Rainbow Birthday Wishes

I was rifling through some of the inked card pieces and found this watercolour one where I had used cling film to create some texture.

The perfect piece for the Seize the Birthday Challenge. I was inspired by:

• the rainbow colours
• watercolour look
• balloons
• black sentiment

I die cut the balloons and some in matching foam colours so that I could pop them up.

I added Tonic Nuvo Gloss to the balloons to add sparkle and help differentiate from the background.

My entry to ...

... Seize the Birthday 200th Challenge

... Simon Says Stamp : Anything Goes

Rainbow Blooms

I can't resist rainbow colours and I was inspired by Lisa's design.

My entry to ...

... Pinkfresh Studio September Challenge

Musical Birthday

I wanted to make a "piano" card for my very gifted musical friend ... I pictured a red rose on a grand piano.

I did the piano shape with a silhouette file which I compressed so that the curve would start higher up. One of the great advantages to Silhouette - you can change the size and proportions of the shapes.

I got the inspiration and measurements of the piano keys from Dawn. She has a video too which is very helpful.

This is the front of the card ...

It opens up into an easel card as a grand piano with the "musical score" holding it in place.

But you can leave the message on the inside and the easel still holds.

My entry to ... 

... Altenew September Inspiration Challenge

... CAS Colours and Sketched #387 I flipped the design, and if you take the easel position, the piano keys are the smaller section, and the black piano top is the larger section.

... Love to Craft : Anything Goes

Mosaic Look

I haven't used my large Kaleidoscope/mosaic Simon Says Backgrounds.  I bought 4 different ones, but haven't got round to creating with them.

I started with the Flora Background. I embossed in Princess Gold embossing powder and painted with Distress Inks. I mounted it on a cream card.

To really see the wonderful gold embossing, I need to tilt the card.

My entry to ...

... Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge : Stamp it.

... Lacreablablablog challenge - No white or black.  My card front was mounted on a cream card.

... Seize the Birthday : Add Gold I used Gold embossing powder and gold string.

... Color Throwdown #609

Spring Leaves

Two cards with the same colouring, but one is mounted with black borders and the other in white. I couldn't make up my mind.

Here is the colour palette I used with my Copic markers

I used a darker ribbon for the white borders to help it stand out more.

I think I prefer the one with white borders and dark ribbon. Which do you prefer?

My entry to ...

... Global Design Project #250 : Leaves or Trees

... Time Out Challenge : Season.  We're going into spring and leaves coming back, so I chose Spring.

Doodling ...

Doodling some grass, stems and dots for the lovely primroses.

Adding some enamel accents to the centres.

My entry to ...

... Less is More : Doodles

... Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge : Anything Goes

Celebrate Today

In "The Great Weirdness" (as Susan Raihala calls it - and it's worth a visit to go and look at the cards she created), I think we have to look for small moments and joys to Celebrate Today.

I used some embossing paste with some added green ink to give the feel of those flowing leaves on the Pinkfresh Studio inspiration board.

The flowers were embossed in white and watercoloured with Distress inks.

I've left it sentiment free for now ... I'll see what I want to add when the need arises.

My entry to ...

... Pinkfresh Studio August Challenge 

... Just Add Ink : Just add "T".  I added Texture with the embossing paste.

... Uniko Challenge : In my Garden

Extending your stamps

I was so enamoured with Julie's fun extension of the dog on the Z-fold, I had to try it. I have a friend who loves dachshunds and I wanted a special card for that special Birthday.

I didn't have the Ellen Hutson stamp, but I did have a small dachshund (from Hero Arts) in the The Stamping Village Happy Birthday set. 

I used the sentiment from the same set which was from Dare 2B Artzy. The balloons were from Ellen Hutson Wish Big set.

This took some extra skill and precision to repeat the body with those first 2 little cupcakes!

My entry to ... 

... The Card Concept #138c Dogs of Summer I went with the colours and the theme. 

... A Blog Named Hero : Cute

Easel Card

I can't remember the last time I made an easel card! 

My entry to ...

... Global Design Project #253

... Uniko : In my Garden (Opt : Hot summer Colours)

... Pinkfresh Studio  August Challenge