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✿

Just Add Ink 710: Just Add Party Fun

This week at Just Add Ink we would like you to add some party fun to a card, so many possibilities for this challenge what a fun challenge. As soon as I saw it I knew what I wanted to create, a PARTY HAT card, as you can't have a party without a silly hat! 

I've chosen to work with some of my favourite card stock colours: Mermaid (LF), Mango Melody (SU!) and Parakeet Parrot (SU!). This is a really easy card to create and I have left over supplies to make more party hat cards.

Supply List:
Stamps: Make a Wish (P&M)

Ink: Summertime (Versafine)

Paper: Mermaid (LF), Mango Melody (SU!), Parakeet Parrot (SU!), white
Dies: Party Hat (P&M)

Other: Puff Dotty EF (SP), 2mm foam squares (SP), glitter enamel dots (SU!)

Challenges: JAI#710

✿Karen✿

AAA Card Challenge 265: Celebrating our 10th Birthday

Hi everyone! Welcome to the next challenge for AAA Cards. We have an anything CAS goes with an optional twist of Birthday.

We are celebrating our 10th Birthday!!

So we want to party with you as it's not everyday you turn TEN (10).

We have prizes! Quite a lot of prizes!

Some are only available to certain countries/zones due to postage, so please make sure when you link your card to also add your country letters to your name;

e.g. Maaike-NL, Karen - NZ, Kristin - USA, Tristan - AUS etc. etc. etc.

.

Please check out AAA Cards Challenge Blog for all the finer details and to check out the prizes!

We also do not have a guest designer as we want everyone to be in with a chance to win a prize, so get cracking and remember to make it CLEAN AND SIMPLE.

  Only CAS CARDS will be considered for a prize.

Wow ten years that truly is a worthwhile achievement for any Challenge Blog. I've chosen my inspiration to make a fun card from the cute monkey with balloons on the challenge photo, but you can just submit a Clean and Simple card as well but who doesn't need a birthday card in their stash. 

But we truly would love you to join in with us to celebrate. If you'd like a chance to win a prize definitely think about how CAS is defined at AAA Card Challenges.

I have KReated a monkey with balloons birthday card as I just love the cheeky monkey in the challenge photo. I have Copic coloured up my image. Once die cut out I have also added 2 blank die cuts to the image for a bit of dimension. I have very lightly blended Salvaged Patina distress oxide behind it all as I'm sure s/he is floating in the sky. This really cool monkey comes from Party Animals (Pink & Main). Then just a tad of Diamond Stickles to the balloon highlights and the bottom of the ice-cream as it is a PARTY!!!

Copics used (I colour dark >> light):

Monkey: E37/33/53/51 E53/51 and RV 21/10

Pink: RV13/21 (10 also added to balloon)
Orange: YR16/Y17

Yellow: Y17/15 (11 also added to balloon)

Green: YG05/21 (09 added to balloon first)
Blue: BG13/11

Well I hope you can join in with us at AAA Cards Challenge and celebrate this momentous occasion, as always you have 2 weeks to create your card. If you can't make it do call by the Challenge Blog and wish them/us a Happy Birthday;)

It's also ironical our sister blog AAA Birthday Challenge challenge for May is a CAS Card so I will enter my card there to play along with them too.

EDITED 15/6/24: I'm so delighted Helen chose my wee card as her favourite at AAA Birthday which made my day, even more exciting as this is also the first time my card has been picked as the winner there. I've had a top 3 or top 4 pick before but have never been chosen as the winner before.

✿Karen✿

Shaker birthday card

It's been awhile since I've made a shaker card and I should make more as they are fun, pack a wow, and I might get to use up all those shaking bits I can't help myself collecting.

When I saw AAA Birthday's April challenge was for a shaker card I knew exactly what die I wanted to use as it had taken me a long time to track one down and that die is the Happy Birthday Circle Frame die from MFT stamps. Inkspirational also has a very cool rainbow mood board which I feel my rainbow colours play along nicely with as well (especially as I have rainbow letters). I'll also play along with Seize the Birthday's anything goes or I might be off the edge enough to be doing the "topping"  with STB. And as you have to be in it to win it, I'm always pleased when Simon Says Stamp has an anything goes challenge.

