Two women in my office at work and eight family members have birthdays in August. Needless to say, I've been working on birthday cards lately! Here's one I made a while back that's good for masculine birthdays. Stamp sets used were the grass from Inspired by Nature and Upsy Daisy for the sentiment. The ends of the cattails are Chocolate Chip card stock punched with the horizontal slot punch. Punch a circle for the sun and then sponge ink around it to create the sky on Very Vanilla card stock. Card base is Chocolate Chip card stock. Not sure who I "borrowed" this idea from but since much of my inspiration comes from SCS, it was probably someone who posts there.

I've been showing you new stamps and colors from SU recently but this card has only one new item on it. Almost everything else is retired. The image from Balmy Breezes is stamped on Glossy White card stock with Timber Brown StazOn ink. Sponge on Sahara Sand, Cool Caribbean, Cameo Coral and Marigold Morning inks to create the sand, sea, and sky. Use a sponge dauber and Marigold Morning ink to create the setting sun. Use Garden Green and Soft Suede markers to color the tree. Mat on a square of Soft Suede card stock. Punch 4 photo corners from Soft Suede card stock and adhere to the image. Use Crumb Cake ink to stamp the background on Sahara Sand card stock and adhere to it Soft Suede polka dot gross grain ribbon with the solid side of the ribbon showing. Wrap linen thread around the ribbon, thread through a button and tie a knot. Adhere to the Soft Suede card base and adhere matted image. Inspired by several cards seen on SCS.

More new colors on a card inspired by Krista 824 at SCS. Instead of using the new SU embossing folder on the Wild Wasabi cardstock that is layered onto the Concord Crush card base, I sponged WW ink onto a piece of Presto DSP. I like the Presto paper; it's fun to work with and you can get so many different looks with it. Other cardstock used is Whisper White and Marina Mist. Markers were used to color the image from the Vintage Vogue stamp set and sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes. The butterfly punches are a couple of old ones I've had for a few years and the tiny pearls are from my stash.

A friend lost her long time companion recently so I made this card to send to her. Retired Night & Day DSP, Baja Breeze, Basic Black and Whisper White card stock, C is for Cat stamp set, scalloped and circle punches.

Welcome to the first stop on the VC_Rocks blog hop! You most likely arrived here from the VC_Rocks blog. This is our third hop this summer and do we ever have some great projects to share with you! There are 31 stops along the way with several projects on the VC_Rocks blog. Many of the projects feature products from the current Summer Mini catalog while others have brand new products from the 2010-11 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog! If you should get lost along the way, links to all the participating blogs can be found here. My project is a birthday card made with the Fast and Fabulous hostess set from the new catalog. To make this card, emboss Elegant Eggplant card stock with the new Vintage Wallpaper folder and add a piece of Daffodil Delight (new color!) gross grain ribbon. Adhere to Whisper White card base. Stamp the flower images on Whisper White card stock using Elegant Eggplant, Daffodil Delight, and Basic Black ink. Stamp a sentiment from the set Watercolor Trio (in the Summer Mini catalog) on Whisper White card stock with Elegant Eggplant ink. Mat both stamped pieces on Daffodil Delight card stock. Simple but stunning. Card design by Jan Knecht.

The next stop on the hop is the blog of Mary Campbell. Just wait until you see what she has for you!! Enjoy!

If you look for inspiration on different blogs, here's one I think you'll like. She's a very artistic stamper and has fantastic blog candy this week.

Here's another card made with a hostess set from the new catalog. It's a level 2 set called Fast and Fabulous stamped on Naturals White cardstock in Wild Wasabi ink. The flowers were colored with a Tangerine Tango marker then a VersaMark marker and embossed with clear embossing powder. The shading was added by lightly sponging River Rock ink around the image. It is matted on Wild Wasabi cardstock and the cardbase is River Rock. The card design is by Joyce Pacer.

I cased this card from Marie Shaughnessy to send to my father-in-law, Albin Hamilton. He's a great patriot, an Army veteran of WWII, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and is a wonderful father-in-law. You may not be able to see this on your computer but one thing I did differently was to spritz the four stars with gold Smooch Spritz. Looks great in real life...