stamp free

It was my turn to pick a theme this week at Seize the Birthday so I decided on something that is challenging for me - no stamping! I was struggling for inspiration for this card so I'm not 100% happy with it... but a wise friend & fellow design team member said to me this week "sometimes we just have to set our opinions aside".  I didn't have a die to suit this card so I just wrote celebrate out by hand. It was fun using some new Tim Holtz dies and some cheerful Distress Oxides along with this fun mask from Taylored Expressions.

Be sure to head over to the blog to see the fabulous creations from our Surprise Party Guest Karren and the rest of the team have created.

If you are a regular Seize the Birthday player, you will have likely heard of the passing of our inspiring team member and wonderful friend Lindsey Martin-Penny.  We are co-hosting a tribute to Lindsey over at our sister challenge Color Hues if you'd like to join us (here is my card). Still hard to believe she's no longer with us. 

Wishing you a wonderful day. Thank you for stopping by.

Glenda

Card details:

celebrate - 4" x 5 ¼"

Paper: white, black and grey card stock

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Oxides

Accessories: white paint, Taylored Expressions mask, Tim Holtz Modern Floristry Dies

love for Lindsey

Well, this is the hardest post I've ever had to write. My friend, and fellow Seize the Birthday teammate, Lindsey Martin-Penny has passed away from cancer. I'm absolutely gutted that this beautiful shining light, with all of her sass, humour, realness and kindness, is gone.  I was so fortunate to be able to meet Lindsey in person a few times and share some meals and laughs with her and her husband. In her last few days, I was sending her little videos from the beach (and maybe some photos of cocktails from my recent birthday party) and even when she was so sick, she had her love of life and sense of humour out in full force. She will be so missed by so many people and she'll always have a place in my heart.

Today the Seize the Birthday Team is playing along with their Sister Challenge - Color Hues where Lindsey was also a Design Team Member. This challenge was to be hosted by Lindsey, so the Design Team wants to honour and celebrate her beautiful, creative life by sharing "Lindsey Inspired" projects using her Blue and Purple combination, along with things she loved the most, as inspiration. 

We hope that you will join us as we pay tribute to our 

dear friend and teammate.

Here are a few of her favorite things:

humor, cats

gardening/flowers

love of reading

friendship

wine

tea

*If you are a regular at Color Hues and/or Seize the Birthday you might also know that Lindsey loved Clean and Simple cards too.

Here's my purple and blue wine card:

I have toasted Lindsey with a glass of wine (and maybe a cocktail too - cause she liked those as well) and trust it is always happy hour wherever she is right now.  She loved red almost as much as I do so I added just a wee pop of red in her honour. She had been commenting lately on how much she liked my alcohol ink cards lately so I thought it would appropriate to use it for this card.

We would love for you to join us and you can find all the details along with inspiration from both of the Design Teams over at the Color Hues blog below.

Special Tribute @ Color Hues

Thanks,

Glenda

cool colours

I always love colour challenges and this week at Seize the Birthday is no exception.  Colleen has asked us to use purple, blue and green for our challenge this week.  I blended some Distress Oxides (I've listed the colours below but it's a bit of a guestimation as I did the card a while ago) and then stamped this gorgeous Nautilus stamp from Hero Arts. The scientist in me definitely suggests Googling nautilus to see what cool (and very ancient) creatures they are (and they are not coloured green, blue and purple!),

Please check out the fabulous creations from our Surprise Party Guest Karren and the rest of the fabulous design team.

Thanks so much for stopping by and hope July is treating you well.  I just celebrated a BIG birthday and am feeling quite fortunate for all of the love I'm getting from friends & family. 

Have a great day,

Glenda

Card details

birthday wishes (mailed this already & forgot to measure!)

