Birthday Birds

 A bit of embossing, a bit of scrappiness, limited palette, a bit of bling and some birthday wishes.

I started with a blue panel and random white strips arranged in a zigzag pattern, then embossed it (EF is Ultimate Crafts).  Matted on a darker blue with distressed edges.  Diecut birds and sentiment, and some bling.

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craftygalscorner-269-fill-in-blank-in-july ...birthday... in July

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Froggy Summer

 

I love frogs.  I used to pay schoolkids to bring tadpoles to put in my pond so I could watch the tranformation happening.  Magic.   This froggy is in holiday mode, all set for a cool dip.

This image (I think ? by Stampede or Eureka, no longer in business)  is particularly cute, this beauty in her polkadot bikini (discovered in my Bitz Box).  The background is on watercolour card, scribbles with Distress Crayons, spritzed and smudged.  Miss froggy coloured with Copics and fussy cut.  

I went back to check on my digi files and sadly can no longer find it - my computer decides when stuff disappears!  I lost all my A Day for Daisies images too. Now I can't even go back and buy more.   :-(

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Croc-a-smile for Peter

 I made this for the husband of a friend who is very unwell hoping it would be a nice surprise for him in the mailbox.  This croc cracks/crocs me up whenever I use it!

The stamps are Stampin' Up.  The paperpieced croc, bird and frog are stamped onto smooshed and ink blended panel (Distress Inks) and also onto patterned paper (Perfect Prints).  Other scenic stamps (lilys, lilypad, waves) are added to the panel (lilys, lilypad, waves) and the teeth are stamped separately on card and added under the PPaper croc.  I used a pop-up inside from a tutorial on youtube by Lynn Dunn of Stamptastic Designs.  I strengthened the front part of the croc with card because of the overhang.  The gingham paper is Serif.  

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Tulip Thanks

 

I have been making cards with red tulips as part of a local fundraiser for Parkinsons.  My husband has Parkinsons Disease and they have provide support, information and education to those who live with Parkinsons.  So you will see tulips from me from time to time as I build up a collection.  I usually never make two cards exactly the same, but I may make a production series to try it out.

I have no idea what brand the tulips are they came to me unbranded, the tag is NCraft, and the stars are drop-outs from a coverplate die.  Lots of snippets here red, green, navy & white tag.

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Bestest Wishes Orchid

 

The background has partial embossing which the pot sits on.  The orchid plant diecut and assembled (unknown).  The pot, flowers and centers are cut from pearlescent card. Touches of DI to shade.  The sentiment is old from my Bitz Box, I think I made it on the computer.

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Dog Years Old

 

The background is an experiment with paint, an iceblock stick, spray bottle caps and a wooden skewer.  I like getting inky, but this is really messy.  I used Adirondack Paint Dabber paint only applied with the sticks & caps.  

After making the background I inked the edges with DI.  Stamped the dog, partially cutting around the sticky-out bits and matted onto blue card that matched the dots.  I left the dog uncoloured (haha, turns out he is a white dog!) to let the colours take centre stage.  The sentiment is stamped and embossed with copper EP to go with the copper paint. Panel is popped up with foam tape.

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Eazy zenz

 

A cardswap relating to a youtube tutorial by Natasha Foote.  A kind of variation of zentangle.

To start the black square and lines are made, junctions thickened, rounded, coloured.    I decided to amp it up a bit - masked the shapes, inked with DI's  and stamped over in a similar colour.

Used: Black pen, DI's, random stamps, sentiment die and stamp. Leaves punched (CraftsToo) and gold embellishments are drop-outs from another die.

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Seriously Butterflies

 

A little bit of fun for a friend's birthday this week.  Inside it says "Now's the time to start lying about your age".  She is a month older than me and I just have to rub it in.

Image and sentiment stamps are Art Impressions.  Image coloured with Copics, masked for applying stencil.   Stencil is Rosie's Studio coloured with DI's.  Also white pen & WoS on the butterflies, Stickles on her jewellery. Kraft card base.

