Happy Birthday, Sweet Sister!

My sister Judie (whom I call "Toots") loves lavender roses.  As a matter of fact, her business is called Lavender Rose - she makes fabulous all-natural skin care products with essential oils and other gorgeous ingredients - see her website here http://www.thelavenderrose.com/.

So for her birthday, I usually try to make her a card with a lavender rose.  This year I used PTI's Year of Flowers Collection and tried my hand coloring the rose with my Copics to match the Perfect Plum and Pale Plum card stock.  I stamped (retired) French Script with PTI Fresh Snow ink on the panels.

I used the Labels Collection Framelits to make the mats and also to cut an opening to make a swing card.

The inner label was stamped with an image from Apothecary Art and colored using Copics.

It's a simple card, but pretty, the sort of card my sister loves.  (Looking at it now, I wish I had cut the sides with the elegant Adorning Edgelits...  I'm going to have to make another one to try this out!)

Hoping this year brings you much joy and love, Toots!

Happy Birthday, Ellen!

I made an interesting card for my friend, Ellen, who celebrated her birthday recently. This flip card design used the Framelits Labels die collection and the Apothecary Art stamp set.  I colored the flowers and leaves using SU markers in Blushing Bride and Pear Pizzazz.  The Blushing Bride card base was stamped with the (retired) French Script background stamp using PTI's Fresh Snow ink.

When you open the card, the main image flips around to reveal the inside.

The butterflies were cut from some (long-retired) pink vellum with the Beautiful Wings embosslit.

It's fun to try out new card designs, especially interactive ones.  I'm always so grateful to those creative people who share their clever ideas.  Thanks to Cristy Butzen for her flip card video tutorial, which she shared on the Stampin' Up! demonstrators-only Stampin' Connection website.