A Winter Birthday

I wish you could see this card's background in real life. I had a lot of fun making it. I started out with a background of alcohol inks in blues and purples. Then I lifted off snowflake shapes with Alcohol Lift Ink. 

Then I added some holographic heat-embossed snowflakes for some shimmery fun. They just show up when the card is tilted.

Lastly, I ran the background through my Cuttlebug with a snowflake embossing folder. It added a bit more subtle texture. I didn't want to cover up too much of the background, so I kept the Copic coloured bird and sentiment minimal. 

Thanks for visiting today! I am entering this in the Facebook Scrap 'N Stamp Challenge Page for the current All That Sparkles Challenge. 

Happy Hanukkah

Here it is once again; well, actually, this year Hanukkah began on December 2. Even though I put a reminder in my calendar, I still did not get this card finished by then. Luckily for me, there are eight days to celebrate the Festival of Lights!

I cut out the greeting (kerribradford.com) and free-hand designed the candles. The Star of David was a free SVG file courtesy of the internet. I coloured the flames with Copic markers. The blue is a beautiful silk-finish cardstock. I cut everything out of the yellow and the blue, then popped the bits back into the yellow base, so it's all level and clever looking. :-)

I am in the throes of Christmas card making, so it was a challenge to stop and pivot a bit here, but I'm happy with the way this turned out.

Purple Stippled Flowers

The optional "toppings" challenge at Seize the Birthday this week is Foliage. I hope my few leaves here and there count! For this birthday card I chose to use the Gina K Designs Stippled Flowers set. I embossed the blooms and die cut them, along with lots of leaves. The card design was based on a card Gina made for the launch of this set. She embossed in white but I chose gold.

I used Zig Clean Color Watercolor Markers and a water brush to colour them, then touched up with a purple Copic marker here and there.

Gina layered on a Swiss Dot dry embossed background, but I chose an Anna Griffin Poppy design. I popped a few of the flowers up with foam tape to add some dimension. I added a strip of tape and some purple glitter to the dividing border.

The sentiment is from a separate Gina K Designs stamp set, Bold & Blooming. I added a few pale purple Swarovski Crystals to finish it off. Thanks for visiting today!

Stencilled Birthday Card

Over at Splitcoaststampers there was a challenge to create a card with a stencil. Seize the Birthday's challenge is "Anything Goes."

I had wanted this particular stencil for a very long time and once I finally got hold of it - it sat unused. Why does that happen? So this was a good time to get it out.

I layered Ranger Opaque Matte Texture Paste through the Stampers Anonymous stencil onto some very old patterned scrapbook paper that I have been saving for a special card. After it dried, I used Versamark to adhere Perfect Pearls to the flowers and vines for colour and shimmer.

The Quietfire Design sentiment was stamped on a Stampin' Up Word Window Punch tag and tied with a ribbon. Thanks for visiting today.

A FAN-tastic Card

I am not ashamed to admit I love a good pun. I think someone somewhere once said puns are the lowest form of humour, but I  think they can range from groan-worthy to clever. I am not sure which category this card falls in! It's a card for a guy - which is always a little challenging. 

I stamped the Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Mini Blueprints 4  sketched fan all over the card front. Using a stamp positioner helped in lining up those fans. I clear embossed the fans and coloured them in with Tim's watercolour Distress Markers. I mounted that panel on black cardstock and then a white 5X7 card.

The greeting is from the Hampton Arts Vintologie Birthday stamp set. I coloured the stamp with markers and kept layering the colours on with repeated stamping (again - a stamp positioner helps) until it was not splotchy and blended well. Then I overstamped with Versamark ink and embossed with sparkly holographic embossing powder. Looks great in real life.

I cut strips of lime green tissue paper to back the sentiment to echo how fans often have a strip of paper ribbon attached so you know they are running. And the pun? That was computer-generated inside:

I am entering this in the Seize The Birthday challenge. Thanks for visiting today.

Sassy Tag

I recently took part in a Sassy Tag swap in a Facebook Group I belong to. This tag is all about dots.

I started out by blending Distress Oxide inks (Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade and Faded Jeans) across a #8 manila craft tag. Then I stamped water onto the tag using a dotted half-tone background stamp. It provided some subtle texture. I stamped the Crafter's Companion Martini Girl separately on white cardstock and cut out and coloured with Copic markers. I stamped the skirt on navy dotted paper and cut two layers to provide some 3D action. I went over the design lines with a white gel pen.

The Hershey's Kiss candy is a Waltzingmouse stamp that I coated in glue and covered in silver leaf.

The fun saying is a Quietfire Design stamp. To finish this tag off, I added more dots - some gold confetti sequins - and a strip of rhinestones, with a bit of ombre ribbon to go with the background. 

A Birthday Bendi Card

Have you seen Bendi Cards? They were all the rage a few years ago but I am a late-adopter, so this is my first one. I wanted a special card for my mom's birthday, so I pulled out all the stops to make this one.

Incredibly, I started with this Christmas bendi card file from 3dsvg.com.

It's a 3-layer free-standing card that I modified for my purposes. I really liked the fence and the general shape of the card and did not want to have to do any math to develop my own base! Here is what I created by modifying the card base file:

It is a 3D card that, when the tabs are undone, folds flat for mailing. Here is a slightly side angle.

I used charming digital papers from the Nitwit Birdsong Collection. My mom loves birds so this seemed perfect. There are three birds tucked among the greenery. I like how the birds seem to be looking at the quote.

The quote and ribbon bow are also digital files from the same collection (I added a crystal gemstone). 

For the back of this card, I created a focal point using the "alphawits" in the collection. It is so nice to have everything coordinate, and if I run out, I can just print more! 

Thanks for visiting today! I am entering this card at Seize the Birthday.