#991 – Alcohol Ink Seas

Hello and welcome!! We have a new challenge starting at Seize the Birthday and this time, the topping, chosen by our lovely teammate Glenda, is ‘Ocean Creatures‘. The toppings is optional, but as long as your project is birthday-related, it’s worthy of entry.

And here’s what I made –

Though I have only one ocean creature on my card, and a fantastical one to boot. Glenda, please don’t mind 😀

I first made that lovely background using alcohol inks using this press technique that Jennifer McGuire taught. An easy and quick way to get a fantastic look! I used a few normal shades of blue along with Silver and Gunmetal mixatives. I used Hndmd Alcohol Ink Paper for this. I felt that the effect was particularly great, since it looked like corals or splashes of water when the mermaid jumps into the sea. 😀

I then set it aside to dry for some time, and made the mermaid – or her tail – in the meantime.

Using the mermaid from Simon Says Stamp ‘Be A Mermaid’ stamp set, I used Verdigris ep to heat emboss it and then water-colored it with distress inks. After letting it dry, I fussy cut it. For the sentiment, I used a combination of stamps from Concord and 9th Tiny Tagalongs and Paper Smooches Alphadot. I then cut out a banner from one end, added a foiled washi tape to the other end.

To assemble, I trimmed the alcohol ink paper, adhered it on the white card base, then adhered the mermaid to the sentiment banner strip before adhering them both together on the card. I added a few sequins for embellishing.

And that’s my card! I’m joining these challenges as well –

Timeout challenge #208: Birthday

Addicted to Stamps and More challenge #424: Any Occasion

Checkout the Seize the Birthday challenge blog to checkout more inspiration from our talented DT and our lovely Surprise Party Guest from today, Deepti Aggarwal!

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#990 – Color Hues – Support for Ukraine

PE: Addicted to Stamps and More Honorable Addict!

Hello and welcome! Today is a special post, where members of the Seize the Birthday DT are joining the sister challenge, Color Hues challenge to show support for Ukraine. It’s heart wrenching to see people suffer because of some completely unreasonable people. I don’t have words to express the frustration, the helplessness, the fear. I hope these people are able to return to their lives soon, they deserve peace and simple everyday as much as rest of us. Prayers!

In the challenge this time, the Color Hues team has added an option to make a card in the challenge colors and/or to make a card using the Ukraine flag colors of Blue and Yellow. Of course, since we are making our cards in blue and yellow.

So, here’s the card I made –

I knew what I would make as soon as saw the colors. I thought of using an embossed background in blue and flowers in yellow.

I first made the background using Itsy Bitsy Leaves embossing folder on Navy cardstock. Before running it through, I inked the flatter side of the inside with Memento Tuxedo black ink – now my ink pad was a little dry, so it wouldn’t give a perfect black, but instead darken the cardstock a bit. Exactly what I wanted!

I then adhered this on a bright yellow cardbase, along with a strip of the same cardstock on one edge. Next, I made a distress ink panel to die cut the flowers from. I used a few shades of yellow ink to create an ink-splotched panel and die cut the flowers using Simon Says Stamp Crocus Flowers. I also die cut a few more panels from scrap yellow cardstock to adhere behind the main piece to get some dimension. I then adhered this on the card and also added few gold sequins to embellish. Finally, I gold heat embossed the sentiment from Concord & 9th Lots to Say, trimmed it and adhered it on the card as well.

I’m joining the following challenges –

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps and More challenge #424: Any Occasion

Do join the Color Hues challenge. You can take up the original set of colors (Green and Gold) or show your support for Ukraine and choose to go with blue and yellow.

Thank you very much for stopping by.

#982 – Embossing

Hello and welcome!! A new challenge has started at Seize the Birthday and this time, the topping, chosen by our lovely teammate Barbara, is ‘Embossing‘. The toppings is optional, but as long as your project is birthday-related, it’s worthy of entry.

And I made this card –

I thought of incorporating multiple embossing types into my card. As Barbara has rightly mentioned in our challenge blog, there are many types of embossing – using an embossing folder, heat embossing, using stencil and paste.. and more. I managed to fit in 2 – i.e., using embossing folder and using stencil and paste, into this card.

I started with the texture paste embossed panel. I mixed a bit of shiny, sparkly acrylic paint from Prima with the white texture paste. Both the paint and the paste were a bit dried up, but they mixed well and ended up with the right consistency for application over a stencil. I used Mudra Ornamental Pattern & Corner stencil over a cream colored card stock panel. Setting it aside to dry, I used another panel and used the Tim Holtz-Sizzix Kaleidoscope embossing folder on it. This would be the background.

Lastly, the pretty sunflower – its from the Winnie & Walter In Bloom: Anna’s Flora. I stamped it with yellow ink onto Fabriano Accademia Disegno Drawing paper, then colored it with Faber Castell Polychromos pencils and used some mineral oil with a paper stub to smooth out the lines. I then fussy cut the flower out.

