Girl's Basketball Birthday Card...........Game On!

A lot of our friend's teenagers are involved in basketball, baseball, golf and soccer, so it's not unusual to get requests for birthday cards with an "athletic" theme.  

A few weeks ago on request, I made a birthday card for a Claudia a fifteen year old who's really into basketball and has great aspirations to earn a basketball scholarship when she goes to university.

Her mom gave me some helpful insight into what Claudia likes and doesn't like, which really helped when designing this card.  For instance it was really helpful knowing her school colours, bright blue and orange, and that she's not into frilly "girly girl" type cards. So knowing that ahead of time helped me to focus instead on the basketball and banners to capture a real sports style for her card.  I hope you like it.  I hear Claudia she was thrilled. 

Here's My Card:  

Here's my card and matching envelope.  I generally try to do something with the envelope that reflects the card inside.  I absolutely love this winged, swirly stamp from the Great Sport stamp set, so it was appropriate to showcase it again on the envelope. 

Supplies:
Stamp Sets:  Great Sport (R), Afterthoughts Hostess (R)

Card Stock:   Pacific Point, Whisper White and Tangerine Tango
Ink:  Tangerine Tango and Tuxedo Black Memento Ink.

Accessories:  Banner Punch, Itty Bitty Accents Punch (larger star), Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Calypso Coral Baker's Twine, Circles Collection Framelit dies, 2 1/2", 1 1/4"  and 1 3/8" Circle Punches, Basic Rhinestones.

The Tangerine Tango card base measures 41/4 x 11 and is folded at 51/2 for a top fold card.  A layer of Whisper White measuring 4 x 5 1/4" was embossed with the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing folder and then adhered with Tom Bow glue.  Before Embossing this piece I stamped the flourish stamp in Tangerine Tango in the upper portion of this layer. 

This center piece started with a piece of Whisper White cardstock and a repeat stamping of the Tangerine Tango flourish stamp.   This piece was punched out with the 2 1/2" circle punch. This piece was then mounted on a piece of Pacific Point cardstock that was cut out with the 2 5/8" Circle Framelit.  Because the extended wings and flourishes were important to the balance of the card front, I was very careful to line up everything before mounting this layer with dimensionals. The Pacific Point layer was punched out with a 1 3/8" circle punch and then the basketball image was added with dimensionals.  The basketball was stamped on Tangerine Tango with Tuxedo Black Memento Ink and then run through the Big Shot with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder before it was mounted.   Two small rhinestones were added to the outter stars on the image and then the larger star was punched from  Pacific Point with the wonderful Itty Bitty Accents star punch. The large star was finished off with a medium sized rhinestone and then adhered with a dimensional.  

 

Aren't these banners just the cutest?  They were punched out in Pacific Point and Tangerine Tango card stock with the Banner punch (my new fave punch).  I used a very small dollar store star punch for the small star centers.  I mounted the banners on a piece of Calypso Coral Baker's Twine with glue dots.  The bows were tied and then added separately  with glue dots.   

I had to turn the flourish image on an angle to fit it to the 5 x 3 3/4 Whisper White card liner for the inside of the card, but it worked okay.  I added the basketball with Tom Bow ink so it would lie flat.  The sentiment is from the Afterthoughts Hostess stamp set, which is retired. 

So I hope you enjoyed this card.  Earlier in the spring I made these other sports themed cards using the Great Sport stamp set and a similar style of card.  The details are in this post, just click here to take a look.  

A "girly girl" soccer card in Melon Mambo and Basic Black

A masculine soccer card that could be used for a teen or adult in Marina Mist, Gumball Green and Black

And finally I couldn't resist showing off this one which I entered in the Connie and Mary Sketch Challenge  CCMC213, where I earned a badge for being one of their top 3 picks.  This was one of my favourite card challenges this season, and I'm not sure why, but I think it was the DSP and colour mix.  At any rate I'm taking the liberty of re-sharing it with you today.  Details on this card are on this link. 

Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens

Soccer Theme Birthday Cards using PPA205

Earlier this week I planned to work on the Paper Pals Art Sketch Challenge PPA205 and enter it before the closing on May 27th, but guess what?  That's right, I didn't finish in time.  

My friend Sheri and I decided to tackle it anyway during our Tuesday stamping get-together just because this is such a fun sketch. We both thought it had potential as there are just so many possible ways you could use it.  

I wish I'd taken pictures of my stamping table because during our collaboration on the card it was just chaotic.  I think we hauled out most of my stamps before deciding to create our cards using the Great Sport stamp set.  

Supplies:
Stamp Set(s):  Great Sport, Work of Art, Elements of Style 
Ink:  Melon Mambo, Memento Black Ink, Versa Mark Ink
Card Stock:  Basic Black, Melon Mambo and Whisper White
Accessories:  Banner Framelits, 2 1/2" Circle Punch, Starburst Framelits, Black Embossing Powder, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, Basic Rhinestones, dimensionals, Tom Bow adhesive

My motive for this card was creating a birthday card for a teenage girl who's an avid soccer player.  I think I scored on this one!

I made a top fold card and rotated the design so the banners are facing downwards like an award ribbon.  Although the card has a sports theme, I wanted it to be really girly girl in style and that's why I chose to do it in Melon Mambo.

The soccer ball was embossed using Versa Mark Ink and Black Embossing Powder.  It was added to the center of the design with dimensionals.  Three basic rhinestones add a little bling on this part of the card.  I cut out the central design using the Starburst Framelit Dies and mounted this on a basic black circle that was punched out with the 2 1/2" circle punch.

The chevron banners were stamped with the brand new Work of Art Stamp set that will be available in the June 1st catalogue.  They were cut out with the Banner Framelit dies and mounted on Melon Mambo banners.  (Note: the Melon Mambo banners were cut out with the next largest sized banner die but it was too big for these pennants, so I adhered the chevron banner position the "v" over top of the one on the Melon Mambo banner and then hand cut about 1/8" off of each side of the pennant, to achieve this look).

Here is a view of the card and matching envelope.

I made three of these cards in Melon Mambo.

Here's the inside of the card.  I repeated the flourish stamp from Great Sport and topped it with a Happy Birthday sentiment that's mounted on a 1 3/8" circle of basic black. 

 

Great Sport, item #132010 is a six piece stamp set  that comes in Wood Mount for $32.95 or Clear Mount for $24.71.  This set has a little something for ever sports enthusiast -baseball, basketball, football, soccer and can be used to create invitations, tags, or to embellish scrapbook pages for your favorite sports lovers. Use with the 1-1/4" and 1-3/8" Circle Punches and the Bitty Banners Framelits Dies for a coordinated look that hits it out of the park!   It's on the retiring list and will no longer be available after June 1st.