Stamps: Hero Arts Nautilus Pattern Bold Prints, Julie Ebersole/Ellen Hudson Totally Random Sayings Vol 2

Paper: black & white card stock

Ink: Distress Oxides - Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers & Seedless Preserves

Accessories: Trinity Stamps bling

marvelous metallics

Happy July! It happens to be my favourite month (as it's my birthday month!). Cathy has chosen the metallics theme for us at Seize the Birthday this week. I did not do anything fancy (looking at the description on the blog - I don't think I even own half of those things - haha!). I have some new Tim Holtz dies so was playing around with some metallic and shimmer papers for the CAS card. A little hard to see but the black, red and gold are shimmer papers and the silver is shinier.

A big welcome to our new Surprise Party Guest, Karren Johnson!  Be sure to check out what she and the rest of the team have come up with over at the blog.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Have a terrific day and wonderful weekend.

Glenda

Card details:

love & laughter - 4.25"x5.5"

Stamps: Hero Arts Let's Celebrate

Paper: white card stock, gold, red & black shimmer paper, silver paper

Ink: Versafine Black

Accessories: gem, Tim Holtz Abstract Faces Dies

sunny summer

Over at Seize the Birthday this week, Barb has challenged us to make cards around summer activities.  I love warm weather so just being outside in the summer is one of my favourite things. I dug out one of my favourite vintage wood mounted stamps to make this stamp.  Getting the smooshes watercolour background "just right" took several attempts but finally got one that I liked. It's hard to see but I used a green sparkle pen for the leaves on the tree.

Hope you can join our Surprise Party guest Lorraine (thank you for all of your amazing creations the last couple of months!) and the rest of the team to create some crafty goodness around summer activities.

I think summer may have finally arrived here so I'm looking forward to spending some time outside this weekend.  Hope you can too.

Thanks for stopping by,

Glenda

Card details:

celebrate

Stamps: sentiment from PTI, image from A Muse

Ink: Distress Oxides, Adirondack Black

Paper: watercolour

Accessories: grommet, green sparkle pen, corner rounder punch

terrific techniques

Over at Seize the Birthday this week, we are playing with our favourite techniques.  Thank you Ashwini for picking this! I really don't think of myself as a 'technique' person so I was a little intimidated at first. However, I realized I was likely overthinking things and pulled out my trusty Gelli Arts plate (and my craft apron because I get messy when I use my plate and paints).  I love using it but don't do it often enough. This is created with some paint and some new Tim Holtz dies.  Hope you like it! I confess to doing a lot of playing before I came up with one that I was happy sharing.

Please join us! This is a pretty easy one because you can the technique that brings you the most joy. :)

Be sure to check out what Lorraine, our Surprise Party Guest, and the rest of the DT have come up with.

Thanks for stopping by and have a terrific day.

Glenda

Card details:

birthday wishes - 4.25"x5.5"

Stamps: Julie Ebersole/Ellen Hudson Totally Random Sayings Vol 2

Paper: white and kraft cardstock

Ink: Distress Oxide Abandoned Coral

Accessories: Artist's Loft Paints, GelliArts plate, white pearls, Tim Holtz Artsy Stems dies

spectacular stencils

It's time for another Seize the Birthday challenge!  This week it's all about stencils thanks to Vicki. I definitely do not have a shortage of stencils and managed to use five on this card. The one that is a little tricky to see is the stars - I did it with white ink (it's easier to see IRL). There's a little glimpse of it in the upper right corner against the black bubbles. I had a lot of fun with this as I dug out some paste and some glitter too.

Check out what our Surprise Party Guest Lorraine and the rest of the DT came up with over at the blog.  Hope you can join us!

Wishing you a terrific day and a wonderful weekend.

Always appreciate that you stopped by.

Glenda

Card details:

love & laughter - 3.25"x5.5"

Stamps: Hero Arts Let's Celebrate

Paper: watercolour, white card stock

Inks: Versafine Black, Distress Oxides

Accessories: stencils, paste, glitter, corner rounder punch

sassy stitching

How did it get to be May? That is a rhetorical question of course but it feels like this year has been flying by! Still not very warm here.... getting a little impatient. LOL.

