Birthday Bouquet.

Hi everyone, I wanted to play along at CAS Watercolour this month as they are celebrating the birthdays of two fabulous ladies, Darnell and Bonnie. Both are amazing card makers who always inspire me and their blogs are such fun to visit.

 Happy Birthday ladies!!

The theme is bouquet. I knew I had purchased this stamp ages ago, one of the few flower stamps I have lol!

For the background, I brushed on some oxide inks in victorian velver, squeezed lemonade, crushed olive and milled lavender with some toothbrush makeup brushes, then spritzed with some water.

The bouquet is clear embossed and coloured with worn lipstick and dried marigold distress inks. I pressed some ink onto an acrylic block and used that to watercolour.

I'm also linking up to these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday where it's make your own background.

Seize the Birthday, I'm playing with the anything goes option.

AAA Birthday For the Girls.

The Flower Challenge, pretty pastels.

Supplies:

Stampendous blossom bunch stamp; versafine ink & clear ep; distress inks and oxide inks; Crafts 4 U stitched rectangle die; sentiment sticker.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Rainbow birthday!

Hi everyone, it's time for a new challenge at Seize the Birthday!

The optional toppings theme is rainbows, or as always, you can play along with anything goes as long as it's a birthday theme.

I think I broke a personal record for using a new toy almost as soon as I received it lol!

This is a new die from Paper Rose Studio and I thought it would look great in rainbow colours.

I blended some distress oxide inks in on some watercolour paper and spritzed with some water to blend them.

I layered it up on a white die cut for dimension, added a sentiment sticker and that was it.. Next time I think I'll spritz with some dazzling diamonds or perfect pearls for some shimmer.

The design team and our party guest have some amazing projects to inspire you, so I hope you can play along.

I'm linking up to these challenges:

Allsorts where it's a CAS theme.

AAA Birthday where it's a girly theme.

Double D where it's a birthday theme with this gorgeous moodboard. The colourful balloons are like a rainbow.

Supplies:

Paper Rose Studio Rose Frame Background die; distress oxide inks; sentiment sticker.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Evolution stencil and alcohol inks.

Hi everyone, have you had a chance to play along with the latest CAS Stencil challenge?

It's a technique theme, to use alcohol ink or alchol ink lift with a stencil.

It's a lot of fun and there's still plenty of time to join in. 

The DT and our wonderful guest Janet have loads of inspiration for you and there are some video tutorials on the challenge blog too.

For this tag I wanted to try something different with the alcohol inks. I put a few drops of  blue and purple with blending solution on a felt pad and swiped stripes across some yupo. I swiped a few times so the colours merged to mostly blues. I like the texture the stripes add so will try this method again.

I taped the stencil over the yupo and put a drop of alcohol lift ink reinker onto a sponge pad and used a blending tool to pat away some of the ink. The ink came away pretty easily.

I added a yellow hello diecut, layered for dimension and embossed with sparkle clear, and then clear embossing powder for some shine.

(Looking at the tag here I can see a face in the design, so hello seems appropriate lol!!)

I'm linking up to these challenges:

Watercooler Wednesday where it's anything goes masculine.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday where the theme is to make your own background.

Just Us Girls has the sentiment as the focus.

Supplies:

Stamplorations Evolution stencil; yupo; Ranger alcohol inks; blending solution; Dienamics pierced tag die; hello die ( not sure of brand); Wow sparkle clear and clear ep.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Using up scraps of alcohol inked yupo.

Hi everyone, I had some scraps of yupo left over from my blue and green card and was able to scrape together enough for this layout.

It's a design I've used before with watercolour panels but I don't think I've used alcohol inks in it.

The dies are the Lucienne tile and Moonlight Butterfly, both from Memory Box.

Here's a closer look at the shimmer from the gold foiling and the pearl alcohol inks.

I'm linking up to these challenges:

Watercooler Wednesday where it's all about occasions.

Dies R Us where it's a birthday theme.

AAA Cards I've gone without the Christmas twist this time.

Less is More where it's about celebrations.

Allsorts where it's a clean and simple theme.

Supplies:

Memory Box Lucienne tile and moonlight butterfly dies; yupo paper; regular and pearl alcohol inks; Rebekah Meier gold foil; sentiment stiker; hammered card base.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Pick an age!

Hi everyone,

I've had this crazy bird in my stash, coloured in and ready to go for ages! I think from memory he's coloured with Inktense pencils and a waterbrush. 

I love his perplexed expression!

The challenge at Just Us Girls is smile, these birds always make me smile!

It's anything goes at Happy Little Stampers anything goes with dies.

I used the matching die to cut out this bird, and a stitched rectangle frame.

At Seize the Birthday I'm playing along with the always anything goes option.

AAA Birthday has a for the girls theme. We're reluctant to give our age out aren't we? I know I'd rather just pick one I liked lol!

Supplies:

Tim Holtz crazy bird stamp and die; Art expressions sentiment stamp; Happy Little Stampers birthday stamp; versafine ink & clear ep;  Crafts 4 U stitched rectangle die; brushos; Inktense pencils.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Blue and green alcohol inks.

Hi everyone.

This is another one of the backgrounds I made recently with regular and pearl alcohol inks, blending solution, isopropyl alcohol in a spritz bottle and a distress marker sprayer that I used to blow air to move the ink around. I also pressed some foil onto the inky tacky parts to add some extra shine.

 Lots of fun!

Here's a closer look at the shimmer and shine.

I'm linking up to Country View Challenges where the theme is blue and green.

Make My Monday are celebrating their 100th edition, congratulations on reaching that awesome milestone! The theme is Thankyou.

At Addicted to Stamps & More it's clean and simple.

Mix it Up Challenge Blog has an anything goes theme with the optional twist of foiling.

I'm also linking up to  Happy Little Stampers Anything goes with Dies.

Supplies:

Spellbinders rectangle dies; Poppystamps Hampstead Bloom die; Thanks die from a friend; Regular and pearl alcohol inks; yupo paper; Rebekah Meier gold foil.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Christmas in July with alcohol inks.

Hi everyone, 

I have a few Alcohol inked backgrounds to use up so thought I'd try a Christmas card.

This background uses alcohol pearl inks and regular inks, and I adhered some deco foil to the sticky ink residue for some added sparkle.

Here's a closer look.

I'm linking up to a few challenges:

Retro Rubber Challenge where it's Christmas in July.

The stamp I used is a retired Stampin Up sentiment from the Four the Holidays set. No date on the stamps and a google search found it used in 2009. I love this font!

Simon Says Stamp Monday where the theme is to make your own background.

At Less is More, it's about celebrations.

At AAA Cards it's about maximum white space, with the optional twist of Christmas in July.

At Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge, it's anything goes with the option of adding some sparkle.

Supplies:

Ranger alcohol and alcohol pearl inks;yupo paper; Rebekah Meir patina foil; Crafts 4 U stitched rectangles die; Stampin up Four the Holidays sentiment stamp; versacolor silver ink & silver ep; circle tree die find from a garage sale I attended recently.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Floral Sunshine.

Hi everyone, it's time for a new challenge at Seize the Birthday and the theme this time is sunshine!

If you don't want to play with the theme, then anything goes birthday is fine too.

My sunshine is in the orange and yellows of this flower.

I added blending solution to some yupo paper, then dripped on some alcohol inks. When this was dry I thought I'd try and lift off some of the colour, by laying down a stencil and applying some blending solution to the stencil using a foam pad. The pattern didn't show up very clearly due to the busy mix of colours, but it did add some interesting textures.

The design team and special guest designer have some gorgeous cards to inspire you, so I hope you can play along this month.

I'm also linking up to these challenges:

Watercooler Wednesday where it's an anything goes feminine challenge.

AAA Birthday where it's for the girls.

Time Out has a quote theme, and I was inspired by the word flowers from that.

Supplies:

Yupo paper; alcohol inks; Membory Box flower burst stencil; alcohol blending solution; Spellbinders MBossabilities Lovely Lattice folder; MFT regular and pierced tag stax dies; Memory Box tilth floral die; sentiment sticker.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x

Pearl alcohol inks and a stencil.

Hi everyone, it's time for a new challenge at CAS Stencil and this time the theme is to use alcohol inks with a stencil, or to use the stencil as a guide to lift off the inks.

I made this background by tipping some alcohol blending solution onto yupo paper, then dripped on some alcohol pearl inks in alchemy and splendor (yellow and orange), along with some dandelion and coral regular alcohol inks.

 I used a distress marker spritzer to blow the ink around and added more blending solution as needed.

When the background was dry I taped a flourish stencil over the top and pounced a foam pad with some drops of blending solution on it over the stencil pattern. 

The colour lifted off quite easily leaving a pretty good impression of the stencil.

Here's a closer look at the pearly sheen.

I glued the yupo behind the circle opening, need to remember to stamp and heat emboss the sentiment before doing this! Nearly had a melted disaster lol!

I diecut the butterflies from white card and vellum and dry embossed both layers for added texture.

This technique was a lot of fun, although I found it best to keep the alocohol inks pretty plain if the stencilling was to show up well.

I'm linking up to these challenges:

CAS Mix Up have alcohol lift as a theme.

 My elements are alcohol lift; diecutting; wet and dry embossing and stamping.

At CASology the theme is citrus. I've used citrus colours.

Watercooler Wednesday has a feminine anything goes challenge.

At Simon Says Stamp Monday it's make your own background.

Supplies:

Alcohol inks, pearl and regular; yupo; Tim Holtz flourish stencil; Spellbinders circle die: Crafts 4 U stitched rectangle die; Poppystamps Lyndon butterfly die; vellum; Kaisercraft flourish embossing folder; Happy Little Stampers sentiment; versafine ink & clear ep.

Thanks for visiting,

Cathy x