dynamic duo

This week at Seize the Birthday we have a terrific challenge courtesy of Jules. We are creating cards wtih matching tags. I used the cone flower stamp from one of my favourite stamp sets from Taylored Expressions & Lori Craig, Field Notes.

Be sure to check out the blog for some beautiful combos from the design team as well as our Surprise Party Guest, Deborah, and previous winner Vicky.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Always appreciate the comments!

Have a terrific day and a wonderful upcoming weekend,

Glenda

Details:

happy birthday card & birthday wishes tag

Stamps: Taylored Expressions Field Notes (flower) and CZ Designs (sentiments)

Inks: Versafine Black, Versa Claire Nocturne

Paper: green card stock, graph paper card stock, Distress watercolour paper

Accessories: Derwent Watercolour Pencils, Tim Holtz watercolour brush pen, washi tape, enamel dots, EK Success Round Binding Edge punch, A Muse ribbon, MFT tag die, clear embossing powder

bursting with balloons

Hey crafty friends! Hope you're enjoying spring or fall where you are. We might FINALLY be getting some warm temperatures here soon - can't wait. There is a joke that Canadians' favourite pastime is talking about the weather... I'm definitely feeling that lately.

This week at Seize the Birthday we are playing with balloons, courtesy of Vicki.  I had many iterations of balloon cards (that look nothing like these) before I settled on the first one. Then I was hunting through some stamps when I across a hot air balloon stamp that I had never used before so decided to make another one. Also found some patterned paper that I had been hoarding (surprise surprise) that suited the balloon well. The patterned paper is sparkly but it's hard to see. One sassy and one whimsical - do you have a favourite?

Hope you can play along with us! Check out the blog for the rest of the beautiful creations from the DT as well as our Surprise Party Guest Hilary and our Things in a Garden winner Claire. This is Hilary's last challenge with us - thank you so much for all of your fabulous creations!

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a terrific day! Always appreciate your comments.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Glenda

Card details:

Woo freakin' Hoo - 4.25"x5.5"

Stamps: Taylored Expressions (cat and sentiment), Hero Arts (background)

Ink: VersaMark, Versafine Claire Nocturne, Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Inks (for watercolour)

Paper: green and white card stock, Tim Holtz Distress White watercolour paper

Accessories: Glossy Accents, Tim Holtz water brush, MFT stitched rectangle dies, clear embossing powder

Happy Birthday - 5.5"x4.25"

Stamps: Unity (balloon), A Muse (sentiment)

Ink: Versafine Claire Nocturne, Versafine Black, Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Inks (for watercolour)

Paper: grey card stock, Tim Holtz Distress White watercolour paper, American Crafts patterned paper (retired)

Accessories: MFT stitched rectangle dies, clear embossing powder, Trinity Stamps bling, Tim Holtz water brush

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

stunning stencils

Welcome to another challenge over at Seize the Birthday. Cathy has chosen stencils this week.  I definitely have a bit of a stencil habit so the hard part was picking one.  I went with something simple to let the flower pop. Really like how this turned out. One embarrassing thing about this card? I've mailed it already so I can't remember what I used to watercolour the flower - Distress Inks or pencils. I suspect it was inks unless I was particularly thorough at blending out my pencil marks. Oops!

Be sure to pop on over to the blog to check out the delicious creations from the design team and welcome our new Surprise Party Guest, Carol McFarland. Great to have you join us Carol!

Hope you have a terrific day and a wonderful weekend!

Thanks for stopping by,

Glenda

Card details:

Happy Birthday

Stamps: PTI (sentiment), Taylored Expressions (flower)

Ink: Versafile Black, Versafine Clair Nocturne, Distress Ink Broken China

Paper: white cardstock, watercolour paper

Accessories: Tim Holtz stencil, washi tape, pearls, fine Copic (for doodle border)

pretty in pastels

Just a reminder... in the Northern Hemisphere there is still officially three weeks of summer left and fall has not arrived, even though the calendar says September! I'm a summer lover so am holding on as long as I can!

Our challenge at Seize the Birthday this week is pastel colours! Thanks to JoAnn for this challenge... I default to bright colours so this was a good challenge to get me out of my comfort zone.  That said, I stayed firmly in my CAS comfort zone for this card.  I quite like coral coloured poppies so that was my inspiration for this card. Please ignore my misaligned enamel dots.  I tried to fix one but the adhesive on those suckers is pretty aggressive.  I could have fixed it in Photoshop but then I decided not to... embrace the imperfection. ;) It may be hard to see but I stamped the birthday on light green.

Be sure to pop on over to the blog to check out the beautiful creations from the design team and our Surprise Party Guest, Jenny.

Hope you have a terrific day and a wonderful weekend!

