Birthday Card Swaps

So school is going to start soon and before I know it, I'll be back to work with no time on my hands.  I decided now was a great time to build up my swap supply of cards for the next few months.  FYI swaps are cards that I make for a monthly stamp group that I attend.  We each make 12 of the same card and bring it to our meeting.  We then "swap" cards so we will all come home with 12 cards that are different.  I use these cards as ideas or to send out when needed.

                                                 
I was browsing Splitcoast Stampers the other day looking for a bit of inspiration.  I haven't pulled out my Crazy for Cupcakes Stampin' Up! set in quite some time, so I decided it would make a perfect swap card.  I found several cards that were lovely, but this one caught my eye.  I, however, did not want to hand cut all of the images so I decided to use this lovely invention to help me out!!

Well, I'm falling in LOVE with my Silhouette even more!!!  So the silhouette has this great Trace feature on it.  (Don't get me wrong!  I still love my Cricut too, but this is something that my Cricut cannot do!)  Here's what I did:
     * I stamped the images from this Crazy for Cupcakes Stampin' Up! set onto plain, white copy paper.
     * I then scanned the page into my computer and created a .jpeg file.
     *I then used the fabulous 'trace' feature in the silhouette software and traced the outer edges of each image.
     *I also used the 'offset' feature and created a little "border" around the stamp lines.
     *I went back and deleted the original traced image, copied the offset image about 12 times, lined up all 12 images onto my paper, then cut the images out.

I LOVED that I did not have to "fussy cut" around all of the cupcakes and balloons that I used on these cards.  I am NOT a very patient fussy cutter, nor am I very good at it, so this was AWESOME!!!!

After all of the stamping fun, I colored in the images with my Pink Pirouette, Cool Caribbean, Smoky Slate, So Saffron, and Only Orange SU! markers.  I also coated the sprinkles, the flame, and the balloon with SU! glitter glue.  I used an embossing folder to emboss the pink paper on the one side, stamped the greeting at the bottom of the other with smoky slate ink and called it done!!!

If you have any questions, please let me know!  Thanks for looking!!!