Honeycomb Happiness - Birthday Bird

 I have entered this card into this week's Crazy Crafters Team Project Highlight.  To vote for it or any of the other beautiful projects, click on the heading above.

This card is for a sweet young lady

I love this cheeky little fellow!  He's so much fun to colour.  With the colours I've chosen, though, perhaps it should be a female bird!  She's only available in Sale-A-Bration (until 31st March) free with a purchase of $90.

I stamped the bird with Archival Basic Black ink onto Shimmery White cardstock.  I masked her and stamped the balloon so that she's holding the balloon string under her wing.

My next step was to cut out the image using one of the Lots of Labels framelits, then I set about watercolouring her.

I gave her an all over pale coating of  Blushing Bride then I used Elegant Eggplant on her body, working from the edges towards the centre, keeping the brush moving to prevent hard lines.  Then I added some more Blushing Bride to the chest and around the eyes and beak.  I added just a hint of Rose Red to the wings, tail and to define where the head feathers meet the chest.  Her beak and feet are Pumpkin Pie with a touch of Cajun Craze for shadows.

I then turned my attention to the balloon, for which I used Elegant Eggplant ink.  I gave it an all over light coat and then built up the depth of colour at the bottom and sides to add dimension.  For the ribbon I used Blushing Bride and just a hint of Rose Red.

At this point the bird was floating in mid-air (seemingly without the use of its wings!), so I added some ground for it with Sahara Sand ink.

I stamped the greeting on a little piece of Shimmery White card and punched it out with the Large Oval punch.  Then I edged both pieces with Wisteria Wonder ink.

I gave the balloon and the greeting a coating of Wink of Stella for some extra shimmer.

Wink of Stella is so pretty and so hard to photograph!  I ended up putting it under a light!

I embossed a piece of Elegant Eggplant cardstock with the Elegant Dots embossing folder and layered in onto Blushing Bride then another layer of Elegant Eggplant before adhering it all to the Wisteria Wonder card.

I used the Triple Banner Punch on some little pieces of Wisteria Wonder and Blushing Bride cardstock and slipped them behind the main image, finishing off with some Elegant Eggplant Candy Dots.

'Til next time
Stephanie Product List

Honeycomb Happiness Clear-Mount Stamp Set

[141291]

Large Oval Punch

[119855]

Lots Of Labels Framelits Dies

[138281]

Decorative Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

[133520]

Banner Triple Punch

[138292]

Regals Candy Dots

[130932]

Wisteria Wonder A4 Card Stock

[124389]

Wisteria Wonder Classic Stampin' Pad

[126985]

Elegant Eggplant A4 Card Stock

[108614]

Elegant Eggplant Classic Stampin' Pad

[126969]

Card Stock A4 Blushing Bride

[131287]

Blushing Bride Classic Stampin' Pad

[131172]

Rose Red Classic Stampin' Pad

[126954]

Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush

[141897]

Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad

[126945]

Cajun Craze Classic Stampin' Pad

[126965]

Sahara Sand Classic Stampin' Pad

[126976]

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Kissing the Botanical Builder

It's never nice to make a sympathy card but, sadly, it's something that we need to do from time to time.

The flowers have quite a lot of depth.

I was demonstrating thekissing technique (pertaining only to stamping!) to my class this week and came home with the Everything Eleanor panel.  I decided to put it to good use in this card for a colleague who has suffered a bereavement.

I inked up the label image from Everything Eleanor with Smoky Slate ink and the floral image from Birthday Blossoms with Blackberry Bliss.  Then I kissed the floral stamp against the plain stamp.  The now patterned plain stamp was now ready to stamp onto Whisper White cardstock and afterwards I cut it out.

Using a bone folder, Simply Scored Stylus and Stampin Pierce Mat gives great depth to the flowers

I cut flowers and leaves with the Botanical Builders framelits from a Blackberry Bliss, Smoky Slate and Basic Grey cardstock.

I stamped the banner from Bloomin' Love in Blackberry Bliss onto Whisper White cardstock and then added the sentiment from Teeny Tiny Sentiments in Basic Grey before cutting it out with the Large Numbers framelits.

I layered Smoky Slate cardstock onto the Blackberry Bliss card followed by the Perfect Plum panel which I had embossed with the Elegant Dots embossing folder.

The finishing touches were a couple of Perfect Plum Candy Dots and some Rhinestone Jewels.

