Birthday Under Construction

Welcome to a new Tic Tac Toe challenge! Here's the grid with options for this time around:

My picks were birthday, fun fold and free on the left vertical row to make a card for my adorable grandson who had a birthday recently. Under advisement from his mama I bought him some construction vehicle toys (one of his current loves) then decided to see what I could use to fit that theme for his card. As luck would have it, I found some dies, so set to making diggers and such, then paired these with co-ordinating clipart. It ended up being quite the loooooong card!

I started with cutting a bunch of pieces from various coloured card, adding shading and detail with ink or markers before assembling vehicles, wheelbarrow and barrier. Once I realised how big the largest vehicle was, that determined the size and style of my card. The clipart I found compliments them perfectly and I left one segment relatively clear for me to add my birthday greeting. I even decorated an envelope to match and then, of course, the wrapping paper had to match too... (And yes, I'm aware I have a matchy-matchy obsession and no, I don't need a 12-step program, lol). 

A true labour of love and he did like it, though of course the toys themselves were the star of the day! 😂

We hope you'll pick three elements in a row to create and join us. Check out what my fellow team mates made to inspire you over on the challenge blog.

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry

And B-I-N-G-O Was Her Name-O

We're celebrating the birthday of my adorable grandson shortly, which naturally necessitates a card handmade by nana. I had already made the focal feature - his favourite character from the Bluey world - but when I saw the pick two options at Time Out challenges they inspired an idea for the rest of the card...

My picks were rainbow and star.

The background segments were coloured using distress inks then given a spritz of mica stain matching the silver of the 'mylar' balloons. Tons of shine when they catch the light! A white frame was a bit wishy-washy but the darker colour makes everything pop. The gift box was cut from scraps of smooshed card to match the balloon colours. 

As this is for my grandson and features a dog, I'm also entering it in The Male Room challenge

Materials used:

• dies - Postage Collage Blocks (Waffle Flower), Seasonal Decor (Spellbinders), Bluey, balloons (stash)
• distress inks - candied apple, spiced marmalade, mustard seed, mowed lawn, blueprint sketch, wilted violet, peacock feathers, picked raspberry, dried marigold, antique linen
• other - frozen fog mica stain (Tim Holtz), Dimensionals, Big Shot, blending brushes, craft foam

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Ahoy! Arrr you ready?

It's cold and wet outside - in other words, perfect weather for staying in and making cards. I had an idea for my first play with an add-on set of stamps and dies I recently purchased to go with my inquisitive seagulls. Please say a loud Ahoy! to pirate seagulls!!!

Their little faces arrr just adorable, even with an eye patch or pirate hat, lol. I made them a little 'grubbier' than usual as I figured pirates wouldn't bathe too often 😉. It was soooooo much fun making this! 

As I haven't yet decided what occasion to use it for, I haven't put a sentiment inside - that can be done closer to use.

Materials used:

• stamps - Treasure Hunt Sentiments (Waffle Flower)
• dies - Inquisitive Seagulls, Inquisitive Pirate add-ons (Waffle Flower), belt and buckle (stash)
• distress inks - antique linen, pumice stone, brushed corduroy, scorched timber, spiced marmalade, salvaged patina
• other - blending brushes, distress inks, Dimensionals, Big Shot, MISTI

I hope if your weather is nasty too, you've got something equally fun to play with. Thanks for swashbuckling by!

Cheers

Kerry

Silly Old Bear

The card I have for you today is for two challenges. Firstly, Festive Friday made my day, my week, my month, my year with their current challenge celebrating the incomparable Winnie the Pooh (yup, huge Pooh fan). 

And the Seize the Birthday challenge is to use something new. 

Coincidentally, just a couple of days before I saw these challenges I had ordered some Pooh Bear dies from the new Spellbinders release! Of course, their arrival was the perfect excuse to sit and play. From the inspo list for FF, I used yellow, bears, honey, colouring techniques and bees.

I die cut all my pieces from heavy watercolour cardstock and coloured with distress inks. While I wanted the honey drips to be shiny, I didn't have the patience to wait for glossy accents to dry (lol) so used clear embossing powder instead. My sentiment was done on the computer using Pooh font.

Materials used:

• dies - Pooh & Piglet, Pooh's Honey Pot (Spellbinders)
• distress inks - fossilized amber, wild honey, faded jeans, chipped sapphire, tumbled glass, prized ribbon, black soot, mustard seed, brushed corduroy
• other - blending brushes, Big Shot, Dimensionals, Versamark ink, clear embossing powder, heat tool, computer and printer, sticky grip mat, craft foam

Thanks for dripping by (a little hunny humour 😉).