Thanks for stopping by,

Glenda

Card details:

Celebrate the day - 4.25" x 5.5"

Stamps: SU! poppy, Avery Elle sentiment, Taylored Expressions grid

Ink: Versafine Black, Versamark, Versafine Clair Nocturne

Paper: kraft, white, green

Accessories: Derwent watercolour pencils, enamel dots, clear embossing powder, Tim Holtz water brush

elegant embossing

Happy Thursday friends! Our theme at Seize the Birthday this week, thanks to Ashwini, is using an embossing folder. Not sure if this worked exactly as I expected exactly as I hoped... however, I used one of my favourite sets, Sketchbook Florals, from Taylored Expressions/Lori Craig and that always makes me happy.

Be sure to check out the blog for our surprise party guest, Melanie, and the rest of the team's embossed beauties. Give the some crafty love!

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

Glenda

Card details:

birthday wishes

Stamps: Taylored Expressions Sketchbook Florals, Mama Elephant (sentiment)

Ink: Versafine Black, Versafine Clair Black

Paper: watercolour paper, A Muse retired Foolscap, coral and kraft card stock

Accessories: Tim Holtz/Sizzix embossing folder, tag punch, Derwent watercolour pencils, clear embossing powder, EK Success binding edge punch, washi tape, mini paper clip

very vellum

Seize the Birthday is playing with transparency/vellum this week (courtesy of Ashwini). Thanks for the great challenge. I chose vellum as it just seemed to fit the feel of my card.  Please ignore my slightly tipsy 'happy' ... guess it got into my martini from last time! Loved putting the stitching on this (it's a great way to attach the vellum), especially since this is one of the few things I've sewed lately that wasn't a mask! 

Hope you are able to play along and have some fun with this! Be sure to check out all of the fun creations from the rest of the team and our Surprise Party Guest Julie Peddicord!  This is Julie's last week with us.  Thanks so much for sharing your talent with us Julie!

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

Glenda

Card details:

happy birthday- 4 ¼" x 5 ½"  

Stamps: Altenew Halftone Happy, Taylored Expressions Rough Notes Background 

Ink: Versafine Black, Altenew Lava Rock

Paper: white, black, grey & blue card stock, watercolour paper

Accessories: watercolour pencils, sewing machine, SU! enamel dot, Simon Says Stamps daisy & happy die

yellow & kraft

Playing along with the Color Hues challenge - yellow & kraft.  (ETA: oops! Too late to make it into the links) As with the last challenge, I had several starts & stops before I made one that I'm happy with.

Thank you Color Hues for always challenging me and for having such a great design team!

Hope you're having a great weekend.

Thanks for stopping by,

Glenda

Card details:

Patience - 4 ¼" x 5 ½"  

Stamps: Taylored Expressions Sketchbook Florals, Rough Draft Background and Field Notes

Ink: Versamark, VersaColor Bark

Paper:SU! Crumbcake

Accessories: coloured pencils, enamel triangle, white embossing powder, twine

cream & gold

Playing along with Color Hues #3 - gold and cream.  I was inspired by this card from the CAS guru Jen. One thing I realized with this card is that gold is really hard to photograph!  LOL.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my Canadian friends - a little strange this year! A bunch of my family were together last year and this year we'll be having a Zoom get together on Sunday - family from BC to Ontario.  Looking forward to it!

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Glenda

Card details:

hello friend - 4.25" x 5.5"

Stamps: Ellen Hutson/Julie Ebersole Totally Random Sayings 2, Taylored Expressions/Lori Craig Field Notes

Ink: VersaMark

Paper: cream and black card stock, A Muse gold shimmer 

Accessories: Concord & 9th Butterfly die, Cuttlebug Swiss Die embossing folder, Nuvo dots, gold embossing folder, vellum

shades of blue

 Playing along with another Color Hues challenge! The colours this time are navy and turquoise... this is definitely a challenge for me because I don't use blues exclusively very often.  I was inspired by this card on Instagram to make some plaid....

Kept it pretty clean and simple. Have you played along at Color Hues yet? I've been having a lot of fun with it.

Hope you're having a great week.  Can't believe it's almost October!!

Glenda

Card details:

love you: 4.25"x5.5"

Stamp: Taylored Expressions Field Notes

Ink: VersaMark

Paper: white, grey, navy & turquoise card stock

Accessories: vellum, SU! enamel heart, Tim Holtz tiny attacher, white embossing powder, MFT Polaroid shaker die

200!!!!

We have a special challenge for you today.  

Seize the Birthday is celebrating its 200th challenge.  Woohoo!  

We are so grateful to all of you that have helped us reach this milestone. 

So for this challenge, Nancy is offering a Twenty-Five Dollar Simon Says Stamp Gift Certificate to each of our Top Winners. 

To add to the fun... there are 4 Mystery Design Team Members that have prizes up for grabs on their blogs.  However, the requirement to win ANY of those prizes is, you must go to ALL of the Design Team's blog and leave each one of them some love! We all need a little love in our lives these days.

Also for your post, we are asking you to explain how exactly you were inspired by our graphic!

