We had our monthly card group meeting today and a good time was had by all! I've been chipping away at my ladies and I finally wore them down enough for them to agree to make a dress card, yay! So this is the first card I designed for today's meeting. The patterned paper for the dress is from the SU! Spice Cake retired DSP pack. I was never a fan of More Mustard but I really liked the Spice Cake papers. More Mustard with Pool Party, Soft Suede and Very Vanilla is a good combo I think so I stuck to those colours for the card. I sandwiched the patterned paper and Very Vanilla CS with double sided sticky sheet between them and then I die cut the sleeved dress. I die cut just the top of the sleeveless dress from Pool Party CS to add a little bodice detail. I added a Pool Party satin ribbon sash and an Itty Bitty punched Pool Party flower with a rhinestone centre and glued the dress to the mannequin. I stamped the sentiment onto the Very Vanilla panel and added a stamped and cut out Pool Party lace strip - I love the Viola's Lace stamp, it means I can have lace in any colour! I popped the mannequin up onto the Very Vanilla panel but glued the bottom part flat to the card so that the shape doesn't get tangled up when the card is slid in and out of the envelope. Onto card two now which features two-step stamping which means the use of the dreaded Stamp-a-ma-jig. I wouldn't be without this fabulous tool, I use it often and in two-step stamping it's a necessity. Some of my card group ladies don't share my enthusiasm for the Stamp-a-ma-jig though - I don't know why, I give them enough practise with it LOL! The beautiful finished result of two-step flower stamping is so worth the effort of wrangling with the Stamp-a-ma-jig in my view! I made a Baja Breeze side opening A6 card and trimmed a tad off the right hand side. I die cut a large scalloped border from Not Quite Navy CS, embossed it with a Delicate Designs folder, cut it to size and glued it to the card front so the card now has a fancy edge. I pierced along the border using a template from the Essentials Piercing Pack. I stamped the stem in Certainly Celery ink onto Whisper White CS, cut out the Apothecary Accents die shape and stamped the sentiment. I glued this to the card base, trimmed off the excess at the top and bottom and then pierced the outline using another template from the Essentials Piercing Pack. I then stamped the solid flowers in Baja Breeze ink, stamped the outline flowers in Not Quite Navy ink, fussy cut the flowers and popped them up. A note about piercing on card fronts - remember to ensure you have the card open before piercing - yes, I have forgotten once or twice and got piercing inside the card as well! The final card is this 4 3/4" square, simple CAS number. I went outside my colour comfort zone for this one and used grey along with the white and Riding Hood Red. I think the design and colours make this a useful unisex card. I stamped the Inkadinkado bird bath image with Memento Gray Flannel ink and used square Nestie dies to cut the panel and mat layers. I stamped the sentiment and then went to glue the image layer to the card front. Hmmm, the design was lacking something I thought but I wasn't sure what. I remembered a design tip Susan Raihala (a true CAS queen) gave on this Simplicity blog post - angles love curves and curves love angles. So I hit upon the idea of tucking punched circles behind the square to add a bit of interest. I then placed the image at a jaunty angle and the card was done. Pia S left a comment on my April card group projects post. "You did all these cards in one afternoon? I think my record is a card made within 3 hours! LOL." I thought I'd take some time to share some info on how I do things for the card group. Firstly, I must say I am not a speedy crafter at all, I enjoy the process and don't want to rush - plus if I do rush I tend to make mistakes. Anyway, I make up a card kit for each person for each card. There are 10 ladies in the group so I make up 30 kits beforehand. I will have cut and scored all the card bases and I'll often cut mat layers to size as well. So they do the stamping, punching, die cutting and assembling during the afternoon. We have to spend some time having a good old chat and a few laughs too! For me, one of the most time consuming aspects of making a card is the design itself, that can take me ages. As that part has already been done before my card group afternoon, the ladies can just concentrate on getting their cards put together. Not everyone works on the same card at the same time so there's not too much waiting around for supplies. I keep a die cutting machine at the venue but if there's a fair bit of die cutting and/or embossing involved over the three cards I take along my Big Shot from home as well. If I sense that it's likely that not everyone will get all their three cards made then I help out during the afternoon wherever I can. I'm not a good judge on how long each card takes to make! I always try to have one fairly simple and fast design along with two more involved, time consuming cards. So, if any of you were at all curious, now you know! Supplies for dress birthday card: Stamps: SU! 'Beautiful Birthday' & 'Viola's Lace' CS: SU! More Mustard, Pool Party, Soft Suede & Very Vanilla Patterned paper: SU! Spice Cake DSP Ink: SU! Pool Party & Soft Suede Tools: SU! 'Dress Up' Framelits dies, SU! Itty Bitty Flower punch Embellishments & accessories: SU! Pool Party satin ribbon, Rhinestone Jewels, Dimensionals Supplies for flowers especially for you card: Stamps: SU! 'Field Flowers' & 'Made for You' sets CS: SU! Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy & Whisper White Ink: SU! Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze & Not Quite Navy Tools: SU! Large Scallop Edgelits die, Delicate Designs embossing folder, Apothecary Accents Framelits die, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Piercing Tool & Mat, Stamp-a-ma-jig Embellishments & accessories: SU! Dimensionals Supplies for bird bath birthday card: Stamps: Inkadinkado 'Utopiary' clear set, Hobby Art 'Happy Birthday' CS: SU! Basic Gray, Riding Hood Red & Whisper White Ink: Memento Gray Flannel, SU! Riding Hood Red Tools: Square Nestabilities dies, SU! 3/4" circle punch