I Need More Stamps!

Creating this card exposed a big hole in my stamp collection. I'm not sure how that's possible, given the number of stamp sets I've accumulated, but it's true. Most of my friends have little boys and I have very few stamp sets that are appropriate for little boy birthday cards. This is a big problem, since my best friend's little boy turned one (yay, Zach!) over the weekend. I've already used most of my "boy" stamps to make cards for his big brother Jake for various occasions. I hope Michele won't mind that I'm "recycling" images on this card . . .

My inspiration for the colors for this card was Zach's bedroom. It's done in yellows (mustard-like), oranges, and greens--I managed to get a few of those covered in this card. I found this fun striped paper as the card base. And, no, it's not my lousy photography you're seeing here--the stripes on the patterned paper are not straight. They are actually kind of slanted. Anyway, since the colors are kind of bold, it's not so much of a "baby" card, but more of a little boy one, at least I think so.

The card is made with a sketch that Jen posted on her blog recently. I used the giraffe image from Wild About You as the main image. I love the bold images in this set. I stamped the giraffe in Summer Sun ink, then used two different sizes of handheld punches to punch out the giraffe's spots. I backed the image with a scrap of blue paper to fill in the spots. I used one of the scalloped rectangle Nestabilities dies to make a frame for the image.

I added a sentiment from Stem Sayings to finish the card. I like the way this sentiment curves. It helps it to stand out when it's stamped directly on the patterned paper.

So, since I'm looking, does anyone have any suggestions for tried and true sets that make great cards for little boys? If you do, please leave me a comment or drop me an email.

Materials Used:
Wild About You and Stem Sayings stamp set, Summer Sun and Brilliant Blue Classic inks, Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue, and Whisper White cardstock, handheld punches, dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); scalloped rectangle die (Nestabilities); orange button, twine (Walmart); blue grosgrain ribbon (Michaels dollar bin); patterned paper (Scrapbook Wizard's ScrapPack Mini #1)