Seize the Birthday: use the word CELEBRATE

This is my last card for my guest designing the topper for Seize the Birthday and I thought I should finish with a cute card, as I really do love my wee cute animals that I can colour up with my Copics. This week's challenge the topper is to use the word celebrate on a birthday card. I'm also going to play along with the fun at Just Add Girls who have a "stencil" challenge.

I made a background using 3 inks to make a "rainbow" of colour and a stencil I received from Pink & Main in one of my big boxes from Scrapbook and Cards Today titled Fall 2022. I've used the yellow ink (Sunshine) for approximately 2/3rd of the stencil and then bought in the pink ink (Bubblegum) to make an orange and then from the bottom the teal (Turquoise) to make green.

Supply List:
Stamps: Moody Unicorn (GSD), Approaching Perfection (SU!)
Ink: Sunshine (PFS), Bubblegum (PFS), Turquoise (PFS), Lavender (PFS), Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: Polished Pink (SU!), Neenah Solar White #110, Xpress IT blending

Dies: Frames & Flags (NN), Featured Sentiments (ALT)

Other: Celebrate stencil (P&M), blending brushes (TE), 2mm foam squares (SP), Prisma glitter (LF), Copics, white Gelli roll pen #10 and Quickie glue pen (Sakura)

Challenge: STB#292, JUG#746

Well I hope you can join in and celebrate along with the topper for my final Guest Designer spot with STB and a big THANK YOU to the Seize the Birthday design team for inviting me to have fun and play along with them in August and September; I've had a blast!

✿Karen✿

Seize the Birthday: adding stripes

Hi everyone this is my 3rd Guest Designer card for Seize the Birthday and the optional topper is stripes this time, but as always you can just enter a birthday card to play along.

 

I normally love adding stripes using a stencil but thought I would try something different and use my Pinstripe background stamp by Altenew. One of the cool things about Altenew is that all stamps come with an idea booklet with multiple examples. I've played with one of the ideas for my card and used some left over flowers etc. from a Virtual mixed media event I took part in awhile ago with Hero Arts using their Beautiful Day set, so this was a very easy card to create and packs a bit of WOW. The sentiment comes from Pinkfresh's Simply Sentiments. I've also added some black splats using Liquorice IZINK Dye Spray by Seth Apter.

Well I hope I have inspired you to go "stripey" with your birthday cards this week.

✿Karen✿

Going retro

I'm still excited to be Guest Designer for Seize the Birthday and it's time for another challenge and yes this one was a challenge for me as the optional topper is RETRO!

Now I don't really own any retro stamps as such but looking through old scrapbook papers I thought maybe I could work with something bright and in your face from the 2000s. But I totally fall in love with this retro wallpaper image online which so reminded me of wallpaper in my family home in the 60-70s. 

Isn't it just so cool - now I'm not sure if this is what STB were thinking of  but I have ended up loving my wee card which apart from the sentiment is a no-stamps card. 

Circles used were 1-1/2", 1-1/4", 1", 3/4" and 1/2"

Supply List:
Stamps: Easy Expressions Birthday (TT)

Ink: Early Espresso (SU!), Versamark

Paper: Neenah Natural White, Buttercup (C9), Pumpkin Pie (SU!), Cajun Craze (SU!), Early Espresso (SU!)

Dies: A2 Layers and Additional Layers (WF),  Sweet Stacks - Circles (HB); 

circles used were 1-1/2", 1-1/4", 1", 3/4" and 1/2"

Other: Gilded EP (BM)
Challenges: STB #290

I can't wait to see what retro ideas everyone comes up with and I hope you can join in with the fun but if the topper is stumping you, you can just enter a Birthday Card as that is always an option with Seize the Birthday card challenges.

✿Karen✿

More cute birthday critters

I'm absolutely honoured and delighted to be Seize the Birthday's Guest Designer for August and September playing along with their "optional topper". This is a fortnightly challenge and you can enter any birthday card for the challenge or play along with the optional topper. I always like as much direction as possible to get me started, so I love the topper and normally choose to use it when I find time to play.

