#865 – Inspiration Station challenge #10

Hello and welcome! My sister and I are up with a new creative challenge for our Inspiration Station challenge – the 10th challenge between us sisters to create something from a prompt that one of us has come up with!

It was my sister’s turn this time and she picked this photo, that she had clicked. It features a sheet of aluminium foil that I had used alcohol inks on. I don’t remember how I used it or if I used it at all!

Here’s what I chose from this snap –
The alcohol inks, in shades of blue and green
The beautiful shine of the aluminium foil
The wood base

And here’s what I made –

The off-blue color, is actually a shade of green…yeah, really, it is!

I first made that bright blue-green background. I took a piece of white cardstock panel, painted it with Unicorn paint from Prima. Its got a beautiful shimmery sparkle with a mix of gold and silver..mostly like platinum. And I totally love it!

So anyway, this was the base for me to apply my alcohol inks. Due to the paint, the surface becomes non-porous and good to apply alcohol inks. I picked a couple of inks in shades of blue and a single shade of green, used the felt applier with the Alcohol Blending solution and applied it on the painted panel in an ‘S’ shape.

This dried very quickly too. I then used one of the Woven embossing folder from We R Memory Keepers on the panel and set it aside.

Next I started making the paper for the woody portions. I chose a few shades of brown and yellow, dabbed it on a clear plastic surface, misted it with water and used my fingers to dab the colors on a watercolor paper panel. Once the entire panel was covered, I let it air dry. I then used a flat brush with a little bit of water to slide across the panel and spread the colors a bit. I again let it air dry. Thanks to the really hot weather, it dried very quickly! 😀

I used this panel to cut out the beautiful bird, from Spellbinders Nordic Floral die set and also the sentiment, from My Favorite Things Simply Thanks die. I also die cut a few more pieces of the sentiment from kraft cardstock and adhered them together.

To assemble the card, I first trimmed the alcohol ink panel a bit, and foam mounted it on the kraft card base. I then adhered the sentiment and then foam mounted the bird on top. I believe there wasn’t any need to add any more embellishing, since the card was pretty flashy as it is! 😀

And here’s what my sister has made – a pair of beautiful, shimmery charming earrings! Love that rainbow shimmer on them…so very beautiful!!

I am joining the following challenges with my card –

Fusion Card challenge: Thank You

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Use Dies and/or Punches

Happy Little Stampers May Anything Goes with Dies challenge

Thank you for stopping by!

#863 – Birthday Wishes!

PE: Designer’s choice at Tic-Tac-Toe challenge!

Hello and welcome! My sister’s birthday came around a month ago and I had made this card for her –

Since I usually make some florals, I thought of going for critters this time. And with a window too (since I wasn’t completely happy with my last attempt of having a window card with critters in it).

So the first thing I did was stamp all the critters and watercolor them.
I used stamps from:
My Favorite Things Friendly Foxes
My Favorite Things Sending Sweet Celebration Wishes
My Favorite Things Piggy Pebbles
My Favorite Things Scene Builder
Simon Says Stamp Birthday Bits
I used watercolor paper from CrafTangles. After doing some no-line water-coloring using colors from Zig Brush markers, I added some accents to a few potions, like the cake and the party accessories and the balloons using sparkly colored gel pens or clear sparkle pen. Finally, I fussy cut all the images out.

Next to the card base. I first masked off a portion for the ground and then blended in the blue lightly and then used the Mudra Brick brick stencil on top to add more color. I used some makeup brushes, which I newly bought – and oh, wow, do I love them! I’ve never achieved such lovely blending! For the ground, I blended in the grey and then added some lines using a grey marker to indicate wooden flooring.

I used a single die from Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles to die cut the three windows.

The inside of the card is more water-coloring, for which I used a separate watercolor panel. This time, I used distress inks. Also, the wooden porch where the darling piggy is standing is brown shaded and another piece. Both the water-colored background and the porch are adhered directly on top of the inside of the card.

Finally, I heat embossed the sentiments, from Winnie & Walter Sentimental: Birthday, both inside and outside the card, using white ep. Finally, I adhered all he fussy cut critters on top, along with the cake and decorations.

And that’s my card for my sister!

I am joining the following challenges with this card –

Addicted to Stamps challenge #387: Make Your Mark

Watercooler Wednesday challenge #269: Anything Goes

Hndmd/CrafTangles May challenge: Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers May Watercolor challenge: Anything Goes + optional Emboss

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes

Tic-Tac-Toe challenge #62 (bottom row, clouds-animals-layers)

Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

#860 – STB: Cards for Kids

PE: Rocker at Watercooler Wednesday challenge!

Hello and welcome to another challenge at Seize the Birthday, where the latest topping, given to us by JoAnn, is ‘Cards for Kids’! Of course, you can also choose to not go for the topping and make a fresh birthday project to join us!

This time, I tried going making a card with a window – a window created by fussy cutting and surrounded by fun elements.

