In Like a Lion...

Happy March everyone! It's been pretty windy here in my neck of the woods, so I'm looking forward to March going out like a Lamb. 

My apologies for the delay in posting. I promise to get better at this.

I have some lovely birthday cards to show you all today and I hope you like what you see!

Lately I have been focusing on using up scraps of paper I have. Scraps make just as beautiful cards, and I'm forced to kind of think outside the box and make different type cards with different layouts depending on the size of the scrap(s) I'm using.

Let's get started...

Fatto con L'Amore $2.00 USD

 I am so fond of this paper. The colors, the pattern..everything about it!

 I found it on clearance at Hobby Lobby, so I probably will never find it again (Waaah). 

Out of the scrap I had left, I was able to make two girly birthday cards. 

Brown with Pink is one of my favorite color combinations, along with Pink and Green (showcased later). On the card above, I paired this lovely paper with some khaki card stock and a delicious-looking little cupcake.

Down below I used a base of pink card stock and added in some fun ribbon accents.

Added some more khaki card stock and a stamp of "It's your day." and voila! A fun greeting card is born!

Fatto con L'Amore $2.00 USD

Apparently I'm a big fan of the stamp I used in these next 2 cards.."Make a big wish."

If I remember correctly, I found it for $1 at Michaels..what a bargain considering how often I use it!

 Since most of the colors in the base of this next one are pastel, I wanted to pair it with something bright to give it a great POP of color..hence the cerulean blue that the message is mounted on top of.

I also included some green self-adhesive gems(another $1 item, this time from JoAnn's) there for some extra sparkle.

Fatto con L'Amore  $2.00 USD

Commence the Green & Pink parade!!

Are you ready for this action?

I lovelovelove Green and Pink together.

It is such a versatile color combination and it suits so many occasions.

I've used it in Easter cards, Birth Announcements, Christmas cards...and here, in Birthday Cards.

Pretty, preppy--PERFECT!

Yes, I love it that much.

Fatto con L'Amore $2.00 USD

The greeting above is a horizontal side fold--one of the new styles of cards I started using Christmas 2011.

I used some pastel pink and green argyle print paper atop pastel green card stock, and I used that color combo all throughout, right up to the 3 gems (JoAnn's, woot woot!) you see there next to the stamp.

Gems are another fun thing I like to use. When I first started my supply collection about, oh, 10 years ago or so, I had one package of gems, and in order to use them I had to lug out my glue gun (not really, it's actually quite small, but still). Imagine my excitement when I found there were self-adhesive gems (and pearls, my fav!) out there..awesome sauce!

Suffice to say, I now have a HUGE freezer bag FULL of these amazing little things and they are all self-adhesive (except for my poor first gems, they've been "thrown under the bed", as my Mom would say, because they are not as easy to use *sniff sniff*)

With help from my wonderful boyfriend Steve and his knowledge of design, I've begun focusing more on using negative space to my advantage, rather than having every card be centered centered centered. While centered is nice sometimes, negative space usage is nice all the time, and it makes for a more intriguing card, in my opinion.

Also I've been trying to keep my cards simple. I've seen some cards on Pinterest that are really busy and I don't feel that's the way to go for me, but whatever floats your boat, I say.

Not hating, just saying it's not the type of card I choose to create in my business.

 This is the card I've made most recently. I made it on Tuesday night while I was watching American Idol.

We don't have cable, and I moved the TV antenna from the living room into the bedroom to use on my TV.  Since my desk is in the living room, I had to move a few supplies(my horribly organized embellishments, scrap paper bag, cutter, adhesives, ribbon) with me that night so I could at least put some cards together.

Here it is!

I had some of that lovely pink and green argyle paper left over so I put it to what I think is great use on this greeting.

The base is just plain green card stock, and on top of that we have some pink ribbon, pink card stock, preppy paper and another great cupcake.

Fatto con L'Amore $2.00 USD

 I like cupcakes, can you tell? Here's a close-up--yum!

Fatto con L'Amore $2.0 USD

And there you have it! That's what I've been up to.

Tell all your friends, and please, no stealing my pictures and putting your name on them.

Okay? Cool, good talk.

Have a lovely day, everyone!

PS Gimme a like on Facebook if you would, please.