I thought not too long ago about the fact that I've never made a card for the birthday parties my son and I attend. Most of the time, it's because there's not much time between the invitation and the party itself. He's only six, so there haven't been that many, but I wanted to make one for "just in case," so the next boy party, he'll have a nice card that nobody else could possibly give. Not that the other seven-year-old will really care. :-) Here's what I came up with:
I also don't do many square cards because most of mine get mailed, and a square card costs more to mail. But for a birthday party, you're just handing it to the recipient or it's attached to the present.
The cardstock, I believe, is from Joann open stock. It's textured a bit, so I know it's not from one of the generic packs of cardstock. The patterned paper is from the Nana's Kids premium stack. The Wish and cupcake "button" (that I snipped the shank off of) are from a Jesse James button pack. The green cardstock is generic and was run through the Cuttlebug sandwiched in the Swiss Dots embossing folder. The orange is also generic cardstock. The two buttons are from a Making Memories Chloe's Closet pack (great colors!), and the floss I strung through them is DMC. The cardstock behind the Wish button is from scraps and was cut with my oval Nestabilities -- the light blue is a bit pearleascent. The light green is actually from a pack of paper I got from Sam's Club. The stamp on the Orange is from SeeD's Say It Again set, and it's stamped in Versamark Pumpkin Spice chalk ink.
I don't have a recipient yet, but hopefully there will be more parties this year!
(EDITED: Oops, I almost forgot to give credit. This card is almost an exact copy from Kelly Ramussen's submission for Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration #37. I had the Wish already assembled and wanted to use the paper, and came across the submission and thought the design would be PERFECT.)
Admittedly, I don't have THAT many cards to make for January, so it wasn't a huge accomplishment to get these done. But, I'm usually much closer to the actual birthdays when I complete them. All but my mother in law's card are for the end of January.
First is the card for my mother in law. It's the one I did in an earlier post for the challenge. All of these cards use blanks that I got on clearance from Target. Unfortunately, I don't remember the manufacturer.
Second is for my nephew. I received some scraps in the mail from a generous member of a Yahoo group I belong to, including an Autumn Leaves mat stack. The scraps inspired this card as well as the one for my brother in law. I'm also sort of recycling with this one. My Christmas cards this year included some stars that I created with Inkscape and cut using SCAL on my Cricut. I saved the negative cut because the stars were lined up perfectly and I thought I might be able to use them on a card, so here they are! The background DP is from the stack. The red has a matte finish, and it's almost "soft" -- I'm sure there's a technical term for it. I distressed the edges of the card with Tim Holtz Linen ink. I also distressed the edges of the green stars with both Linen and Vintage Photo. Lastly, the sentiment is from an Inkadinkadoo acrylic set (same one as the cupcake on MIL's card), and it's stamped in Gold Color Box Ppigment ink. Oh, and a snippet of Organdy Ribbon in gold from Joann and Making Memories gold brads.
Third is for my grandmother. I used DP from a set of Heidi Grace paper (Winnefred St.) that I 
bought at Joann on clearance. Yay! I love sales. I also used the matching rub ons (also clearance) as the background of the card and a little embellishment in the lower right corner. The brown cardstock is from a DCVW stack. The tree stamp is from the Inkadinkadoo Seasons set, sold at Costco, and it's stamped in Color Box Silver pigment ink. The sentiment is from a See D's set (Say It Again) and is stamped on generic cream cardstock in Versacolor Celadon pigment ink. The silver ribbon is from the Celebrate It holiday collection at Michaels.
Last is a card for my brother in law. The card blank is kraft. The medallion was part of the scrap pack that was shared (thanks again, Leslie!). The blue and teal cardstocks also came from that pack. The yellow behind the medallion is just some generic yellow from my stash. The brown is another scrap of the DCVW brown, and it is punched with a Martha Stewart Lattice Arch border punch. The DP is from the clearanced Heidi Swapp paper pack. The sentiment is from the Occasions Inkadinkadoo set sold at Costco. It's stamped in Chestnut Roan Color Box chalk cat's eye. I believe the square brads at the bottom are from Making Memories, but they're out of the package so I can't be certain.
Thanks for checking out my cards! Now that I'm done with this, I'm first going to do some chores and hopefully later tonight I can start on a couple of Valentines for the kids.
These are my thank you notes for Christmas 2008.
Santa brought me the Fiskars Threading Water punch and the flower stamp set -- it's a Studio G $1 set from Michaels. The sentiment is, I believe, a See D's stamp from the set "Say It Again". The DP is from a Marcella set. The beige cardstock is from a Michaels "starter set" of 12 x 12 cardstock. Ribbon is generic ribbon from Michaels.
I'm still getting used to my brand-spanking-new portable photo studio that my mom got me for Christmas. The colors are a little "off" in this one, but so much better than without. If anyone's interested in what I'm talking about, you can see one at Ritz Camera.
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