Guest Designer - Seize the Birthday Challenge (Anything with Wings)

I'm back with my final Surprise Party Guest card for the Seize the Birthday Challenge.

The theme this time is:

Anytime I see a 'Things with Wings' theme, my thoughts immediately go to Penny Black chickens - ha ha! I'm rather partial to those stamps, and picked 'Cluck, Cluck, Cluck!' for my card. I stamped it onto watercolour paper, along with a sentiment using a stamp from the 'Go To Words' set by Visible Image, then coloured it using watercolour pencils. I paired it with papers from the 'Prince Charming' pad by Recollections/Michaels (found at TKMaxx). I distressed all of the edges, and added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen.

For more inspiration from the wonderful Design Team, please pop over to the Seize the Birthday Challenge. Thanks so much for inviting me to the party - I've had lots of fun!

Guest Designer - Seize the Birthday Challenge (CAS + Dies)

I'm back with another Surprise Party Guest card for the Seize the Birthday Challenge.

The theme this fortnight is:

Any regular visitors to my blog will know that I'm a stamper at heart, but I do have a little collection of dies, and this theme was the perfect excuse to dust off a set of cupcake dies (by Marianne Designs) that I have had for a very long time! I cut the 'cupcake case' from a snippet of spotty paper from the 'Happy Colours' pad from The Works, and the 'frosting' and 'cherry' from snippets of papers from the 'North Country' pad by Prima Marketing. I assembled the cupcake on a piece of kraft card using 3D foam pads of varying thickness to add dimension, then added some adhesive pearl 'sprinkles'. I added a sentiment using a stamp from the Hero Arts 'Cupcakes' stamp set, then distressed the edges of the kraft panel before adding it to a matching kraft card blank.

For more inspiration from the fabulous Design Team, please pop over to the Seize the Birthday Challenge!

Guest Designer - Seize the Birthday Challenge (A Rainbow of Colours)

I'm back with another Surprise Party Guest card for the Seize the Birthday Challenge.

The theme this fortnight is:

I used my set of Die-namics 'Party Balloons' dies to cut balloons from snippets of card in rainbow colours. I doodled some 'strings' onto a white card blank, then added the balloons on top. I stamped a sentiment (using one of the stamps from the 'What This!' set by Anita Jeram for the Colorado Craft Company), onto a snippet of white card, then added that over the balloon 'strings'.

For more inspiration from the fabulous Design Team, please pop over to the Seize the Birthday Challenge.

Guest Designer - Seize the Birthday Challenge (Make Your Own Snowflake Background)!

Today, I'm excited to share the first of my Surprise Party Guest cards for the Seize the Birthday Challenge, where the theme for the next two weeks is:

This theme is optional, so there's always the option for 'Anything Goes' as long as it's a Birthday card!

For my card, I used a sweet polar bear stamp from a Kanban set that I picked up in a charity shop just before Christmas. I stamped him onto watercolour paper, doodled a line for the snowy ground using a black gel pen, coloured him using watercolour pencils, then cut around the top of the image. For my snowflake background, I embossed a piece of watercolour effect paper, from the 'Mystery Marbles' pad using a Craft Tonic embossing folder, then gently sanded over the raised areas to reveal some of the white core. I added a stamped sentiment, using one of the stamps from the 'What This!' set by Anita Jeram for the Colorado Craft Company, then layered the bear over the snowflake background. I matted it onto some navy card, then added it to a white card blank.

For more inspiration from the fabulous Design Team, please pop over to the Seize the Birthday Challenge.

Guest Designer - Seize the Birthday Challenge

Today, I'm excited to share that I'm a Surprise Party Guest at the Seize the Birthday Challenge!

If you're new to their challenges, they have an optional 'Topping' theme, which this fortnight is:

But, if the 'Topping' isn't sparking those creative juices, there's always the option to enter an 'Anything Goes' Birthday card!

When I made my card, I was away from home with limited stash...and without anything suitably stripey! I put my thinking cap on, and decided to try making my own stripes using Distress Inks on watercolour paper. I used masking tape to mask a strip on the watercolour paper, then painted stripes of Distress Ink in varying thickness down the page. Once dry, I removed the masking tape, added a stamped sentiment, using a stamp from the 'Signature Greetings' set by Memory Box, then distressed the edges a little. I picked an image from the 'Cheerful Critters' set by Penny Black...stamping it on to watercolour paper, and colouring it using a mixture of watercolour pencils, and the same Distress Inks I used for the stripes. I carefully cut out the image, then added it on top of the striped panel using 3D foam pads before adding it to a kraft card blank.

For more inspiration, from the fabulous design team, please pop over to the Seize the Birthday Challenge. Thanks for inviting me to your party!