Rainbow themed Birthday Cards

Today I am sharing 3 cards I made with a rainbow theme to wish a colorful and bright birthday to the recipients.

Card 1 - Distress Inks blending over Stencil

For this card I used the Birch Tree stencil by Tim Holtz and blended in Distress Inks in rainbow order. I also cut out two birds using my Silhouette Curio and placed them on the trees. The effect created can either be interpreted as a rainbow seen thru the trees or a view of the sun setting thru the trees and the night taking over.

I then adhered the front panel onto a 6x6 card base and added a Happy Birthday sentiment from the SSS Sketch Ranunculus stamp set.

Challenges

1. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Happy Birthday
2. Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge - Blend
3. Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies Challenge
4. Time Out Challenge # 80

Card 2 - Distress Ink Blending

Similar to the previous card, I blended the rainbow colors using Distress Inks on circles of different sizes I cut out and stuck them on an A2 card base in rainbow order. I then used a sequin stamp from Wplus9's Little Bits stamps to get colorful sequins all over the card.

I again used the Happy Birthday sentiment from the SSS Sketch Ranunculus stamp set to finish off the simple card.

Challenges

1. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Happy Birthday
2. Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge - Blend
3. Time Out Challenge # 80
4. Muse Challenge #211 - inspired by the colors and circles. 

Card 3 - Watercoloring using Zig Clean Color and Stencil

For this card I took a Triangle stencil and then Watercolored the different triangles in rainbow colors using my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens. Then using an alphabet stencil and a white Uniball Signo pen I wrote the word Birthday on the painted triangles.

I then took a strip of paper and again using the Zigs created a Rainbow strip which I adhered to the base of the card. The word 'happy' I cut out using my Curio. To finish off the card I again used the sequin stamp from Wplus9's Little Bits stamps with my Zigs to get sequins on top of the card.

Challenges

1. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Happy Birthday
2. Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies Challenge
3. Happy Little Stampers Watercolor Challenge - Anything Goes with Rainbow twist
4. Time Out Challenge # 80

Hope you enjoyed today's colorful bunch of cards!

Valentine's Day cards for Him & Her

I am sharing a couple of cards I made based on Love using Mudra stamps.

As you can see both are very contrasting cards - one for the guy and the other for the girl

Card for Him

My main aim for this card was to create something not using the typical colors you would find in a Valentine's Day card. So i decided to go in for a Vintage look to symbolize Love that lasts forever. For this I thought i would try to make a worn out page of a book  with the word Love popping out from different places.

So I stamped the word Love from the Love stamp set by Mudra and then used the Old Script stamp by Mudra to cover up the remaining areas around the stamped Loves. Then I blended some Antique Linen, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo Distress Inks to create that worn out distressed look. With the background ready I proceeded to stamp the word Forever from the same Love stamp set on a piece of vellum and adhered it to the lower half of the background. I also stamped a small heart in Red just to add a pop of color. I used some Bakers twine to create two borders above and below the vellum strip.

I wanted to add some wilted flowers so I cut up few flowers inked in Walnut Stain Distress Ink and stuck them on the top right corner of the background. Embellished the flowers and the vellum strip with some Gold Liquid Pearls. To finish the card I mounted the whole panel on to black card base.

Card for Her

For this card, the only thing I had in mind while starting off the card was the hearts background in Violet and Pink. Because of that this turned out to be a card on which I spent a long time - not because it was complicated but because I kept changing the look and colors and the elements that go on the card.

I stamped the outline of the heart balloons from the Love stamp set by Mudra on some watercolor cardstock and colored them with Wilted Violet Distress Marker and Pink Zig to create a watercolored effect. Once this was done I started thinking of what would complement this background and after trying several things settled on creating a border of hearts using a heart punch and placing a cardbase blended with Wilted Violet (in the front) underneath the heart border.

I added white ribbons to form a frame on top of the hearts background. I then mounted the heart background on top with the heart borders only on the bottom and the right side. For the sentiment I used the same stamp set to stamp on small piece of cardstock and created a border using the Wilted Violet Marker and mounted it on top of the heart background. I finished off the card with some shine from the Wink of Stella glitter brush and some sequins.

I am entering these cards in the following challenges.

1. Mudra Challenge # 6 Love

2. Parus Card Making Challenges - February Challenge - Love

Watercolor Resist Cards

Sharing a couple of cards I made using the watercolor resist technique - something I have been wanting to try for sometime now.

The technique involves creating a kind of a surface using anything that basically resists color. For my cards I used heat embossing as the technique to resist the watercolors.

I made two contrasting CAS cards - one for a birthday party related theme and the other a bit more on the elegant side to say a simple 'Thanks'.

Card 1 - Celebration Card

For this card I used the Birthday Bash stamp set from Paper Smooches. I heat embossed the balloons and the sentiment on Watercolor paper from Canson - the balloons in white and the sentiment in silver. These elements would work as the resist for my technique. I also stamped a cake from the same stamp set using Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink.