I've just die cut my HB Circle frame out of white card stock and then Copic coloured the letters in a rainbow, made my shaker and then had to decide what image to add for some extra cute appeal. I'm still in love with my Party Animal set from Pink and Main so used the party chick and cupcake this time. As the chick is yellow I used the complementary colour which is supposed to be Violet for the background colour of the mat and for the cupcake icing. My final card is a 4-1/4" square.

Supply List:

Stamps: Party Animal (P&M)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper: Orchid Oasis (SU!), Neenah Solar White, Xpress IT blending

Dies: Happy Birthday Circle Frame (MFT), Stitched Scallop Square (PFS), Master Layouts 3 (GKD), Sweet Circle Stack (HB)

Other: Copics, acetate scrap, foam tape, Rainbow Sprinkle mix (PPP), white Gelli roll pen

Challenges: AAAB#60,  INK#313, STB#282, SSSW#116,

Well I'd better go tidy up my wee craftastrophe but this in all honesty is a relatively easy card which is always fun to give, thanks for popping in and hope you can play along with some of these fabulous challenges.

EDITED 15/3/24: My sweet shaker was a Top 3 card at AAA Birthdays

✿Karen✿

You Party Animal

Just Add Ink has a fun challenge up on their blog to choose two (circles or squares or sayings). I was not planning it but I ended up choosing all 3. I've used a confetti stencil to add wee circles, I've made a square card as that seemed the most balanced and I've added a sentiment which is kind of a saying "you party animal".

I am playing with two new items that have turned up recently for me; Alex Syberia Designs Confetti stencil. The really cool thing about this stencil is it has 5 layers and you can create a pattern (not sure if I would call it confetti) that is multi-coloured and no spot touches another. I managed to get 2 layers done and then my card I was inking moved as I was lifting off the 2nd stencil. My Waffle Flower sticky mat had lost it's stick and needed a wash as it wasn't really sticky enough. No worries I thought, I can start again but when I looked at what I had created already I actually liked how random it was and it was not too busy. So decided that higher powers were making sure I didn't overdo it! 

I have used Worn Lipstick and Mustard Seed Distress inks and blended on Lavinia's Smooth and Multifarious card as it's WHITE, smooth and great for blending on. The wee mat is just the 2 inks blended around the edge and the banner is just the Worn Lipstick swiped on card to make me a perfectly matched coloured card stock.

The second new item is Pink & Main's Party Animal stamp and die set - look at how much detail the die cut out around the streamers and confetti. I really love this set and am so pleased I shouted myself it, as I had to get it from overseas as this brand is not available here at my local craft store/s. I probably shout myself a couple of shops/ships a year and wait until there is enough things available on my wish list to make the shipping not hurt as much as it does.

I've also cut out 2 extra white die-cuts for the party doggie and 1 extra for the sentiment to add stability and dimension plus a few 1mm foam squares to make the doggie balanced.

Copics used (darkest >> lightest):
Grays: W4/W2/W0/W00 and W8 for nose
Yellow-browns: E19/YR27/YR24/YR31
Yellows: Y17/Y15/Y11

Pinks: RV14/RV13/RV21

I'm also going to play along with Seize The Birthday's latest challenge with the additional twist of a co-ordinating tag. I went pretty simple with my tag, the biggest problem was finding ribbons that matched the ink colours.

Thanks for popping in.

EDITED 21/3/24: Very excited to say that my wee card was picked as the winner of the challenge at Just Add Ink

Here is what some of the design team had to say...

"Such a fun card! Love the tiny circles and cute image"

"Adorably cute and fun way to use the challenge"

"Ha! Love this fun combo of image and sentiment"

EDITED 28/3/24: My card and tag was one of the runner-ups noticed at Seize the Birthday receiving "Birthday Honours"

 

✿Karen✿

Envelope pop up cards

This is my Pink and Main class from the recent SCT Crop and Create event. We received a 33-piece envelope pop-up die set. YES 33 PIECES!!

I love Pink & Main dies; they are bright pink so if you drop a piece they are normally easy to find. 

We also received a rectangle patterns stencil and we used all the patterns bar one, a stamp set, patterned paper and a zippered mesh project bag. Again the company was so generous and this will be one die I will be revisiting again, lots of examples for Easter popping up in our Facebook group already.

