Just because I was gone doesn't mean I wasn't stamping

I discovered the real upside of driving instead of flying when we travel: I can bring lots of stamping stuff! I had some new stamp sets Todd gave me for Christmas, lots of fun new paper (not even counting the huge stack I acquired over the course of our trip), and as many coordinating colors of cardstock, ribbon and ink as I could stuff into my boxes and bags. I envisioned myself stamping away at our overnight stops along the road, not to mention while we were visiting all those grandparents.

So, you ask, what did I actually accomplish? Well... I have yet to break out most of those new stamps, and I just didn't have time or energy to do nearly as much stamping as I wanted. My mom had even cleared off an L-shaped area for me to spread out my stuff - she's the best! - but it was just so busy. Now I know next time to pack a lot less, since I didn't stamp at all in the hotels and I didn't even get that much stamping time otherwise.

I did get some cards done, though. Some friends have requested sets of assorted kid birthday cards, so I've been working on those. It's a fun project - my challenge is making boy-appropriate cards since I tend to want to girl everything up! I'm trying to meet the challenge, though. Here's a cute boy card, using holiday paper from DCWV I found on sale at JoAnn's - I love how those dots pop! The sentiment is from Hero Arts - I found cute clear birthday stamps from them on my first visit to Indy's Archivers store. The cupcake is from Stampin' Up!'s Little Layers Plus. The DCWV paper matched SU brilliant blue really well, and the green ink is Color Box lime with Bazzill cardstock.




















This one could work for a boy or a girl, right? I had fun with these coordinating papers from American Crafts. The sketch was from a challenge posted by Gina K on her blog. The cake comes from SU's Eat Cake set, stamped in real red and tempting turquoise. I also used SU red and turquoise CS, but the orange is from Bazzill. The cake panel is mounted with dimensionals. The sentiment is another from the Hero Arts set.

I guess this last one has to be for a girl, but I have to use pink sometimes! The cake paper is from Heidi Grace and the pink is from Stemma - I thought they looked great together. This card is a CASE of one in the Quick & Easy Cards magazine that came out recently. The stamps are from Doodlebug - another clear set I found at Archivers. I used VersaColor orchid ink on Bazzill CS for the "happy," stamped multiple times and circle punched. The "Birthday" is stamped in SU's certainly celery on bashful blue CS and mounted with dimensionals, as is the blue cake at the top, which was cut from the same paper as the bottom panel. I finished it off with SU bashful blue ribbon.