#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! 🙂

#987 – Guest Designer at Timeout challenge!!

Hello and welcome!! I am so so thrilled to be over at Timeout challenge as the Guest Designer this time!!

This time we are CASE-ing one of the cards that the incredible talented Michele Ferguson has created. This challenge is also sponsored by STAMPlorations. Winner gets $25 in store credit and an offer to Guest Design with Timeout challenge for a future challenge! So don’t forget to join the challenge!!

Before going to what I made, here’s a closeup at Michele’s card –

Isn’t it gorgeous? Lovely shades of pink surrounding a beautiful heart. The CAS look, even when using so many die cuts! Love it!!

Here’s my CASE of her gorgeous card –

I picked the following from Michele’s card: the shades of pink and leaf die cuts, the center heart, the sentiment.

I used Simon Says Stamp Eucalyptus Leaves die to die cut multiple pieces from white cardstock and a few more from scrap cardstock. I then adhered one from each group to the adhere to get some dimension. After they dried, I sponged pink tones of distress inks on them, misted them with water, then added splatters of darker color on top. A lot of splatters. The splatters weren’t staying there because of the indentations the dies had, but a lot of splatters did the job. Well, once they dried, I adhered them on the card base.

I then added the heart – two layers of two die cuts using Winnie & Walter True Dotty Heart, topped with the ‘XO’ die cut using Winnie & Walter Typecast Cary Letters. I water-colored the letters using distress inks before adhering it on the card.

And that’s my CASE of Michele’s card. I thoroughly enjoyed making this one!!

Thank you so much to the Timeout challenge team for having me over!! Do stop by the Timeout challenge blog to checkout all the different wonderful ways Michele’s card has been CASE’d by the team!

And thank you for stopping by! 🙂

#986 – Sparkle and Shine

Hello and welcome! Time for a new Seize the Birthday challenge and this time, the topping chosen by Cathy this time is ‘Sparkle and Shine‘. Every challenge is also always ‘Anything Goes‘ and the Topping is included for extra fun. It’s not an absolute need to include the topping on your birthday card.

And here’s what I made –

There are multiple ways of adding sparkle and shine to a card, including sparkling embossing powder, perfect pearls, or some watercoloring with mica pigments. But this time I went for something that I really love, but have so less of a chance to use – shiny acrylic paints. These paints are from Prima, and I absolutely love the sparkle and shine in them. They even blend really well, which makes using multiple colors a real child’s play.

For this particular card, I started with 3 shades of paint – two shades of pink and a champagne. I brushed the colors, firstly going horizontally and then vertically towards the end to create a well blended panel. Leaving it to dry, I die cut the rest of the pieces I needed for the card – Pink Fresh Studio Floral Squares and a sentiment from My Favorite Things Captions. I cut these from white cardstock and then a few more from scrap cardstock. I adhered these together for dimension.

The paint was dry by then, and I thought embossing would make it look particularly good, since that would also add the factor of light and shadow. I used one of the We R Memory Keepers Geometric embossing folders to emboss the panel – and wow!! I love that look (I had created a card with similar effect here) I trimmed the panel a bit so that the white of the card base below would also show up. I then adhered the die cuts and the stamped sentiment stripes – the sentiments are from Simon Says Stamp Tiny Words – using glue and a few strips of cardstock under the sentiment strips.

Once assembled, I felt that there was too much of white – so I used foil adhered over cardstock to die cut additional pieces of the flower and the ‘#’ and adhered them on top. And that finished my card! 🙂

I’m joining these challenges with this card –

The Paper Players challenge #576: Tic Tac Toe (I chose mid row CAS-Flower-Birthday)

Timeout challenge #206: Friend Quote

Just Add Ink challenge #589: Just Add ‘Minimalist’

Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge: Use an Embossing Folder

Checkout the Seize the Birthday challenge blog for more lovely shades of blues and greys from our wonderful DT and our lovely Surprise Party Guest, Vicky Hayes!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

#979 – Hello to the New Year!

