#1130 – Happy New Year!!

Hello and welcome!! It’s the New Year!!!

WISHING EVERYONE A VERY HAPPY & PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!

I have no idea how 2025 flew by so fast – I am trying to recollect what happened in my life and everything seems like a blur – I feel like I did so many things, but I just can’t remember what! I guess being busy while not having many sad moments itself is an achievement and I can at least be happy about that feeling!

So anyway, while I wasn’t able to make any Diwali cards this year since I was so busy (one of the fre regrets!) I am happy I made new year’s card to give my sister. We also made this an Inspiration Station challenge – which seems to have been a yearly occurance, but we hope to change that this year!

So this time is my turn and I chose a trio of images –

_{sources: butterfly, Humming bird, Water Lilies}

The challenge is to take basically from the image – the colors, elements – nature, flora, fauna, shining – anything that you like! I wanted to use one or the other element from each image. Initially I thought of using the butterfly, bird and flowers, but then changed that to use the colors from the first image, and use the humming bird from the second and using the floral theme from the third. And here’s what I created –

Truthfully, I did change my idea quite a few times before I arrived at this one. But that seems to be the usual process with me! I used the Neat & Tangled Geometric Blooms on the base of the card and gently blended in some darker ink on the sea green cardstock, leaving the center un touched. I then die cut a frame for this panel using Pink Fresh Studio Ornate Rectangle Frame and set the pieces aside.

I then used various colored cardstock to die cut the florals from Spellbinders Fresh Picked Anemones. I used some ink blending only on the stalk and leaves, while leaving the rest of die cuts with solid colors. For the humming bird, I used Simon Says Stamp Delicate Hummingbird Duo on watercolor paper and then watercolored the bird before using a shimmery champagne watercolor from Gansai Tambi Starry Colors to color certain areas on the bird to make it shine – after all Humming birds are wicked shimmery! I used Sakura black Glaze pen on its eyes and beak. I also added dots of gold on the already die cut areas of the center of the flowers using a gold gel pen for doing so.

Once everything was dry and ready, I assembled all the pieces on the card base, and felt that the background was too flat. So I splattered some gold from the Gansai Tambi Starry Colors, let it dry and then adhered all the pieces on the card base. I also cut off the cardstock from the corners of the card base to match the frame.

For the sentiment, I used a sentiment from CrafTangles Happy Holidays and stamped it on gold pearl shimmer cardstock using a Colorbox teal pigment ink. I then stamped it using Versamark clear sticky ink before heat embossing it with clear embossing powder. I then die cut this using a die from Simon Says Stamp Stitched Circles and adhered it on the card.

And that’s my card for my sister – Happy New Year to you sis!!

Checkout my sister’s card here. It’s still hidden from me at the time of writing this post, so I am excited to receive it, but I bet I’m gonna love it! ❤ ..and oh, wow!! Her mixed media card just blew me away!! I am delighted to be at it’s receiving end!! Thank you sis!! ❤

Thank you so much for stopping by!

#1113 – Floral Birthday Wishes

Hi all! Welcome to another challenge at Seize the Birthday! This time, our leading lady Vicki has chosen the topping ‘Flowers‘. If you are not a toppings kind of crafter, just make sure that your entry has a birthday theme.

Incidentally, this card went to a dear friend, Hilary, who had celebrated her birthday a some time ago. I hope you enjoyed the card, Hilary! 🙂

Of course, I was spoilt for choice with this topping! But, after seeing this card by Yana Smakula I thought I was going to CASE (more like completely copy it!!) it and use my favorite die in the process.

I started with the background, by swiping distress inks across a white card panel. I ran one shade of ink over another so the different shades could blend well. Once that dried, I added a few splatters of water and picked it up with a dry paper towel to add some texture. Once that too dried, I used Simon Says Stamp Margot Tile embossing folder and embossed the panel. I also applied some gold wax on the embossed surfaces (not so visible in the images), so it match the sentiment later.

