A Bella for a Birthday

One of my friends (and she's a blog reader, too) is celebrating a birthday tomorrow. She's the kind of person who I know will really appreciate receiving a handmade, hand-stamped card, so I made sure that I created a special one just for her. I hope it arrived in time--the school system's intra-office mail system isn't the most reliable mail delivery service . . . The design for the card is from a sketch challenge on Jen's blog, I {heart}2stamp.

I used Curly Surpriseabella, a fun Stamping Bella image that I got through the SCS WISH-RAK forum, for this card. I colored the image with vivid Prismacolor pencils and added some details with Glaze pens and a white gel pen. The Bella is layered on two pieces of cardstock to match her clothing and the bottom layer has distressed edges for some texture. The tab for the sentiment is made by using the ticket corner punch (see my directions for this here).

I used a piece of Almost Amethyst Prints Series designer paper on the front of the card. This paper is from one of the Palette of Prints packages I bought a while ago. The stripes are subtle so they're easy to pair with other images. These 6x6 pads of paper have really gone a long way! I found a piece of matching amethyst velvet ribbon to tie around the cardfront. The way the ribbon is tied makes this card look just like a perfectly wrapped gift, doesn't it?

Materials Used:
From Stampin' Up!: Short & Sweet stamp set; Lovely Lilac and Bashful Blue Classic inks; Almost Amethyst, Lovely Lilac, Bashful Blue, and Whisper White cardstock; Almost Amethyst Prints Series designer paper; ticket corner punch; dimensionals; distressing tool; white gel pen
Other: Curly Surpriseabella stamp (Stamping Bella); Prismacolor pencils; black and blue Glaze pens (Sakura); velvet ribbon (Michaels-Ribbon Jam spool)