Seize The Birthday - Favourite Fall/Autumn Treat

Hello!  We've got a new challenge for you at Seize The Birthday - Favourite Fall (autumn to me) Treat.

One of my favourite things to do in autumn after walking the dog is to sit down with a lovely warming cuppa and watch the leaves falling outside.  I just love autumn colours!

This was just the prettiest puddle I've ever seen!

For my card I used this single image stamp from AaLL And Create and coloured it with Zig Clean Colour Pens, watercolour pencils and a white Posca pen.  The stamped and die-cut sentiment is from The Stamp Market.

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday page for loads more inspiration from the team and our Surprise Party Guest Johanna, and play along with us.  You can always play along with our Anything Goes theme if you're stuck for ideas.

Visible Image - Cosy Comforts

Hi, Visible Image fans! Our theme this week is Cosy Comforts, and my brief is CAS (Clean and Simple).

There’s nothing as cosy as lovely cuppa after a walk in autumn weather, so I chose the Afternoon Tea stamp set, and made a couple of cards using different techniques.

For the first card, I stamped the teapot and teacup onto white card using InkOn3 Fade Out ink. This allows no-line colouring of the images. The image is a faint outline which disappears once you add colour.

I used Distress Inks as watercolours to paint the images, starting with Scattered Straw all over, then mixing in Fired Brick and Aged Mahogany for a bit of shading.

I stamped the second image in Versafine Onyx Black and watercoloured using the same colours.

On each panel I masked the images then stencilled the Colour Blind stencil to imply a lacy tablecloth, alternating the direction - not sure which version I prefer.

On the card base I stencilled more dots using Fossilised Amber Distress Ink to add a bit of interest. 

Then I matted the panel onto gold card. I stamped the sentiment onto spare white card and matted that onto a scrap of Tomorrow’s Memories card and placed it overlapping the panel.

For the second card I coloured two strips of Destination Anywhere Continuous PET tape with alcohol inks.

Where it got a little dark I added a few drops of blending solution to break the colour up.

I added these strips to the top and bottom of a kraft card. The tape is really easy to work with and cuts easily with scissors or a craft knife. 

I placed the stamped panel onto the card. Because this version is stamped in black, it lent itself to having the sentiment stamped directly onto the panel.

Here’s a close-up of the detail on the second card:

And on the first card:

Because CAS cards may have fewer elements and treatments, you can spend time thinking about the design, and different alternatives, so why not make two cards to try out your ideas?

Seize The Birthday - Splish Splash

Hello! It's my turn to host the challenge at Seize The Birthday, and I've gone for Splish Splash. You can interpret it how you like - rain, puddles, swimming, bath time, splashy drinks, or just getting all splishy splashy with your inks on the card. Or any other way you can think of - just let us know if it's not obvious.

I chose this theme with absolutely no forethought as to what I might make, and it took me ages to settle on an idea.  But of course it ended up with splashing lots of ink around and, erm, an alcohol theme ;)

I stamped the two glasses (Stamps By Me) in InkOn3 Fadeout ink on watercolour paper, then used Distress Inks to splash and splash onto the card.  I did use a few Pinterest images for inspiration, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  I matted the panel onto hot pink and purple linen textured card.  The sentiment is from the same Stamps By Me set, and the Happy Birthday is by Gummiapan.com.

Pop along to the Seize The Birthday blog to see how the Design Team and our surprise party guests have interpreted this theme.

If you don't feel like splishing and splashing, you can still play along with our Anything Goes birthday theme.  Hope to see you in the gallery!

Visible Image - Tomorrow's Memories

 

This week is all about the launch of the new collection, Tomorrow's Memories, and for my Design Team make I wanted to share this card with you.  It uses the Counting Moments stamp set, Destination Anywhere Continuous PET tape, papers from the 8x8 Tomorrow's Memories paper pad, and cardstock from Arden Creative.

To create my background panel, I smooshed Distress Inks onto an acrylic block and picked up the colours onto the Arctic Blue card from Arden Creative, then stamped the numbers in Versafine Onyx Black and heat-embossed with clear embossing powder.

