Seize the Dots and Stripes

Here's my card for the current Seize the Birthday #161 Challenge. My stripes are die cut in the word HOPE, a new purchase from Concord & 9th that came with matching sentiment stamps.

I made the background with Distress Oxide inks on Bristol Smooth paper. I used Peacock Feathers, Dusty Concord and Spun Sugar. Then I splattered with water. The "dots" are black embellishment gems.

Seize the Birthday - Make Us Laugh #160

One of my favourite challenge sites is Seize the Birthday. Any time you want to make a birthday card, you can go check out all the inspiration there, and they always have an Anything Goes theme - with optional "toppings." This time the option is to make a humorous card.

I have a Stampin' Up! stamp set called Birthday Wit that is perfect for this challenge. I bought it for the sentiment I featured on my card front - with a specific recipient in mind. But the set has some other witty sayings that are more generic so this stamp set will be well-used.

This is a monocromatic card. I stamped and embossed the diagonal striped background and the leaves with Rose Gold Embossing Powder by Ranger. I find this colour to be more taupe than rose gold.

Stripes: My Favorite Things; Leaves: Waltzingmouse; Sentiment: SU!

I stamped the sentiment in Ranger's Adirondack Earthtones Mushroom dye ink, which is almost a perfect match to the embossing powder because it is sort of a taupe colour, too. Mounted on navy cardstock. Inside I stamped this:

Thanks for visiting today! 

Freshly Made Sketches 376

I made a card for the Freshly Made Sketches blog challenge. Here's the sketch:

And here's my card:

The paper was a failed attempt at the Layered Batik Resist technique described in a Splitcoast tutorial here. While the front of the paper was a mess, I really liked the back of the paper after ironing, so decided to stamp a few blue blooms on that and use it for my feature panel.

Here's a close-up of the hot-fix Swarovski crystals and the Avery Elle celebrate die. I have gotten a lot of use out of that set of word dies.

This card also works for the CAS challenge at Splitcoast to use Thirds.

12 Days of Christmas Tag Swap 2018

I participated in Tammy Neal's 12 Days of Christmas Tag Swap in 2018 through the Yahoo Group Canadian Stamp Talk. The Yahoo Group site is not letting me post photos of the tags made, so I will share them here so other group members can see them.

Tammy Neal, Judy Preston, Melissa Groenink

Tammy Neal, MaryAnn Lawrence, Sandy Proulx

Tammy Neal, Charmaine Stack, Tammy Neal

Liz Carr, MaryAnn Lawrence, Charmaine Stack

Flap opens to reveal bagpipes.

Melissa Groenink

Kerri Bradford This+That Kits

This post is just to capture some projects I want to remember having made. They are This+That print and cut kits from KerriBradford.com. 

A few years ago I bought a pair of Printer's Trays, 7 Gypsies brand, and made some seasonal inserts for them for my sister and my aunt. I backed each segment with magnets so they could just pop them in and out for the different seasons. I cannot find photos of all of the ones I have made, but I snagged these off of my aunt's Facebook page.

The one above is the most recent I made - it was for Valentine's Day 2019. I modified a couple of the segments with my own items because the original kit called for odd-shaped family photos and I wasn't sure if those would be handy. So rather than blanks, I created some of my own. I now have even greater appreciation for Kerri's design work and creativity!

Christmas

January - Winter

Spring

Summer

Summer - close up

Summer - close up

Summer - close up

Summer - close up

Summer - close up

Autumn

I have a few more to make (Thanksgiving, Family, July 4th). Sadly my sister lost hers in the great floods of 2018 and I can no longer find the discontinued trays anywhere. Kerri has also discontinued the kits in her shop (although she still sells the SVG portions), so it is the end of an era. I was glad to have the chance to make these while I could.

Rinse and Repeat!

Yesterday I posted a card for the Seize the Birthday Anything Goes #159 Challenge and I am back today with a second entry. You can never have too many birthday cards.

The patterned paper and Spellbinders dies did most of the work here. The small cluster of flowers (W Plus 9 Very Vintage Florals) was stamped and fussy cut with scissors and popped up with foam tape.  The clear-embossed sentiment is a retired Waltzingmouse stamp. A strip of dollar store gemstones finished it off nicely.

Still time to play along.

Seize the Birthday Floral

Spring is just around the corner! I was pining for some fresh green in my life. Here's a quick birthday card I made for a colleague. I like its simple, fresh look with a bit of glitter cardstock to punch it up.

The background vertical stripe played well against the Avery Elle Petals and Stems bloom that I fussy cut and lifted with foam tape. The sentiment is a stamp from Quietfire Design. It's a set of seven differently-lettered Happy Birthday sentiments. So practical - I reach for it often.

I am entering this card in the Seize the Birthday Anything Goes Challenge.