Seize The Birthday - Kraft Plus One Other Colour

Hello!  It's time for a new challenge at Seize The Birthday, and Colleen has chosen Kraft and Another Colour.

I plumped for pink.  I stamped the images from Thankful by Art Journal Love at Funky Fossil, and added colour with watercolour pencils.  The sentiment is from MFT.  It didn't really stand out enough against the kraft background, so I added a white pen shadow to make it pop, then added a few white highlights.

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog for some more fabulous inspiration from the rest of the design team and our surprise party guests, and play along with us.  If kraft doesn't float your boat, you can play along with any birthday theme.

Happy stamping!

Visible Image - Celebrate With Sketched Tulips

Hello peeps, I've got a Visible Image twofer for you today, using the Sketched Tulips set along with the Celebrate sentiment from Birthday Wishes.

I knew from the outset what my layout was going to be (which is unusual for me!) so I started by stamping the tulip image, and stamped a spare in case I messed up.

I inked up the script stamp with Black Soot distress ink, then spritzed it before stamping at the bottom of the panel, but it stamped too dark for what I wanted, and I didn't like how it overlapped the tulip leaves.  So I reinked it with Hickory Smoke and spritzed a little harder, masking the leaves, and hey presto, that was what I wanted.

But I wasn't going to waste that panel!  On the left-hand panel I used a Speedball Elegant Writer pen (showcased by Loll in this card) to 'colour' the tulip.  You just add a bit of the pen to the outline, then bleed it out with a wet brush.  The ink bleeds into hints of blue and red.

On the right-hand panel I watercoloured the tulip and surround with Hickory Smoke.

Then I found some inky panels in my stash, cut them to size and stamped the word Celebrate onto them.Then it was just a case of assembling the panels onto black card.

Here's a close-up of the Speedball Elegant Writer version,and the Hickory Smoke version.Pop on over to the Visible Image store for these fab designs, and many more!

Seize The Birthday - Embossing Wet or Dry

Hello, we've got our first challenge of 2024 at Seize The Birthday, chosen by Cathy, and it's Embossing Wet or Dry, so there's plenty of scope for you.

I went with a Tim Holtz 3D embossing folder and used the debossed side, using the technique showcased by Erum Tasneem of blending darker ink over the panel.  The blended ink picks up loads of detail from the ridges on the debossed image.

The embossing folder is Roses, the stamped text is from CMS241 Ledger Script and the happy birthday is from CMS325 Glorious Bouquet.

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog for some more fabulous inspiration from the rest of the design team, and from our three (yes, three!) surprise party guests, so you've got extra inspiration this month :)

Visible Image - Happy New Year!

Hello, peeps, and happy 2024!  I've started the New Year with fireworks on this fab sparkly card to celebrate the new crafting year and my New Year's resolutions, which I probably won't stick to, haha!

I started by smooshing Distress Ink colours onto card.

Then covered the smooshing with the Frosty Stencil and added Black Soot Oxide.  I like the Oxides for backgrounds, they give great coverage and a smooth velvety finish.

I stamped the cocktail glasses (just like the two I got for Christmas!) and olives from the Cocktails And Dreams set onto spare white card, coloured them and diecut them with the matching dies.

I diecut the numbers from the White Rabbit dies set using glitter card, then mounted everything onto my card base, posing the glasses.

Finally, I added some Stickles here and there for a bit of firework sparkle.

Pop on over to the Visible Image store where you can find these, and other fabulous stamps, stencils and dies.

Happy crafting in 2024!