Seize The Birthday - Tic Tac Toe

Hello!  We've got a fab new challenge for you at Seize The Birthday - Tic Tac Toe, chosen by Glenda.

I went for the middle row - watercolour, clean and simple, dots/circles.  The flower stamp is from Carabelle Studio, and although there are some dots on the image around the flowers, I added a few more with my paintbrush.  The sentiment is from MFT.

There are so many options with this challenge, but if that's too erm, challenging, you can play along with any birthday theme.

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog for some more gorgeous inspiration from the team and our surprise party guests, and play along.

Visible Image - Wings of Change

 

Hey, Visible Image fans!  For my DT blog post today I've chosen the beautiful Wings of Change stamp set.

I stamped all the butterfly images on white card and watercoloured them with Salvaged Patina and Wild Honey Distress inks, then fussy cut them.  I also smooshed some card in the same colours, using mainly the Salvaged Patina.

Using the smooshed panel and some linen-effect card, I diecut the background frames using an Aall And Create die.

For my base card, I used the Ripped Fishnet stencil as a stamp by inking it with Lost Shadow Distress ink, then laying it onto my base card and pressing down with a paper towel to give a subtle background.

I stamped the sentiment on a piece of white card, matted onto black card, highlighted the words 'begin' and 'again', and adhered the smallest butterfly in the top left corner.

Originally I was going to use the two large and one medium butterfly, but I preferred the impact of just one large butterfly placed on the large pool of colour.

I love the grunge detail on this butterfly:

The use of the blue on the words highlights them without clashing with the design.

And I've still got some butterflies left over for future card makes - win, win!

Pop on over to the Visible Image website for these and other incredible stamps, dies and stencils.

Seize The Birthday - Fruits

Hello, we've got a new challenge for you at Seize The Birthday, and this time our host Colleen has gone for fruit.  All of my fruit is either drink related or cake related, so seeing as Monday's post was drinks, I've gone for cake today.

This is another card that was thrown together from bits on my desk.  The background was in my stash.  It had been there for a while, a bit lurid, and I wasn't sure how I would use it.  It was a mop-up piece, and I wasn't really impressed with the colours. So I dry-embossed it with a linen folder, even less impressed.  Then I rubbed Inca gold over it.  A bit better, but still a bit hard on the eyes.  And there it had lain for months, neglected.

Meanwhile, I'd already decided on the cupcake from Colorado Craft Company Big and Bold Sweet Friend, and sloshed a bit of colour on it and trimmed it.  Then I set about looking for a background, tried this, and they just went together.  And this is why I can't throw stuff away!  The sentiments were also retrieved from my stash.

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog for some more fabulous inspiration from the team, and our guest designer Julia, and join the party.  If fruit isn't your thing, just play along with any birthday project.

Visible Image - Happy Hour

Hellooo!  It's Happy Hour at Visible Image with the fabulous Cocktails And Dreams stamp and die set.

I wanted a glossy, neon Happy Hour sign so I stamped the words in Catherine Pooler Pixie Dust ink then infilled with the lighter Sixteen Candles ink.

Then I added white highlighting with a Posca pen and dark lowlighting with an Emott fine pen, and glazed the letters with Lawn Fawn clear glaze.

For my bar-top I scored a strip of white card every half inch then swooshed Distress Inks over the whole strip.

For an urban/industrial look I wanted to use the Distressed Brick stencil.  When I was placing the stencil I wanted the gaps in the brickwork to surround the words, but realised that the Happy Hour was too low so I started my stencil further down, then chopped the top off afterwards.

I stamped and diecut several glasses and accessories then set about colouring them.  First, the Blue Lagoon:

Then the Mojito:

And lastly, the Strawberry Daiquiri:

Then it was time to assemble.  I placed the glasses at slightly different levels to imply depth.

Here's a few close-ups:

I cut the citrus slice in half for one of the cocktails:

The sign is very tactile:

Here are all the Visible Image supplies used:

All these and more are available at the Visible Image store, pop over and take a look!

