Hello, Baby!

I spent the better part of the morning the other day working on a fresh stack of baby cards to add to my stash. I've decided that I'm quite picky when it comes to baby stamps/dies and many companies don't come out with new designs very often, so that means that I use my favorites over and over again, which I don't mind! I love getting a lot of mileage from those tried and true sets!

I actually NEEDED a boy card, but ended up making 3 boy cards and one girl card using the retired "Baby Mine" stamp set paired with the A Bit More: Baby Mine Mini stamp set. I love the large sentiment that really grabs your attention! I decided to use this cute set because the elephant looks like the one on the baby gift bag I was wanting to use for the gift I was giving. In the end, I realized that the bag looked more feminine so I made a matching girl card and I'll save the bag for a girl gift. I ran to the store and bought a new bag that fit the color scheme of the boy version! ha ha! 

I die cut all of the pieces for each of the cards using the Baby Mine Die and then used my MISTI to do all of the stamping. I mentioned that this particular set is retired, but honestly, you could just use the dies and cut the clouds, and elephant from pattern paper and add the eyes with a marker. You could stamp a sentiment from another set inside the word bubble to customize your design.

I thought it would be fun to use the Wrap it Up Die to create the gift box as the backdrop for this cute little elephant scene. I used different patterns from the Bitty Big: Pink Posey Color Collection to give the gift some interest. The tiny sentiment is from the Sentiment Suite: Love stamp set and it fits perfectly inside the cute tag. Normally I would have die cut the tag out of white cardstock, but I was in hurry and it was already cut in the patterned paper! ha ha!

I looped a length of crochet thread through the tag and knotted it at the top. All of the stamped pieces are attached using foam squares and liquid glue. I added a dot of Nuvo Crystal Glaze over the top of the eye and let it dry. Once it was FULLY dry, I added a white dot using a white gel pen for added detail. I also covered the heart die with the glaze and sprinkled glitter over the top for some sparkle and shine. A few sparkling clear sequins and the "congratulations" sentiment finish off this baby girl card.

The boy version uses the same stamped pieces, but I switched up the background. I love how this background looks like a quilt! It's actually die cut using the Mix and Mat: Confetti die and I just love how it accents this baby boy card. I die cut it from Stormy Sea cardstock and then layered it onto a 3 3/4 by 5 inch panel of white cardstock to let some light shine through. I added the stamped pieces and the heat embossed "congratulations" sentiment over the top. I mentioned earlier that this large sentiment is from the A Bit More: Baby Mine mini stamp set. I heat embossed it in my absolute FAVORITE embossing powder which is the Super Fine Detail White embossing powder. I accidentally grabbed the wrong jar the other day and couldn't figure out what went wrong until I realized it wasn't the detail powder that I LOVE! This has such tiny particles that it holds to all of those really small stamped images for better coverage.

I added some glitter to the clouds and the elephant for some sparkle. I used the same technique on the heart coming out of the trunk on this card, but this time I did some quick coloring with a sponge dauber before adding the glaze and glitter. The entire focal panel is layered onto a Soft Stone card base. I did use one of the sentiments on the inside to finish it up!  The gift and card have now been delivered to the new mama and sweet little bundle! Thanks for fluttering by!