The sentiment is a print out, and I used foil on it for some extra shine. For assembling, I used normal glue on the bottom-most panel, and foam sheets for the rest of the pieces.

And that’s my card! I’m joining the following challenge –

AAA Birthday challenge #33: Two Favorite Colors (Yellow and Green)

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

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

Take your time to checkout the Seize the Birthday challenge blog to checkout more inspiration from our talented DT and our lovely Surprise Party Guest, Vicky Hayes!

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#977 – Fairly White Christmas

Hello and welcome!! I did mention in one of my earlier posts that I finally managed to make time to create some Christmas cards to send out this year! It was seriously fun to think about and make them all. Well, here’s the second set of cards I made (the first set is here) –

Once again, they have a common design. I used a base embossed panel, which I made using two embossing folders – American Crafts Shimelle Woodgrain and Craft Concepts Grunge Stripes. The next layer is the starry background -which I did not use for one of the cards – I used the stars from the Neat & Tangled Beary Merry stamp set to stamp a large piece of cardstock with Kraft ink, and then die cut them using Simon Says Stamp Stitched Circles.

For coloring, I used distress inks to watercolor on all the cards. But due to the unique property of this cardstock, the water was sorta repelled, both from the paper and the VersaFine Onyx ink that I stamped the images with, giving it sort of an illustration like look… Totally unexpected, but an added bonus for me!! 😀

For assembling, I adhered the embossed panel directly on the white card base, whereas I die cut some foam using another smaller circle die, and used that in between the starry panel and the card base.

Coming to the card specifics…

The card on the left carries two baubles from CrafTangles Christmas Ornaments stamp set. The bows, which I diecut from some pale gold glitter cardstock which was gifted to me by my dear friend Rahmat, using Paper Smooches Bows die, is adhered on top. I added some shimmer and sparkle using Spectrum Noir clear Sparkle brush pen and then Sakura Gelly Roll clear glitter pen too.

The card on the right carries the lights stamped from CrafTangles Festive Lights. On the watercoloring, I added some shimmer using Spectrum Noir clear Sparkle brush pen and then I added some Glossy Accents on top.

This single critter card… I had originally wanted to add the bear from Neat & Tangled Beary Merry too, but that didn’t make the final cut.. comes from Neat & Tangled Merry Kisses stamp set. I added some sparkle using the Spectrum Noir clear Sparkle brush pen on their scarf.

My last set of cards for this post carries tree die cuts. The one on the left is from Neat & Tangled Scandinavian Prints Christmas dies, and the one on the right is from CrafTangles Reindeer with Christmas Tree dies. I added some glittery stars, die cut using the same glitter cardstock using Mama Elephent Confetti dies on top.

For some extra sparkle, I also added some holographic star shaped sequins on the starry panel or on the trees. They are subtle enough when looking from the top, but add that touch of colorful sparkle when the light falls on them just right! They are from CrafTangles too – what a clever haul that was for me! 😉

The sentiments are all from either Neat & Tangled Winter Wishes or Scandinavian Prints Christmas. I stamped them on stripes of cardstock, then wrapped some gold foil striped washi tape on either side before foam mounting them on the card.

I’m joining the following challenges with these cards –

Addicted to Stamps and More challenge #420: Die cuts and/or Stencils

CrafTangles challenge for December: Red/Green/Snow

Watercooler Wednesday challenge #331: Marsha’s special Anything Goes

And thank you so much for stopping by!

#973 – A Cup of Love

PE: Honorable Addict at Addicted to Stamps and More!!

Hello and welcome! We have a new challenge at Seize the Birthday, and the Topping this time, chosen by newest team mate Jules is ‘Beverages‘. The Topping is optional, and as long as it is birthday themed, your project is worthy of entry.

And here’s what I made –

I thought of going for tea or coffee, since those are the beverages I mostly drink! 😉 I had one stamp with tea cup, but it didn’t suite the idea that I had in mind. So I looked up a few images in Pinterest, and drew and watercolored this piece. I used CrafTangles watercolor paper and Gansai Tambi watercolors to color this piece.

Once dry, I die cut the panel using My Favorite Things Stitched Wonky Rectangle. I also stamped the sentiment from My Favorite Things Cup of Tea. Finally I added a ton of splatters in black and white, let it dry. I then foam mounted this over a piece of dark cream cardstock.

And that’s my card! With it, I’m joining these challenges –

Watercooler Wednesday challenge #328: All About Occasions

Addicted to Stamps and More challenge #418: Birthdays

Checkout what my team mates and our Surprise Party Guest Carol McFarland created at the Seize the Birthday challenge blog.

Thank you so much for stopping by!