Karpen Diem Stamps: Happy Birthday to you...

I am the queen of making cards and not mailing them. I have so many cards in boxes in my craft room it is absolutely sick. I make them, I intend to mail them, but somehow dates slip by. I have even tried making reminders on my calendar a week ahead so that I have time to get them in the mail and delivered by the desired date. Does it happen...NOOOO! My dear friend Cheryl's birthday is no exception. So, she has gotten a voicemail "Happy Birthday" message and now a cyber card!

Mr. Brown from UPS just delivered my sneak peek stamp sets from the upcoming Occasions Mini catalog which starts Jan 5th, so I decided to break out this great new set called Vintage Vogue for her card. The big news from the Occasions mini is that Stampin' Up will now offer clear mount stamps in addition to wood mount. The stamps are still the same red rubber, but have cling foam on the back side which can be used with acrylic blocks. The good part for those of us with a lot of stamps is two-fold: it's better for the environment not to use so much wood and, more importantly, much smaller storage space-YAY! They will still offer wood mount for traditionalists, but I strongly encourage people to try the clear mounts because you can see where you're stamping your image and storage is great!

This stamp set, Vintage Vogue, screams Pale Plum, Mellow Moss and Close to Cocoa to me, so I dug through my paper stash for some patterned paper with those colors from a few years back called Enchante´.

I started with a Kraft 5.75" card base (my favorite square) and stitched on a piece of DP from this set which I had crumpled and sponged with ink to give it a vintage feel. I used the same technique for the floral layer and sponged all the Kraft card stock with Vanilla Craft ink before assembling to lighten the edges. I wrapped a length of crocheted trim that I found in the Joann's sale bin around the card and added pearls to the corners to complete the vintage look.

The main image was made by stamping the vines on Confetti card stock, then stamping the "F-friend" colored in Pale Plum and Close to Cocoa in the center. I stamped the "F" again, cut it out and popped it up on dimensionals to set it apart, then cut the whole thing out on my Sizzix machine using a nested label die. The edges of the main image and the Mellow Moss layer were sponged with Close to Cocoa to age them a bit.

Because the crocheted ribbon frays a bit when cut, I decided to finish off the inside of the card as well. I added a layer of floral to cover the ribbon ends and a layer for the greeting as well. It's a bit heavier to mail, but it already requires hand metering, so who cares?! The greeting comes from this awesome set called "Well Scripted" which is destined to become a favorite.