Welcome to my blog!  I was invited to participate in this blog hop by Cindy Ehlers who hosts her own blog; cindysstampingstudio.blogspot.com.  Visit Cindy's blog for some great ideas!

What's more fun than a blog hop to see what everyone is doing and picking up tips to be more creative yourself?

Being invited to this blog hop has inspired me:)

The most recent projects of mine are birthday cards.  I have a local business that has asked me to create birthday cards that they will give to their employees on their birthdays.  What a great gesture!

Ninety-nine percent of the employees who work for this company are male. Luckily when I placed my last order I bought a number of masculine stamps sets.  One of them I used was "Walk in the Wild".  The moose stamp has wonderful shading giving the stamped image so much depth.  I love it!

Sequential pictures for assembly of my first card.

Cut a piece of Whisper White cardstock to 5.5" x 8.5"

Fold the Whisper White cardstock in half to form the base for your card.

Cut a piece of Mossy Meadow cardstock to 5.25" x 4" and apply to the face of your card with Stampin' Up's snail adhesive.

Next I took a 5" x 3.75" Whisper White cardstock and ran it through my Bigshot with the a Textured Impression embossing folder of your choice.  I used a folder with bold stripes...trying to keep it manly:)  Apply the textured Whisper White carsdtock as the next layer on your card.

To help add interest to the card I cut a piece of Mossy Meadow cardstock to 5" x 1.25" and again using the snail adhesive applied it to the card slightly above center.   

Because I wanted to stamp the Moose in Early Espresso ink I added a piece of Early Espresso on top of the Mossy Meadow...but this piece 4.75" x 1" and apply.  (Shhhhhh....I love to find ways to save on cardstock ...you can see where I pieced together to 1" strips of the Early Expresso...the seam will be covered by my Moose stamp...NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW:))

The Moose stamp is quite a large stamp!  To make it fit nicely I cut a piece of Whisper White cardstock 3" x  3" and also cut  piece of Mossy Meadow 3.25" x 3.25" to layer behind it.  BUT before adhereing these two piece together I need to stamp my image.   (ALWAYS STAMP BEFORE MOUNTING PIECES TO A PROJECT).  When you want multiple colors on one image, use your Stampin' Write Markers to color each section.  I don't have the Mossy Meadow Stampin' Write Marker so I used a Sponge Dauber  and my Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' Pad to color the grass on this stamp.  When done stamping, adhere the two pieces of cardstock together and mount on the front of the card.

Lastly I need a sentiment for the card.  This card could be used for many occasions.  Many times I will make cards and wait with adding the senitment until an occasion comes up when I need a card.  At that time, you add the sentiment you need!  For this card I used the "Happy Birthday" stamp from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set and the Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' Pad.  After stamping the sentiment I punched it out with the Word Window punch and punched a Modern Label punch from the Mossy Meadow cardstock.  Adhere the sentiment to the punched Modern Label and adhere both to your card!

Whew!  That seems like a lot of work, but it really isn't.

The finished product!

I was asked to answer 4 questions as a participant of the blog hop.  Here goes:)

1.  What am I working on?  I answered this question at the beginning of my post...I'm working on an order of 20 birthday cards for a local company.  

2.  How does my work differ from others in my genre?  Well I will be ther first one to admit that I like a certain look to my cards.  After reading another demonstrators answer to this question I will use her words....I like my work to be "clean and crisp".  I'm don't do well with the vintage or aged look some people use when making cards.  I really like that look, but have a hard time achieving it to my satisfaction.

3.  Why do I create what I do?  I sell most of the cards I make.  Because my cards won't sell if I don't have some for all different tastes I try to mix it up.  

4.  How does my creativity process work?  I actually have been thinking I need to change the process I have fallen into when getting ready to create a card.   I typically start by sitting down with my computer and searching Pinterest for ideas.  I GET SO LOST IN LOOKING AT EVERYONE ELSE'S CREATIONS THAT I DON'T GET STARTED ON MY CARDS:-(   It has been my thought that I just need to sit down at my desk with a couple color card stock an get down to it!  I will have to get back to you and let you know how that works:)

I hope you have enjoyed visiting my blog!