This week the challenge is cute critters - my favourite kind of birthday card! I've been wanting to play with my Treat Cart set from Lawn Fawn which until now hadn't seen any ink. I missed the Create with Us class as I was out of town but decided I would like to make my cart a rainbow and played along with the colouring guide they provided for the class tweaking the colours a bit and adding in the bunny as well. I made a rainbow using my Tim Holtz Rays stencil (I liked it was a bit uneven) and the wee foam domes and distress oxides that were similar shades to my ice cream cart. I don't own every colour and the only colour I would choose to swap out is the Victorian Velvet to Milled Lavender if I owned it.

The grass comes from Yappy Birthday Add-on and Butterfly Kisses sets; the clouds from All the Clouds set.

The wee critters look like they are having a fab time and looks like they may even get some birthday cake as well. I've added Prisma glitter to the icies with a Quickie glue pen. Well I hope you have time to join in as who doesn't like to get a cute critter birthday card. Thanks for popping in.

✿Karen✿

Birthday Critters

Hi everyone thanks for popping in, I'm delighted to be the Guest Designer for AAA Birthday and their latest challenge to make a Birthday Card with a Critter. Now that's a cool and fun theme, the problem which critter to choose??

I bought a new stamp set this year called Party Animals and have slowly been working my way though all the images - today it was time for the bear to shine and eat cake. You can see my other cards HERE, HERE and HERE. I have to admit this has been one of my favourite purchases in 2024, I just love how cute they all are and I still have a few more party animals I haven't used as yet!

I started off with colouring with 3 distress inks to make a rainbow using a splashy stencil from MFT. I also used a few stamp sets from Lawn Fawn to make some bunting and add some balloons and a sentiment and all done.

I then coloured my wee stamped images with my Copics. I colour most of my animals up with this brown combo below but the other colours were chosen from what was in a big tin on my desk I normally take a picture of my jar of Copics but there's too many so will list the colours here (darkest > lightest):

• Bear: E37/33/53/51/50 R20 BV000/0000
• Aqua: BG13/32/11
• Yellow: Y38/15/11
• Red:R35/32/30
• Pink: RV13/21
• Green: YG05/01
• Violet: BV04/02/00

Supply List:

Stamps: Party Animals (P&M), Really High Five (LF), Elephant Parade Add-On (LF), Fangtastic Friends (LF)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Clair Nocturne, Squeezed Lemonade (RNG), Kitsch Flamingo (RNG), Salvaged Patina (RNG) 
Paper: Really Rainbow 6"x6" DSP (LF), Xpress IT blending card stock, Neenah White

Other: Watercolor wash free form stencil (MFT), blending brushes (TE), Outside In stitched rectangle die (LF), 1mm and 2mm foam squares, Copic markers.

Challenge: AAAB#64

As always you have a whole month to create a birthday card with critters if you would like to join in with the fun. It's always great to have spare birthday cards in the stash but do definitely check out the fab creations from the DT at AAA Birthday.

✿Karen✿

Anyone need a hug??

I'm delighted to be the Guest Designer for CAS on Friday latest challenge and the theme is

HUGS

Normally I'd choose a cute critter hugging but I thought I would try something different and still hopefully be Clean and Simple. I've stamped a 4" x 5-1/4" panel with the fab flower from Miss Your Smile (PFS). This is actually the first Pinkfresh Studio stamp and stencil set that I bought and it's quite large. It has lots of hugs related sentiments and rather than colouring it up I thought I would just die cut the word hugs with a word die and colour the letters up. 

I've coloured up the die cut letters in multiple colours so I can also play along with Pinkfresh Studios May challenge too; this month it's Flower Power plus/minus a colour combo. I have flowers and I have used the 5 inks for the combo even if I had to stamp a wee sentiment in one of the colours to include it in the mix. I have glued 3 die cuts behind each letter for a bit of dimension as well. The sentiment I have just cut out by hand as there was no dies for this set,

Supply List:

Stamps: Miss Your Smile (PFS)

Ink: Versafine Clair Nocturne

PFS Inks: Bubblegum, Sunkissed, Citron, Ocean Breeze, Atlantis 

Paper: Neenah Solar White

Other: Big Hugs die (MFT), blending brushes (TE), sticky stencil mat (WF)

Challenges: CAS on Friday #284, Pinkfresh Studio May 2024

Thanks for popping in and hope you can join in with the CAS on Friday challenge and maybe try a different way of sharing "hugs".

