40 and a Blog Hop

Today is my 40th Birthday. I know a lot of people don't like turning 40 but age is really just a number to me so I am okay with it. It is hard to believe that 40 yrs have gone by though. I have been bummed out about other things the last few days but I will save that for another time, today I am going to try and focus on the positives and be grateful for the 40 yrs of life I have already been given. I feel like I have accomplished a lot in my 40 yrs but I hope that I will have a least 40 more because there are still a lot of things left that I want to see and do. To celebrate my birthday my mom came over this afternoon and we went to a new yarn store in the neighborhood that I have been wanting to go to. She bought me some really cool yarn that I look forward to using soon. Tonight I will be participating in this month's Papertrey Blog Hop, watching American Idol with Emilia and eating the birthday treat Rich brought me home. All things I love to do. Now on to my entries for the blog hop.
This months challenge is to make your own backgrounds. Making my own backgrounds is something I enjoy doing so I was able to come up with 2 projects this month. Here is the 1st one.
This card was inspired by a purse Emilia has. I did the Black Magic technique by stamping the Polka Dots from the Polka Basics background set with CTMH White ink on Stampers Select Black Cardstock. This is what the background looked like before I made it into a card.
After it was dry I colored in the polka dots with Prisma color pencils. Next I stamped the Celebrate saying with Versafine Ink from the Damask Set on Raspberry Fizz Satin Ribbon then I attached a piece of New Leaf Cardstock to it that I cut a scalloped piece from. After that I added a large Daisy Flower from Heidi Swapp that I painted with Angel Wings Shimmerz and attached a hot pink button with green floss. To finish the card off I matted it on a piece of Raspberry Fizz Cardstock. Final card size is 41/4x51/2.
The is the second card.
It was inspired by this bedding I saw in the Garnet Hill Kids Catalog
I made this background by randomly stamping the solid butterflies from the Butterfly Kisses set on Stampers Select White Cardstock with Sweet Blush, Lavender Moon, Lemon Tart, Hibiscus, and Aqua Mist ink. The next thing I did was stamp the butterfly again on a piece of Eclipse Paper and cut it out so I was left with a mask, then I put it over the butterflies and stamped images from the Retro Background Basics and Polka Dot Basics set on top of the them with White Snow, Plum Pudding, New Leaf and Summer Sunrise Inks. After that I stamped the bodies with the dragonfly stamp from The Pond Life set and the antenna are from Little Lady Set. When I was done with that I matted the butterfly piece on Hibiscus cardstock. This is what the background looked like before I made it into a card.
I made the polka dot background piece by stamping the Polka Dots from The Polka Dot Basics set again on New Leaf Cardstock with Versamark Ink then I embossed the polka dots with white embossing powder. I finished the card off with some Satin Hibiscus ribbon that I tied in a bow then I added a tiny cuttlebug tag that I cut out from Plum Pudding cardstock and stamped and embossed with the Celebrate today saying from the original Mix Messages set. The finished size of this card is 41/4x51/2. Both cards will be going up in my Etsy shop if anyone would like to buy them.
I hope you have been inspired by my cards to make some backgrounds like this with your stamps now too. As always thanks for stopping by and have a great night.