Seize The Birthday - Use Christmas Supplies

 

Hello!  It's our last challenge of the year at Seize The Birthday, and Ashwini has chosen 'Use Christmas Supplies' as our theme.

For a fun birthday card I chose to use one of the least Christmassy images from Tim Holtz Snarky Cat Christmas, along with the stars and message at the bottom.  The 'It's Your Birthday' sentiment is by Altenew.

Pop along to the Seize The Birthday blog to see how the rest of the team and our guest designers have used their Christmas supplies, and play along.  If you don't want to use your Christmas supplies, you can still play along with our Anything Goes challenge.  See you in the gallery!

Visible Image - Remembrance Day

For this week's theme of Remembrance Day, I've created a single page of reflection in my square journal.

The journal is quite small, 5.5” square, but I like working on small bases, and it was the perfect width for the Grungy Union Jack.  I used mini sponges to sponge Lumberjack Plaid and Blueprint Sketch distress inks through the stencil at the top of the page.

On the lower third of the page I sponged Peeled Paint distress ink then sponged the Wildflowers stencil once with Peeled Paint, then reversed the stencil and used Mowed Lawn to vary the shades of green and direction of leaves.

I knew that the background as it was would be too vivid for what I wanted, and I planned to use a vellum overlay to soften the effect.  I wanted the effect of a field of random poppies on the vellum and the Atmospheric stencil was perfect for this.

I didn’t have any red texture paste so I coloured some clear Cosmic Shimmer Texture Paste with Festive Berries distress stain, and stencilled through the stencil onto the vellum. It looked pale pink while it was wet, but fortunately dried red.

I needed to attach the vellum to the front of the journal page, so I cut a piece of Destination Anywhere PET tape to size and dotted random red, blue and green on with alcohol inks, leaving plenty of white space. 

I used half the width of the tape to adhere the vellum to the journal.

 

Using one of the stamps from the Present Times stamp set I made three wooden grave markers, then placed these onto the vellum, adhering with red liner tape. 

The vellum is only adhered at the top, so you can still lift it to see the underwork.. 

And that completed my tribute page, shown here with the products I used.

May we never forget.

Visible Image - Textured Layers

Hi Visible Image fans!  Our theme this week is Textured Layers, and I get to choose what I make, and in what style.  I’ve gone for a grungy double tag using products from the latest release.

I used a 4x6” black tag and a 2.5x4” white tag from the Essentials Mixed Tag set and papers from the Tomorrow’s Memories 8x8” paper pad.

I stitched three pieces of card together on my hobby sewing machine. Annoyingly, it refuses to stitch anything shorter than you can see, whatever setting I use. Oh, well.

Once they were stitched together I adhered them to the black tag and stamped and heat-embossed the numbers across the middle portion.

 

Taking a strip of PET tape, I coloured it using alcohol inks in coordinating colours.

 

For the smaller tag I tore some of the PET tape (just nick it with scissors then it tears smoothly in whatever direction you guide it), and adhered that to the bottom of the tag, then stamped the numbers in Speckled Egg Distress Ink at an angle.

I stamped and embossed the sentiment, then added the wavy offset of PET tape across the top. 

I wanted to add some random snippets of PET tape for a bit of interest and balance.  They’re easy enough to cut and peel.

To finish off, I added some stencilling with a white Jelly Roll pen through the Mesh Numbers stencil, 

and a sentiment across the bottom of the small tag.

Luckily I had some coordinating sheer ribbon in my stash, and some pretty bobbles.

 

Here’s a look at the finished item, along with the supplies I used.

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: