Thinking of You

Sympathy cards - always hard! This is an Inkadinkado stamp that I heat embossed on watercolour paper and I watercoloured with Zig markers. The scalloped flourish is a Spellbinders die, as is the frame.

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. 

Birthday Balloons

I made a bright pink celebratory card using Sunny Studio products  for the current Anything Goes Challenge at Seize the Birthday. The balloons are from the Birthday Balloons stamp set. I stamped them with an assortment of dye inks and did not mask them, trying to achieve a translucent look to the balloons by overlapping them.

It was a bit bright and bold, so to tone it down and add some fun texture, I placed a panel of dotted vellum over the card front. 

The sentiment is bordered with black and white striped washi tape and mounted on a black panel, echoed in the frame around the larger panel.

Thanks for visiting today! Check out the challenge at 

The Bee's Knees!

The Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog calls for sprinkles and splatters. I have a few fun cards that I have made with that in mind. Each of them follows a similar format. 

Memory Box card base, washi tape, Waltzingmouse Stamps bees and
sentiment. Black Soot Distress Ink sprinkles.

I created a beehive overlay from white cardstock on my Silhouette Cameo by manipulating a purchased file from the Silhouette Online Store called Beehive Background by Hero Arts, Design ID #38548. Each of the following cards were created with a Distress Oxide inked background with varied amounts of water splatters. 

For the following cards, I used the negative pieces from the Beehive Background.

Black photo corners used to frame these busy bees.
Hexagons were inked with Distress Oxide inks.

A few black gems and some glitter on the
bees' wings add a bit of sparkle.

It was fun, once I got in the groove, to make a batch of these bee-autiful cards! Thanks for visiting today!

My Kind of Guy

I am sharing here masculine cards I made using a Dreaming Tree project cut file. This is a fun shutter card that makes a great Father's Day or birthday card for the man in your life.

My first one was for my husband for Father's Day. I used Tim Holtz Paper Stash papers, as well as some other scraps, and an old photo of my husband and daughter for the insert. The photo is revealed as the action of opening the gatefold card opens the heart-shaped aperture. This provides that WOW factor. The bow tie band slides off.

My second card was for a card exchange and so I needed it to be a bit more generic. I used Tim Holtz Paper Stash papers again and instead of a photo inside, I did some rubber stamping. For the eyeglasses, I used silver Silhouette brand printable foil instead of the pearl paper used in the first card, and a textured glossy metallic paper for the bowler hat.

I think the papers really compliment the retro style of the Waltzingmouse rubber stamps used.

I used a rainbow stamp pad to get a gradated effect to the words.

For this second card, I made the bow tie with a magnetic closure so instead of sliding the band off, it comes undone easily by pulling apart. Here's what that looks like.

The recipient gave this card to her husband for his birthday, which was such an honour for me. She said she did not want to give it away so by giving it to him, she still gets to have it around. So I am entering this card in the Male Room Challenge which is for a male birthday card as that challenge is celebrating its fifth year.

Thanks for visiting today. If you have an electronic cutting machine I highly recommend Dreaming Tree files. They have useful videos showing how to put together the cards or 3D paper items. In the case of this file, there are even helpful divots built into the design to help align the various pieces. The hardest part for me was just deciding on which coordinating papers to use!