#908 – A Merry and Bright Snowfall Scenery

PE: Winner at CrafTangles challenge!!!

Rocker at the Watercooler Wednesday challenge!!

Hello and welcome! Just a month till Christmas,

and I am finally posting a Christmas card! Its for the new challenge we have up a the Tic Tac Toe challenge. Following the November theme of ‘Seasonal/Holiday’ elements, we have a new board, created by Betty Keefe, for you to work with –

I chose the last row of Stars-Metallic-Snow. And here’s what I made –

I started with handmade watercolor paper from CrafTangles. This is the first time I am using this particular paper, so I had no idea how it would behave. Its particularly thick too.

So, anyway, without going too much into the performance of the paper… I first stamped all the images on the paper. The images are actually only two thought – the snowman from Purple Onion Designs called ‘Snow – Snowman with Broom’ and the fence + trees in the background, from Purple Onion Designs too, called Farm Horizon. I drew the stones and the frozen lake beside the snowman myself.

I then watercolored the piece using Gansai Tambi watercolors. Once the watercoloring had dried, I splattered the ‘snow’ using white pigment ink. I also wanted a few stars on the scene. I stamped them from the stamp set Rustic Christmas from Lil Inker Designs, watercolored and cut them out, and adhered them on the scene.

Next came the sentiment. I die cut a couple of pieces using Winnie & Walter In a Word: Merry die. I then adhered red foil on a scrap piece of cardstock and die cut that also using the same die. I then stacked the pieces together.

I also heat embossed the words ‘& Bright’ from Paper Trey Ink Grand Ampersand stamp set in silver embossing powder on a strip of vellum. This, I cut out, and adhered it along with the die cut piece on the card.

At this point, I felt that the rest of the stamping was lacking depth, so went over the whole thing again with my Uniball fine liner pen.

And that’s how the card came about! I’m joining the following challenges with this card –

Virginia’s Show and Shave November challenge (“Christmas” and/or “Hand-stitching”)

CrafTangles November challenge: Festive Projects

Watercooler Wednesday challenge #299: All About Occasions

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes

Bastel Traum challenge #95: Winter

Checkout the Tic Tac Toe challenge blog for more wonderful inspiration from the rest of the Design Team!

And thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#904 – Seize the Birthday: 1, 2, 3!!

Hello and welcome! Time for a new challenge at Seize the Birthday. And our fun teammate Glenda picked the topping this time, and it is ‘1, 2, 3’. Basically, you’ll need to use 1 die cut or punch, 2 colours (excluding neutrals), 3 embellishments (same or different) in your birthday project. But if you don’t want that, since the topping is optional, if your project is birthday-related, it’s worthy of entry.

And here’s what I made –

I started with a white card panel. I added a soft blend of ink shades of pink and cloudy blue using makeup brushes. And then I used Altenew Halftone stencil and first laid it on one side of my panel and ink blended it with a darker shade. I then moved it to another side of the card panel, aligned it with the previously shaded dots, and added another darker shade – in fact, I switched to another shade of pink, since it wasn’t dark enough.

Then, I die cut the panel using one die from the Simon Says Stamp Crocus Flowers dies. I then ink blended the darkest shade I could on top. I also cut out a couple more die cuts from scrap cardstock. I then adhered the pieces together, while keeping one set of the negatives at hand.

Finally, I covered a piece of printing paper with double sided tape and adhered it underneath the stencilled panel. I then adhered by die cut on top, and then adhered my negative pieces, in place. I had to trim the panel a bit. I then foam mounted this panel on top of my white card base. I also added a ton of Spectrum Noir clear Sparkle brush pen for extra shimmer.

For the sentiment, I used the stamp from Winnie & Walter In Bloom: Carolinas Floral’s, stamped it on white cardstock, trimmed it to size. I then used some silver holographic foil washi tape – I recently bought a set of these, and oh wow, do I love them!! – which I adhered over some scrap cardstock, trimmed it and adhered my sentiment on top. This, I foam mounted on the card as well. Finally I used a couple of double colored sequins and a single white one to embellish the card.

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

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Thinking of You

Watercooler Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes with a Feminine Twist

Bastel Traum challenge #94: Background

The Flower challenge #50: Use a Sentiment

You can find more inspiration at the Seize the Birthday challenge blog, where our DT and our new, seriously talented Surprise Party Guest, Julie Peddicord have tons of inspiration for you!

Thanks for stopping by!

#901 – Seize the Birthday: Texture

PE: Top 3 at the AAA Birthday challenge!

Hello and welcome! We have a new challenge at Seize the Birthday, and with a new Topping! This time, our dear team mate Glenda has given us the Topping of including ‘Texture’ in our birthday projects. But, if you are not a topping person, anytime is ‘Anything Goes’ as long as it’s a birthday theme.

I went for an easy to make card this time. And here’s what I made –

The background, full of flowery texture is actually a leftover piece from a previous experiment. If I remember right, I first misted the entire paper – its texture paper – and added some green colored distress inks – probably Shabby Shutters and Old Paper. I then used Spellbinders Splendid embossing folder to get that flowery texture.

Now this folder doesn’t add to much depth to the paper. I wanted to use sandpaper to take off some of the embossing, and reveal the white underneath, but what with the texture of the paper and the embossing not having much depth, I gave up since it was going nowhere. However, some of the white became visible, and the texture a bit more noticeable with this.

Now, this panel didn’t have much weight, neither toughness to support itself. So, I added some scrap paper below it and foam mounted it a white card base.

