CASEing the Catty - #CTC141 Birthday

Welcome to another week of inspiration and thank you for joining me from Megan's blog. We are CASEing Birthdays from pages 68-85 this time round. 

Page 74 provided my motivation, and although it appears as a bag, I've swapped it for a card, which it will be a little late to the post! Apologies in advance, but hopefully I'll be forgiven when it arrives.  

Have you seen the Foil Frenzy Specialty DSP?  Ooh, it is lovely!! It was definitely calling me to this picture but I toned down my colours slightly. I chose to use a card base of Soft Sky teamed up with the Soft Sky version of the chevron pattern DSP.  I used a strip of Soft Sky card and repeat stamped words from Happy Birthday Gorgeous in  Lemon Lime Twist ink, then sponged around the edges. The greeting is from Confetti Celebration, stamped in Lemon Lime Twist and made into a banner by scoring either side of the words, and then scoring again approx 1/8" away then folding so that the banner sits up a little. More words from both sets stamped in Night of Navy with dimensionals popped behind to hold banner in place. Fussy cut Berry Burst roses with Powder Pink colouring replace the balloons, with leaves from the same set switched for the string.

Thanks for stopping by, and please carry on to Judy's creation by clicking on the box below.

Sweet Sixteen Pop Up Twist Card

Decided to make a card for my daughter's friend - and you know it's a hit when she thanks me and claims it! As I usually get the story about how they don't give each other cards - (sigh, hard for me to handle when it's what I do!!), I was making it from me, however looks like I'll have to do another one now.

The paper I used is retired and called It's My Party.  With the recent update to the Clearance Rack you can find this at a crazy price (only available within NZ) while stocks last. The cover is using the Large Numbers Framelits and Number of Years stamp.  So far, fairly unassuming, but when you open it up...

It is a little hard to fathom from the photo, but the inside pops up and opens like a little book. I have seen a trend in these cards lately and they do pack a bit of a WOW. I think you'll be seeing me make more before too long. There are a number of tutorials on You Tube and I looked at a couple and then did a bit of tweaking, so I'm sorry I haven't got a particular credit, and the ones I did follow credited someone else as well, so please accept that this is a combined effort.  

The card base is Basic Black. I have used retired Party Pants set on the balloons.  The little bird is from Birds & Blooms Thinlits.  The Happy Birthday is from Confetti Celebration.  

Thoughtful Branches and Watercolour

As you may have noticed, I am making the most of the short time I can share this bundle (Thoughtful Branches) with you but hoping like crazy it will make a comeback in a future catalogue!  I know I've tried to encourage you before to play with your toys and keep trying until you master a technique, but when I try to do the same, I struggle with not using it. I had some non-SU watercolour paper (not a great quality by any means) and thought I could sacrifice that rather than my 'good' stuff. But I liked the look and these are the results.

The first card I wish to show you was an idea shared by Sara Douglass, Stampin' Up! CEO. The background is masked off at the edge, and then washed with 3 different colours and left to dry. I then veered off from using the leaves she had and added the tree you can see here. I unravelled the thick Cucumber Crush baker's twine and added it to the card, tying it with a single strand. The greeting is from Confetti Celebration.  I used my Wink of Stella brush and picked up Daffodil Delight to colour in the words, Then I wanted more bling so I added a few sequins and Wink of Stella to the leaves - see close up.  And it made it to the mailbox yesterday.

For the next card, it was the same watercolour paper, and this time I just lay a stamp pad on it (Tangelo Twist), the ink was very intense and I initially thought that was going to be a big fail.  However I spritzed it with water and left it to dry.  It was fun watching the colour come apart and spread.  I spritzed again and was happy with the how it toned down yet still enough variety to provide interest.  I cut it out with the Beautiful Branches die and was pleased with the result. I cut a stalk out of the same paper and used the Cucumber Crush ink pad then spritzed as before. Once I had my flower sorted, I knew I wanted to pop it into a vase - so out with the Jar of Love and my new copper embossing powder.  I love how the copper melted so smoothly on the vellum I used for the jar.  I used a marker to colour the back of the vellum for my water.  The head of the flower had dimensions in the centre of it and then I used multipurpose adhesive around the edge - gives a more real look to the hydrangea idea. I picked a Touches of Texture image and embossed that twice at the bottom of the Very Vanilla card and ran the top through the Petal Burst TIEF.  I added a copper embossed banner and a greeting which I brought the Cucumber Crush back into.  I also added some copper metallic thread - see the close up.  A lengthy post but lots of detail to try and explain.