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Botanicals make the Mark

 

More inkiness on watercolour card with Sizzix/TimHoltz diecuts.  Background is smooshed metallic watercolours, Colour Infusion powders & Cosmic Shimmer Pixie Sparkles powders, stamps, ribbon.  Stamps are SimonSaysStamp Beautiful & Curious.  The gold shimmer is amazing.

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Shapely Gatefold

 

Made for a NZ cardswap with a them of "A" ... arch, autumn, animal

Background is some pretty vintagey patterned paper from stash, various diecuts, silky twine, a wooden rabbit button. I wanted it to be a journey though a garden, enjoying the little things you might discover.  The Autumn stamp is a really old one.

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Starry Celebration

 

I just got these 3D stars by Sizzix/Tim Holtz and had to use them!  Red White & Blue... does anyone remember the childrens rhyme "Red white and blue, the queen's got the 'flu, the king's got the whooping cough boo hoo hoo"?

I used the colours of our flag as a starting point (although our flag has 4 stars), used some patterned paper from stash, did a bit of splattering with metallic watercolours, inking with DI's. Navy star dropouts are from another die, a stacked sentiment from Simon Says Stamp popped up with foam tape.  The pearlescent shiny background stars are hand drawn using Sakura pen for a bit of glimmer (on some angles they don't show at all - peekaboo), and some faux stitching as a border - I believe flags were originally handsewn not printed.

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Feather

 

CAS with grey embossed background, black panel (AALL & Create), feather diecut (Sizzix Tim Holtz) from smooshed and splattered card which is made using watercolours in grey and rusty red.   I chose rusty red  for the base card to bring out the colour, the black panel is popped up on thick foam tape.  I deliberately didn't want a sentiment.  The photo at the bottom shows the contrast between white (on the left) and the grey (on the right) as it isn't apparent in the other photos.

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asyoulikeit-favourite-2-colour-combo-and-why Grey and red, great contrast and spicy looking.

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White card on the left, grey card on the right:

Songbirds

 

 I am happy to be invited as guest designer this month at pearly Sparkles!  It's a shaped card for July -What a great challenge - LOTS OF FUN!!  Come and join us here:  pearlysparkleschallenge

We hope you'll join us so we can see your creations:  pearlysparkleschallenge-july-shaped cards

I chose a heart-shaped 3D card with songbirds.  The shape is diecut with inset panels of patterned paper from My Minds Eye.  The birds are from various companies like Spellbinders, Couture Creations, etc.  The  cage and blue bird is Memory Box and I have doubled it back-to-back (one side turquoise one side black), the branch is Marianne.  The underneath base has a plain white panel to write a message on.  It folds flat for mailing and that's also why I haven't put embellishments like gems etc on.

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Happy Hedgie

 

Hi crafty friends,

welcome to our next Challenge here at Critter Crazy Challenges

join us here:  crittercrazy

Since we have now reached the 100 challenge, we would like to thank all the participants, the followers and the creative friends from the bottom of our hearts for all the years, the inspirations and the kind comments.  And 100 challenges must also be celebrated... 

For #100 we are making this our BIRTHDAY Bash Milestone and so for this one challenge, the theme is changing to 'animal birthday', and you're invited!! 

There will be special instructions and one of the special commenters will receive an animal theme prize package provided - check it out here:

crittercrazy

This happy hedgie is ready to paaaarty!!

  

Lots of technique here - stencilling, inking, diecutting, stamping, borders, pens.  The stars are made using a background die cut as a stencil.  I inked, moving the card around to cover 2/3 of the cardfront, then used a blending brush to colour the bottom upwards for a ombre effect and laid the border which is diecut from pearly card. Hedgie (HoneyBee die) pieces put together, edges lightly inked, placed Hedgie in front popping the top with foam tape so she stood out a bit from the background, and I pulled up her prickles a little for texture.  I made little gold dots between the stars, and highlights and shine on balloon (edges inked) with white gel pen.   

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asyoulikeit-favourite-2-colour-combo-and-why  I like blue and magenta together, so crisp and complementary

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