two birthday cards...

Hey there!  As my blog title says I have two birthday cards to share today.  The first card is for the Essentials by Ellen pin-sights challenge and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge to use more than one stamp.  I have been having a bit of a love affair with coloring on vellum lately.  I just love the soft look that you can achieve by coloring on the back of your stamped vellum.  The last card I made I used distress markers, but with today's card I decided to try using my Memento markers.  One of my favorite Essentials by Ellen stamp sets is the Mondo Hydrangea and so I pulled that out to use for my card.  I wanted my hydrangeas in opposite corners so I stamped the image on opposite corners of my vellum with watermark ink and then heat embossed in white.  Once that was done I die cut each image with the matching die.  I colored one hydrangea with a light pink and dark pink Memento marker (Angel Pink and Rose Bud) and the other with a light purple and a dark purple (Lulu Lavender and Grape Jelly).  The leaves were stamped and embossed and then colored with a light green marker from Stampin Up! and a Memento marker in dark green (Cottage Ivy).  I trimmed down a piece of woodgrain cardstock and then adhered all the pieces using rolled up glue dots.  For the sentiment I used stamps from the Essentials by Ellen Lovely stamp set.  The birthday was stamped directly onto the woodgrain cardstock and the phrase 'It's your' was embossed in white on medium gray cardstock, trimmed out and adhered.  

The second card is super simple and made for three challenges:  Reverse Confetti Stock You Stash (Birthday), Color Throwdown and Freshly Made Sketches.  I finally got a chance to purchase a couple of newer Reverse Confetti stamp sets and used one (Tall Blooms) for my card.  I knew the Tall Blooms stamp set would be perfect for the sketch! After two bad embossing results using Canson watercolor paper I switched to Arches Hot Press watercolor paper and got a much better result with my embossing.   Then I did some simple watercoloring using red and blue ZIG markers and clean water.  Once the piece was try I die cut it with an AJVD plain rectangle die.  The sentiment (from Tall Blooms) was embossed in white on vellum, trimmed down and then adhered using rolled up glue dots.   The panel was then adhered to a red cardstock base.  Super simple, but now I have one more birthday card!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Card #1:  Cardstock:  SSS medium gray, Tim Holtz woodgrain, PTI vellum; Stamps and dies:  Essentials by Ellen; Ink:  VersaMark watermark ink, VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne; Embossing powder:  Hero Arts; Coloring medium:  Memento markers, Stampin Up! marker

Card #2:  Cardstock:  Stampin Up! Real Red, PTI vellum, Arches watercolor; Stamps:  Reverse Confetti; Die:  A Jillian Vance Design; Coloring medium:  ZIG markers; Ink:  VersaMark watermark ink; Embossing powder:  Hero Arts