'Til next time

Stephanie

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Occasions Catalogue Preview - Birthday Blooms in black

Hasn't time flown - tomorrow's the day that everyone can make their purchases from the gorgeous new Occasions Catalogue and earn FREE Sale-a-bration items at the same time!

I'm a bit stuck on Crushed Curry and Wink of Stella at the moment - I don't seem to be able to keep away from them!

This card started out very differently and went through several different looks before ending up here!  There are still things I wish I'd done differently ... and I will - on the next one I make!

However, here it is.

So hard to capture, but this card really shimmers in the light!

I'm really in love with the beautiful shimmer from Wink of Stella - the only trouble I have with it is that it's REALLY hard to photograph!

I added more Wink of Stella to the lighter areas of the flower.

I clear heat-embossed the birthday bloom onto Basic Black cardstock and then bleached it.  Once the bleach was good and dry, I applied a generous coating of clear Wink of Stella.  I used the Out of the Box technique to die cut the floral centrepiece with one of the Ovals Collection framelits.  

I used both sides of the yellow sheet in the Perfectly Artistic Designer Series Paper Pack (141021).  This is a FREE Sale-a-bration item (with a $90 purchase) but is only available for a limited time.  It's gorgeous, so don't delay!

I stamped random(ish) dots using one of the stamps in the Birthday Blooms set.  I did this by applying some gold Wink of Stella to the stamp, so the gold dots shimmer in the light.

I painted the flowers in the lower corners of the card with Crushed Curry ink as well as some gold and clear Wink of Stella.  

I also stamped some random little flowers onto the background with Crushed Curry ink that I'd stamped off twice.

The greeting is from the Birthday Blossoms set.

'Til next time

Stephanie

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Occasions Catalogue Preview - Picture Perfect Bird

Happy New Year!!!  Welcome to my first post of 2016!

That's exciting enough in itself but it also means that we're only a few days away from Sale-a-bration and purchasing from the new Occasions Catalogue! Yay!  Remember, from 5th January to 31st March you can choose one FREE Sale-a-bration item for every $90 you spend!

A get well card suitable for a sick male!

One of our friends is spending New Year in hospital so I made this card to cheer him up a bit.

I've used the bird from the Picture Perfect stamp set (140520) in the new Occasions Catalogue.  This set represents great value with 18 photopolymer stamps in the set!  It's also very versatile since it includes a two-step star fish, a three-step flower and this four-step bird.

Yes, that's right - this is a four-step stamp!  I must admit that I was at first a little intimidated by that - but once I inked up the stamps I found it very easy to use and it gives a beautiful effect.  The possibilities are endless with colour combinations!  This one used Smoky Slate, Basic Grey and Crushed Curry inks.

I wanted the bird to be breaking free so I used the out of the box technique for die cutting, masked the bird and sponged with Smoky Slate.

I then cut a larger piece with the Lots of Labels dies and used a mask to sponge on clouds with Soft Sky and Marina Mist ink.  The last of the Lots of Labels layers was cut from Soft Sky cardstock.

The next layer is whisper white cardstock.  I embossed it with the ElegantDots embossing folder, punched the corners with the Curvy Cornere Trio Punch (139683 in the Occasions Catalogue) and sponged the edges with Smoky Slate and Basic Grey inks before adhering it to the Crushed Curry card.

The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Sentiments, stamped in Basic Black ink.

To give the bird a bit of lift (sorry - couldn't help myself!), I popped the Soft Sky layer up on dimensionals.

Dimensionals add a bit of lift to the bird

I added a gel pen dot to bring the eye to life

I hope you like this card - please leave a comment!

'Til next time

Stephanie

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Timeless Love Wreath

Timeless Love stamped twice

I have a very simple card for you today.  For me it was mainly about the colour combination - I've always liked yellow and grey together. 

In this card, I stamped the flowers from Timeless Love twice to form a circle which I then cut and added a mat of Smoky Grey.  I watercoloured the flowers with Crushed Curry, Delightful Dijon, Mint Macaron and Wild Wasabi.

The base card is Crushed Curry topped with a panel of Basic Grey that I embossed with the Elegant Dots embossing folder.

Then I used up some leftover strips of Crushed Curry and Basic Grey to add some more interest.  Using black ink I stamped them with a variety of patterns from the Butterfly Basics, Kinda Eclectic and Bohemian Borders stamp sets.

Thanks for looking.
Stephanie