Seize The Birthday #260

It's the fourth Thursday in April so time for a new challenge over at Seize The Birthday, where I am delighted to be surprise party guest. This is my final guest appearance with the brilliant team. I have enjoyed my visit so much. Thank you, everyone at seize the birthday for having me.

I was lucky enough to receive some Gansai Tambi Gem Colours paint for Christmas and have been enjoying using them. I think this is the first card I have shared so far.

I used a stencil and masking to create my bunch of balloons. I just lightly outlined them on black watercolour card and then I painted them with the gem colours. They give a lovely metallic shine, which is hard to show in the photos.

Once the paint was dry I used a dark and light coloured pencil to add dimension. I cut the panel with the die and mounted it onto a piece of gold embossed card. My piece of gold card wasn't big enough to give a border all round so I decided just to have a small side border. and then mount the panel onto the top and side edge of the base card. That is not something I do very often, but I quite like it. I might be brave and do it again sometime! I added gold thread for the strings and secured them with a tiny blue bow. The happy was cut from another snippet of the gold card and the birthday and heart were stamped and heat embossed on another snippet of white card.

I hope you will find time to join us at seize the birthday this time and if you don't fancy the balloon topping any birthday card will do.

I am also sharing this at:

Snippets playground #452 - my snippets are the gold card, white card and blue ribbon

Supplies:

cardstock: Black watercolour paper; gold embossed card; Hunky Dory adorable scorable coated card

Ink: Gansai Tambi gem colours; Polychromos pencils

Stencil: Uniko

Dies: Panel die: Craft Dies by Lisa, tatty layers, lazy daisy panel; Sentiment die: Creative Expressions

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

We Love Stamping April Reminder

Today is the 18th so time for a reminder for the current challenge over at We Love Stamping. The challenge where you can showcase your stamps and your skill at using them.

This month our theme is:

**Anything Goes with the Option of Birds/Animals**

When I was thinking about what to do for this card, I thought that I didn't have many bird stamps, but I looked through my collection and found a whole set of different birds that was free with a magazine I had bought some years ago and had hardly used. I decided to use the song thrush as they are beautiful birds, but we really don't see them very much anymore. Not where I live anyway. The next question was what to do with it.

I have been playing quite a bit with my gelli plate recently. I have been trying to get better at using acrylic paint with it, but because I have been having limited success, I put away the paint and got out my inks, which I find much easier. I used distress inks and randomly covered the plate with colour before pulling the print. Then I did another layer using a layering leaf stamp set by Altenew, that I have had for ages but not really used. I inked it up and randomly stamped it onto the gel plate. I pulled another print over the top of the first. My recent playing has taught me that it is much easier to layer up on the paper rather than on the plate.

I like the look of this and so I just stamped and fussy cut the bird and then coloured it with polychromos pencils. My panel was cut down with a stitched die, mounted onto a coloured cardbase and the bird mounted on foam pads and it was done. Very simple. I stamped the bird on the insert and envelope to finish off the look.

Don't forget there is always a prize to be won and this month the prizes include 2 stamps and a stencil by ALL & Create. Why don't you head over to the challenge blog to check it out? The prize winner is selected randomly and in addition the DT will choose one entry to join us as a guest designer for a future challenge.

I hope I have inspired you to join us this month, all you have to do is follow the prompt and ensure stamping is the main focus on your card. The challenge will close at noon (UK time) on Wednesday 3rd May

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Adorable scorable coated card; 160gsm smooth paper (for the gelli printing); a scrap of bristol vellum for the bird

Ink: distress inks, various shades of green; Catherine Pooler icing on the cake for the stamping

Stamps: British garden birds free with Simply Cards & Papercraft Issue 187

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

Seize The Birthday #259

It's the second Thursday in April so time for a new challenge over at Seize The Birthday, where I am delighted to be surprise party guest. This is my penultimate guest appearance with the brilliant team. I have enjoyed my visit so much.

This time the theme is:

This was another tough one for me, but I remembered that I do have one stamp that has a reference to alcohol on it, so I got it out and made this card:

This is quite a 'busy' stamp with lots going on, so I tried to think of a way to highlight some elements and decided to try paper piecing. I am not sure that it was such a good idea because the pieces are really small. You know how I love detail, so I persevered and pieced the presents, the cake, the champagne bottle and the banners. I used a gold pen to add other highlights.

I had thought I would re stamp it after the paper piecing and then heat emboss it, but of course that wouldn't work once the piecing was done, so instead, I got out my embossing pen and coloured in the bits to be clear heat embossed. I embossed the bottle, the balloons the liquid in the glasses, the tiny hearts and the writing. I am sorry it doesn't show in the pictures but it does give it a shine.

I cut the panel with a small scalloped edge die and heat embossed the edge in gold before mounting it onto a black mat and then onto a coloured cardbase.

This was such a fiddle to make, but I was pleased with it in the end. I hope you can find time to join us this fortnight and if you don't have anything alcohol related you can skip the topping and enter under anything goes, as long as it is birthday related, of course.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

More Stitching and Foiling

I hope everyone has enjoyed their Easter Break. I have failed in one of my intentions for the weekend. I had hoped to spend time in the garden as there is so much to do. Unfortunately the weather didn't play ball. When the weather was fine I was busy with something else, and when the weather was rainy I had time! 

Today I have some more stitching and foiling to share. I received another stitching die for my birthday and have made two card with it. The first uses the negative foiling left from over from the Easter card I shared the other day and the second uses another foiled background using a cover plate.

This stitching die was very quick and easy to stitch and it makes the perfect focal point for a card. It is such a wonderful shape and isn't too big for my preferred A6 size. This time I used 3 strands of embroidery thread and it worked well.

