Birthday Card for Melissa

I like using orange for Melissa's cards because she's a Vols fiend. And she loves irises, even has an iris tat in memory of her iris-growing granny. So I threw this card together, and promptly screwed up by assembling it wrong. And instead of doing it all over again, I opted to cut the original apart and put it on a slightly larger card base, which led me to create a homemade envelope, too!

I don't remember what the cardstocks are, although the replacement base was a Bazzill--that much I'm certain of. The others came out of stash. The stamp is either All Night Media after they went mass market or PSX, and of course it's gone walkabout (it's around here somewhere!). The ink is VersaFine Onyx Black.

It's colored with Prismacolor pencils, and I think the dies are from the HA "Infinity" rectangles. I think I've said before that I'm no fan of front-of-card sentiments, and only use them seldom.

The really fun part? I even asked her advice on what to do when you've mucked up your assembly. Her answer? Cry. Well, it didn't go that far, but it was a frustrating few days of pouting over the blunder before I decided to go slightly-larger-than A2 for this one, even though it meant the custom-made envelope--which also got stamped and colored, but I don't think I photographed that.

Edited 4/8 after the iris ended its walkabout: it's an old Hero Arts stamp.

I'm entering this in the Less is More #321 "Recipe" challenge.

CAS on Sunday

I'd love to participate in this challenge at the CAS on Sunday blog, but I have the awful feeling it might be too many layers to be strictly "Clean and Simple."

This card was one of a number of similar cards in what's essentially a single design in different colorways. The cupcake tower image is from Peddler's Pack and was stamped with VersaFine Onyx Black ink on what's probably a generic white cardstock, but might even be Neenah Solar White. There are three shades of purple Bazzill card stock, with Hero Arts' "Envelope" background stamp inked with VersaMark on the light vertical strip, and the three light "ribbon" strips stamped with an Inkadinkado background stamp also inked with VersaMark. Nothing was popped, and the card ended up going to a BFF for her birthday.

Does it qualify as CAS with so many layers?

Oddly enough, that's not the first essentially monochrome birthday card I've given to BFF-M!

Mostly More or Less Monochromatic Birthday Card

Now that BFF-M has her card, I can post pictures of it. I got the idea for it from a couple of cards on display at the LSS, Stamp Fever. The card stock is all from Bazzill, although two shades are the canvas finish and the third, the lightest, is one of the other finishes. All three shades were stamped with the Impression Obsession Cover-A--Card "Herringbone" using VersaMark ink in a watermark effect. The cupcake tower is from Peddlers Pack. The sentiment is from a foam-mounted set, and I'm not sure who the manufacturer was; I've had it a long time.

The front:

All the way open and laid out flat:

Partial open/closed:

If I remember right, I used Archival "Sepia" ink for the image and sentiment.