Making the Most of PTI Stamp Sets: Birthday Cards

[UPDATE 29-08-2011: Re-photographed cards with some natural ambient lighting! What a difference it makes! I will never ever take photos again with my room light ever again.]

Hi everyone!

It's been one stressful week for me! I've had assessments one after another that have depleted my energy. Luckily, I now have one week break to recuperate!

I decided that I'd use the weekend to go stamp-happy properly (I'm still busy with lots of other things though!), and hence I have finally updated my blog!

I've been trying to make a few cards and finally produced something to my liking. I think after this post, you might start to get a feel for the sort of style I go for ;)

As always, I made more than one since I liked it so much lol

And apologies for poor photo qualities (yes, they are bad qualities to me! - I'm a bit of a perfectionist). My camera (which I don't like to begin with - I'll be after a dSLR next year when I get my Trainee Intern grant!) is having a bad day with low batteries and is taking bad photos.

Anyway, here they are! 

I call these "window" cards. It's sort of similar to the Make It Monday that Jennifer did a while back with apertures.

Using Spellbinders Nestabilities Small Circles, I made two holes - one through the white base cardstock and a larger hole over the coloured overlay cardstock. And I've put Cupcake Collection stamped die cuts on the inside of the card to show through that window. 

I've also used "make a wish" sentiment from the Cupcake Collection set and heat embossed it clear above the ribbon.

 

And I decided to make the most of our stamp sets! You might be able to tell that there's a clear window over the holes that I've made. Want to know where I got the material from? It's the clear plastic box that PTI stamps come in! I've got them all sitting in my room from my recent Stamp-A-Faire order, and they are just brilliant for this. They're thick and sturdy so make a really nice window. 

I'm going to chop out the large planes from each box and store them as "sheets." So now you can save these up rather than throwing them all out! No need to use your precious PTI Clearly Creative Cardstock for making windows any more! :D

 

And here's the inside of the card with that cupcake sitting in the middle. There's also a bit of glitter on it, but my bad camera hasn't really picked it up :( 

I've also put a sentiment from Big Birthday Wishes set that just went perfectly with that "make a wish" sentiment on the outside! The sentiment's hidden from the window when the card's closed so the receiver might get a wee surprise opening it up!

 Hope everyone enjoyed the post! I'm using a lot of double-sided tapes and ribbons now. I've decided that you make better cards if you stop being cheap about what you use. I think I need to go out and get more ribbons. And I think I might get an ATG in the near future... but it's $60 here (and only one store in NZ sells it!). Eeek.

I'm hoping to post a few more over the week before I enter the crunch-mode!

SUPPLIES & TOOLS

STAMPS: PTI Cupcake Collection & Big Birthday Wishes

INK: SU! Melon Mambo & Baja Breeze

PAPER: PTI Stamper's Select White, Raspberry Fizz & Hawaiian Shores

OTHER: PTI Cupcake Collection dies, Spellbinders Nestabilities Small Circles, Celebrate! Satin Ribbons, PTI stamp set box