Let me explain our topping ... for this challenge we want you to make a card and/or project that is inspired by the graphic below.  Whether it be the colours, the balloons, the watercolour vibe, or the numbers, etc. Whatever sparks your creativity.  Remember for this challenge only, we are asking you to explain in your post how exactly you were inspired! p.s. there is no 'anything goes' option for this challenge.

I was inspired by the watercolour and the colours!  Really looking forward to seeing all of the Seize the Birthday inspired creations.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for playing along with our challenge!

Glenda

Card details:

have an amazing day - 5⅝" x 3½" 

Stamps: Snarky Stamps, Taylored Expresses Field Notes

Paper: watercolour paper and black cardstock

Ink: Versafine Black, Distress Mermaid Lagoon, Twisted Citrus, Seedless Preserves, Aged Coral

Accessories: SU! amazing die, Trinity Stamps sequins

yellows & greens

Playing along with the brand new Color Hues challenge from my friend Nancy!  I have a really hard time typing color instead of colour - haha. Challenge #1 is yellow & green.  I have some new stamps & dies from Taylored Expressions & Lori Craig that are perfect for these colours.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you have a great weekend.
Glenda

Card details;
friend - 4.25"x5.5"
Stamps: Taylored Expressions Field Notes
Paper: SU! Very Vanilla & Green Apple, watercolour paper & yellow scrap
Ink: Adirondack Black and Versafine Black
Accessories: Sizzix note paper embossing folder, Cuttlebug Swiss dots embossing folder, Taylored Expressions Field Notes dies, twine, EK Success punch, Derwent watercolour pencils, Tim Holtz water brush, mini paper clip

glint of gold

Ack!  How is it almost September? I fell like the last two months have just disappeared! We've had a great summer so can't complain too much.  

At Seize the Birthday this week, we are all about the gold thanks to TaeEun! I had another card ready but then I got some new goodies (the Field Notes Kit) from Lori Craig & Taylored Expressions that I had to play with.  There is gold embossing & the little paperclip. I also used my new-ish set from Julie Ebersole & Ellen Hutson for the sentiment. Gotta love it when I can create with goodies designed by two of my favourite crafters!

I know you'll have fun with this! Be sure to check out the blog to see the glorious gold creations our Surprise Party Guest Jen and the rest of the team came up with. This is Jen's last week with us - we'll miss her!

If you're looking for a new colour challenge, be sure to check out the new one Nancy has created - it's called Color Hues! I love playing with color so can't wait to play along.

Wishing you a terrific day and wonderful weekend.  Thanks for stopping by.

Glenda

Card details:

happy birthday- 4.25"x5.5"

Stamps: Taylored Expressions Field Note Kit, Ellen Hutson

Ink: VersaMark, Versafine black, Altenew grey

Paper: grey card stock, watercolour paper, vellum

Accessories:  Derwent Watercolour pencils, Tim Holtz water brush, gold and white embossing powder, Jillibean Soup baker's twine, EK Success notebook edge punch

woo freakin' hoo

It's almost March crafty friends! I don't know about you but I'm wishing for spring in a big way. We had an unusual and excessive snow fall this month which was not fun... but I really shouldn't complain but we didn't have excessively subzero temperatures that some of the rest of Canada had.

Our theme this week at Seize the Birthday is make us laugh! I realize that I have very few funny stamp sets... because I'm pretty sure I used this set last time we had this theme.  Must remedy this... my friend and snarky card maker extraordinaire teammate Lindsey will be very disappointed in me. By the way, there is some Wink of Stella sparkle on the balloon but it's hard to tell.

Be sure to stop by the blog for all the rules & regs and to give some crafty love to our Surprise Party Guest Julie and the rest of the team.  

Happy March! Have a terrific day and wonderful weekend.

Glenda

Card details:
Happy Birthday - 4.25"x5.5"
Stamps: Taylored Expressions Party Grumplings
Ink: Ranger Archival Ink, Versafine Black
Paper: SU! Night of Navy & Lemon Lime Twist, watercolour paper
Accessories: Derwent watercolour pencils, Wink of Stella, water pen 

Sweeeeeet!!!

Happy Thursday friends!  Hope all is well in your world.  Thanks for stopping by.  We're sweetening things up over at Seize the Birthday this week.  Our topping/option this week is to add something sweet to your project.  I pulled out an adorable but neglected Taylored Expressions stamp set this week and had lots of fun paper piecing with it! For the cone, I used VersaMark ink on kraft paper and then put clear embossing powder on it. 

Hope you get a chance to play along with us this week.  Be sure to stop at the blog for all the rules on how to play along.  Give some love to our Surprise Party Guest Cathy and the rest of the design team.

Have a terrific day and a wonderful weekend.  Always appreciate you stopping by.

Glenda

Card details:

Yummy birthday - 4.25"x5.5"

Stamps: Taylored Expressions Build a Treat

Paper: green and white card stock, patterned paper scraps

Ink: Versafine Black, VersaMark

Accessories: Clear embossing powder, Copic pen