Two More Special Birthday Cards

A couple of days ago, I posted about Lexys, a little girl with an inoperable brain tumor, who wants cards for her upcoming birthday. I had found her story through Facebook. I also found an article about a young man in Danville, VA, named Tate, who has cerebral palsy. He is turning 16 on August 30, 2015, and his mother has asked citizens of Danville to send him birthday cards, just to let him know there are people who care about him. The person who posted this article link on Facebook suggested, why should the cards just be from Danville residents? Why not from across the country? So again, I made one each for my mom & me to send to this very special young man.

I decided to make a shaped card for him first. I have not made one in a long time, and felt this occasion warranted something a little different. I looked through several cards I'd pinned on Pinterest, and came across this one, which I used for my inspiration. I used one of the "Balloons" dies from Simon Says Stamp to cut the pieces for my card. I cut 2 pieces from white cardstock, and one from 140 lb watercolor paper. I scored along the top of one of the cardstock pieces, about 3/8" from the edge. I applied adhesive above the score line, and adhered the other cardstock piece to that, forming my card base. I also cut off the bottom bit from the back piece, so the card will stand up.

For the front piece, I heat embossed one of the greetings from Simon Says Stamp's "Big Birthday Greetings," using Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder. I then applied Distress inks in Mermaid Lagoon, Blueprint Sketch, and Seedless Preserves on my non-stick craft mat. After spraying the ink with my homemade Perfect Pearls mist, I plopped the balloon face-down in the puddles, smooshing it around to get the color on the paper. Once I had the paper fully inked, I dried it with my heat tool, then daubed it into the ink again, to get some smaller droplets of pearly color. When it looked like I wanted, I dried it with my heat tool again.

I adhered the watercolor piece to my card base, and tied a piece of purple baker's twine around the bottom of the front. I spread Ranger Multi Medium Matte along the twine, then wrapped it around the handle of my stylus and let it dry, so it would be curled. Finally, I stamped the inside sentiment, and this card was done.

For the second card, I used this one, which I also found through Pinterest, as my jumping-off point. I first embossed a piece of blue cardstock with the "Happy Birthday" embossing folder by Provo Craft. For the "16," I used an old lettering template, and traced the "1" & "6" ten times each onto black paper. I fussy cut all those, and glued each number, one on top of another, to get chipboard-thick numbers. (In case you're wondering how I cut the inside of the "6," I actually punched it with a 1/8" hole punch. I'm not that masochistic! LOL)

I stamped my greeting, from the "Big Birthday Wishes" set, in Versafine Onyx Black ink on a piece of kraft cardstock, then cut that into a banner shape. I also cut a banner to back the "16." I adhered the banners to my embossed panel, then glued the numbers on. I matted the panel with more black, and adhered that to a kraft panel. Finally, I mounted the completed card front to a white A2 card base, and stamped a sentiment on the inside. Hopefully, Tate will enjoy these cards!