Shiny happy birthday

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I'm happy to say I'm still guesting at Seize The Birthday this month! Cathy has chosen a great Topping this time - a shiny, sparkly birthday card is always special I think - and I hope you all have as much fun with it as I have:

My starting pointy for this card was to gather together some gold crafting supplies and see how I could put them together! 

I found some gold washi tapes and decided on those as a background, criss-crossing them randomly on a card panel before trimming them to size with a stitched rectangle die. I added some sparkly paper to the mix, trimming it with the same die on a diagonal, punching out a heart shape on it then in-laying it with a shiny gold foil heart.

For contrast, I decided to top my background with a shiny pink balloon. I could not get a decent photo of this sadly, but it is SO shiny it's like a mirror! The balloon is from a retired Stampin' Up set called Celebrate Today. I stamped it in Blushing Bride ink, stamped the confetti balloon filling and embossed it in gold, die cut the balloon, then smothered it in versamark ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. The confetti lost it's definition in this process but I went over it with a gold paint pen for extra shine ;)

Finally, I had loads of fun adding sparkly details: A popped-up gold embossed sentiment label made with Uniko's Simply Said Blocks; a row of hearts from the same set, stamped below the sentiment and heat embossed in gold; a gold cord tied round the balloon; and a sprinkling of pink and gold sequins, clear gems and sparky stars. 

 

Do hop over to the Seize The Birthday challenge blog to check out the beautiful shiny, sparkly birthday designs the design team has made to inspire you. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post so that you can share your own creation when you're ready. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Watercooler Wednesday where Helen is hosting the All Occasions challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva and I met up with some friends for a walk today. It was quite an eventful walk with all sorts of unexpected ponds and manure heaps turning up which we successfully navigated. In fact, Eva was 'angel dog', walking nicely past the obstacles when I gave her the 'Not There' command. Right at the end of the walk, there was a muddy puddle. I swaggered past it, full of confidence, clicking my fingers at Eva to bring her to heel like a top dog trainer... only to find that she wasn't paying any attention to me and was wading into the puddle! I dropped the dog trainer impression at once and called her out in querulous tones. She sashayed out and and shook all over me with an expression that said "Well, why didn't you say so before?!"

Sending hugs,