Cheers

Kerry

Birthday Dinosaur

When I saw the options in this week's Color Throwdown challenge I immediately had an idea.

I thought they suited a card for a little boy, so got out my dies to have a play and this is what I came up with:

I stencilled the terracotta layer to get the look of plaid fabric. The pocket I curved to give it shape and adhered it only around the U portion so you can actually add something in there. 

Materials used:

• card - night of navy, copper clay, basic beige, basic white, basic black (Stampin' Up)
• dies - Birthday Dinosaur (Spellbinders), overalls and number die from stash
• other - Plaid Builder stencil (My Favorite Things), blending brushes, Dimensionals, Big Shot

So cute! 

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry

The Card Concept #207 - Red, White and Blue

This month at The Card Concept we're challenging you to draw inspiration from our red, white and blue mood board:

I was inspired by the bold primary colours of red and blue to create a card for a young child, also incorporating the stars and stripes.

Materials used:

• card - basic white, basic black, real red, starry sky, pink (Stampin' Up), striped paper (Etsy)
• dies - Dancin' Birthday Panda & Dancin' Birthday Dragon, Smart Glasses (Spellbinders), Celebrate (Tim Holtz), Large Numbers (Stampin' Up)
• other - Sidekick, Dimensionals, stars stencil, volume paste, palette knife, computer & printer

If you create anything inspired by our challenge we'd love to see it in our gallery. Visit the Card Concept blog to do so and to see more samples from my fellow design team members.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Dancin' Birthday Dragon

The Color Throwdown people have given us another gorgeous combo to play with, nice and bright and cheerful. 

Rather than a birdie, I went for another creature that flies - and dances!

I've done some ink blending on the dragon, stencilled clouds behind and stamped on my background piece. In case you're not familiar with this die, the head and body are attached separately and the body swings from side to side in a dance. I did take a short video to show you but Blogger is being uncooperative. It worked on my instagram, so click here and scroll to the second image.

Materials used:

• stamps - You Matter background stamp (Simon Says Stamp)
• card - basic white, lemon lime twist (Stampin' Up)
• dies - Dancin' Birthday Dragon, Essential Arches (both Spellbinders)
• distress inks - kitsch flamingo, picked raspberry, squeezed lemonade, mustard seed, spun sugar
• other - cloud stencil (My Favorite Things), blending brushes, lemon lime twist and crushed curry markers (SU), mounting foam tape, craft foam, MISTI, Big Shot, Wordies sentiment sheets - Everyday (Creative Expressions) 

Thanks for calling in. Have a dancin' day!

Cheers

Kerry 

It Just Has to Gel

One of the cards we made in class recently is a gel card using the new SU set, Seaside Shore. It's been many years since I made a gel card but I hadn't forgotten how much fun they are - just love squishing the gel around and moving the bubbles!

Here's our card:

Clear hair gel was squirted into a zip lock plastic bag and manipulated to sit over the size window we used, then we double-mounted the embossed piece to allow for the depth. The porthole piece was made using two circle framelits and attached with silver brads. Luckily my ladies didn't seem to mind the fussy cutting of the fish and seaweed!

Here's a close up; hopefully you can see the bubbles in the gel. If you make one, push them around with your fingers - it is so much fun!

Materials used:

• stamps - Seaside Shore
• card - early espresso, crumb cake, smoky slate, whisper white, By the Shore DSP
• other - markers, scissors, mounting tape, silver brads, circles framelits, Big Shot, woodgrain embossing folder, sponge dauber, zip lock bag, hair gel, paper piercer

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

NSU - For The Kids

While browsing in a scrapbook store recently I came across some totally adorable Doodlebug Designs kids papers and couldn't resist buying a few for some fun-filled birthday cards.

Here's the girls version - these papers are called Sweet Shoppe:

Materials used:

• card - Bermuda bay, melon mambo, whisper white, smoky slate
• papers - Doodlebug Designs Sweet Shoppe
• other - Cottage Cutz tiered cupcake die, Big Shot, circle framelits, lacey circles die (Spellbinders), Dimensionals, computer and printer

And the boys version using Hip Hip Hooray papers:

Materials used:

• stamps - Perfect Pennants
• card - pumpkin pie, wild wasabi, crushed curry, whisper white
• papers - Doodlebug Designs Hip Hip Hooray
• other - balloon framelits, Big Shot, Nestabilities label two die (Spellbinders), Dimensionals, tangelo twist thick bakers twine

Aren't they adorable? Makes me almost wish my kids were little again. (OK, nah, not really!!! LOL)

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Holiday Kids

Last school holidays I did a kids craft class and they loved it so much they asked for another these holidays. Over the last few days I have had soooo much fun designing projects for them to make! These are the three items we'll be doing.

