#974 – Gardening Bear

Hello and welcome! Its time for a new challenge up at Seize the Birthday, and this will be the last challenge for this year. We will, of course be back the next year with another challenge – after celebrating Christmas and New Year’s to our heart’s content! 🙂

The topping for this time is chosen by our wonderful team mate Lindsey, and she has chosen ‘Hobbies and Pastimes‘. Of course, as always, ‘Anything Goes‘ theme also applies, so you can join with any birthday project!

And this is what I created –

My hobbies are pretty varied – card-making (of course!!), sewing, cooking, watercoloring, mixed media, reading, gardening – I love a bit of everything that helps me stay at home, but still occupied! 😀 Of all of these, since I had just the right stamps for it, I chose gardening.

I used stamps from Waffle Flower called ‘Bear and Bird’ and ‘Happy Day’, stamped them in VersaFine Onyx Black ink on Hndmd watercolor paper. I stamped the bear partially, so the bird isn’t stamped, and drew a gardening hat for the bear – how handsome he looks!! 😀 I then did a messy watercoloring using Distress Inks. I also added dots here and there using the same Uniball black fineliner pen I used to draw the bear’s hat.

For the background, I used CrafTangles Argyle stencil. I shifted the stencil to when applying each of my three colors – blue, green and yellow. It came out pretty lovely – pity I had to cover most of it. So anyway, it didn’t look quite right to just add the trimmed watercolored on top, so I matted it with some plain white cardstock and foam mounted it on the card base.

Finally for the sentiment, I used one from the Waffle Flower ‘Bear and Bird’ stamp set. Before stamping, I covered the scrap white cardstock with a blue Distress Oxide ink and then stamped it. I then trimmed it and them foam mounted on the card.

And that’s my card! I’ll also be joining these challenges –

AAA Birthday challenge #31: Animals

Timeout challenge #201: Da Vinci quote

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes

Checkout the Seize the Birthday challenge blog for more inspiration on Hobbies and Pastimes, given by our talented team and our Surprise Party Guest, Carol McFarland! And don’t forget to join the last birthday party of this year! 🙂

Thank you very much for stopping by!

#950 – Sparsely colored Bergenias

PE: Top Three at AAA Birthday challenge!

Hello and welcome! We have a new challenge at Seize the Birthday and this time I chose the Topping to be ‘Use an Embossing Folder‘.

And here’s what I created –

Sorry for the picture’s bad quality – its always cloudy here, and this is taken when the day was at its brightest!

Coming to the card – I started with embossing Hndmd Cotton watercolor paper using Altenew’s Beautiful Bergenia embossing folder. I then started coloring the raised areas with Faber Castell Polychromos color pencils, using mineral oil/baby oil and paper stump to blend the colors. (You can see a similar coloring attempt with a different Altenew embossing folder here, where I used Oil pastels instead).

Once done, I trimmed the panel and adhered it over an off-white cardstock, covering the top completely. For the sentiment, I stamped one from Altenew Beautiful Lady over the same cardstock, trimmed it to size and foam mounted it over the card. I then added a few translucent sequins from Ranganjali for embellishment.

And that’s my card!

Watercooler Wednesday challenge #318: All About Occasions

AAA Birthday challenge #26: Flowers

Addicted to Stamps and More challenge #408: Birthdays where they are also celebrating their 9th birthday!! Yay!!

Checkout more inspiring cards from the DT and our Surprise Party Guest Melanie Hungerford, and make good use of your embossing folders and join the fun!

Thakn you for stopping by! 🙂

#948 – Flowers & Leaves

PE: Runner up at Color Hues challenge!

Hello and welcome! Presenting another experiment of mine – which other people have already tried, tested and attested, but it was new at my lab, and I am happy with the results and willing to attest as well! 🙂

I was basically trying to color over an embossed image. Since I don’t have very many 3d embossing folders which are ‘colorable’, I conducted my experiments on the two Altenew ones that I have. Of course, the second one is for a leter post! 🙂

I used the Altenew Flwoers and Leavs embossing folder on Hndmd Cotton Watercolor paper – this paper had good texture on it, and was pretty stiff so I thought it might be good for trying out some media other than watercolors. I used Faber Castel Oil Pastels on it and used mineral oil/baby oil to blend the colors. I had to color over twice, to make the colors stand out more. I t was pretty easy and fun to color the entire panel. 🙂

I then trimmed th panel and foam mounted it over a kraft card base. or the sentiment, I adhered a black matt washi tape over the same kraft cardstock, then die cut it. I also die cut a few more pieces using the same kraft cardstock, and adhred the pieces together. I also cut out the shadow using vellum. I then adhered this over the card. I used a few gemstones in blue and brown to embellish. And that finished my card!