Hello and welcome!! A very happy new year to everyone!! May this year brings lots of happiness and keep you in good health.

With the start of the new year, we also have the challenges at Happy Little Stampers starting up. The very first one being Watercolor challenge, and as usual, Anything Goes!

Here’s what I made –

I used Concord & 9th Painted Rose stamp. I stamped the outline using VersaFine Onyx black ink. Then I used Altenew inks for the solid colors, misting the stamp before stamping, which helped cover the uneven paper well. I stamped the upper layers while the lower layered colors were still not completely dry, so that the inks mingled just the tiniest bit. I then watercolored the blue background using more Altenew inks. I then added splatters of the same blue on the flower, once it was relatively dry. To enhance the look, I added dots of black using a black fineliner pen from Uniball.

For the sentiment, I wanted to go with a die cut, if possible. Luckily I had the Altenew Bold Greetings dies with me. I die cut a piece from white photo paper (do they come in other colors??) to get that shine without embossing, and a few more pieces from scrap paper, and adhered them together for dimension. I had initially thought of using kraft cardstock for the background, but I added a strip of the photo paper on the side to tie in the sentiment. Of course, the base is still kraft cardstock. I added a few white flat sequins for embellishing.

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

Watercooler Wednesday challenge #331: Anything Goes

Timeout challenge #204: New

Checkout the Happy Little Stampers challenge blog for more inspiration from the design team.

And thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#978 – Another Set of Christmas Cards

Hello and welcome! Here’s my third and final set of Christmas cards for this year!! Whew!! I did have a fun time making them, but also found it a bit tiring since I’ve never made so many cards at once! But it was definitely a wonderful experience, and I’ll definitely continue making some for the coming years too! 🙂

This set of cards is actually my favorite of the lot. The one thing that I thought was totally awesome was the background – I used panels of silver grey metallic cardstock and heat-embossed silver embossing powder on them, after stamping various images… and the effect is totally wow!! I do have other metallic cardstocks, but this is the only one I could get a beautiful metallic tone-on-tone look with! And I absolutely adore it!

Well, like the other set I made, they use a central these…as is very obvious. One thing – I used Zig brush markers to color the images, along with the blender pen they offer, to minimalize and spread the colors. That gives the ‘barely colored’ look that I was aiming for! And down below are the other details about the various stamps I used on these too –

For the card on the left, I used Simon Says Stamp Lots of Snowflakes for the background, and added dots using a Versamark pen for heat embossing. The cute kitty and pup surrounding the Christmas tree are from Winnie & Walter Sweet Holiday stamp set and the sentiment is from Simon Says.

The card on the right would have been a one stamp set card, had it not been for the sentiment, I used Lil’ Inker Designs Rustic Christmas stamp set for the background’s heat embossing as well the trees and the bear. The sentiment, though, comes from Neat & Tangled Scandinavian Christmas stamp set.

Just look at the shine on these things – subtle, but still very much there! Love it!!

For the card on the left, I used Clearly Besotted Warm Wishes for the heat embossing, while the gifts carrying kitty comes from Simon Says Stamp Gifts of Love stamp set. The sentiment is from CrafTangles Happy Holidays stamp set. For the card on the right, I used a combination of a few stamp sets for the background – Neat & Tangled Berry Merry, CrafTangles Christmas Ornaments & Happy Holidays stamp sets. The adorable owls are from Winnie & Walter Happy Owlidays and the sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp Gifts of Love.

And that’s my last set of Christmas cards! And I’m joining the following challenges with it –

Timeout challenge #203: Inspirational

Global Design Project #323: Celebration

Watercooler Wednesday challenge #331: Anything Goes

Wishing everyone a very wonderful Christmas and a happy holiday season! Wishing you peace and happy crafting times for the next year too!

Thank you so much for stopping by!