Impressive gift card holders

In our family, August is one of our big celebration months! That's because my sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and mother-in-law all have birthdays. And my in-laws celebrate their anniversary in August. So we find a day for all of us to gather and have one big party for everyone!

The party was yesterday. And true to form, I waited until the last minute to wrap their gifts. Thankfully, their gifts were all gift cards, and I had been working on a new gift card holder card! This was my brother-in-law's card, and he said it was the coolest card he'd ever seen! High praise indeed from a manly man!

To open the card you have to pull the belly band out from under the main image. And then you ate treated to a little surprise. A pop up card!

This one was for my mother-in-law's birthday, and for my in-law's anniversary.

It's a two-for! Because I had waited til the last moment to craft these cards, I was happy to combine two events into one card.

And this one was given to my sister-in-law.

Her husband said that the card was better than the gift itself! I've got to be honest, even though we were celebrating my family members, I felt like the superstar if the party!

Happy stamping!

The background is the focal point

Yesterday I posted about a new technique I stumbled upon. I fell in serious love with, not only the process of making the paper, but the results as well! So today I was on a mission to showcase that awesome paper in a few cards.

I don't think that I have ever used a particular paper as the focal point of a project. But after discovering this fun way of playing with ink and water, I can see that I will be cranking out loads of water misted, embossed papers in the very near future! Here I kept the designs and embellishments minimal so that the gorgeous background paper could truly sing!