I played with a variety of stamps from MFT And Mama Elephant. Some of the images had thinner lines, so I made them thicker by going over them again using a fine liner. The sentiment comes from Clearly Besotted Scrumptious Script stamp set.

I first stamped the images for the top layer and fussy cut out the center. I then took a scrap piece of cardstock larger than the window, and then stamped my ewe. I then colored them all using Zig brush markers. I also added a bit of pattern on the banner, the party hat and the balloon using white gel pen and a black fine liner. Then, I added a bit of shimmer using Spectrum Noir clear sparkle pen.

When I trimmed the top panel, somehow, I ended up not getting the dimension right to position the card in the center. So, instead of messing things up, I chose to move the panel a bit to the right, showing the card base in the other three sides instead.

I was so engrossed in making it work…and when I felt like there was no purpose to the window in the card. Frankly, I can’t even make out whether that poor ewe is indoor or outdoor! But, well, the card itself looks fine, so I am glad I could make the idea itself work! 😉

With this card I am joining the following challenges –

Addicted to Stamps #382: Make your Mark

Watercooler Challenge #264: All About Occasions

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes

Virginia’s Show and Share challenge

Checkout the Seize the Birthday blog for more inspiring instances of creativity by the rest of the design team! Also joining us is our Surprise Party Guest, Stef Perry!

And thank you so much for stopping by!

#859 – Inspiration Station #09

Hello and welcome! We managed to make it relatively quickly this time with the Inspiration Station Challenge – a challenge where my sister and I come up with a prompt to excite our creative juices!

It was my turn to propose the challenge this time, and, following my sister last time, I made my own tic-tac-toe board –

I had initially had some other idea, but that didn’t work, so switched gears and made this one instead. This uses two lines – layers-embossing-tearing and layers-one image-pattern paper.

I made a few pieces of pattern papers in tones of pink, mint and yellow. I used various stamps (listed below) to create the patterns and also my blending make-up brush to blend in color for the background. Once done, I chose a few out of them for my card, tore one of the edges, and adhered them on a white card panel. I trimmed this down and adhered it on the card base.

I used the following stamps:
My Favorite Things Geometric Grid
Technique Tuesday Lots of Dots
Lesia Zgharda Kvity’s Contours
Neat & Tangled Landscape Textures

For the focal image, I used a few stamps from the Pink Fresh Studio Fluer 1 stamp set and heat embossed them in black glitter ep and trimmed this panel. I then used Memory Box Rectangle basics dies to die cut a few pieces for the frame, adhered them together and heat embossed it using an embossing powder mix that I made. I then adhered the frame onto the floral embossed panel I created earlier and adhered it on my card.

For the sentiment, I used My Favorite Things #Captions die. I die cut several pieces, adhered them together and heat embossed them with the same embossing powder. I adhered this also to my card.

And that’s my card! Checkout what my sister has made – its a beautiful art journal page featuring some lovely poppies!

With this card, I am joining the following challenges –

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes

Pink Fresh Studio March challenge:

Thanks for stopping by!

#856 – STB: Touch of Green

PE: Spotlight at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge!

Hello and welcome! We are starting a new challenge this week at Seize the Birthday challenge, and the topping this time is ‘Touch of Green’, which is given to us by Vicki. Of course, as usual, you are free to skip the topping and join us with any Birthday project, as long as it is new.

This year, I one of my goals was to improve my watercoloring. I’ve never tried free style coloring – I usually stamp and watercolor. So I am trying to learn it. This challenge was perfect to try painting leaves, so I gave it a go. And after I was satisfied (at least, for the time being) with my attempt, I made a card out of it.

I used watercolor paper from Hndmd/CrafTangles, and Gansai Tambi watercolors. I basically was aiming for a shade like Pthalo Green, so its a bluish-green tinge (and not a photo mistake 😀 ). This is supposed to be a branch of eucalyptus leaves, but I am not really sure if it is looking as much! But I am sure I liked how the watercoloring itself turned out, so that’s ok, I guess! 😉

Once everything dried, I added a few splatters and then once that too dried, I added the sentiment, trying to go for the same ink color as the painting. The stamp set I used is Winnie & Walter In a Word: The Big, the Bold and Party. I then trimmed the piece a bit on the sides, and mounted it on a black card base.

I hope you are inspired by my card!I am joining the following challenges too –

Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge: A Bit of Green

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Use some Green

Happy Little Stampers March CAS challenge: Use Your Favorite Technique (Mine is watercoloring)

Happy Little Stampers March Watercolor challenge: Anything Goes (haven’t used the optional ‘Flowers’)

CrafTangles March challenge: Anything Goes (And I’ve used their watercolor paper)

Check out the Seize the Birthday blog for more inspiration from out fabulous DT and also from our talented Surprise Party Guest, Stef Perry! And don’t forget to join the party! 🙂