Simple Birthday Cards & Some Links

My husband and my brother were born four years and 363 days apart.  So I always end up making August birthday cards in pairs:

I stamped the candles and the numbers (all handcarved stamps) and painted in the Happy Birthday.

This one is super simple.  Just me and my craft knife and a sheet of white cardstock.

I have long said that I stink at making cards.  But I really like both of these.  I think one of the big secrets to making cards work is keeping them super duper simple.  Clean always wins out over fussy.  And clean is not really my strong suit.  But I'm trying.

And now a few links:

• Dea Fischer is a wonderfully talented bookmaker I had the pleasure of taking a class from in California.  She wrote a sweet blog post about some of the crafty people she has crossed paths with this year.  I definitely need to do a post like that.  This year has been a whirlwind.
• May Flaum has a great video up on the Scrapbook Update blog all about Crafter's Workshop stencils.  For those of you who are wondering, some stencils are available here, and I will have my shop opened by the beginning of September.  Thank you for your patience and enthusiasm!  Both are so very appreciated!
• My friend Nat has a new online class called Über Media.  Six weeks all about PanPastels and the myriad ways they can be used!  Sounds fun to me!
• I stumbled across this lovely article about me on FaveCrafts.  I can feel myself blushing while grinning from ear-to-ear.

Thanks for stopping by!