Christmas Mandala

For: Theresa
Occasion: End of Semester/Holiday

Because Theresa has an awesome holisitic wellness orientation, I decided to create a holiday mandala for her card. The mandala is an ancient sacred art form that is used in Buddhist and Hindu religions (that's where I know it from at least!). "Mandala" means circle, so in the spirit of the season, I did a round up (Bah! Pun intended) of various holiday decorations.

And on the inside, a simple wish: "May you find all kinds of beauty this holiday season."
I definitely felt myself relaxing as I made this card. Om.

Zoom in on the mandala to see all the details!

Snowboard Birthday

For: Sarah Bopp!
Occasion: her birthday

Sarah, apart from being a wonderful and fun person, also loves to snowboard. So here she is, in her winter gear, ready to hit the slopes. Her coat is white and green in real life, and her snowboard has an interesting pattern on the bottom, which almost kind of looks like the paper one here. 

On the inside, she's getting some serious air over the snowflake hills! This card was super fun to make, and I previously had no idea how tricky it was to make a little snowboarder. Anything for Sarah though!
I hope she has a wonderful day, and I am seriously looking forward to our ski/snowboard trip in January!

Jersey and Pennant Birthday

For: My cousin Paul
Occasion: his 5th birthday

My cousin Paul comes from a long line of intense baseball players, but he might take the cake for serious MLB hopefuls. To honor his dedication, a paper-cut, personalized jersey and a ball and bat--all the basics for his breakout performance!

On the inside, team-colored pennants reading "Happy Birthday." I hope Paul's birthday is a home run!

The Office Birthday

For: Aunt Kat
Occasion: her birthday

Kat is a pretty big Office fan, and so she may recognize this hilarious scene from "Michael's Birthday" in Season 2.

Toby: Who brought in doughnuts?

Michael: Somebody got doughnuts for my birthday!

Toby: Happy Birthday!

Michael: You didn't know it was my birthday. 

Toby: I guess I forgot.

Michael: Well I guess I forgot to give you a doughnut.

On the inside of the card, the iconic "The Office" button has turned into a "Happy Birthday" button. This card was a lot of fun to make--and I had never realized how hard Michael Scott was to draw! 

I hope Aunt Kat has a wonderful birthday, and she gets everything she wants--doughnuts or otherwise. 

Birthday Wine

For: Kiera
Occasion: her birthday

Kiera is a major wine enthusiast who left the confines of central Illinois for Wine Country, aka California. We all miss her a lot, but who can blame her? Do you have any idea how many wineries there are out there?

I decided to feature a red wine that is so red it's purple. I had a lot of fun picking out the backgrounds and paper colors--I wanted the card to look "swirly" so the background is a sort of French floral in muted purple and red tones. In order to mimic the "swirliness" of the background, I cut the edge with swirly scissors for a swirly trim and put a faded red paper on the inside of the card so it would show. Swirly, swirly, swirly. 

On the inside, a simple "Happy Birthday!" with the various swirly backgrounds. I really like this card, which works out pretty well because I really like Kiera.

I miss her a lot and hope she has a wonderful birthday!

Chinese paper-cutting

For: My aunt Joan
Occasion: her birthday

My aunt spent a lot of time in China last year. The Chinese are pretty famous for their paper-cutting, so I thought I'd give it a whirl for her birthday card! 

Here, we have a girl with ribbons coming out of a lotus-type flower. I x-acto knifed it out of a paisley paper--tricky business, I tell you what! It took me a long time too, but I think it's definitely worth it. (Anything for my aunt Joan! Gawwwwe.)
On the inside, a simple cake cut out of the same paper. My aunt is a truly wonderful lady, and it was really fun to see her over Thanksgiving. She made all kinds of delicious dishes for our festivities, and provided Christmas-themed entertainment (including Christmas song quiz that about kicked my butt).
Anyhow, I hope she has an excellent birthday and I really appreciate all the support she has given me over the years.

Paper Birthday Cake

For: Quam
Occasion: his birthday 

Quam is a master of origami, so I figured I would make his birthday card paper-based (using paper cuts as opposed to pen sketches). 

You may be thinking, "Then why didn't you make an origami-themed card?" The answer is I didn't want to. I wanted to make a plaid cake with jumpy candles. I think it looks fantastic and I won't be convinced otherwise. 

