January Birthdays

 It's not easy having a January birthday. The 1st was my Dad, the 4th is my MIL, and tomorrow is mine. The combination of post-Christmas letdown, the dreary weather, I knew I wanted to make a cheery card for my MIL. 

I went to Bird's Cards, to her Card Cover collection and chose the first collection. I used the flowers one, but did it vertical instead of horizontal. I had intended for the fill of the flowers to be the sparkly layer, but goofed. It's the sparkly "Vinyl Film" from Dollarama. I had issues with it not sticking to my map (ran out of painter's tape), and it lifted right away so I had to cut a second one. I was able to use the first one on the envelope though. I stuck the vinyl film to cardstock before cutting.

I cut two circles slightly smaller than the circle cut out, so I could give some height to her name. However, I forgot to use foam tabs between any of the three card layers, so I only needed one circle, with foam tabs under it, and then I think I used foam tabs between that circle and the largest name layer.

Colour is a bit off in this one. I did the text, then a slightly bigger offset, then the large offset, all in Inkscape. First time using this font and I wasn't sure how it would cut since it's thin. Decided to draw the top layer onto the offset. That worked very well. Used Crayola Supertip marker and an adapter from Springbok Craft Supply. 

For the inside I had it write this message. I started with a Crayola but it quickly became obvious it was too thick, so switched to the Staedtler Triplus pens. I was able to use the part that got written on first, when I did the liner for the envelope.

I used a different font, and created this Mum and the offset in Inkscape. I realized after I made the card that no one from this house calls her Eileen LOL. But it's a nice touch--hard to find a personalized card but Mum cards are easy. I used the piece of sparkly vinyl film/cardstock that I had messed up, for the Mum layer.

The inside is the first attempt at the card base when I tried the Crayola marker. I know it doesn't match the outside, but so what. It matches the card.

It might be hard to see in this photo, but there are 11 little nicks that the Cricut cut into the offset. When making it, it looked solid, but I didn't check to see if there were any nodes that had gotten left. Sure enough, there were actually quite a few extra nodes. 

She really liked the card and appreciated the effort. While I can do the designing with my foot elevated, the time it took to get my desk cleared off, get set up, cut it all, assemble, etc, was too much. I really need to cut back on what I'm doing since I'm pretty much making dinner every day now.