InKing Royalty Blog Hop – Birthday Bliss

Many of my Stampin’ Up! team members (not just those with blogs) share their gorgeous projects in our team’s Facebook community – there’s such amazing and inspiring creativity in this group!  I’m always excited when my team’s blog hop rolls around, though, because I get to share some of their amazing work with you.  I’m just as excited to see their projects as you are, and I am proud to share them with you.

I’m also excited to welcome my fun friend, Michelle Last, to this month’s hop.  Michelle hails from the U.K. and is a fellow Design Team Member for the Global Design Project – what an amazing talent! She’s also a top Stampin’ Up! demonstrator.  So happy to have Michelle hop along with us today – you’ll definitely want to check out her amazing work as you hop along.

Welcome to InKing Royalty’s February Blog Hop!  Today’s Blog Hop is filled with projects inspired by a Birthday Bliss theme.  What fun!  Stampin’ Up! catalogs are filled with fun, festive and beautiful ways to make birthdays special – and we are excited to share our creations with you today.  We are also excited to welcome guest designer Michelle Last to our team’s blog hop this month.  After you read my post, I hope you’ll hop over to the next person on the list at the base of this post.

Big on Birthdays

Big on Birthdays is a birthday-themed stamp set (as if the name didn’t give it away) from the Occasions Catalog.  Such a great set!  I used the big, bold sentiment and gorgeous flowers to create a beautiful birthday card.  I’m so glad to share this sweet project for the hop.  Here’s my card:

Tips, Tricks and Reminders

• A Big on Birthdays Backdrop.  Isn’t this sentiment and bouquet of flowers on the front panel gorgeous?  It’s one of my favorite stamps in the entire Occasions Catalog.  There’s a coordinating branch of flowers that coordinates with this image – and I used that over and over in the background to create a beautiful panel to support the sentiment.  The shape of the stamp doesn’t allow for a lot of coverage, so I stamped along the edges of the white panel before coloring the flowers and leaves with Pink Pirouette, Pear Pizzazz and Daffodil Delight.  Here’s a look at this background panel before I added the front panel:  All that blank space is covered by the focal panel.  Quite a difference, huh?
• Ooops!  My original idea for this card would leave the background panel of flowers in Basic Gray – I thought the gray-and-white background would help the colored flowers on the front panel pop.  Once I glued that panel to the Pink Pirouette card base, I decided the flowers needed to be colored.  Yipes!  I always tell you to make sure everything is perfect before gluing down elements of the card, but I am sometimes a rebel.  🙂  So that I could easily color the flowers without allowing the ink to spill over to the light pink base, I pressed a piece of scrap paper against the stamped panel and colored away.  How easy?
• Sweet Colors.  I love combinations of soft colors and combinations of bright colors, but there’s something really special when color combinations cross color families.  Pink Pirouette and Pear Pizzazz, both soft colors, were a perfectly sweet pairing.  A touch of the bright and cheery Daffodil Delight really helped to make this card special.  If you like this combination of colors, please save this:

Stamp Sets:  Big on Birthdays  Papers:  Pink Pirouette, Basic Gray, Whisper White  Inks:  Archival Basic Gray, Stampin’ Write Markers (Pink Pirouette, Pear Pizzazz, Daffodil Delight)  Accessories:  Stampin’ Dimensionals

Thank you for stopping by today.  I hope you’ll hop along to the next stop on the blog hop, Julie DiMatteo at The Paper Pixie.  There’s lots of inspiration to be found in this group – and you don’t want to miss it!

Brian

Thank you for hopping along with us.  If you get stuck during the Blog Hop, please use this line-up as a guide:

1. Brian King at Stamp with Brian
2. Julie DiMatteo at The Paper Pixie
3. Denise Hoepfner at The Mountain Magpie
4. Candy Ford at Stamp Candy
5. Karen Browning at StampWithMeKZB
6. Katie Ferguson at Cottage Paper
7. Imogene Thomas at MomoMakes.com
8. Michelle Last at MichelleLast.co.uk
9. Jennifer Spiller at Westside Paper Creations
10. Lory Robinson at The Robins Nest Designs
11. Shawn de Oliveira at ShawnStamps
12. Pam Morris at Tap Tap Stamp
13. Lisa Pretto at Ink Big Academy Stamps

Big On Birthdays Photopolymer Stamp Set – 142877

Price: $27.00

Pink Pirouette 8-1/2″ X 11″ Cardstock – 111351

Price: $8.00

Basic Gray 8-1/2″ X 11″ Cardstock – 121044

Price: $8.00

Whisper White 8-1/2″ X 11″ Cardstock – 100730

Price: $9.00

Basic Gray Archival Stampin’ Pad – 140932

Price: $7.00

Subtles Stampin’ Write Markers – 131263

Price: $29.00

Brights Stampin’ Write Markers – 131259

Price: $29.00

Supply List