SistersInk Cards & Paper Art: Starting on Birthday cards for January 2014

I started making my January birthday cards today. I have three family birthdays in January; my two sister-in-laws and my nephew in-law. I also have a friend with a January birthday. So, today I finished my husbands sister's card and my nephew in-law. Their birthdays are this week. The cards are posted below. Enjoy!

This is my card for my sister-in-law and friend. She likes purple. This is a 5x7 card. I have a huge stash of paper and used scraps for most of this card, basically in shades of purple. I used Stampin Up stamps, ink and punches on this card. I used the Simply Sketched stamp set. All three stamps are from that set, it's a hostess gift. The punches I used are Elegant Butterfly, Itty bitty butterfly, scallop oval, and large oval. I used a watercolor technique on the flower using Wisteria Wonder, Lucky Limeade and Old Olive inks. Be inspired and be creative; make your own cards.

Here is the envelope I made to go with the card. I believe in sending a little joy through the mail and decorate my envelopes. I also use envelope liners on many of my cards.

Here are the card and envelope together. I hope you enjoy viewing my paper art.

This is a very simple card that I made for my nephew in-law. I used khaki paper for the card and the wood grain piece. The wood grain is embossed on the Big Shot and then inked with Stampin Up Crumb Cake ink. I used red and blue scraps for the two edge pieces. I used Stampin Up Itty Bitty die cuts and the Happy Birthday stamp. I cut out a plain blue banner, cut it in half and put at each end of the red banner. I learned this trick from another Stampin Up person. I used blue and khaki twine on the left. The stars are dies that I have. I have a huge stash of die cuts, alphabets, etc. Paul loves baseball, especially the Yankees and this reminded me a little of baseball. I need to collect some Yankee paper dies, stickers, etc. This is an A2 card 5 1/2 x 4 1/4.