Project 340: Embossed bird birthday

This card had some real serendipity for me; I was looking at the Paper Players sketch this week and thought, that's interesting, and on my desk was a little pink circle already cut out. That steered my hand in the direction of what I did next as I then spent longer trying to find matching pieces for the circle than I would have if I had just started from scratch. Here's the sketch:

I used this little bird stamp from Creative Stamping magazine last summer and heat embossed him in black. The backing paper is a scrap that matched the pink perfectly.

I decided to use black and white ribbon for the banner components of the sketch. I love this little triangle ribbon and it really jumped out when I was looking for accents. I added a little greeting that Claire gave me.

It isn't a color combo or natural pairing of patterns or papers but it came together and I've got just the birthday girl on the horizon to receive it.

Project 339: A cheery balloon boy birthday

I wanted to make a birthday card for a new colleague that was fun but sophisticated. I don't know him that well and so I needed it to be cheerful without being overly personal.

I was intrigued by the CAS-ual Friday tic-tac-toe challenge and so I went for the bottom row: Enamel dots, no patterned papers, glitter:

The background colors are blended using Distress Ink in Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed and Peacock Feathers. The balloons are punched using a Stampin' Up punch from Claire. I added some blue twine to make them have some dimension.

Then to complete the tic tac toe and make it more cheerful I added some enamel dots and lots of little gold dots using glitter glue.

All in all I was really pleased with this, I started with no plan and it all came together really quickly. Love it when that happens.

Project 338: A simple but colourful wedding card

My husband's former colleague got married this weekend and I wanted to make them a card that was a bit different and special. She's from a big Indian family (as is her groom) so I wanted it to be a bit more colourful than my normal cards as the celebration was all about rich vibrant colours and amazing fragrant food and flowers.

The background paper was my starting point, it's from Recollections and the foil gold really pops. The champagne glass is modelled on my AbFab card and hand cut out of glitter card stock (this was my last sheet! I can't believe I've rationed it for so long!). The hearts are die cut using my Xcut nesting wonky hearts. The sentiment is from Endless Birthday Wishes by Stampin' Up and I decided it it needed bit more so I added a line of beige pearls.

It came together really quickly but because of the pretty background I think it still looks special and hope the couple liked it. July posting has been a bit slow with a few holidays so trying to get back into it!

Project: Monsters and Aliens at MAWTT

Hello and happy Thursday to you!

I loved the challenge this week at Moving Along with the Times: Monsters and Aliens. Any excuse to get out my cute little Bugaboo monsters!

I decided to make this card a bit fussier than my usual ones with this stamp. I colored all the monsters using ProMarkers and then fussy cut out their figures leaving the frame with an empty background. The blue alien normally has antennae but now he looks a bit like Cookie Monster!

I love this striped background paper, it's from a Dutch paper store that Claire loves and I was lucky enough to get a few sheets from her last visit to Amsterdam. I mounted it against the navy card because it didn't really pop on the white card blank. The sentiment is from Little Claire and I thought the simple font worked well with these little guys.

Hope you are able to join in the fun as well, can't wait to see what everyone else creates!

Project 337: Absolutely Fabulous wedding card

My colleague asked me to make a wedding card for her friends that was Absolutely Fabulous themed. I was delighted by the brief and then almost immediately panicked because I didn't know how far to go!

I liked the layout at CAS(E) this Sketch and wanted to find a way to make it work:

I started with a champagne glass - I figured I could make it work if I had a champagne glass. I cut the first out of card to use as a template and then cut two more out of vellum. I chose one with tiny flowers and another with tiny lines (courtesy of Claire) as I thought they looked like bubbles. I stuck down the vellum but I hate the glue mark you get - I was trying to make them stand up with foam tape but that looked even stranger.

I layered this over the brilliantly sparkly magenta kiss paper I have been saving 'for best' from my first ever Recollections pad - Femme Fatale - that my sister bought me when I first started crafting.

I printed the sentiment (my colleague asked for it specifically) and kept half above the paper, half below so that it would mimic the sketch.  I tried an alternative with more muted colors/papers and a blended background but it really wasn't working for me. By that point I'd had a chat with a friend over Skype and a cocktail and my brain was disconnected from proper crafting.

Hopefully my friend (and her friends) will like it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Project 336: One distress ink and one stamp set, two ways

Ever since Claire gave me the balloon celebration set from Stampin' Up I have wanted to do some serious messing around with it. Every stamp in it is so lovely and interesting.  I decided when I cam back from vacation to do some distress ink fun.

I started with Broken China as I thought it would be the perfect blue for an artistic background. I inked up my mat and then sprayed water and smooshed the paper on it directly. I hadn't cut it to the right size though so I ended up with some white and I'm really pleased I did.

I chose the sentiment as it is perfect for a friend's birthday this week and added two of the little
floating dandelion fuzzies floating away. Topped it with a bit of blue twine and that was that.

This one is a bit different, I heat embossed the big circular stamp with clear iridescent powder and used the same distress ink but this time I blended it to get a very slight ombre that left the top of the card white. I die cut the sentiment from stock so I can use it for a friend's anniversary in a week.

Two simple cards but I love the effect, can't wait to use the set more.

Project 335: A triple chalet big sentiment card

I have been away for a few weeks and so to get my head back into the crafting game, I did a bit of challenge shopping. I liked the way these three could come together:

Retro Rubber featuring a brad (I'll be honest - I struggled with this one little brad! I started with a banner that had two brads and that was just too complicated - they didn't align, one ripped the paper...it was a mess). The stamp is at least 3 years old, maybe 4?

Freshly Made Sketches featuring the big oval sketch. I liked that this sentiment had a big line and a little line, it felt like the little 'wishes' line matched the sketch. And then I got my color inspiration from Color Throwdown with this great little cherry theme. I actually tried to use a little bunch of cherries with a stamp and die set I have but it really wasn't working for me. I'll save that effort for a future card.

So what's left to say? The sentiment was a second attempt - I tried to heat emboss using a sparkly red powder and I've clearly lost my touch as it was such a botched job. So I started again by inking it using Schoolhouse Red Stampin' Up dye ink and then embossed it using a sparkly clear powder. Much better than getting red glitter everywhere.

The paper is an old Recollections paper (by old I mean about 3 years?) and the little strip of red gems is from the pound shop.

Bright and cheery and still pretty CAS. I'm glad I stopped there!