OLW 128 Feminine Birthday Card

OLW128 feminine birthday

This one should not be a difficult challenge. Most of us do birthday cards for females all the time. It’s those masculine cards that are the tricky ones. I made a card for my husband’s birthday last  week  which is  yet unposted because half the small survey of people I showed it to did not understand what the scene was meant to be! Including my husband…

Remember to keep it one layer, and use a few of your favourite things on it; that’s what I did. I masked; you know I like to do that. I inked the background stamp with blue, my favourite colour. I added the letter background stamp that I love over the top and did a little sponging in both teal and yellow.

OLW128 Rules

1. A one-layer card is defined as a single layer of card stock. No other layers allowed.

2. Make a one-layer birthday card for a female

3. Post your cards online and link to them using the InLinkz button at the end of this post.  If you link  to your blog, be sure to link to the specific post, not just your blog’s main page.

4. I may or may not have chosen this theme because I am having a birthday this week. Not of course that I am making myself a birthday card, but I might just be opening a few.


Supplies:

Stamps: Glory of ModestyEdge to EdgeLetter Background(PB)
Inks: Memento Teal Zeal, Summer Sky, Dandelion (Tsukineko)


Blooms and splatters

blooms

After making my previous card I noticed splattered droplets of red ink on a couple of card bases sitting on my work desk. I wasn’t going to let them go to waste so I made a panel with more ink splatters and combined it with the splattered card base. The little blooms on this panel are from the Penny Black sentiment set “Eloquence”. The transparent sentiment sets from PB usually have a few little image stamps in amongst the words. On this set there are three blooms of different sizes. I pulled them out to make a patterned panel in three colours and embossed a few in clear before sponging over everything.

Supplies:

Stamps:  Eloquence, Friendship (PB)
Inks: Memento Lady Bug, Morocco & Peanut Brittle (Tsukineko)

There is still a week left of new catalog inspiration at the Penny Black Blog. They are fifteen days into the 20 consecutive days of inspiration, featuring stamps from the Take Flight catalog!  And since they’re featuring 20 days of inspiration, they’re also giving away 20 NEW stamps to one lucky reader


Spots & Blossoms

Blooming Garden

This card started with a desire to use yet another of Penny Black’s new background stamps. In the finished product however, that stamp is barely visible. I began by flicking Lady Bug ink onto white cardstock then stamped the background stamp, Dots in space in pink. It was a pale pink and I had wiped off some of the ink before making the impression so it was a very subtle start. Over the dots I repeatedly stamped the blossom branch from Blooming Garden, also in Memento Angel Pink. Next I inked the same blossom stamp with Lady Bug Red and added Rich Cocoa ink to the stems with a marker. I sponged next with the same red and brown and added the sentiment in the space I had left. Adding the sentiment to the panel meant that I did not have anything to add to the card base to make a visual triangle (If you read Susan Raihala’s Simplicity blog you will know what I am talking about) so I punched an oval tucked it under the matted panel and place a small knot of ribbon on top. I didn’t exactly achieve a triangle but I added something to the white space on the right to lead the eye across the card.

Supplies:

Stamps: Blooming GardenDots in spaceEloquence (PB)
Inks: Memento Angel Pink, Lady Bug stamp pads and Rich Cocoa marker (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Coral Reef Mix & Match Papers


Love is…

Love is...

This card features stamps from two new Penny Black sets. The flourishy florals are from the slapstick cling set, Longing, and the 1 Corinthians text is from the transparent set, Love Chapter. I posted a little sneak peak this morning of a card made with the Longing stamps; you can see the whole card on the Penny Black blog.

I began the text panel for this card by stamping the floral stamp in Versamark and the text in Versafine Olympia Green then embossing both in clear e.p. I then sponged in greens and yellows and matted in Olive Grove Mix & Match paper. I overlapped the other floral stamp from the Longing set on the card base in three greens and sponged the corner.

Supplies:

Stamps: Love ChapterLonging(PB)
Inks: Memento New Sprout, Pear Tart, Bamboo Leaves, Versafine Olympia Green, Versamark (Tsukineko)


Silhouettes

Inspiration galore continues on the Penny Black Blog. They are over half way through the 20 consecutive days of inspiration, featuring stamps from the Take Flight catalog!  The  designers and contributors been posting a variety of beautiful projects.  And since they’re featuring 20 days of inspiration, they’re also giving away 20 NEW stamps to one lucky reader. I have a couple of cards on their blog today made with silhouette stamps. One card is very clean and simple, the other still one layer but an explosion of colour. Below is a peek of one of my cards. See the whole card here.

_DSC1043 Longing sneak peek


Trailing Beauty watercoloured

Trailing Beauty watercolour

 

I think I have mentioned already how many lovely new background stamps there are in the new PB catalog. My card above features another one, Trailing Beauty.

I used watercolour pencils to colour the line design which I stamped in Versafine Onyx Black ink. I was not meticulous in either colouring or blending with water; there is plenty of ‘going over the lines’. I sponged the beige background, added the letter background and also stamped a very pale imprint of the floral stamp on the card base before adding the sentiment.