The foil transferred almost perfectly, I was so pleased with it. I think it must be beginners luck, next time it is bound to all go wrong.

I didn't want to add much as it is already very busy so a simple diecut sentiment did the job.

I had to make my second card square because the foiling wasn't perfect all over, so I cut it down. This time I used black and white for contrast. It was nice to make a square card for a change.

I am sharing card 1 at:

Craftlandia #14 - Lace and/or stitching real or faux

613 Avenue Create April - anything Goes

NBUS #49 - My stitching die is NBUS

I am sharing card 2 at:

Pink Gem Challenge - Anything goes

A perfect Time to Craft April - Anything goes

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

Happy Easter

Today I have a couple of Easter cards to share. Actually they are the only Easter cards I have made this year. I don't generally send them except to my daughters if I am not seeing them. 

One of my birthday presents last week was a Gemini Foilpress, so I have been playing with it. I love it, it is my new favourite thing. I have been telling myself for months that I don't need a foiling machine as, after all, I have a scan and cut and can foil with that, but it is definitely not the same. I made both these backgrounds with coverplate dies and I think the effect is stunning. It also worked really easily. I just found that I needed to turn the heat up more than the instructions say.

In order to make the background the star of the show, I used diecut flowers for the focal point and a simple sentiment. I also managed to use the negative from this one and it came out quite well. I will share that in a day or two. It is much harder to foil the negative. I found it needs a lot of heat and more pressure and is less likely to foil cleanly. As with anything new, it is a process of trial and error.

My layered daffodil was cut from scraps of card and coloured with my Zig paint pens. I even managed to foil the little hearts. I used a green foil on the daffodil card and a gold foil on the tulip card.

My second card was made in exactly the same way.

I am sharing the first (because it is my favourite) card at:

Allsorts 722/723 - Anything goes with the option of in the spring garden. there are lots of daffodils in my spring garden

Try it on Tuesday - Hello spring

Little Red Wagon #699 - spring or fall

Snippets Playground #451 - My snippets are the daffodil and the sentiment strip

Supplies:

Cardstock: smooth white stamping card; Hunky Dory adorable scorable coated card

Ink: Zig clean colour real brush pens

Stamps: Concord & 9th

Dies: Daffodil: free with simply cards & papercraft mag; Tulip: pretty quick; Crafter Companion cover plate dies: art deco and clamshell horizon

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

March Card Chain Challenge

Today is 2nd of the month so time for the Card Chain Challenge big reveal. This month 34 card makers took part and I sent my card to Pia in Norway. 

This month I used the colours and the theme of friendship from the options.

I have some new favourite products. I bought this stencil set and matching coverplate with a voucher that I recently won and absolutely love the look. I think I have made 4 cards with it already, watch out for them. I expect they will get shared at some point.

Once you have used the 3 stencils with different colours you have this amazing pattern that just looks even better when you add the cover plate cut from metallic cardstock. Before I did though, I cut it 3 times from white card and stacked it before filling the spice coloured sections with glossy accents, just to add to the shine.

Unfortunately my 'spice' colour wasn't really dark enough and isn't that different form the carrot, but it still looks good, I think. I finished it off with the bold white die cuts. I hope you like it as much as I do, I hope Pia likes it too. I was pleased that all the layers didn't make it fatter than 5mm as it would have put the postage up.

I was very lucky to receive this gorgeous card from Robyn  in Australia. Thanks Robyn, I love it, and all the little diecuts you included too:

If you would like to take part in the next card chain challenge, you have until 6th to sign up here

Supplies:

Cardstock: HeffyDoodle white letter sized cardstock

Ink: Catherine Pooler grass skirt, orange peel, ginger

Dies: Pink Fresh Studio geo tiles coverplate; Tonic Studios patterns and prints die set

Stencils: Pink Fresh Studio geo tiles layering stencil

We Love Stamping April Challenge

Today is the first Sunday of the month so time for a new challenge over at We Love Stamping. The challenge where you can showcase your stamps and your skill at using them. I will have 2 posts today as it is also the card chain challenge reveal day.

This month our theme is:

**Anything Goes with the Option of Birds/Animals**

I would like to welcome out guest designer Lorraine this month. I hope you get a chance to visit her.

I recently made this card for my grandson whose other granny sadly died a few weeks ago. I thought this stamp by Colorado Craft Company was perfect for the occasion. I started by stamping and masking the image before roughly blending the colours for the background.

The sending is stamped and heat embossed and the love is a diecut. I also added a few diecut hearts. These were cut from a scrap of alcohol inked yupo paper. The image was coloured with alcohol markers

This was quite an easy card to do apart from cutting the mask and guess what? After I had done that, I found that I have the matching die! Could have saved myself a whole lot of trouble.

Don't forget there is always a prize to be won and this month the prizes include 2 stamps and a stencil by ALL & Create. Why don't you head over to the challenge blog to check it out? The prize winner is selected randomly and in addition the DT will choose one entry to join us as a guest designer for a future challenge.

I hope I have inspired you to join us this month, all you have to do is follow the prompt and ensure stamping is the main focus on your card. The challenge will close at noon (UK time) on Wednesday 3rd May

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Before I go I just want to thank everyone for the amazing cards and birthday wishes that I received. I can't tell you how amazing it was. John and I spent the night before in a hotel in Aldeburgh, just up the coast from where we live. The hotel is right on the beach and we had a stunning sea view. I just love the sea and even though the weather was pretty horrible on Friday morning, the sea was amazing. After breakfast I spent a few happy minutes opening cards and enjoying a coffee and the view. When I got home there was another pile of cards and many presents to open. I do feel very spoilt.

The sea was amazing and we even caught a glimpse of a seal swimming by. This is the North sea of course, which is always rather grey and Aldeburgh has a shingle beach.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it.