Build a (colleague’s) birthday!

Build a birthday card for a colleague! This is a fairly regular “challenge” for me, as I have become responsible for the birthday cards for our team – and have also aded a bunch more people I like to the list (I provide the cards, so that’s my perogative!).

So that means I have a reasonable amount of cards to make for work, and I really would rather they were all different, especially those within our team. After all, we all sign them, and you don’t want to have the same card as everyone else – that’s the benefit of making hand-made cards, no? (Plus this way they don’t already know what they will see before they even open the envelope!)

April/May/June was very busy in terms of the number of cards required based on my list of dates in my work book, so I had to get a bit creative. Luckily I rose to the challenge and no-one got missed out. September and November are also pretty busy, so maybe I’d better make a stash of cards now, especially as I am on holiday for some of them!

But enough rambling, I’m sure you come to see the cards (if you come at all) and so without further ado, here it is:

I used Build a Birthday, and the Cherry on Top Designer Washi Tape which coordinates beautifully with it. The patterns in the tape are basically the same as those on the Build a Birthday stamps and so they work together perfectly to create amazing layered birthday cakes, and can also be made into candles! For this card, I stamped two of the candles, made the central candle from a stripe of washi tape, and then stamped the flames on the top. The stamps are clear photopolymer so you can see through them and place them easily where you want them to go. I then added a strip of the washi tape over the top of one of the stamped candles for depth and interest.

I made sure to stamp the envelope, and in this instance I stamped both the front and the flap:

As our colleague was out of the office on his birthday, I got the team to sign it and then gave it to him before he left the day before. I texted him to wish him happy birthday on the day, and he texted back saying thank you, and “thank you very much for your beautiful card xx” I LOVE messages like that!

I went a little “off-piste” with this card design, and although it is still definitely of the “clean and simple” style which I favour, it has a little bt of added interest (I think) by the fact that the layers are not straight. I came up with this design on my own (I am getting braver!) and just laid out the layers and cut them as I thought worked. The top corner of the card seemed a touch empty, so I added a tone-on-tone stamped candle flame which just finished it off nicely. I was pleased with the overall effect, and Tim obviously liked it as evidenced by his text message.

I had an exciting moment on Tuesday, as I signed up for the annual Stampin’ Up! European gathering! This year they are changing it up, and it is no longer called “Convention”, but is now “OnStage Live”. It’s the 12th to 14th November and is being held in lovely Brussels, Belgium. This year the event coincides with our fifth wedding anniversary, so Gary is going to come along with me and explore Brussels while I am busy Stampin’ Up! and we will also have some time together and then go and visit Bruges while we are over there. The twins will be looked after by Nanny and Grandad while we are gone, and I think they are all looking forwards to that a lot! The details are yet to be finalised, and I need to book train tickets and hotels and things, but I have my event ticket!

If this sounds like fun to you, and you would like to join me at OnStage Live, then it’s really very easy. Simply sign up as a Demonstrator and get up to £130 worth of product for just £99, and then book your ticket to OnStage and stay active as a Demonstrator until November. Which basically means, sign up, as you get until the end of your first full quarter to meet your minimum sales targets, which will fall at the end of December! Plus, you’ll also be one of the first to see the new Autumn/Winter Seasonal catalogue, and be able to order products from it before the general customer base – this is one of the many perks of being a Demonstrator. You can use this as a way to build your crafty stash, as there are no further obligations once you sign up – unless you want to!

Fancy it? Contact me to find out more, or click through to Join The Fun through my Online Store above! Together we can help to build a team that we can be proud of. I hope that you can join me, it would be amazing to share this experience with you – not least because you only get one First, and this is definitely a First for Stampin’ Up! and can be for you, too!

Have a great weekend. I have some busy plans with the twins, as Gary is working most of the weekend, so hopefully we will be able to have some good fun without him.