So, coming to the other elements of the card… I had a few leftovers from when I made swatches for all my ink pads. I stamped the flower and leaves from combining the stamp sets from WPlus9 Fresh Cut Flowers and Avery Elle Laurels stamp sets. I then trimmed them to squares of 1.25″, centering the images along the way. I also added some clear embossing on on portions of the flowers and leaves for that special touch! 😉

The sentiment is from Pink Fresh Studio Playful Animals 2, which also I stamped and heat embossed with clear ep. I had initially stamped the sentiment together, but then decided to separate them, and fuzzy cut them into separate pieces. Finally, I adhered all the pieces by foam mounting them over the card. I also added a couple of black gem stones to embellish.

And that finishes my card! I’m joining these challenges with it –

AAA Birthday card challenge #18: Photo Inspiration

Stamplorations 7th Birthday challenge: Linking a Celebration themed project

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Layer it Up

Checkout more inspiration from our amazing design team and our Surprise Party Guest, Angie Cimbalo in the Seize the Birthday challenge blog, for more examples to include texture in your cards! And don’t forget to join the fun with your own birthday project creations!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

#896 – Diwali 2019 Cards

Hello! This post has been long overdue!! Like more than an year!! I know I had taken a long time just to click some photos of the cards I had made almost 3 months before I wrote this post… because this post was written then, and I wrote that I took 3 months!! But, better late than never?? 😀

So, anyway, here are the Diwali cards I had made for my family and friends the last year!

As is the case with my New Years cards, I follow a theme for my Diwali cards as well – as is glaringly obvious in this case! For these cards, I first chose a color of shimmer paints from Prima to paint a card panel. Depending on the color of the paint, I either chose a cream or a white card base. I trimmed the panel to size and die cut a circle window from the panel and a piece of scrap paper of the same size. I then used the scrap paper to die cut the circle window from the top of the card base too. I also heat embossed the painted panel in metallic colors using either Simon Says Stamp Kaleidoscope Leaves stamp or Ornate Background stamp.

Love the shine on these cards!  

I then die cut a set of circular frames using the same circle die I used earlier plus another die one size larger. These I painted either gold or silver, to go with the color of the painted panel. Finally, I adhered all these pieces together.

The diya itself, also painted in the same color as the panel, comes from a die from Ranganjali, called Ornamental Diya. I used the leftover circular pieces from earlier to cut them out. I actually made a pop up feature from inside, to adhere this diya on top of, following this tutorial from Jennifer McGuire, but that didn’t really ‘pop up’ pretty well in this card for me!

Anyway, coming to the sentiment, I used Neat & Tangled Jounaling Alphas for the dies and the ‘happy’ comes from Altenew Beautiful Lady stamp set.

Coming to the envelops – I used the same stamp as I used on the panel. Then choosing grey for the white card based cards and brown for the cream card based cards, I stamped the pattern as a gradient. I then used the combination of Altenew Beautiful Lady and My Favorite Things Birdie Brown Alphabets & Numbers stamp set to stamp the sentiment on top.

I’m joining the following challenges with my set of cards –

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Make it Sparkle

Retro Rubber challenge #145: Tic Tac Toe – I’ve chose the last column, Metallics-Masculine-Embossing, and the two stamps that I’ve used, being Simon Says Stamp Kaleidoscope Leaves stamp or Ornate Background stamp are both from September 2017 Stamp-tember release.

Virginia’s Show and Share October challenge

And that’s it from me! Glad I got around to finishing and publishing this post finally! 😀 And thanks for stopping by! 🙂

#895 – STB: Use Your Scraps

PE: Top Pick at the Inkspirational Challenge!!

Hello and welcome! Another three months left in the year…the months seem to pass both quickly and slowly..as always! And as always, we have a new challenge up at the Seize the Birthday challenge! This time, it was the turn of our wonderful teammate Lindsey to pick the topping and she chose ‘Use Your Scraps’.

And here’s what I created –

The scrap – or something that I made and just didn’t use – is the top panel. I don’t even remember when I had created that panel, but I remember being ridiculously frustrated about it.

When I made it, I used the perfectly wrong cardstock. It just refused to listen to anything! I couldn’t stamp, couldn’t emboss, the ink just would evaporate as if it wasn’t paper at all! Somehow I struggled and got some embossing on it – I used verdigris ep. And then I watercolored it using some distress inks. Thankfully, that didn’t evaporate! 😉 But it still wasn’t looking that good, so I misted it with some water mixed with Perfect Pearls hoping it would save the piece.

Now, I wasn’t really impressed with the end result then, so I ended up just pushing it my ‘dunno what I should do with this‘ stash. But this time, I thought I could make some thing from it.

I first cut the panel diagonally, and traced it over my white ard base. I then die cut a piece of white cardstock using Paper Trey Ink Triangles die, and adhered it directly on the card base by aligning it with the line I drew earlier. I also trimmed the excess. Following that, I foam mounted the panel.

For the sentiment, I used Honey Bee Stamps Hooray Day die. For the shadow die cut, I experimented some more with Brustro Iridescent gold metallic paper. I cut out a piece and colored it with Zig brush marker pens. I colored in layers, wiping the color in between – the paper acted somewhat like vellum, partially retaining the color so that the rest could be wiped away. I then die cut this sheet and also some white cardstock for the sentiment, adhering the pieces together, which I then adhered to the card. I embellished the card using a few sequins.

That is my card! Glad I could finally put that troublesome piece to good use! 😀

I’m joining the following challenges with this card –

Watercooler Wednesday challenge #292: Anything Goes with a Feminine Twist

Inkspirational Challenge #223: Angle It

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Make it Sparkle

For more inspiration, checkout the Seize the Birthday challenge blog for more inspiration from our Surprise Party Guest Angie Cimbalo and our wonderful design team!

Thank you for stopping by!