It's our first Seize the Birthday challenge in May and that means we have a new Surprise Party, the fabulous Lorraine Aquilina (of Simon Says Stamp Design Team fame).  Welcome Lorraine! Shirley has picked our challenge theme for this week and it is stitching (real or faux). I chose real as I always need an excuse to use my sewing machine (which it very close to my craft table).  Pretty CAS as if often the case with me.

Hope you can join us!  Be sure to check out the spectacular creations that Lorraine and the rest of the team have come up with over at the blog.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend,

Glenda

Card details:

Happy Birthday - 4.25"x5.5"

Stamps: Ellen Hutson/Julie Ebersole Organic Elements & Totally Random Sayings Vol 2

Paper: white card stock

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Oxides, Versafine Black

Accessories: sewing machine stitching, gem

beautiful butterflies

We are playing with another spring theme over at Seize the Birthday this weekend. Nancy picked butterflies or hummingbirds.  I don't have any hummingbirds in my crafty stash so butterflies it is! I love my Concord & 9th butterfly die.  I used it with an alcohol ink panel... and I liked it so much that I decided to make two. Let me know your favourite.

Please be sure to see the beautiful creations Surprise Party Guest Deepti (this is her last week, thank you Deepti for the fabulous creations!) and the rest of the STB team have come up with over on the blog.

Thanks for stopping by! Always appreciate your comments. Have a great day.

Take care,

Glenda

Card details:

Happy Birthday - 4.25"x5.5"

Stamps: Paper Smooches

Paper: black & white card stock & Yupo paper

Ink: Tim Holtz/Ranger alcohol inks, Versafine die

Accessories: Concord & 9th butterfly die, A Muse pearls, heart enamel sticker

signs of spring

Well it's spring in the Northern Hemisphere... or it's trying to be.  Not surprisingly, we have all sorts of weather here... sun, wind, rain, hail... and rumour has it there was snow a few places close by this past weekend. I just want it to warm up at bit so snow isn't in the forecast!

Lovely Lindsey has chosen signs of spring for our challenge at Seize the Birthday this week. I did another tall card... not true 'slim line' dimensions but still long and lean.  I quite like tall cards and must remember to do them more often. I have so much ribbon and hardly ever use it anymore so thought I would add a little ribbon accent.  Wasn't sure how I was going to do the sentiment (not very many tall sentiments around) so it took a while to figure something out but am quite happy with it.

Please be sure to see the spectacular spring creations Surprise Party Guest Deepti and the rest of the STB team have come up with over on the blog.

Thanks for stopping by! Always appreciate your comments. Have a great day.

Take care,

Glenda

Card details:

belated birthday wishes - 3.75"x7.75"

Stamps: Paper Smooches

Paper: black & white card stock 

Ink: Tim Holtz/Ranger Distress Oxides

Accessories: Tim Holtz stencil, Tim Holtz tiny attacher, ribbon, MFT stitched rectangle die

stripe it up

Wow - where did March go?! Hard to believe it's April tomorrow but I am loving the longer days and warmer weather.

Jules picked our Seize the Birthday Challenge this week - stripes!  I love stripes - especially on patterned paper. I have a tendency to accumulate striped paper instead of using it so decided I should make use of some on this card. They suit a slimline card quite well, I think.  I know these are more autumn colours but I quite like these colours together.  

Please be sure to see what Surprise Party Guest Deepti Aggarwal and the rest of the STB team have come up with over on the blog.

Thanks for stopping by and take care.

Glenda

Card details:

wish big - 3.5"x8.5"

Stamps: Paper Smooches

Paper: SU! patterned paper, Crumb Cake & Cajun Craze, cream card stock

Ink: VersaColor Pine Cone

Accessories: Tim Holtz die, SU! adhesive linen, A Muse pearls

cheers to green

Time for another Seize the Birthday challenge and JoAnn has picked a green & white theme.  Perfect for St. Patrick's Day and the arrival of spring in the northern hemispheres. I thought I would go very celebratory with my card this week. Playing with my alcohol inks again (it's become a bit of a habit!).

