Seize The Birthday - Masculine

Hey, Seize The Birthday fans!  For our final challenge of the year, Barb has chosen Masculine.

It's always harder to come up with masculine card ideas, but you should get loads of inspiration from the rest of the design team and our surprise party guests.  But if you don't want to make a masculine card you can always play along with our Anything Goes theme.

I actually made this card for the previous challenge, 'Focal One', but then decided to use it for this Masculine challenge instead.  The focal image is from Woodware, the sentiment strip is Taylored Expressions, and the embossing folder is from Apple Blossom.

Pop along to the Seize The Birthday blog and play along with us!

Visible Image - Winter Colours

Hey, Visible Image fans!  Our theme this week is Winter Colours, and I chose to make a couple of tags in snowy blues and white.

I made an A5 master board, starting with smooshed Distress Inks, blotting parts and then drying with a heat tool.

To add sparkle, I spritzed a couple of colours of Distress Spritz.

I wanted to get two tags out of the sheet, both with half a snowflake on, so I stamped the fabulous large snowflake from Let It Snow in the centre with Versamark ink and heat embossed in white.

I love that grunginess!!

Then I cut down the centre of the panel and placed my tag die to get maximum effect for each tag.  Once I'd cut the tags I stamped and embossed some of the smaller snowflakes and flurries, and added a sentiment to each.

I also sponged some Picket Fence Distress ink through the Stardust stencil on one tag.  It's quite subtle but when the light catches it, you can really see it.

Once I'd adhered the tag layers I added some ribbons from my stash and, voilà, two Christmas tags ready for use.

You can find these stamps and stencils, along with the whole Visible Image range, here.

Seize The Birthday - Focal One

Hello, we've got a great challenge for you this week at Seize The Birthday from Ashwini, and it's Focal One.  Here is her explanation:

What this means is, in your card, for the focal image, use only one stamp and stamp it only once. No more stamping is allowed on the focal image. However, you are free to colour it and free to do anything else with the rest of the card.

If you don't want to follow the 'Focal One' theme, you can always play along with our Anything Goes theme.

I used a new to me stamp from Aall & Create, and a sentiment from Avery Elle.  Once I'd watercoloured the image with Distress Inks I splattered the colours across the panel, then I also splattered the colours across the card base.  I mounted the panel onto glitter card, then onto the card base.

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog for some more fabulous inspiration on Focal One from the rest of the design team and our surprise party guests, and join in the party!

Visible Image - Winter Sweater

We've got a winter birthday theme going at Visible Image this week, so I've made a clean and simple masculine birthday card.  It's woolly jumper time!

I stamped the Knitted background stamp using a mix of Distress inks.

Then I die-cut it using the Christmas Jumper Die and softened the edges with a bit of Weathered Wood.

I wanted to wrap a scarf around the neck, so I found some cotton twill tape, frayed the ends and dyed it with re-inkers.

There wasn't enough variation in colour for my liking so I spritzed some Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays on it.  The shimmer didn't stick, but it was the colour that I was after rather than shimmer.

I wrapped the scarf around my fingers and stapled all but the top layer to the top of the jumper, then I used some PVA glue to stick down the top layer at the neck, covering the staple but leaving the ends loose.

Turning to my card, I stencilled some numbers down one side of a blue panel, using the Glitch Numbers stencil using Lost Shadow Distress ink.

I stamped the little starry cluster from Birthday Wishes in Lost Shadow Distress ink, then stamped the sentiment in Versamark and heat-embossed in silver, which catches the light beautifully.

Then it was just a case of affixing my jumper to the panel.

Pop on over to the Visible Image website for these and more goodies.  You'll also find plenty of inspiration for using the products.

Happy crafting!