birthday and other summer adventures

I needed a birthday card for my sister last week when I was in the throes of making snowflake cards.  I always associated her birthday with fall before, probably because we were just starting back to school then, but this year I'm insistent that this is a summer card.  Yellow, which is her favorite color, is a summer color, don't you think?  I used the Stick It Down card sketch, a little loosely, perhaps:

stamp sets - Remembering Your Birthday, Sprinkles of Life; ink - Hello Honey, Chocolate Chip, Real Red; Stampin' Write marker - Calypso Coral; card stock - Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Real Red, So Saffron, Hello Honey; punch - Tree Builder

Coincidentally, Stamp Ink Paper (where the lovely Tina picked my card as a winner last week!) has a Birthday theme this week. I wonder whether Justin considers his birthday to be summer or fall?

My next card started as a leftover kit from this Card Buffet option.  I already had the Island Indigo piece precut and scored for the joy fold (which I turned vertical here), but I didn't want to make another card the same and was trying to think of another color combination.  Bronwyn Eastley provided just the inspiration needed with her Color Tree (tct)#12:

stamp sets - Butterfly Basics, Sheltering Tree, Wild about Flowers; ink - Chocolate Chip, Island Indigo, Versamerk; card stock - Tip Top Taupe, Lost Lagoon, Chocolate Chip, Island Indigo; punch - Hexagon; Big Shot with Modern Mosaic embossing folder

In spite of my own insistence that this is also a summer card, I'd like to share it at Simplicity's Thanksgiving Crusade Challenge 2015, because Susan's idea is so wonderful.  I have a local friend who posts a daily Facebook Thanksgiving photo throughout the month of November for the express purpose of keeping Thanksgiving from being overlooked, and I agree with both ladies!  Thanksgiving is a sweet holiday, both because it is the least commercialized and because gratitude is so important in our lives.