Visible Image - Sports Mad

Hello, have you been watching the Euros?  Probably from behind the couch if you're an England fan.  This week you can get 25% off Visible Image sports stamps and dies with the code SPORT25.  There's not just football, but golf and rugby too.  And the matching dies enable you to make super quick and easy cards.  

I've got to admit, my card wasn't all that quick or easy, but I wanted an interactive card using the Kick Off Your Birthday set for my grandson River, who was turning 5, and is absolutely sports mad.

The card involved a bit of planning.  I wanted to have a stadium in the background, and a slider so that the footballer was shooting at goal.  I sketched everything out onto my card mat, then used a large dot pen to create fans in the stands.  I had fun drawing faces on them :)

I taped the Holodeck stencil down in place, and sponged sky through it and also above the stand.

Having sponged the turf and hoarding, I stamped Happy Birthday onto the hoarding and diecut the slider space.

I placed the card mat onto the card base, and glued down the diecut waste through the aperture.  This is so that you don't get a blank white space behind the aperture when the moving image is drawn across.

Then I stamped and diecut the footballer and football, glued the football to his foot, added a name and number onto the back of the shirt and added a slider element.

After I'd assembled the card with foam tape, ensuring a clear run for the slider, I decided that the stadium needed a roof so I sponged a strip of card, stamped the sentiment then added it to the card, overhanging it to the left.

The footballer is a great action image, perfect for any football fan!

Seize The Birthday - Add A Star

Hey, peeps, it's time for a new challenge at Seize The Birthday.  Cathy is our host for this challenge and she wants us to add a star to our birthday project.

This card sort of fell together.  I've been having a massive sort-out in my craft room (but you'd never know it), and the white and red panel had landed near the red and yellow dotted paper.  The stamped and coloured Eiffel Tower panel was nearby.  I rummaged through my stash of stars and found that this Tim Holtz star mimicked the shape of the Eiffel Tower perfectly.  The penny farthing is a printout that's been in my stash for ages, and the diecut birthday sentiment is from The Stamp Market.

I had to add some bling to my tower to remind me of seeing it light up and sparkle when Jenny and I took a night-time open-top bus trip in Paris last year, quite a magical experience.

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog for some more fabulous inspiration from the team and from our surprise party guests, and join in the fun.  If stars aren't your thing, you can still join in with any birthday-themed project.

Visible Image - Christmas Release

It's Chriiissstmaaasss!  and it's not even July :)

Visible Image have brought out a fabulous Christmas stamps release in plenty of time for you to get ahead with your Christmas cards, and were giving you two whole weeks of inspiration.  For my card I've used two of the stamps, Sketched Baubles and Sketched Backgrounds, which complements the Sketched Baubles set beautifully.

I started by stamping the baubles, string and tops in Versafine Onyx Black, then painted the baubles with PaperArtsy Mattints, which are a tinted glaze.

Next, I prepared my background.

I used the medium circle from Sketched Backgrounds, and starting with the yellow, I stamped randomly around the edges of the card, then the lilac, leaving the blue till last as it's the strongest colour, so I could be more selective with placement.

The tints give a nice translucent colour to the baubles.

Here are all the products I used.

I hope this has inspired you for your Christmas card makes.  The team will be sharing more fabulous Christmas makes over the next two weeks to inspire you, so make sure you don't miss them.  The stamps are available on the Visible Image store.

Seize The Birthday - Double Stencilling

Hi peeps!  Time for a new challenge at Seize The Birthday and Barbara has chosen Double Stencilling - i.e. add colour through one stencil, and before you lift it, add another stencil on top and add colour through that.

I stamped the image (Imala, Stamps By Me) then added Twisted Citron distress ink through the Tim Holtz Splotches stencil, left that in place and layered the TH Code stencil in Picked Raspberry, then sloshed the same colours onto the dress and added a bit of splatter.  Of course.  And a bit of credit card scratch with black ink.

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog for some more fabulous examples of double stencilling from the design team and our surprise party guests, and join in the fun.

If you don't fancy trying double stencilling, you can always play along with our Anything Goes theme.