✿Karen✿

AAA Colourful Dreamy Moodboard

It's time for another challenge with AAA Colourful and I am so delighted to be joining them as a Guest Designer this month. I love colour and was very excited when this new challenge blog started up and here we are at month four, doesn't time fly! 

This month's moodboard is so dreamy and it really reminded me of Craft Consortium's Ink Drop Papers which are perfect for those of us that would like the look of alcohol ink backgrounds.

I'm sure I not the only person who has watched a Jennifer McGuire video and went and bought what she was working with and I must admit this is how I own some CC Ink Drop papers and also some coverplate dies from Honey Bees (Delicate Daisy A2 Top and Base plates) after watching her create her usual magic. I have blogged about my first plays HERE and HERE. When Jane invited me to be the Guest Designer this month I went this will be easy that moodboard looks just like my DSP so I'll just tweak the card design using this time Vivid Ink Drops DSP (CC) and use a different "leaf" and the coverplate dies Jennifer "made me buy" for the background.

I'm really happy with my card but feel that my 3/4" paper strips maybe too green and the yellow seems to have disappeared in the strips. This is a no stamping card as the sentiment is a ready-made foiled sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio. The lovely leave die is Whirl Leaves (SSS)

Well I hope I have provided some inspiration for the moodboard or to just to use up some DSP in your stash as this truly is a really effective card and quite quick to put together which is always appreciated if you need a card in a hurry, this design would also work so well for Sympathy cards. I'm looking forward to seeing what the Design team came up for the challenge so hope you can join in, you have plenty of time to play along.

I'm also feeling like my colours are quite representative of the colours at The Paper Players at the moment so will join in with their latest challenge. Also Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge is to add a die cut and when you add a SSS die cut to your card it would be foolish not to enter as who doesn't want to win a $25 gift card to their store (it will pay for my postage back to NZ).

Thanks so much for popping in.

✿Karen✿

Spring Flowers anyone??

I'm absolutely delighted to be the Guest Designer for CAS on Friday's latest challenge which is SPRING.

I actually don't have a lot of small flowers but thought it might be time to get out an old favourite the gnomie with a bunch of "Spring Flowers" from Hanging with My Gnomies (MFT). This wee gnomie always makes me smile so hopefully whoever receives the card feels the same.

As this is a CAS challenge I went for stamping directly onto Neenah card stock so I could Copic colour up the image. Then adding a mask to the gnome. I used a die cut out square to make a mask so I could do some simple ink blending through with Twisted Citron and Salvaged Patina Distress inks (RNG).

I've coloured my wee gnomie up with the following colours (darkest > lightest):

Skin: E13/93/00

Beard: W3/1/0

Clothes: YR02/61/20; Y19; W9/5/3

Flowers: Y19/08/02; R22, YG23

I just wanted to add a generic sentiment as it's now Fall down under and definitely not Spring, so I thought this wee sentiment from Butterfly Kisses (LF) was appropriate. 

So what do you think of when you think of Spring?? I think of flowers but the team at CAS on Friday would love you to join in and show us what Spring means to you.

✿Karen✿

Let's Get "Striped" with Time Out Challenges

I am absolutely thrilled and delighted to be the Guest Designer for Time Out Challenges latest challenge. It's a real fun one too; to use stripes on your project. You have 2 weeks to have a go and you too could be a future Guest Designer for a challenge (if you want too) AND Lawn fawn are generously sponsoring this challenge so you could also win a $25 Gift Card to the Lawn Fawn store, how cool is that!

I'm using a card idea that Jenn Shurkus, taught me/us at a 2023 Virtual Art Retreat. I've modified her idea and am using a stencil and distress inks to make my stripes. Jenn loves making fab backgrounds. In her original class we made very loose streaks of colour using Distress Watercolor Pencils as our background then placed our dark grey Copic coloured image on top. 