The class was taught by Michelle Currie and this was the only class I have done so far where I was waiting for her to catch up to me! So a nice manageable pace, all my die-cutting was done as part of my homework.

She also showed lots of cool other ideas other than the 3 cards we were being taught, so I created another 2 cards as well. Michelle made her own coloured card stock using her alcohol markers to make coloured card for her diecuts that was close to the patterned paper they gave us. I just grabbed offcuts and scraps for various colours I thought were a close match and that was really easy!

The official 3 cards:

2 of the cards were freestanding envelopes and the die created a middle layer, my snap of the "inside" is terrible but I'm sure you can get the idea. And yes they fold flat to go in an A2 envelope.

We had to use 110-lb weight card stock for our layers to create the "envelope" and the patterned DSP they provided was also a real heavy weight, which is why these are so sturdy.

We used the stripes stencil for the notecard and I used my Daffodil Delight ink (SU!). Card stock for the diecuts, I used Melon Mambo, Polished Pink, Mint Macaron, Daffodil Delight and Starry Sky (all SU!). The sentiment comes from the stamp set we received called Sweet Posies, even the banner die was part of the envelope die set.

The other envelope die was "masculine", colours as above and I used some scraps of a mint glitter paper I had in my scrap box. This time we used the spots rectangle stencil for the notecard.

I really liked the flower dies we received they were a great size and certainly made cute flowers with them. This card was so easy to create, aren't the word dies also awesome. This is the 3rd pattern from the stencils (the only one we didn't use was the honeycomb).

Last but not least 2 extra cards, casing her extra examples she shared.  The envelope this time has the side folds cut off and added to an A2 card front.

The patterned paper we received from Pink and Main was very bright and cheery and looking through my stash I spied these two which are retired DSP from SU!, neither I really liked but they worked together. They were called Abstract Beauty (lining) and Artistry Blooms (on the outside of the envelope). Colours I used matched the DSP so Mango Melody, Melon Mambo, Balmy Blue, Night of Navy (all SU!) and my scraps of mint glitter paper for the heart. The glitter drops are Pinkfresh Studios Twilight Ombre glitter drops and they are pink and orange IRL.

This is actually my favourite card I just love the bright cheery "Spring colours", blue this time is Tahitian Tide, I have also used Parakeet Party and Early Espresso card stock from SU!, pale pink is Ballet Slipper (C9).

 I have to say these cards make me happy and if you ever see the Envelope pop up die set for sale grab it! With the SCT event a lot of the product is exclusive for the event or we are using them well before they are released for sale but I have seen some products definitely become available from the last one I took part in and so hopefully this one does come on the market as it's a "keeper" all right.

Here is a close-up of the envelope pop-up die set, I cut it so I could fit in the largest Avery Elle pocket as I store all my stamps and dies in fridge bins. 

And the sneak peeks of Michelle's cards:

#cropandcreatedelivered #SCTbigboxevent

✿ Karen ✿

Pink and Main class at SCTCCD

I just loved this class, who doesn't love flock and glitter, it was flocking fabulous! Michelle Currie the owner and chief illustrator from Pink & Main was our tutor for this 90 minute class.

I have never seen flock before but it made where it stuck-too like fur. Pink and Main sell 20 colours in their range, you can buy just glitter, just flock or Sparkling colour = flock + glitter. We got sent a pot of Sparkling Berry flock in our kits.

That fab zipper bag from them also contained a big stamp set called Make a Wish, with matching dies. Also a Party Hat die set which are just amazing and a Celebrate stencil and some double sided adhesive sheets. These are the rest of the goodies:

Our first card we die cut a hat die, star etc card stock that was adhered to the adhesive sheet. I was brave and added my flock to the die as I had done my homework and was good to go. WRONG! you use the darkest colour first I should have added my blue glitter then the red but it still looks amazing.

The next card is a double tent card it's really cool. The flock has been added to the bottom panel.

Last card just a fun cupcake card with the flock on the banner.

And all the cards together:

I actually think this class kit may be one that gets a lot of use after the event. Aren't these just fun and fabulous cards perfect for celebrating. I want some brown flock for fur and white for snow etc.

#cropandcreatedelivered #SCTbigboxevent

✿ Karen ✿