I stamped and clear-embossed the clock and butterfly onto the Tomorrow's Memories paper - there are eight double-sided designs so it's hard to pick which side to use ;)

I cut out the yellow butterfly, and the whole image from the blue sheet, then layered the butterfly on top, then adhered it all, including the fragments, to my background panel.

The PET tape is a self-adhesive continuous printed roll.  I trimmed a strip to go down the left side of the base card, which is Bright White from Arden Creative's collection.

On spare Bright White card I stamped the sentiments in Versafine Onyx Black and trimmed them closely.

I adhered everything onto the base card, then curled back the corner of the background panel, and turned up the butterfly wings slightly.

Here's a final look at the completed card.

There are three stamp sets in the collection, along with a fab stencil, the PET tape, the paper pack and a pack of tags - great for kickstarting your creating!  Check them out in the Visible Image store.

Here are the products I used:

Seize The Birthday - Clean And Simple With A Stencil

Hello!  It's time for a new challenge at Seize The Birthday, and our host Nancy has chosen Clean And Simple With A Stencil.

I've used Curvy Girl Can Buy Herself Flowers by Stamping Bella, watercoloured it with Distress inks and inked a Tim Holtz stencil to ground her.  The sentiment is by Gina K Designs.

If you don't want to play along with our theme, you can still play with our Anything Goes theme as long as it's birthday-related.

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog for some more fabulous inspiration from our Surprise Party Guests, Johanna, Milla and Bonnie, and join us in the gallery.

Visible Image - Gratitude/Reflection

 

Our theme at Visible Image this week is Gratitude/Reflection and my brief is for Clean and Simple. I've been reflecting on the gorgeous summer we've had, and the multitude of butterflies that are still around, so I went with a butterfly-themed card using Butterfly Effect and Butterfly Ink stencil.

Although it's clean and simple, I wanted to add detail in the circles of the large stamp, so I needed to do some masking.  Firstly, I stamped the circles stamp onto my base card.

Using masking paper to cover that image I stamped again, then cut out the circles, keeping all pieces of the stamped image.  I left the large left-hand circle uncovered and stamped the grungy butterfly stamp.

The next step was to cover that circle and uncover the other two, but also keeping the outer areas covered.  I stamped the small butterfly and 'change' word.

Once they'd been stamped, I could remove all of the masking and do some selective colouring of the images using a limited palette.

Then all the circles had to be masked again so that I could stencil the large butterfly over the top.

I used Broken China for the stencilling, fading it towards the centre.

Here's a pic before the reveal,

and after.

 I added Stickles to highlight some areas on the tips of the butterfly wings and some of the small circles,

and added a sentiment to balance the design.

You can find plenty of inspiration an supplies on the Visible Image site here.

Seize The Birthday - Embossing

Hello!  Our new challenge at Seize The Birthday is Embossing, chosen by Jenny.  You can heat emboss, dry emboss or use embossing paste, it's up to you.

Or if you'd rather do your own birthday thing, you can play along with our Anything Goes theme.

I've used a new-to-me gift bag die from Waffle Flower, and dry-embossed the smooshed background.

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog to see what the rest of the design team and our Surprise Party Guest Johanna have created, and join in the fun.

Visible Image - End of Summer

It's September and we're heading towards autumn, so this week's Design Team brief is, appropriately, End of Summer.

Every day on our dog walks the dragonflies are dancing past so I thought I'd showcase one of my makes for the July Release, Love of Nature, using the dragonflies from the Brighter Days stamp set.  

I stamped the dragonflies on acetate using Staz-On, and once they were dry I covered the reverse of the images with Crystal Stickles and left them overnight.

For the card background I stamped images using the Particle stamp set from the February release in Brilliance pigment ink.

I wanted to use the Framed Fibres die to represent ripples on the water, so first I had to create a background.  I used the teal and blue from the Large Metallic watercolour set to create my water.

Then I painted black card with the small iridescent paints, which are interference colours designed to work on dark card.

Here's a pic just after I'd run it through the Big Shot and before knocking the pieces out.

Once I'd adhered the diecut panel to the water panel and trimmed it, that went onto the background, which was in turn mounted onto seafoam card.

I added the sentiments from the Brighter Days set in Versafine Onyx Black.

Lots of lovely shimmer and shine whichever way you angle it.

The stamps and die set are available at the Visible Image store here.