Happy Birthday, Mr. President(s)!

Yesterday, I was inspired to create a 'red, white and blue' birthday card for Presidents' Day.  I used Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White and Island Indigo.  These shades of red and blue are just plain yummy together.
In memory of good old George, I used the cherries stamp from the Mouthwatering stamp set.  I love the size of these stamps.  They will be great for future scrapbooking layouts.
My text is from the Perfectly Penned stamp set.

The Island Indigo DSP is from the Sweet Shop specialty papers.  I like it with the dotted Cherry Cobbler ribbon.  The Island Indigo scallop circle and Whisper White circle are both cut with dies on the Big Shot.  The 2 sizes layer nicely together.

You may have noticed that the sentiment is on a strip of Whisper White with a little 'funky fold' at each end.  I marked off score lines with my Simply Scored tool and then folded the ends down and back.  This is just to give a little added interest to the sentiment.  I attached the piece with dimensionals. 

I enjoyed trying my cherry scented embossing powder, too.  After stamping the cherries, I colored over them with a VersaMarker and then embossed with the Scented Stampin' Emboss Powder.  And yes, it smells like cherry!  We also have vanilla and melon scents.

Tips for stamping directly with 2 or more colors:

• When you have a new stamp that is a larger, solid stamp (like the cherries), condition it first by rubbing it several times over your Stampin' Scrub pad to prepare it to accept the inks better.
• Color directly onto the stamp with a marker, huff, and stamp.
• Hold your stamp on your CS for several seconds to allow the inks time to be absorbed into the CS.  You'll get a much more vivid image.
• To give your embossed image more depth, after embossing (while the image is still hot) quickly cover it again with EP, flick off the excess and heat it again.

I have more good news!  Today, SUO announced the top 3 winners for their last challenge and I was chosen as one of the top 3!  This is the card that I created for the challenge.

Here's another card I made -- for our church to send out for the March birthdays.  I used more of the glimmer paper that I'd 'painted' with Lucky Limeade reinker.  My idea was to create a March birthday card that reminded you of a St. Patrick's Day theme, but did not use any actual shamrocks.  The leafy background stamp is from the Best Friends Forever stamp set.  I used Lucky Limeade and Pear Pizzazz with the Whisper White, for a clean and crisp card.  I try really hard to not create too many layers for the cards I make for our church to send out because I don't want them to have to pay extra postage.

Basically, it's the same design as the card above.
I'm pointing this out because I want you to look at my card design ideas and then try creating your own cards, using the stamps and supplies that you already have on hand.  Let my designs be just the starting place for you to begin your own designs.

The next SUO challenge is to create a birthday card, so I will go ahead and submit today's card for this next challenge.  Maybe good old George will help me to win.

So, Happy Birthday, Mr. President(s)!

Now, how about going to your CS stash and choosing a yummy color combo.  Choose one of my designs that inspired you and stamp up something beautiful.