Please be sure to see what Surprise Party Guest Deepti Aggarwal and the rest of the STB team have come up with over on the blog.

Thanks for stopping by and take care.

Glenda

Card details:

cheers - 4.25"x5.5"

Stamps: none! *gasp*

Paper: Yupo, SU! Lucky Limeade, white & black card stock

Ink: Ranger/Tim Holtz alcohol inks

Accessories: Hero Arts martini die (including lime slice), Paper Smooches cheers die, Sizzix Connect the Dots embossing folder, Trinity Stamps bling

ornate ocean creatures

Those who know me well won't be surprised that I picked the Seize the Birthday challenge for this week. I have a love for all things ocean so picked ocean creatures. Another thing that shouldn't be a surprise is that I've been playing with my alcohol inks again. This was not the first try at this background (I go through a lot of Yupo paper - need to find it in bulk for cheap!) but I'm really happy with how it turned out. The jellies are done with shimmer paper but it's hard to tell.

Every time I play with ocean stuff, I remember I don't have decent size shark stamp that I love (I have a small one). I need to remedy this as I love sharks probably most of all sea creatures. Jellies are pretty cool though too.

Please be sure to give our new  Surprise Party Guest Deepti Aggarwal a very warm welcome.  She is so talented and I look  forward to seeing what she comes up with during her time with us!  Also give some love to the rest of the STB team over on the blog.

I know the world feels heavy right now but I hope you can be kind to yourself and do something you love (like craft!).

Thanks for stopping by and take care.

Glenda

Card details:

celebrate - 5"x7"

Stamp: PTI

Paper: Yupo, white card stock

Ink: Versafine Black, Ranger/Tim Holtz alcohol inks.

Accessories: Memory Box Jellyfish die, SU! word window punch, Trinity Stamps bauble

#cardsforukraine

I am joining Seize the Birthday's sister challenge, Color Hues Color Challenge, in honouring Ukraine today with a yellow & blue challenge (for the Ukrainian flag). My words are few about what is going on in the world.  I'm trying to find a balance between staying informed and keeping my mental health intact. That said, I am so glad to be joining them today... just to put some some crafty love out into the world.

After some false starts, I finally made a card that I'm happy with. I made a 'stencil' by running my sunflower (the national flower of Ukraine) die through my die cutter with some masking paper. Used some Distress Ink to blend this sunflower background.  Fortunately, a random scrap of blue paper I found just happen to match with a couple of enamel dots I had lying around.

It would be great if you could join Color Hues with this blue and yellow challenge (or their regular challenge for this week). All the details are on their blog. I'm so honoured that they asked me to join in.

With the state of the world at the moment, I hope you are being kind to yourself and others. Taking time away from the news to relax and do things you enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by.

Glenda

Card details:

Thinking of you - 4.25"x5.5"

Stamps: Ellen Hutson/Julie Ebersole Totally Random Sayings Vol. 3

Ink: Tim Holtz Mustard Seed Distress Ink

Paper: White card stock, scrap of blue card stock

Accessories: SU! sunflower die, MFT stitched rectangle dies, enamel dots

delicious dichrome

Happy Thursday crafty friends! Over at Seize the Birthday this week we are playing with colour, but just two! Dichromatic is the theme courtesy of Ashwini! You know that if I will incorporate red as much as I can and I particularly like it with yellow. Kept this pretty CAS.

Be sure to head over to the blog to see the other colourful creations from the team and our Surprise Party Guest, Vicky.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a terrific day and wonderful weekend.

Glenda

Card details:

Birthday Wishes - 4.25"x5.5"

Stamps: Avery Elle (sentiment & heart), Ellen Hutson/Julie Ebersole (half circle)

Ink: Versafine Black, Versa Magic Mango Madness

Paper: SU Mango Melody and Merry Merlot, white card stock

Accessories: Trinity Stamps bling, MFT stitched rectangles die