I am joining the following challenges with this card –

Color Hues challenge #19

AAA Birthday card challenge #26: Flowers

Timeout challenge #189: Inspired by Words

Thank you so much for stopping by!

#938 – Happy Birthday

Hello and welcome! Today I have a card which I had made in hurry for my sister’s birthday. My parents, who usually bought a birthday card for her couldn’t get one this time – and I had to make one for her in a hurry… sigh…if only I had the forethought of making one sooner. Now, it isn’t that the card doesn’t look nice, but that it does fall short of what I would have liked to make if I had enough time. So, sorry sis.. you’ll get a better one next time! 😀

So, anyway, coming to the card –

Sorry for the lack in quality of the photo, its not the best weather for clicking photos today..

So, I started with stamping the flowers and leaves, two sets of Simon Says Stamp stamps, More Spring Flowers and Even More Spring Flowers, on the cardstock. I wasn’t going for very detailed coloring, so I stamped them in VersaFine Onyx black ink, and colored them in Zig brush markers. I then fussy cut them all out.

For the background, I used Altenew Beautiful Bergenia embossing folder on cream cardstock, and then swiped Altenew Antique Gold ink on top. I then adhered this on a white card base. Arranging the floral and leafy images on top in layers, I thought it might be better to choose the sentiment too, since I wanted it to cover a little bit of the card so I could tuck my florals underneath.

I chose a sentiment from Clearly Besotted Scrumptious Script and heat embossed it twice in gold, to achieve some dimension, and then cut out the sentiment. I also added a bit of gold embossing dots to the centers of the main flowers, since I wasn’t going to add any more extra sparkle on them. 😀

I then adhered all the pieces together, using a couple of scrap cardstock strips to add dimension to the sentiment piece. Finally, I also added a few off white half-pearls to add some embellishing.

And that finished my card. I’m also joining these challenges –

Just us Girls challenge #583: Trend Week: Layers

Watercooler Wednesday challenge #315: All Things Feminine

Global Design Project #291: Birthday

AAA Birthday card challenge #25: Happy Birthday

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#926 – Bunny Birthday

Hello and welcome! We have a new challenge at Seize the Birthday today, where Glenda is challenging us with a sketch. I don’t know if we ever had a sketch challenge at Seize the Birthday, but it is definitely the first one since I joined the team! Super fun! Of course, if you are not the kind of person to be inspired by sketches, you can always just create any birthday project to join us!

And here’s the sketch that Glenda made for us –

And here’s what I made –

I made my own set of pattern papers for use, and of course, my own latest challenge of using colored cardstock for card base. I used WPlus9 Background Builders Knit stamp set to stamp on a mint colored card base. For the next layer, I used the stamps from WPlus9 Fresh Cut Florals. I die cut this panel using Spellbinders Deckled Rectangles. I foam mounted it on the card base.

For the bunny and the bouquet it is holding, which is from Lil Inker Designs Rustic Spring stamp set. I stamped it with VersaFine black ink and then colored it with Zig brush markers, using my blending pen to blend and soften the colors. Since I didn’t have the co-ordinating dies, I fussy cut the images, then used X-Acto knife to cut out the arms so that I can fit the bouquet in.

Finally I adhered the bunny on the card using foam tape. The sentiment, which is from Simon Says Stamp Beautiful Flowers, which I heat embossed on scrap kraft cardstock in white and then die cut using one of the frames from Sizzix Phrases stamp and die set. This, I foam mounted again on the card.

And that’s my card! I’m joining the following challenges with it –

Inspired By Challenge #166: Bunny Roll

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Use 2 Or More Patterned Papers

Retro Rubber Challenge #154: Anything Goes (all stamps I’ve used are over an year old – Backgrounds and Borders 1 and Fresh Cut Florals from 2013, Rustic Spring from 2017)

AAA Birthday Card challenge #23: Patterned Paper

Hop over to the Seize the Birthday challenge blog to see more wonderful inspiration from our talented DT and of course, our Party Guest, Carol Mayne.

And thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