Quilled Birthday Wishes

I created this 4 layered quilled flower to include in a quilled floral design to place in a frame that I plan to display in my home, but instead, decided to use it for this birthday card (now I have an excuse to make another one):

I'm entering it in this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge:

Thanks for stopping by :)

Supplies Used:
Paper: CTMH Patterned, Colonial White, Cocoa, Barn Red; Quilling strips
Stamps: Verve Amazing Wishes
Ink: CTMH Cocoa
Other: CTMH Artisan Studs; Poppy Stamps Lorelai Leaf Die; Verve Charming Ovals Die Set; Cuttlebug; Cuttlebug flourishes embossing folder

Halloween Birthday Card

Here I go again taking The Diva Dare from Verve!  My Terrific Trios this time are the 3 inks I chose to sponge on the card, more specifically, on the cupcake (the background used four).  I had never intended to use this cute cupcake stamp set (one of Verve's latest releases) for a masculine card when I ordered it, but hey, boys love cupcakes too!  My nephew's birthday falls on Halloween and this year he's turning the big one-oh.  

I used the emboss/resist technique to create the background and the cupcake frosting:  The background was made using a chevron stencil - I heat embossed with Versamark & black embossing powder, then sponged on the different colours.  The cupcake was stamped with Versamark, then also sponged using the 3 inks. 

I added some glitter to the cupcake as well as to the number '10', which I drew in with a black Sharpie.

As a finishing touch, I thought it would be cute to incorporate a little spider (a digistamp) hanging by its web from the flag :o)

This card also qualifies for the Show Us Your Verve challenge, using 2 of Verve's August releases.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used:
Paper: CTMH White Daisy, Black
Stamps: Verve's Small Packages; MyGrafico Digistamp
Ink: Rangers Broken China Distressed Ink; CTMH Creme Brulee; SU Lovely Lilac & Only Orange
Other: Verve's Cupcake Frame Die Set; Cuttlebug; Color Box Chevrons stencil; Versamark; Stampendous Black embossing powder; Sponge; Martha Stewart Onyx & Turquoise glitter; Black Sharpie; silver thread from stash; 3-d foam tape

Wtf?

Well, it's been a while since I had the chance to make a card, and with our busy summer schedule, I'm surprised that this card actually came into fruition.  I couldn't not make a birthday card for my sister, though.  She's turning fifty and not too pleased about it, so I thought I'd aim for a card that would at least get her to smile :)  

I used this week's fun sketch from Freshly Made Sketches:

(It's hard to see in the photo, but IRL the background paper is a pretty shimmering blue)

Thanks for taking a look!

Supplies Used:
Paper: Recollections
Stamps: For the Birds TiddlyInks digistamp; CTMH Large Chocolate Alphabet
Ink: CTMH Black, Chocolate
Other: Cuttlebug; The Paper Studio Woodgrain embossing folder; Copics; Fiskars cloud punch; 3d foam tape; sponge

The Paper Players #177

Well, it's been quite the winter so far here in Ontario. Over the last couple of weeks, Mother Nature has generously provided us with: an ice storm (in which we, along with 250,000 others, were left without power for days, some even spending Christmas 'power'less); freezing cold temperatures reaching -40 C; and as a result: frost quakes! For those of you who aren't familiar with this term (I wasn't either until I experienced my first on Christmas Eve), basically it's when the temperature drastically drops, thus freezing the water that has seeped into the ground which causes the newly-formed ice to expand to the point where it 'cracks' the ground surrounding it. The result is an incredibly loud, thundrous noise-a loud BOOM-that has literally caused me to jump out of bed more than once! It's an amazing phenomenon, as well as frightening, to experience for the first time, but one that many of us have gotten used to over the last couple of weeks. As for the ice storm and resulting power outage, we were forced to find creative ways to keep ourselves busy and warm, one of which was to crowd ourselves (my sister's family included) into room one room and put on shadow puppet shows using candles, a bed sheet, and cardboard cut-outs! It's been a crazy end of the year, but definitely can't say it's been boring!  

Here are some photos of the ice storm. Everywhere you looked, ice, ice, and more ice.

Sadly, many of our cedars are drooped over at a nearly 90 degree angle, and our Maple tree on our front lawn broke in five places :(  
Although it caused a lot of damage, it also left breathtakingly beautiful scenery in its tracks.