The fun continues with watercolouring inspiration from Jill today on the Penny Black Blog. They are ten days into the 20 consecutive days of inspiration, featuring stamps from the Take Flight catalog!  And since they’re featuring 20 days of inspiration, they’re also giving away 20 NEW stamps to one lucky reader. I will be sharing two cards there tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting.

Supplies:

Stamps: Trailing BeautyLetter BackgroundEloquence (PB)
Inks: Versafine Onyx Black & Olympia Green, Memento Desert Sand & Potter’s Clay(Tsukineko)
Also: Faber-Castell watercolour pencils
Cardstock:   Spring Meadows Mix & Match Papers


Blue Scene

 tree silhouette

I have another new stamp from the Take Flight catalog to showcase today. This is my kind of stamp as you know, I love silhouettes and I love trees and branches. I fiddled around with the orientation of this stamp for a while before settling on the branches pointing up. You could just as easily point them down or sideways.

To create the panel I sponged a pink and pale blue sky, masked it and sponged a darker blue, masked again and sponged the darkest blue at the base. The stamp has its own border so I just trimmed the panel a little outside the border of the stamp and popped it up.

The fun continues with inspiration galore on the Penny Black Blog. They are eight days into the 20 consecutive days of inspiration, featuring stamps from the Take Flight catalog!  The  designers and contributors have LOTS in store for you.  And since they’re featuring 20 days of inspiration, they’re also giving away 20 NEW stamps to one lucky reader.

Supplies:

Stamps: Facebook Friends, Every Happiness PB)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Angel Pink, Bahama Blue, Paris Dusk & Versafine Onyx Black  (Tsukineko)


Watercoloured poppies

watercoloured poppies

I love poppy images so I was excited to see two poppy stamps in the new Penny Black catalog. One is a wood-mounted stamp and the other, shown above, is part of the transparent set, Blooming Garden. I have painted poppies several times with watercolour paints so to try watercolouring with the stamp was my first thought.

I wet the watercolour paper, then stamped the poppy flowers in red and the stems and seed pods in green. The ink immediately ran and I blended and spread it with a brush adding a little more ink here and there with markers. When I was happy with the colour I sponged blue and  green around the flowers and started playing with the layout.

It took me a while to come up with the layout you see above as I initially thought I’d mat the panel and put it on a white card base with a sentiment. I tried both portrait and landscape orientations but it wasn’t quite right. So, when in doubt reach for your absolute favourite background stamp! I inked the background with blue and green then added sponging and water droplets in the colours of the poppy panel.

The fun continues with inspiration galore on the Penny Black Blog. They are five days into the 20 consecutive days of inspiration, featuring stamps from the Take Flight catalog!  The  designers and contributors have LOTS in store for you.  And since they’re featuring 20 days of inspiration, they’re also giving away 20 NEW stamps to one lucky reader.

Supplies:

Stamps: Blooming GardenLetter Background (PB)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Cottage Ivy, Lady Bug stamp pads and markers (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper,  Spring Meadow Mix & Match Papers


Every Happiness

For the next three weeks there will be inspiration galore on the Penny Black Blog. There will be 20 consecutive days of inspiration, featuring stamps from the Take Flight catalog!  The  designers and contributors have LOTS in store for you.  And since they’re featuring 20 days of inspiration, they’re also giving away 20 NEW stamps to one lucky reader. I have a couple of cards on their blog today made with a lovely new slapstick cling set “Every Happiness“. The little panel images in the set are delightful and there are some sweet little sentiment stamps too. Below is a peek of one of my cards. See the whole card here

Every Happiness sneak peek


Beautiful Backgrounds

glory of modesty background stamp

The new Penny Black catalog has so many lovely background stamps. The card above features one of my favourites, Glory of Modesty. To create this card I stamped the background stamp in black, embossed in black powder then sponged three different pink/apricot tones over the embossing. I cut an oval for my sentiment and sponged in the same tones before mounting the panel on Coral Reef Mix & Match cardstock.

Sorry it has been so quiet on Bits & Pieces this week. A combination of the expected and the unexpected has kept me from stamping and blogging. I was the organizer of a Girl’s Night Out fundraiser for my daughter’s violin ensemble last night which definitely took a large chunk of my time. Several girls including my younger daughter performed solos, I assisted a talented friend of mine in preparing delicious finger foods and another friend displayed and took orders for Silpada jewellery. The night, which sold out, was great fun; the girls played beautifully and were lovely waitresses and, from what I heard the guests had an enjoyable time.

This week I hope to have more cards to share featuring stamps from the new Penny Black catalog. To inspire you Penny Black is running a promotion called Take Flight Twenty on their blog for the next twenty days introducing dozens of new stamps and fabulous projects by the design team members.

Supplies:

Stamps: Glory of Modesty, Eloquence (PB)
Inks: Versafine Onyx Black, Memento Angel Pink, Lady Bug, Rhubarb Stalk (Tsukineko)
Also: Black embossing powder
Cardstock: Coral Reef  Mix & Match Papers