Quam is currently teaching English in Austria, a German-speaking country. Quam is also a master at speaking German. You may be thinking, "Then why didn't you write 'Happy Birthday!' in German?" The answer is that I did, but then I wasn't sure it was right, and after a half hour of trying to figure it out on the interweb (there's a lot of dialects, apparently) I decided to use English. He is teaching it, after all.

I got to talk to him on his birthday, which was lovely, and I can't wait to see him next month when he's stateside for a bit.

Serendipitous Danish Plates

For: Mormor (Greg's grandmother)
Occasion: her birthday

Mormor has a variety of Danish plates that are displayed in her kitchen and hallways. I thought it'd be fun to use plates in her card, so I looked up a bunch online. I found one that I really liked, so I based the front of the card off it. In the original, the people had butterfly nets, but it's her birthday! so I made them into balloons.

I showed my design to Greg and he said it was really familiar and he'd seen it before--it's hanging in her hallway! My brain nearly exploded, but I could not be happier with that happy happenstance.

The inside plate is the commemorative 2010 birthday plate with the same characters from the front with a lovely cake. This card was an overwhelming success, and at the party I discovered that not only is the plate on the front of the card in her hallway, it is also the November plate in that particular series. Whoa. 

Mormor is a truly wonderful lady and just so sweet. I hope she has a fantastic year!

Heart Puppy Birthday

For: Rukiyah
Occasion: her birthday

It is no secret that I love Rukiyah. A few weeks ago, I was supervising one of my students' workshops, and while we were debriefing, somehow we started talking about just how wonderful Rukiyah was. I agreed wholeheartedly, and then had a "Debbie fit" full of inexplicable laughter.

I was laughing because, in thinking about how awesome Rukiyah is, the following phrase had run through my head : "She makes the heart puppies fly around." 

I felt I owed it to my students to explain why I was losing it, so I told them the thought. And then I told Rukiyah about it (I figured she should hear it from me first). 

This card features one of the "heart puppies" and his Rukiyah-induced flight. She is a truly talented individual, and I hope she can be my HR lady some day. 

Birthday Blossom

For: Leslie
Occasion: her birthday



Last year, Leslie did a number of representations of flowers for a class that we had together. When I was thinking about what to do for her card, I knew I would make a flower of my own for her. If I remember right, the flowers she had drawn looked like water lilies, so I tried to have my flower resemble them (though it's got a stem). I decided to use a different patterned paper for every layer of petals in the blossom, all with browns, pinks, and oranges. It also has a sweet 3D effect.



On the inside of the card, the flower has blossomed! I could not be a bigger fan of this metaphor, and how perfectly it unfolded in Leslie's card. She is a really wonderful person, and it has been a pleasure to get to know her. I am sure she is going to continue to blossom in her very bright future.

Dr. Quinn Medicine Birthday

For: My Win
Occasion: her birthday



Winokur (-Biegen) loves the show Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman (and I totally agree! People who don't like it are just afraid to embrace their inner Mike). Therefore, on the front of this card I water-color penciled the main buildings and offices in town. I then burned the edges of that image to make it look extra old time-y and Western-y. The calligraphy "My Win" is supposed to make you think of "Dr. Quinn" because they rhyme! And it sets up the inside, so remember it for a few more moments.



Here's Mike and Sully with a slice of cake! The text "magnificent woman" is supposed to be like the second half of the show, "Medicine Woman." Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman <= My Win Magnificent Woman. I'm not sure how successful this gimmick was, but I like it.

It all works on another level because we call each other "Woman" pretty frequently. As in, "Happy birthday, woman!"

I love Win so much and I am pumped to go visit her and Adam in a few months! She's such a nurturing mentor/friend. I'm really blessed to have her in my life.

Shooting Star Birthday

For: My cousin Maddie
Occasion: her birthday



Maddie has a wonderful spirit and a truly kind energy. I spent a lot of time thinking about how I wanted to capture that for her card. I ended up using this classic star with lots of celestial dots as the tails. The bottom of the card has a wavy patterned cut, so the patterned background from the inside would show through.




On the inside, the star picked a direction to shoot in and shared its birthday message with the entire universe. I decided to write "Happy Birthday" in dots because it has been a while since I've used them, and I got a little dot happy. I think it looks neat.
The patterned paper is more visible here, a two-tone paisley that mimics the flow of the stars.

I had lots of fun making this card, and I hope Maddie's birthday is--dare I say it--out of this world.