A pop up birthday card:

Materials used:

• stamps - Party This Way (retired)
• card - real red, whisper white, marina mist, retired dsp, Polka Dot dsp
• other - real red narrow ribbon, dotted scallop ribbon border punch, dimensionals, owl punch, bakers twine, 1 3/4" circle punch

A Spongebob box:

Materials used:

• card - crushed curry, basic black, whisper white, Pacific point, cherry cobbler
• punches - word window (cut in half for teeth), horizontal slot (eyelashes), 1 3/8" circle (black for outer circles of eyes and yellow for cheeks), 1 1/4" circle (white part of eyes), 3/4" circle (blue part of eyes), 1/2" circle (black inner circle of eyes), small oval (cut slightly at one end for nose), 1" square (cut in half for shirt collar), wide oval (upper lip, behind cheeks and nose), 1 3/4" circle (black mouth), heart (tongue)
• other - polka dot embossing folder, Big Shot, sponge daubers, dimensionals, soft suede marker

And for our last project some minions on a bookmark - how cute are these? (Inspired by Amber Meulenbelt)

Materials used:

• card - real red, daffodil delight, basic black, not quite navy
• punches - owl, jewellery tag, 1/4" circle, small oval (the old retired one)
• other - white gel pen, googlie eyes, black marker, two tags die, Big Shot

Hopefully the kids will have just as much fun making these as I did! Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kez

Where's The Fire?

Another commissioned card for you today, this time for a young lad who has spent much of his short life in hospital. I was told that he loves firemen and doctors, so I was keen to try out some punch art - always a hit with youngsters.

I found a great punch art fireman on Tina Gillespie's blog that she had cased from Ellen Kemper (click HERE for her list of punches used) so copied that. I didn't have the butterfly punch for the moustache, so used a heart shape instead, I used the owl punch for the eyes and substituted ribbon for the hose rather than card. To relieve the bland white background I added some clip art and printed it in greyscale, reducing the opacity to make it like a watermark. The fire engine image was printed again on the inside page.

Materials used:

• card - Pacific point, daffodil delight, whisper white, basic grey, real red, chocolate chip, blush blossom
• punches - see the link above
• other - computer and printer, clip art, dimensionals, real red grosgrain ribbon

It was great fun to make and I hope will be a big hit with wee Nathaniel.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

Kid's Punch Art

I've been making kids cards again and for these ones focusing on bright, primary colours - not my usual cup of tea at all! You'll need your sunnies on for looking at them, be warned!

Firstly I cased Marelle's wonderful Lego card:

Then I had a go at a punch art clown and added in some bright pennants as well:

A couple of Sesame Street characters make an appearance next:

And lastly I just had to have a go at Angry Birds! I'm sure you've seen plenty of these around.

What do you think, bright enough? Hope your eyeballs are OK! I won't list all the punches but if you want the "recipe" for a particular card, just send me an email (the link is over on the right under Contact Me).

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers
Kez

Edited to add: I have had a lot of people ask for the "recipe" for the angry birds card, so here are the SU punches I used:
Body – 1 3/8” circle
Eyes – owl and 1/2” circle
Eyebrows – horizontal slot
Beak – star (cut down to suit)
Tail feathers – boho blossoms
Head feathers – five petal flower
Slingshot – word window

The grass is a Martha Stewart punch.

Bright Kids

I'm still working on kids cards for an upcoming craft show and today's batch are of the bold and bright variety!

First off my old friend the owl in a card inspired by Maria Cameron:

Next is the first card I've made using a rosette and also my first inking up of the stamp set Under the Big Top. We got this set at Regionals last year and it is really not to my taste at all, however it is just perfect for what I needed.

Simple but gorgeous - I like that in a card! LOL.

Materials used:

• stamps - Under the Big Top, Starring You (retired), Up, Up and Away, Party This Way
• card - whisper white, real red, daffodil delight, tempting turquoise, basic black, Big Top Birthday dsp
• punches - owl, bird, 2 3/4" circle, scallop trim border, pennant, balloon (non SU), 38 mm circle (non SU)
• other - Tim Holtz rosette die, nestabilities, brights collections brads, white bakers twine, dimensionals, aquapainter, inks and markers, Versamark, clear embossing powder, heat tool, paper piercer

Maybe these bright and cheerful cards will brighten up the wet and gloomy day out there!

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez