#1008 – Go Metallic with Gel Pens

Hello and welcome! It’s time for a new challenge at Seize the Birthday and this time the optional Topping chosen by Cathy is ‘Metallic‘. Every Challenge is always Anything Goes and a special Topping is included for extra fun. It’s not required to include the topping on your birthday project.

And this is what I made –

I had a few techniques in mind, but in the end I chose to use these Uniball gold and silver gel pens, which have been in my stash from the longest time. And they perform so well too!

I started with stamping the flowers from Altenew Garden Treasure stamp set in black ink on a dark green paper – after all, metallics shine more on darker cardstock! I then traced the images in gold gel pen. The images have thin defined outlines which were not really standing out so I thickened the outlined a bit more and used a silver pen to fill up some spots and add a little definition as well. I also added a few dots using the silver pen.

Such a beautiful shine!!

Once done, I trimmed the image to center the drawing a little more and then added a frame using both the gel pens, using my ruler. I then adhered this panel to a kraft brown card base. For the sentiment, I used Altenew Bold Greetings die. I used a metallic dark gold cardstock I had at hand. This gives a subtle shine, so as to not take away the focus from the metallic, shiny florals, but has enough shine to compliment the image as well.

Sorry for the photos not being up to notch, the weather is pretty dull here, not much sunshine. 😦 And the color of the gold metallic pen is looking more greenish but it is a proper gold color irl. Not sure why that is – might be the background green is affecting it.

Anyway, that’s my card. And I’m joining the following challenges as well –

Addicted to Stamps and More #433: Birthdays

The Flower Challenge #70: CAS

Checkout more cards with more metallic elements in the Seize the Birthday blog where you can see what the DT and our Surprise Party Guest Karren J have created!

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#1005 – A Night time Birthday Card

Hello and welcome! Time for another challenge at Seize the Birthday challenge and this time, the topping, chosen by me is ‘Use Your Favorite Technique‘. And if you’re not a toppings kinda person, you can just join our usual ‘Anything Goes‘ challenge! The choice is yours!

And here’s what I made –

This card actually went to my sister who had her birthday a few months ago. I am just publishing it for this challenge! 😀

Well, I did start with watercoloring – that’s my favorite technique, after all! I chose stamps from My Favorite Things Sky-High Friends, stamped them on watercolor paper and colored them using (I think) distress inks. I then fussy cut them. I used another watercolor paper for the background and used another set of watercolors for the background. I chose a few places I wanted to add the stars to and colored them in yellow. I would adhere the tiny stars over them later.

Thinking I wanted a special fold card, I went through Jennifer McGuire’s tutorials and chose this one in the end. I trimmed some cloud shapes for the inside using My Favorite Things Stitched Rolling Clouds Edges, using Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles to trim the sides.

For the sentiment, I used stamps from My Favorite Things Sky-High Friends and Well, Hello stamp sets, head embossing them in gold. I added a strip of thin gold washi tape on the sentiment strip’s ends before trimming them and adhering them on the card. To finish, I added some gold glitter on the stars using Deco Art Glamour Dust Ultra Fine Glitter Paint and a bit on the moon.

After I finished the basic card, I realized how silly I’d been. The critters were all sleeping – shouldn’t they be celebrating?? And then I had absolutely no space left to write a message – what was I thinking? I clearly wasn’t. I was so involved in coloring the critters and their vehicles carefully, that there was no space in left in my brain for thinking anything else. I owe my sister an apology. Sorry about that sis! 😦 I hope the watercoloring compensates it though! 😀

And that’s my card! Checkout more thought-through cards from my DT friends at the Seize the Birthday challenge blog – you’ll also get an extra inspiration from our Party Guest Lorraine A!

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#984 – Diwali 2021 cards

PE: Watercooler Rocker!! Yay!!

Hello and welcome! My usual late post of Diwali cards is finally up!! 😀

I made a set of three cards to give to my family. I had a lot of ideas that I thought of somehow incorporating, but I couldn’t come up with a design to include all of them in a single card 😀 so I had to give up on quite a few of them. However, I am happy with the cards I finally made, so no loss! 😀

The focal point if the colorful lantern which is hanging against the starry night sky. Of course, since I had to include sparkle and shine in a Diwali card, I used plenty of foil and other metallic elements in this card as well.

Since there are too many elements, I will just list out the products I used instead of writing paragraphs together explaining the process. Here’s what I used –

The inside of the card contains:
– Watercolored night sky using Hndmd watercolor paper and Gansai Tambi watercolors. I added tiny star sequins to embellish the sky.
– The die cut on top is using Spellbinders Persian Accents die. I used both foil paper and metallic paper in shades of light silver, dark silver and pale gold for the die cuts.
– The lantern is made of cardstock, on which I first watercolored bright shades of distress inks, then misted it with water mixed with Perfect Pearls. I drew two pieces of each lantern, so I can cover the front and back with them. Once the pieces dried, I cut them out and I used Altenew 2-in-1 glue pen to add foil. I added stripes of color paper on the bottom and gold thread on top between the two pieces before adhering the them together.

The outside of the card contains:
– A window die cut on the card base using Simon Says Stamp Stitched Circles, a coordinating window die cut on the top layer using We R Memory Keepers circle die.
– The top layer has a decorative stamped layer, using Simon Says Stamp Emma stamp using Altenew Antique Gold pigment ink.
– The sentiment is two fold – Mama Elephant Calli letters stamped in red and die cuts using Altenew Simple Alpha dies and starry gold foil.

And those were the Diwali cards I had made for 2021. I am joining these challenges with my cards –

CrafTangles January challenge: Dream/Inspirational

Addicted to Stamps and More challenge #421: Make Your Mark

Watercooler Wednesday challenge #333: Dawn’s challenge: All About Occasions

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#980 – New Year Wishes

Hello and welcome! As is tradition, I made New Year’s cards for my family this time as well. I wanted to make an interactive/shadow box kinda card for quite some time now, and thought this would be an opportune time for it. The technique is better described by Jennifer McGuire in this video, where I learned it from.

Anyhow, these are the cards I made –

I used a combination of stamps from different companies which worked well together. I shall list them below as well. However, the sentiment on the top of the cards are all the same, from Winnie & Walter Wishing You stamp set. I used Faber Castell Oil pastels to color all the images, and mineral oil to blend them.

For this card, I used My Favorite Things Scene Builder except for the little butterfly, which I hand drew. I used Concord & 9th Retro Petals Turnabout stencils for the background. I added the dots and lines using a grey fineliner pen and Sakura clear glitter pen.

For the inside, I used My Favorite Things Piggy Pebbles, My Favorite Things Scene Builder and Purple Onion Designs Blossoming Perch stamps.

For my second card, I used Purple Onion Designs Blooms 2, the butterfly from Waffle Flower Happy Day and the background Simon Says Stamp Botanical Split. I went over the flowers with a red pencil from Faber Castell Polychromos pencils, then highlighted some areas with a grey fineliner pen, then the flower centers with the glitter pen.

Within the card, I used My Favorite Things Friendly Foxes, Purple Onion Designs Blooms 2 and Birch Tree Background, butterflies from Waffle Flower Happy Day.

For the last card, I used stamps from My Favorite Things Gill Friends and Waffle Flower Mermaid Mail stamps, pairing it with bubbles from Simon Says Stamp Be a Mermaid. I had to add another stamp for the bubbles since they weren’t big enough, and then I drew over them with the fineliner along with the reflected light and the little fishes.

For the inside, I paired the stamps from My Favorite Things Gill Friends and Waffle Flower Mermaid Mail stamps. For the giant sea weeds and those waves in the background, I didn’t have any stamps, so I hand drew them.

I must say, the finishing isn’t the best in all these cards, I had a hard time getting the right measurements for the supports, and then adhering them properly so that they stood up when the card was opened. It definitely wasn’t a total failure, but I felt I could do better with practice. I kept the coloring at relatively low levels, so I could concentrate on the rest of the card, so I wouldn’t feel exhausted, and I must say that was a good decision I made! 😀

But I am really happy to have tried them. They came out well and I have a good idea on how to make further cards if I want to.

I’m joining the following challenges with my cards –

Wishing every one a wonderful new year! Hope this year brings in plenty of new and happy for everyone!

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#978 – Another Set of Christmas Cards

Hello and welcome! Here’s my third and final set of Christmas cards for this year!! Whew!! I did have a fun time making them, but also found it a bit tiring since I’ve never made so many cards at once! But it was definitely a wonderful experience, and I’ll definitely continue making some for the coming years too! 🙂

This set of cards is actually my favorite of the lot. The one thing that I thought was totally awesome was the background – I used panels of silver grey metallic cardstock and heat-embossed silver embossing powder on them, after stamping various images… and the effect is totally wow!! I do have other metallic cardstocks, but this is the only one I could get a beautiful metallic tone-on-tone look with! And I absolutely adore it!

Well, like the other set I made, they use a central these…as is very obvious. One thing – I used Zig brush markers to color the images, along with the blender pen they offer, to minimalize and spread the colors. That gives the ‘barely colored’ look that I was aiming for! And down below are the other details about the various stamps I used on these too –

For the card on the left, I used Simon Says Stamp Lots of Snowflakes for the background, and added dots using a Versamark pen for heat embossing. The cute kitty and pup surrounding the Christmas tree are from Winnie & Walter Sweet Holiday stamp set and the sentiment is from Simon Says.

The card on the right would have been a one stamp set card, had it not been for the sentiment, I used Lil’ Inker Designs Rustic Christmas stamp set for the background’s heat embossing as well the trees and the bear. The sentiment, though, comes from Neat & Tangled Scandinavian Christmas stamp set.

Just look at the shine on these things – subtle, but still very much there! Love it!!

For the card on the left, I used Clearly Besotted Warm Wishes for the heat embossing, while the gifts carrying kitty comes from Simon Says Stamp Gifts of Love stamp set. The sentiment is from CrafTangles Happy Holidays stamp set. For the card on the right, I used a combination of a few stamp sets for the background – Neat & Tangled Berry Merry, CrafTangles Christmas Ornaments & Happy Holidays stamp sets. The adorable owls are from Winnie & Walter Happy Owlidays and the sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp Gifts of Love.

And that’s my last set of Christmas cards! And I’m joining the following challenges with it –

Timeout challenge #203: Inspirational

Global Design Project #323: Celebration

Watercooler Wednesday challenge #331: Anything Goes

Wishing everyone a very wonderful Christmas and a happy holiday season! Wishing you peace and happy crafting times for the next year too!

Thank you so much for stopping by!