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,

What colours to use for male cards?

Hello, crafting friends!

It was the birthday of a tall, handsome and altogether charming young man last week - my eldest son! Naturally I made a card to celebrate. It's so easy to go for muted colours when creating cards for the guys isn't it, but sometimes brights can be the very thing!

I pulled out an old favourite Stampin' Up set called Celebrate Today to make this card. (Thank you SO much for restoring it to me Gill. I think of you with such gratitude whenever I use it!) 

The balloons were stamped across the card stock, overlapping each other and creating patterns of deeper colour. There are two balloons in the set and I made sure I used the balloon with the word happy in it where I wanted my greeting to go. Now that I have a stamping platform, the solid images in the set stamp beautifully every time, with no patchiness.

Once I'd got the balloons where I wanted them, I cut a panel out using a Heffy Doodles stitched rectangle die and added the word 'birthday' in a lovely flowing font using Avery Elle's Big Birthday. The panel was attached to a card base and that was it - quite simple with the colours being the stars of the show.

CHALLENGES
I'm linking this card up with Crafty Friends where I used colours from their gorgeous summer pallette; also Allsorts, where theyy want us to Make It Masculine; and finally, Seize The Birthday, where I've gone for the Anything Goes option.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I'm afraid the Blouse Burglar has been at it again. A selection of blouses were stolen in broad daylight from a bedroom in our house. The bold thief carried them downstairs and strewed them brazenly around the garden!

She was caught red-handed but, when challenged, brought them back in and gave them up in return for a fishy treat!

Hope you are all keeping safe and well.

Hugs,

Magic Moments!

Hello crafting friends!

There are two different kinds of creating for me: one is grabbing some inks and stamps, maybe some markers and dies, and making a quick card; the other is having an idea, then mulling it over for hours, sometimes days, until it finally comes together. Today's card was the second kind! Come and see:

I'd been thinking about the fairy tale about the princess whose brothers had been turned into swans by an evil enchantress. There's a swan on the Riverbank stamp set by the Craft Consortium but, when I got it out, I saw it also features frogs and was distracted by The Princess and the Frog!

To make my scene I sponged a sky and some water into a circle stencil. I used gold embossing powder to heat emboss a crown from a long ago retired Stampin' Up set called Tiny Tags, and some magical stars and dots from another called Celebrate Today. The frog and the lily pad from Riverbank were stamped, coloured with alcohol markers and fussy cut before arranging on the water. I finished my scene with some tiny stars and dots punched out of shiny gold card with the Stampin' Up Twinkle punch.

I cut the scene out with a circle die and attached it to a card base, and added washi tape to the top and bottom of the card front. This would make a good anniversary card I think but I've left it without a greeting - after all, it's not clear whether this prince has just turned into a frog or whether the frog is about to turn into a prince!

CHALLENGES
It was CASology that set me thinking about fairy tales and enchantments with its Magical cue card; I'm also linking up with CAS(e) this Sketch which provided the sketch for this card; and am joining in with the Allsorts Challenge which is celebrating its 11th birthday with an Anything Goes theme.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Talking of fairy tales, my little princess turned into a complete and utter toad this morning:

Hmmm. Totally unrepentant too!

I know lots of you will be celebrating Mother's Day today, albeit in a different way to usual.
Sending hugs to you all,

The one layer YAY!!!

Hello crafting friends!

If you have the winter blues today, I've got the very card to cheer you up! Come and see:

This is very CAS and the simplest card ever if you have a stamping platform - and I do thanks to dear old Santa :) To make it, I used the image from Stampin' Up's Enjoy Life that I like to call 'Lady leaping about like a loon!'

To start, I positioned a nice thick card base in the corner of my stamping platform, positioned the lady off the bottom right-hand edge, inked her up with violet ink and stamped. Cleaned off the stamp, moved the card base to the right by 0.75 cm, inked up with purple ink and stamped. Cleaned off the stamp, moved the card base to the right by 0.75 cm, inked up with blue ink... etc. I'm sure you get the picture!

Do you like the sentiment? I love the nice bold font and the curviness of it. It's from an older retired set called Celebrate Today by Stampin' Up. I finished my card with stars cut out of coloured card stock with my useful Twinkle punch.

CHALLENGES

I was inspired to make my card by Perfectly CAS, where this month's challenge is the oft-dreaded One Layer Card; Less is More, where the challenge for the fortnight is also a one layer card and they want the design to be Off Centre; also CASology where the cue card is Repeat; and last, but definitely not least, Just Add Ink, where they are celebrating 10 years of fabulous challenges with a great blog hop!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Yesterday, I greeted my eldest son when he came in from work. "How was your day?" I asked. "It was good," he said hanging up his coat. "But I'm so tired. I feel as if I've been awake all day!" Since my son works in an optician, I sincerely hope he WAS awake all day!!! I suggested an early night and he looked at me as if I had suggested he took up origami.

Thank you for popping in to visit me today.

Hugs,

Birthday cards for males

Hello crafting pals!

Yes, it's time to start thinking about birthdays for  the coming year - and some of those birthdays are going to be for male people! Aaaargh! If the males in your life are anything like mine, they won't like fuss and frills but I'm hoping I've got it right with today's balloonish number! Come and see:

Santa very kindly brought me (the money for) a stamp positioner for Christmas - NOT the Tim Holtz one I'd planned on getting, as it no longer seems to be available, but a brilliant and cost-effective one called Press To Impress by Crafts Too. This was the first card I road tested it with as the balloon is a large solid stamp.

In fact, I messed it up by cleaning the stamp with a dusty cloth the first time (oops!) but I'm still absolutely thrilled with the Press to Impress. I actually haven't used an acrylic block since it arrived and I can't wait to try out all the crazy techniques I've been reading about! Watch this space...

So to make this card, I used blue ink to stamp a bunch of three balloons from Stampin' Up's Celebrate Today (retired.) There's a starry filling for them in the set which I layered over each balloon, first using the same colour blue ink, and then white Craft ink just offset to make a shadow. The 'string' was doodled on with a navy marker and I also mounted the card panel onto navy card stock and added the sentiment in navy - easy peasy with the stamp positioner!

CHALLENGES
I'm joining in with the Blue Is The Colour challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz with this card and will also link up with Color My Heart Color Dare, where the challenge this week is Monochromatic Blues, and The Male Room, where Anything Goes!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
In my quest for organisation and storage in the craft room living room, I went to Ikea today. BIG mistake! Everyone was there. And his wife, children and extended family including cousins twice removed. I expect you were there too! I will return on a quieter day.

Thanks for coming to visit me today. Hope you're having a lovely weekend :)

Hugs,