The flowers are from Spellbinders Fresh Picked Anemones and the leaves are from Simon Says Stamp Arching Leaf Border, which I die cut from colored cardstock. I used gold foil cardstock to die cut the sentiment from Altenew Essential Sentiment Strips before layering it over a strip of white cardstock. I assembled the card and added a few gold sequins for embellishing.

And that finished my card! I’m joining these challenges too –

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Beautiful Blooms

Checkout what lovely inspiration the rest our DT and our guests have created over at the Seize the Birthday challenge blog.

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#1108 – A Very CAS Card for Me!

Hello and welcome! It’s time for another challenge at Seize the Birthday and this time the topping is chosen by our leading lady Jules to be ‘No Stamping‘. Of course, Seize the Birthday always has the ‘Anything Goes‘ option open as well, as long as your project is birthday-related, feel free to join the party!

And here’s what I created –

I knew I wanted to use that dragonfly! I had recently bought Simon Says Stamp Whirl Dragonfly and I had reserved it just for this challenge. I paired it with Spellbinders Fresh Picked Anemones.

Starting with the dragonfly, I cut it out from a couple of pieces of dark brown cardstock and also some vellum. I added some light coloring on the vellum using Zig brush marker pens and used the blender to lighten, spread and mix the colors. I then sandwiched the vellum wings in between the two pieces of the dragonfly’s body, so the whole thing is a little stable for me to adhere.

For the flower, I used Simon Says Stamp Whirl Dragonfly with different colors of cardstock and then used Zig brush marker pens to lightly color some areas. I cut out an extra piece for the stem – it was so wobbly – and then adhered all the pieces together.

For the sentiment, I used the same dark brown cardstock that I used on the dragonfly and used Die-versions Celebrate die, cutting out a couple of pieces, which I stacked together. I then adhered all the pieces together to make what must be the CAS-est card of my life! Not a single embellishment and nothing else to adorn this one – I thought it was looking pretty smart even without anything! 😀

And that finishes my card. I’m joining the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge which has the topic ‘Anything Goes’ –

Checkout the Seize the Birthday challenge blog for more inspiration from the rest of the design team and also our guests.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

#1098 – A Dotted Inspiration

Hello and welcome! Today begins a new challenge at Seize the Birthday and this time, the topping is chosen by Shirley to be ‘Dots‘ – which is nothing but to use a number in the project you create. As always, the topping is optional, and you can choose to go without it to make a birthday project of your choice.

And here’s what I made –

I was actually stuck by inspiration when I saw a picture in Pinterest, though I forgot to save the link 😦 It looked like an impressionist painting of two swimmers, the picture taken from a quite a height, making the sparkling water and the swimmers look like dots. The blues were shimmering with white and gold and looked splendid. I thought of using the pretty colors and this one embossing folder that I have had for ages without getting much use.

I first made the background. I took some smooth cardstock and swiped distress oxide ink pads covering the whole panel and left it to dry. The inks blended by themselves because of the smooth cardstock by the time they dried. I then used the Spellbinders Flower Fun embossing folder and then sanded off the embossed potion to reveal the white cardstock underneath. The embossing looks like its made of lots of dots, which was my intension. I then swiped a bit of yellow distress ink in just a few places.

For the focal, I used Spellbinders Fresh Picked Anemones, colored them by swiping the distress oxide ink of choice and adhered them once everything had dried. For the sentiment, I again added washi tape over the white cardstock before die cutting it using Winnie & Walter The Big, The Bold and Party, plus a few scrap cardstock pieces, adhering them together for strength. I think I am getting addicted to this foil washi sentiment, because this is my third card with it (used here and here previously)!! So anyway, the stamped part of the sentiment is pieced together from a stamped set from the same company with the same name.

And that’s it! Checkout our Seize the Birthday blog for more inspiration from our incredible DT and our guests as well!

And thank you so much for stopping by!