I used Zig Clean Color Real Pens to be my watercolor medium. First I applied water with a brush all across the paper. I applied some Blue Zig on to a clear acrylic block and used a brush to apply the color on the entire panel. The embossed parts resisted the color. I also avoided coloring inside the cake. Once I got some color for the background I proceeded to color inside the balloons in a similar manner blending a few colors from the acrylic block. I then colored the cake. I felt the background needed more color so I added more color around the balloons till I got the desired look.
The colors used are Cobalt Blue, Blue and Carmine Red.

I felt the balloons looked bare without the strings. I wanted a bit more of silver on my card as well so I used the Clear Emboss It pen from Ranger to draw strings and then heat embossed them in silver. I finished the card by adding some white dots on the balloons and the cake using white Sakura Gelly Roll pen.

I am entering this card in the following challenges.

• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Party Time

• AAA Cards CAS Game # 80 - Silver

• CAS Watercolor December Challenge - Watercolor Resist

• CAS(E) this Sketch # 202

• Muse Challenge # 197 - inspired by the Background color 

Card 2 - Thank You card

I made this card the exact same way as the previous one. What is different are the stamps and the colors used. The flowers are from the Flower Garden stamp set by Tim Holtz from Stampers Anonymous. The Zig colors used are Pink, Carmine Red, Orange and Yellow.

I adhered the finished panel on to a card base and added a handwritten Thank You sentiment. I splattered drops of pink color around the sentiment to finish off the card.

I am entering this in the following challenges

• CAS Watercolor December Challenge - Watercolor Resist

• CAS(E) this Sketch # 202

Supplies for both Cards

• Birthday Bash stamp set by Paper Smooches - Card 1
• Tim Holtz Flower Garden by Stampers Anonymous - Card 2
• Canson Watercolor Paper
• Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens
• Versamark Watermark pad
• Ranger White and Silver Embossing Powder
• Ranger Heat It Tool
• Sakura Gelly Roll Pen - white
• Sakura Micron Pen - black
• Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink pad
• Ranger Clear Emboss It pen

Blooming Peonies Card

Today I am sharing another card I made for the Altenew Challenge using the Altenew Peony Bouquet stamp set.

Similar to the previous card I made (Eternal Love), I stamped a few flowers and leaves from the Peony Bouquet set in an arrangement I liked onto some watercolor paper. I used the Versamark Watermark Stamp pad and then heat embossed it with Ranger Gold embossing powder. I used the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens to color the stamped images. I also used a waterbrush to blend the colors to give that watercolored look. I did a light blue wash for the background again using the Zig,

I took the sentiment from the Altenew Blooming Dahlias stamp set and heat embossed it with gold embossing powder as well. At this point I was wondering what next. Then I saw the small berries like set in the Peony stamp set and decided to stamp it on the upper area which was empty multiple times - again in gold and colored it in with some Pink and Green Zig.

I trimmed the panel a bit and adhered it onto an ivory card base. To have a bit more of the green I drew a stitched pattern around the watercolor panel with the Green Zig.

I liked how it had turned out and I left it at that. The card was done :)

Supplies

• Altenew Peony Bouquet and Blooming Dahlias stamp set
• Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens
• Brustro Watercolor paper
• Mini MISTI tool
• Versamark Watermark pad
• Ranger Gold Embossing Powder
• Ivory Cardstock

Entering this card for the ongoing Altenew -  A  Year in Review Inspiration Challenge. 

This card is based on the March 2016 challenge. Inspired by the colors.

Card - Eternal Love

I'm here to share a card I made over the weekend. I did not start off with any theme in my mind but it ended up as one trying to portray eternal love as I went along.

The effect I have tried to create is that of some lovely magnolias floating in a magical pool with lots of shimmery lights rising from the pool - celebrating the magical nature of long lasting love.

To create this card I started off by stamping three flowers from the 'Magnolias for Her' Stamp set from Altenew - one of my favorites from their collection. I stamped it on a Watercolor paper from Brustro and used a Mini MISTI stamping tool to get more accuracy. I added some color to these flowers using the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens. It was a lot of fun to see the way the colors blended to bring out some very pretty shading work. For the background to create the feel of flowers floating in the pool I used the Blue Zig Brush Pen around the flowers and also brought in some Light Green to try and create some leaves in the background (not being the focus).

For the sentiment, I combined a few stamps from different brands - One from Mudra and another from Inkadinkado. I inked them with Black Soot Archival ink from the Distress Mixed Media Ink Palette.

I was going to leave it at this when I thought I could try to create a Bokeh effect with some sequins to look as though the pool was emitting some lights. So I placed some sequins around the card. Though I could not capture the effect in the picture well, it does give that look when the sequins catch the light to give out the shimmery lights effect in actual.

After that I mounted the panel onto a pale yellow card stock and that onto an ivory card base.

In the pic above I have tried to take the picture at an angle where some of the sequins are shining when they catch the light.

Supplies

• Alternew Magnolias for her stamp set
• Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens - set of 12
• Brustro Watercolor paper
• Mini MISTI stamping tool
• Distress Mixed Media Ink Palette
• Pale Yellow and Ivory card stock

I'm entering this card for the Altenew -  A Year in Review Inspiration Challenge - 

This is a challenge where we can select from any of the past inspiration challenges this year. The challenges and the lovely cards that were on display all through the year have been a wonderful inspiration to get into card making! 

The card I made is based on the JULY 2016 challenge.