down over it, followed by the rubber mat and the usual cutting mats.  The congratulations stencil was placed face up with the metal pink side up on top of it.  I made the word a little "crisper" by pushing the metal down against the stencil with the Teflon Tool.  I sanded it with the stencil still in place.  The stencil was removed from the metal before I sanded the heart.  Then, I simply assembled the card.  Done.  Seriously!
I would appreciate a comment if you get a chance.  Also, be sure and visit the blogs of my fellow team members, as everyone should be posting some new stencils this week (and you don't want to miss out on seeing those!)

Dream It Up! 

Laura Drahozal 
Lyn Bernatovich 
Pam Hornschu 
Heidi Erickson 
Louise Healy  
Cyndi Bundy

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day.