The QUEENS OF Snarky Stampers

It's time for a new Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers post! Our latest challenge: Q is for Queen. From Freddie Mercury to Elizabeth II, we are looking for your interpretation of the word QUEEN. 

I know it's a shock, but I went with a cat card:

Breaking out some older but NBUS (never before used schtuff) for this card: the cat, the crown and sentiment are seeing ink for the first time. Although my own cat is male (and generally known as LORD Duncan), the expectation to be treated as royalty work for all felines, I think. To start, I ink blended a panel with distress oxide inks, making sure to get purple in there for that royal touch. I splattered the panel with both plain water and diluted Lawn Fawn liquid stardust for interest. The cat, crown and sentiment are all stamped and embossed in black with clear embossing powder. 

Our newest Queen and guest designer, Tristan, and the Snarky Sisters have lots of interpretations to whet your appetite for this regal challenge! I hope you will join us. 

Supplies: Recollections black cardstock, Koh-In-Oor smooth bristol, Picket Fence Studios Cali Cat & A Muse Keep Calm stamps, Versafine black, tumbled glass, faded jeans & wilted violet distress oxide ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Lawn Fawn liquid stardust

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Happy Seize the Birthday!!

Seize the Birthday is celebrating a birthday of its very own - it's our 200th challenge! So we're throwing a birthday party and offering a few presents to mark the occasion - Nancy has generously offered two $25 gift certificates to Simon Says Stamp for our top two winners! To be eligible to win any of our prizes, we are asking that for this challenge only, you follow the current "topping" - anything goes entries will not qualify for prizes. And our challenge topping is... 

BE INSPIRED BY OUR 

CHALLENGE GRAPHIC!

Create a birthday card or project inspired by any aspect of the graphic above: the colours, the balloons, the watercolour look... the choice is yours. Please be sure to explain in your post exactly how the graphic inspired your creation. 

For even more fun, four of the design team members have goodies to be won - and I am one of them! Here is the prize for some lucky entrant: 

Three stamp sets from Simon Says Stamp! To win any of these *hidden* prizes along the way, we ask that you stop by each of the design team's blogs and leave a comment. 

Here is how I was inspired: 

I knew right away I wanted to take advantage of the three balloons in the upper right corner of our graphic. I used the same stencil as I did for this card a few weeks ago, but in a quite different way, picking individual balloons to stencil onto my card base. My colours are not exact copies of the colours of the originals, but I had three new inks I wanted to try out! I used the same inks to add splatters all over the card, again inspired by the graphic. Finally, I embossed a big bold sentiment, added some sequins for sparkle and score lines around the edge. 

I hope the Seize the Birthday challenge graphic will inspire you to make a birthday card - or up to a maximum of three! - and play along with us for a chance to win a prize! 

Supplies: Koh-I-Noor smooth bristol, A Muse Birthday Greeting stamps, Versafine onyx black & Catherine Pooler Melon Ice, Stone Blue & Polished Inks, Hero Arts clear sparkle embossing powder, Studio Katia Birthday Balloons stencil duo, Gelly Roll black sparkle gel pen, Sharpie pen, Wink of Stella clear glitter pen, Little Things from Lucy's Cards icicle sequin mix

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Seize the Black & White Birthday

Happy Thursday! I know my teammate Glenda is currently enjoying mild temperatures and the beginning of spring blooms, but here we are ending a COLD and SNOWY January! So I don't mind at all staying inside and making cards. :) Today starts a new challenge at Seize the Birthday, and we offer a fun optional "topping" for you... 

BLACK and WHITE! Black and white together is such a classy look, but I rarely think to use it. I made two:

I decided I wanted a clean and graphic design to complement the black and white colour scheme. For my first card, I went with a white sentiment panel on a dry-embossed black background: 

Although essentially impossible to see in the photo (especially my photos, sigh), the black is embossed with Swiss dots after cutting the sentiment panel out of the centre. I then cut the same sentiment panel in white, embossed my sentiment, and fitted the two together. I added a trio of flowers to add a bit more interest to the finished card. 

It seemed to only make sense to use the leftovers for a second card in the reverse order! This time I embossed the white panel in a herringbone pattern (and left off the flowers, for a perhaps more masculine look...). While I initially thought I'd use a black card base for this, it turned out to look better with a black mat and white card base. To me, at least. :D 
It's fun to see what a wide variety of cards can be produced from a simple black and white colour scheme! Our surprise party guest, Julie, and all the design team have beautiful takes on our theme. Whether you go for black and white or decide you need a rainbow of colours, make a birthday card and join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white & Stampin' Up basic black cardstock, A Muse Birthday Greetings & Studio G stamps, Versamark & Versafine onyx black ink, Wow clear & white embossing powders, Spellbinders labels 4 & MFT Blueprints 29 stitched rectangular dies, Cuttlebug Swiss dots & Sizzix/Tim Holtz pinwheel embossing folders, Petaloo jewelled florettes

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Bird Crazy Party

I'll be helping to celebrate a nephew's birthday today, so of course I needed a card. I decided it had been too long since my Bird Crazy stamps had seen ink, and went from there: 

My bird and balloons are coloured with Zig markers, and the balloons coated with iridescent medium and Glossy Accents. I'm not sure I've ever used so many colours on a card without one of them being red. :P There are a couple of little red triangles on the fun background paper, though. Phew. 
I'm going to submit this to the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge, Flora and Fauna; as well as the Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies challenge and the current Seize the Birthday Bold and Bright linkup. 
Enjoy what's left of your weekend! 

Supplies: white cardstock, Strathmore watercolour paper, Glitz Finnley patterned paper, Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Bird Crazy & Crazy Things stamps & dies, Amuse Birthday Greetings stamps, My Favorite Things black licorice, Versamark & Altenew deep iris inks, Zing clear embossing powder, Zig clean colour markers, Winsor & Newton iridescent medium, icicle Stickles, Glossy Accents, Hemptique purple twine, pop-dot tape


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A Card and Catalogue from Meg

Isn't this a beautiful card? My friend Meg recently became an A Muse Studio consultant and generously sent me a copy of their new catalogue, which you can see in the background of this picture. But even better? This awesome card! If the cardstock and stamps Meg used are any indication of the quality and variety that A Muse Studio has, colour me impressed! ;)

Thanks, Meg, for the catalogue to peruse and this fabulous card to admire. ☺

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