Two Special Birthday Cards

There is a little girl in Michigan, Lexys, who has an inoperable brain tumor. (You can find out more about her at this link.) I learned of her through Facebook. Her 6th birthday is coming up on August 27, 2015, and she has one request: birthday cards. Sadly, she likely will not live long after this birthday. So I decided to make 2 cards to send to her, one from me and one from my mom.

For such a special girl, I decided to make a couple of fun cards. My first card is a shaker. I got the inspiration from this post by Chari Moss, where she did a shaker card using the gumball machine & gumballs from the "Sweet Smiles" stamp set by Lawn Fawn. She also used the coordinating dies.

I stamped the gumball machine & some individual gumballs on a piece of bristol paper in Ranger Archival Jet Black ink, then colored them in with Zig Clean Color pens. Unfortunately, I discovered that these pens do not blend well on bristol. (I had heard they did, which is why I tried.) I'm not sure if the brand of bristol paper matters, but this paper sucked the ink right in. :( So I quickly abandoned any thoughts of blending and just did solid coloring. I think it turned out OK anyway.

After cutting the center part of the machine out with a craft knife, leaving a small border, I cut the whole thing and the gumballs out with the coordinating dies. I also die cut a piece of pink paper with one of the "Large Stitched Rectangle" dies by Lawn Fawn, and a piece of a glittery confetti patterned paper with another of those dies. I then die cut the gumball machine out of the pink paper, to create a window. I backed that piece with a piece of acetate, and glued my gumball machine on top of the window with a little Ranger Multi Medium Matte.

To create the shaker, I applied a LOT of foam tape to the back of the pink panel, making sure to leave no gaps in the tape around the opening in the upper part of the machine. Once I had all the tape in place, I placed my gumballs in the shaker, making sure they faced down (so the faces would be visible when the panel was seen from the front), and added some seed beads from my stash. Finally, I removed the liner papers from the tape, and sealed the shaker portion with a piece of pink parchment paper. For my greeting, I stamped one of the ones from Simon Says Stamp's "Birthday Messages" on another piece of the pink parchment. I cut it into a banner shape, and glued it on the pink panel. Then I just had to adhere the pink panel to the confetti pattern, and mount that to my white A2 card base.

For my second card I created a pop-up card, inspired by one that I saw in a video by Darlene Devries. I used the "Small Cherry Pattern" paper by Mary Engelbreit (which I'm sure is probably no longer available), that I found in my stash. For the greeting, I die cut 2 labels from white cardstock using one of the "Labels Wavy" dies by Sizzix. I inked the edges with Worn Lipstick Distress ink, and printed each part of the greeting (which I'd typed & formatted in Photoshop) on them.

Pop-up inside card

For the pop-up, I combined 3 images from Bugaboo Stamps: "Yummy Cupcake," "Present Bear" (retired, I believe), & "Mouse--Big Balloon." I printed them on 140 lb. watercolor paper and colored them with Inktense pencils and a damp paintbrush. I used more of the "Small Cherry Pattern" for the interior panel & pop-up mechanism, reinforcing the pop-up part with a scrap of white cardstock on the back side. I inked the perimeter of the white A2 card base with Worn Lipstick, and finally adhered the interior panel in place. I adhered the images to the pop-up, and glued down the inner sentiment label. As a finishing touch, I applied clear Wink of Stella glitter to the balloon, and coated that and the cherry with Glossy Accents. I also used my white Marvy Liquid Applique pen for the icing on the cupcake.

Inside sentiment

I'm entering both cards in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge: "Food and/or Drink."