Musical Soul birthday card

My card today is a stamped card that I made for my son's birthday with a musical theme to it as he is a budding musician.

To create the background and the topper for my card I used Tim Holtz distress oxide ink pads in peacock feathers and twisted citron. I love these distress oxides, they are perfect for layering colour without losing tone.

The card I used for this project happened to be Hunkydory ink Me 300 gsm card. It's a beautiful super smooth card which takes the ink really well and I think I am running very low on it.

For the main image I used one of my many favourite stamps by Visible Image - Jazz it up and the reason I chose this one is simple, not only is it a brilliantly textured stamp, but my son also plays the saxophone. I stamped and heat embossed my image with black embossing powder to add to the textured finish on this stamp.

I created a stamped border around my topper and the background that I had made, using the small splatter stamp from the Music on - World off stamp set by Visible Image. I also added glossy accent to the piano notes from the piano/keyboard stamp in the  Jazz It Up stamp set, along with the scales and musical notes from Sheena Douglass's Music & Dance stamp set.

Visible Image has some really thought provoking sentiments to accompany their stamp sets and I love the slightly blurred typewriter style too.

I used black card to frame the topper and my background too before backing it onto my white cardstock. I also chose these colours as my son likes green and I liked the two-tone blend of the colours that I have used.

I didn't feel that it needed to have a birthday sentiment on the front as I added a personal verse for the inside of the card and I made an envelope using some two-tone 12x12 card from my stash that I had bought some time ago from The Works, great shop.

I love to hear my son play the saxophone, he has an ear for music and a  natural ability to play. I can't even read music let alone play an instrument.....unless you count the recorder in junior school ha ha....not a good memory!!

Music is the one thing that can unite souls around the world from every walk of life.

"Music is a world within itself, it is a world that we all understand "- Stevie Wonder

Enjoy your day,

Honey Bear

The project I am sharing today is part of the monthly progressive digi blog challenge with Imagine that digistamp.

As I took part in last month's challenge  I was sent this months digi pack the Honey Bear, to use in this months challenge.

I used my Tattered Lace hexagon nested pindot dies for my card base with two of the three design papers provided, creating a picture frame front for my honey bear image to sit comfortably into. I used the smallest hexagon die to make honeycomb embellishments on the edge of my card. I decoupaged the pre-coloured image of my bear to add a little dimension and used one of the sentiments, which I die cut into a tag. This sentiment is so cute.

One of the great things about digi images is that you can re-size them which makes them even more versatile when you are crafting. I resized these daisies, which I absolutely love and clustered them into 3s, which made them easier for me to cut out and position where I wanted them on my project.The other brilliant thing about them is that they can be coloured for you or left for you to add your own. I also used my favourite go-to product, glossy accent and used it on the honey, sentiment and flower centres.

I used the same bumblebee pattern design paper on the back of my card and thought that I'd also carry the design through to the inside also, where I used more of the sentiments. I added a few little flowers too.

For my second little card, I added the other pre-coloured honey bear image to the turquoise daisy design paper before I printed it out. I also enlarged these gorgeous daisies which I think would make really cool daisy chains and all sorts of other things too which is why I really like this particular really simple digi stamp.

Glossy Accent has also been added to the honey and the flower centres as well as a little shimmer added to the beehive too. The reason I really like the simplicity of flowers like this is that they are easier to cut out and layer up to make really pretty dimensional flowers like this.

This was my favourite sentiment from the pack that I was sent and one that I will definitely be using again in my projects. I added a few more flowers to the inside of the card to balance it out.

I didn't get to use one of the beautiful design papers from this collection but as there are so many elements that I will revisit for future projects, it will give me a good excuse to share another project soon.

Have a look at some of the inspiration Kris at Imagine That Digistamp and her design team have provided for her designs, along with the other crafters' contributions who have joined in this challenge to which are always really interesting to see.

Happy Crafting!

Something stitchy Birthday card

Today I am sharing a birthday card that I was asked to make for a friend that liked sewing.   As this card focuses more on sewing and less on flowers which I normally like to add on, I felt that a 6x6 card would be the ideal size with the dies that I was intending to use.

The beginning of March sees the start of a new blog challenge also for us at Let's Craft & Create with another colour theme. For March it's purple & green as with all our blog challenges they are also ATG.

On the white card base, I used a layer of The Dreamees sage green card along with the papers from their fantasy florals paper pad. One of the design papers in this collection has a print which resembles linen, so I used that with the Dreamees loops & lace doily die to form the centrepiece in my card.

I used the sparkle dinky inkies around the edges of my papers which added a little tone as well as a little shimmer in just the right places. I used one of the border dies from the loops and lace collection to create a panel for the strip of lavender lace to sit on, but most of it is hidden behind the doily.

I had the perfect set of dies for this card which I used from my Tattered Lace Pastel Haven collection, I printed the charisma papers onto glossy card, decoupaged the pincushion a little and added glossy accent to the pinheads and foe pearls on the pincushion.

The sewing table just needed to be given a little shape and I added a little piece of pink cotton behind the die-cut to look as if the sewing machine had been threaded, as well as a little glossy accent on a few reels to make them stand out.  I think I would be lost without glossy accent, it makes all the difference. This die actually comes with some wording but not what I needed for this project so I added my own.

I added a few of the die cut buttons and some lavender readymade flowers as I thought they suited this card better and then after adding the pearls and checking everything over I add the verse to go inside.

I could have made a bigger card as I have been making bigger cards lately, but sometimes I think it's easy to lose focus on what you set out to achieve and before you know it you have extra space on a card to fill and you start adding bits that you hadn't originally intended. Sometimes, less really is more.

Our design team have also been busy this month with projects of their own and there is always lots of fabulous inspiration shared by the crafters on our blog too. If you are interested,  there is a prize for the winning entry, following our theme and a badge for your blog for the top 3 runners up. Just click on the link below which will take you to our blog challenge. 

Happy Crafting!

A Friendship Dish Birthday Card

Today's share is a birthday card that was made for a friends birthday and I have used the design papers to make my flowers with as well as for the card itself.

It is also the start of our blog challenge over on Daisy Chains this month and our theme for that is flowers and as always, there is an ATG option. As my card has lots of flowers as a focal point around a sentiment, I thought it would be a good one to share this month.

For my 8x8 inch card, I used the cocoa and lace paper pad by the Dreamees, also an ideal colour palette to suit my friend too.

To make my flowers, I used the Dreamees Loops and Lace flower dies with the patterned papers along the leaf dies from the embellishment die set.

For the centres of some of the flowers, I used a quilling tool to create the rolled centres, which makes flower making a lot easier as I'm not as dexterous as I used to be. I don't mind how long it takes me to make flowers, as long as the look how I want them to look in the end.

On a piece of pale grey vellum from my stash, I heat embossed the friendship dish sentiment from the Dreamees using bright white Wow embossing powder. This sentiment was one of the very early Dreamee sentiment stamps and has been very well used over the years.

I used the border die from oval die set in the Loops & Lace collection to make the lacy centre border and added a strip of white lace and some flat backed flower shaped pearl strings by Hobby House from my stash under the centre panel where my stamped sentiment sit.

It's such a pretty paper pad, very subtle and I love the mix of lace and latte in this one.

I normally have a 12x12 card pad in my stash to make boxes or enveloboxes for my cards as I do like making bigger cards to incorporate all my flowers on how I want them.

The rest of our design team have also been making some lovely projects this month, along with so many great crafters on our blog every month. It's always lovely to see the inspiration everyone shares. Please use the link below to take you to the blog challenge and thanks for the visit.

happy crafting!