Every single branch of every tree and bush was covered in ice:

Icicles, icicles everywhere!

Here's my son and nephews taking advantage of perfect skating conditions - If you look closely, you can see the ice that has formed on the tree branches in the background:

Now onto fresh starts/clean slates for the new year: My first card challenge of the year comes from The Paper Players.  Nance created a challenge that involves using the chalkboard technique, which I've never attempted before but have always wanted to. Here was my chance!

The card is actually much more sparkly and bright in person, which makes for a striking contrast against the black, and allowed me to keep it simple. The sparkles in the light pink cardstock even shine through the darker printed pink acetate paper :)  

Supplies Used:

Paper: Recollections black, pink & black glittered; K&Co. patterned pink acetate

Stamps: Verve 'Making a Statement'

Embellishments: CTMH baker's twine; gemstones unknown

Other: Versamark; Recollections Snow embossing powder; CTMH White Daisy Ink; heat gun; sponge; Scotch Vellum tape; Verve Rounded Scallop Frame die; Cuttlebug

Happy Fall Birthday

Mojo Monday has a fabulous sketch by Julee this week:

I needed a birthday card for a friend who'll be visiting from Europe next week and resorted to Mojo Monday for some inspiration. I also came across another challenge blog-Addicted to Stamps and More- where the theme this week is to colour in your project, and thought that I'd play along for the first time :)

 I decided to incorporate some fall colours as well as use this adorable digistamp from Tiddly Inks because it reminds me of her (blonde, cute, and sweet) :)  

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Verve 'Birthday Surprise'; Tiddly Inks digistamp

Inks: CTMH Black

Paper: Recollections; Basic Grey patterned paper

Other: Copics; Cuttlebug embossing folder; Spellbinders Big Scalloped Rectangles; Cuttlebug; 3d foam tape; Stickles; ribbon from my stash

A Grand Card for a Grand Father - The Paper Players #165

It's time to play Tic-Tac-Toe over at The Paper Players this week:

I went with a vertical line:  Birthday/Patterned Paper/Ribbon.

I've never made a card this large before, but considering it's my father's birthday and he has 4 children and 8 grandchildren, it offers lots of space for everyone to sign :o) AND he's much deserving of its grandeur.

I purchased the Circle of Love CTMH stamp set a long while back and find it hard to believe I've never used it until now because I think it's just gorgeous.  After stamping the image on watercolour paper, I used my Blending Pen with various inks to add colour to the feathers. I then added sparkles to certain areas using glitter sprinkled onto Liquid Glass (to give it demension). A few rhinestones and dotted Liquid Pearls finished off the peacock. 

I then heat embossed the sentiment as well as the blue background paper with the feather image offered in the set (I just realized I made another 'line' in the game!)  I assembled the card with a few layers of cs and added some ribbon using Glue Dots to make it wavy.  

I'm sure my dad will love it :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used:

Paper: Canson watercolour paper; CTMH Magnigique paper packet

Stamps: CTMH Circle of Love & For Every Occasion

Inks: CTMH Pear, Garnett, Lagoon, Moonstruck; Versamark

Embellishments: Liquid Pearls; brown ribbon and rhinestones from my stash

Other: Stampendous Translucent & Blue Tinsel embossing powders; Martha Stewart glitters (Charoite/Aquamarine Crystal/Peridot/Lapis); CTMH Liquid Glass, Blending Pen; Heat tool; Glue Dots

Mojo Monday 308

I thought it would be nice to make a card for my niece's 20th birthday and debut it as my first card challenge entry:) on my new blog! I headed over to the Mojo Monday blog to gather some inspiration for this 'simple quilled flower card'. This week's sketch:
  
Although it may be difficult to see in the photos, I added a sprinkling of glitter to the flower as well as some liquid pearls on and around the sentiment in order to add a touch of elegance:

Supplies Used:
Paper: CTMH Colonial White, Cocoa, Garden Green; Bazzill pink
Stamps:  Verve "Making a Statement" & "Birthday Surprise"
Dies: Verve "Rounded Scallop Frame"
Inks: CTMH Cocoa
Embellishments: Liquid Pearls; CTMH pearls, glitter; Michael's ribbon
Other: MS punch, 3-d foam tape; Cuttlebug embossing folder

Thanks for stopping by!