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.
04 August 2022
stamp free
01 August 2022
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.
21 July 2022
cool colours
07 July 2022
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.
23 June 2022
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.
09 June 2022
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.
26 May 2022
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.
12 May 2022
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.
28 April 2022
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.
14 April 2022
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.
31 March 2022
stripe it up
17 March 2022
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!).
03 March 2022
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.
01 March 2022
#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.
17 February 2022
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.