I've used a stencil to re-create her look and working with my smaller blending brushes to blend in the stripes. As I am actually using a slimline stencil I die cut out a perfect stitched rectangle with Lawn Fawn's largest Inside Out Stitched rectangle die. But oops I'd been a bit messy and there was gold embossing powder on my plates and I had gold speckles on the RHS after running through my Big Shot. As this was my second go at doing the panel, I went into how to fix-it mode. So spritzed with shimmer spray and water and blotted but felt it needed some black splatters. I used my Licorice spray bottle to add a few drops by unscrewing and just tapping lightly the tubing for the nozzle to make controlled wee drops/splatters. When I sprayed it was much too dark on my practice run. 

My first panel I added a glitter paste through the stencil after ink blending and it looked fab but had a few funny reactions around some of the stripe edges which is why I tried again to make my striped panel.

Supply List:
Stamps and dies: Humbled and Grateful (PFS)

Distress Inks (RNG): Worn Lipstick, Kitsch Flamingo, Dried Marigold, Squeezed Lemonade, Twisted Citron, Salvaged Patina, Shaded Lilac, Wilted Violet

Paper: Hammermill white, Neenah #110, Black

Other: Versafine Clair Nocturne ink, clear embossing powder, Frost shimmer spray (imagine), Licorice Izink dye spray, distress mista bottle, small blending brushes (TE) and foam strips, Inside Out Stitched rectangle die (LF), Horizontal stripes slimline stencil (PFS), Warm Gray Copics (W2,4,6,8)

Well this is a fun, fun challenge and there's no doubting that adding stripes is really effective so hope you can join in as well but definitely check out the Time Out Challenge blog to see the the inspiration on show.

I'll also enter my card at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge which is an anything goes challenge. I also see Just Us Girls would like us to use  a stencil so I'll also enter their current challenge.

Thanks for popping in.
✿Karen✿

Guest star stamper time..

I'm very excited to be the guest star stamper at The Color Throwdown for this week's challenge and even more excited when I saw I had the fun colours of pink, green and pink to work with.

I have to be honest I went with what was on my desk for this challenge, I often spend so long thinking about my card I never make one or as has happened recently someone used what I was going to use so I have to start again.

I still had some gold embossed Fluttering Butterflies from my recent Create and Connect with Pinkfresh Studio (PFS) sitting there waiting to be coloured up as I still haven't done my make and takes or finished off the last 2 classes. I also had a birthday sentiment with Bubblegum (bright pink) left over from a card I made for another pink, yellow and green challenge the other day too.

This is such a pretty stamp set we received at the event and the great news for you it's in their next release coming next week, so you can get your hands on it too as it truly is FAB! It also has a coordinating washi which is really stunning but the cool thing about having the stamp and stencil I can make it any colour I want.

Supply List:
Stamps: Fluttering Butterflies (PFS), Easy Expressions : Birthday (The Ton)
Pink inks (all PFS): Ballet Slipper, Sparkling Rose, Bubblegum
Yellow inks (all PFS): Lemon Whip, Sunshine, Sweet Mustard
Green inks (all PFS):  Fresh Pear, Grassy Knoll, Key Lime

Other inks: Warm Buff (PFS), Versafine Clair Nocturne

Paper: Neenah white, Lemon Lolly (SU!)

Other: Floral Grid coverplate (PFS), Gilded EP (BM), Notched Corner Frame dies (PFS), Twilight Ombre glitter drops (PFS), 1/2" and 1/4" blending brushes (PFS)

Challenges: CTD#785

It's lovely working with these Spring-like colours as Autumn is arriving early by the look of it in New Zealand. Thanks for popping in and I hope you can join in too with these pretty colours. I'm looking forward to what the DT comes up too so do check it all out.

✿Karen✿

Geometric Fun with AAA Birthday Challenges

Hi everyone I'm absolutely delighted to be the Guest Designer at AAA Birthday for their March Challenge, as soon as I saw the graphic it reminded me of a hot foil plate I had sitting in my stash.

