Seize the Birthday: Travel

It's time for a new Seize the Birthday challenge! If you know my teammate Glenda even a little bit, you will not be surprised to find out she was the one who has picked our new challenge topping: TRAVEL! Of course, we are happy to see any and all birthday cards in our gallery, travel-related or not. Here's mine: 

I had this great Paper Smooches bicycle already die cut and in my stash, so I built my card around that. To emphasize the travel theme, I paired it with some fun map patterned paper. To ground the bike, I used a die cut strip of winding road. I thought the dashed scoring under the sentiment echoed it nicely. No stamping! Rare for me, but occasionally it just works. With that in mind, I'm entering this in the July Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies challenge. 

Now it's over to you! For lots more inspiration, be sure to visit the StB blog to see the beautiful cards made by my teammates and our current surprise party guest, Melanie! You have until Tuesday, August 3rd to join us. 

Supplies: Neenah white & Stampin' Up real razzleberry cardstock, Teresa Collins Far and Away patterned paper, Paper Smooches bicycle, Technique Tuesday cars on the road & Creative Expressions borderline happy birthday dies

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Addicted to Stamps and More: Die Cuts and Stencils

It's time for some die cuts and stencils at Addicted to Stamps and More! And while you can use one or the other, I managed to combine both on my card: 

I also decided to go with the flow and make a Christmas in July card. This poor little penguin has never been through my die cutter before! I cut both parts of him out of white cardstock, so I could colour the head/flippers with Copics and add a little shading. I also Copic-coloured the teeny eyes and beak. I cut the background from a leftover piece of smooshed/plastic-wrap-dried watercolour paper and spritzed it with sparkle mist before framing it. On the blue cardstock panel, I added some stencilled snowflakes. All that was left was to add a sentiment and a few Nuvo drops! 

I am adding my card to a couple of challenges: Addicted to CAS has the code word Geometric, and my little penguin qualifies for Darnell's July NBUS challenge.

My ATSM teammates have used stencils and dies in a variety of fun and creative ways - be sure to check them out to be inspired! 

Supplies: Neenah white, Memory Box blue & Sizzix brushed gold cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, MFT Chill Wishes stamp, Catherine Pooler juniper mist ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Memory Box happy penguin, Ellen Hutson essential hexagons & Winnie & Walter Catharine cutaway dies, Copic markers, Uniko Let It Snow stencil, Picket Fence snowdrop white embossing glaze, Tsukineko clear shimmer sparkle mist, Nuvo sea breeze jewel drops, foam tape

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A Colourful Birthday Card for Scrap 'n Stamp!

It's my turn to be on the Scrap 'n Stamp blog today, with this colourful and sparkly take on a birthday card. I hope you'll click the link and take a closer look! 

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Colour Hues: Lime Green and Aqua

Welcome back for the mid-month Color Hues challenge! Today we have a fun colour pairing for you to try: lime green and aqua. As often happens when someone selects specific hues (versus, say, BLUE or GREEN), I had to attend a little mini-conference on what these colours might represent. Sessions included: if Wikipedia says aqua and cyan are the same, is that good enough for me? and lime green - so much brighter than a lime's rind. (I also attended the special break-out workshop: why is random stamping so hard?) All these helped me put my card together: 

I began by stamping these flowers - in cyan! identical to aqua! - on my card panel. The centres are stamped in green (no named lime green pad in my collection) and sparkled with a marker. The Paper Hugs sentiment is coloured with the same ink, and sprayed with sparkle mist. It's layered on a black-inked die cut to give that little shadow effect.  The card base is also sponged with green ink, so everything could be matchy-matchy. 

The CH design team and our current guest, Rosemary, definitely show off how versatile this colour combination is! I hope you will test it out and join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, Concord & 9th Filled in Florals stamps, Colorbox cyan, Catherine Pooler garden party & MFT extreme black ink, Simon Says Stamp Paper Hugs & Winnie & Walter Katharine cutaway pierced rectangle frame die, Spectrum Noir clear glitter sparkle pen, Tsukineko clear shimmer spray, Studio Katia crystal clear confetti

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The Sisterhood of Exposed! Stampers

Welcome back to a new episode of "Where Has My Creativity Gone?", today featuring the newest Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge, X is for Xposed! Snarky sister Lee was obviously feeling inspired when she created this fabulous challenge badge, but I struggled with this one. Finally I gave up on the snarky part and just made a card:

I did manage to expose the inside of my card, stencil some exposed brick, and have an exposed fish skeleton, so at least the theme is represented. I chose this particular cat stamp set (I may have a few) specifically because of the window to the inside: 

I love that you get to see the reverse side of the kitty from the inside. The card was relatively easy to put together - which is always a good thing when creativity seems to have gone walkabout. ;) After die cutting the circle from the front of the card, I added the stencilled brick in grey, and coloured the dreaming cat in similar shades. Added his fantasy fish to the thought bubble, stamped a couple of sentiments, and the card was done. 

Luckily, my sisters were much more up for the challenge of being snarkily Xposed, as was our current Queen of Snark and guest designer, Granne! I hope you will decide to expose a project of your own to our link-up! 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, MFT I Knead You stamps & dies, MFT Cat-itude stamp, Versamark onyx black, Catherine Pooler rouge & weathered wood distress ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Copic markers, Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz bricked stencil, Spellbinders circle die

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Inkspirational: Photo

It's Saturday and time for a new Inkspirational challenge! We have this pretty picture for your inspiration. I decided to go with the greenhouse/growing/planting theme: 

The stamps are all from an ancient Papertrey Ink set - they seemed ideal for the mood of the photo. To start, I stamped and embossed the seed package frame before masking the bottom half so I could add the leaves and flowers. The "green thumb" is added in the same green, while the main sentiment is stamped and embossed in the same red. After trimming and rounding the corners of the panel, I actually managed to find some patterned paper that picked up not only the colours but also the style of the stamped flowers. A kraft card base helps add to the slightly vintage feel of the card, as does the trowel. Maybe not the red. :D 

My Ink teammates have been inspired in different ways by this photo, but all have made beautiful cards! Be sure to visit the Inkspirational blog to see what they have created. Hope you will join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white & desert storm cardstock, (?) patterned paper, Papertrey Ink Garden Variety stamps, Versafine onyx black & Catherine Pooler rouge & garden party inks, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, MFT stitched rounded rectangle die, foam tape

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