I hot foiled the plate with black foil and then thought maybe I should have just stuck to gold so did another one this time with matte gold. My first go was with the matte gold and Slumber, Sapphire, Lavender and Raspberry Bliss inks using my 1/2" blending brushes. It was pretty but it wasn't as dramatic as I wanted, partly because I'd graduated my blending and the colours faded back more than I thought they would when they dried. I also used 4 of the 5 stencils in the set as I wanted some areas to remain uninked and white.

So it was back to PLAN A and the black foiled image and this time I just went for the 3 darkest inks and also used my bigger blending brushes so easier and quicker to do a heavy ink blend for each stencil layer. I've only used 3 of the 5 stencils so I also have more uninked areas and more white spaces.

I wish I could show how vibrant the black foil is in real life but it is crisp and shiny, a bit like it has been black heat embossed. I've also laid 2 plain die cuts under the sentiment to make it have a bit more dimension.

Supply List (all Pinkfresh Studio unless stated otherwise):
Hot foil plates: Modern Design Blocks (and stencils), Perfect Sentiments (and cutting die)

Ink: Sapphire, Lavender, Raspberry Bliss (plus Slumber for gold foiled card)

Paper: Hammermill White (foiling), Neenah Solar White #110 (base card)

Other: Glimmer Hot Foil machine (SP), Black glimmer foil (SP), Matte Gold glimmer foil (SP), Magenta glimmer drops, blending brushes (TE) and 1/2" blending brushes

Challenge: AAA Birthday #59

Well I hope you have time to play along, you have a whole month to get creative, I for one am really interested to see what the Design Team came up for this Challenge as it certainly is different than the norm.

Thanks for popping in.

✿Karen✿

Keeping it CAS for Winter

I am absolutely delighted to be CAS on Friday Guest Designer for their Winter Challenge.

Unlike the Northern Hemisphere it's gloriously sunny and "too hot" for me at the moment as I have been camping at the beach and away from home and my craft room. So my card became a very clean and VERY simple card so I could join in with the fun. 

It's obviously Winter for the majority as Simply Clean and Simple's January Challenge optional twist is Winter cards as well.

This is actually a really easy card which you could mass produce too. I have layered up 2 die-cuts under the glittery one to give it a bit of dimension as well

Supply List:

Stamps: none

Ink: none

Paper: Ballet Slipper (C9), Purple Posy (SU!), Glacier glitter (PFS)

Dies: Let it Snow (Tonic Studios), Arch Snow Globe (ME - tree), A2 Layering (WF)

Other: White Pearl Hero Paste (HA), Snow Flurries BG stencil (LF)

Challenge: CAS on Friday #275 , Simply Clean and Simple

EDITED: 2/2/2024 My card was chosen as the winner at Simply Clean and Simple for January.

✿Karen✿

Is it time to get outdoors??

Being Winter down under I think the answer is no, unless you like to ski but it's summer time in the Northern Hemisphere and I am delighted to announce I am the guest designer for AAA Cards current challenge to share a Clean And Simple (CAS) card showing outdoor activity.

So many possibilities and I worked out pretty quickly what I wanted to do but I wasn't that happy with my first go and ended up repeating the card. I really didn't like seeing the Copic bleed behind my front panel trying to make it a single layer card and it wasn't intense enough as I only did one layer trying to have minimal bleed through.

So once I had decided that it had to be a separate panel I then could use my Xpress IT blending card stock which made me happy.

I made a mask of the wee balloon from Lawn Fawn's Fly High set which I put on top of my coloured balloon so I could stamp the wee clouds "behind" the balloon. I have chosen my colours of orange, blue and green as I really like the 3 tents in the inspiration photo. I am trying to add more definition to my Copic colouring by using a white gel pen. The wee pennants I have added some Prisma glitter to them.

Copics used (darkest >> lightest):

Orange:  YR07/04/02 and Y38/35/32

Brown: E37/33/31

Blue: B05/02

Green: YG23/21

Here's the card up close:

And with my first attempted card:

Do check out all the other fab cards at AAA Cards and you have TWO weeks to submit a card, so we'd all love to see what you can come up with too.

Thanks for popping in.

✿ Karen ✿