Happy, happy, happy, happy

 

I've had the idea for this card for a pretty long time, but I do admit, the complicated and time consuming masking witheld me. But now it was the perfect opportunity to make this card. Lilies are on the mood board of Stamping Sensations, and when I read about the 15th anniversary of the Allsorts Challenge, I decided to finally make this card. And believe me, it was quite a challenge ....

I started with stamping both the cat and flowers on masking tape. I puzzled with my stamping platform and the masks before even thinking about stamping on the card itself, and I decided I would start with stamping the bigger part of the tail, and the body of the cat. So I masked the part in between, and stamped the cat. I then masked the parts I had just stamped, and positioned the lilies, and stamped them with black Versafine. 

Now it was time to put a mask on the lilies, and to stamp the last part of the cat. Although it was possible to stamp the entire cat, I did decide to mask the body of the cat again just in case the position of the cat would slightly differ from the first print. My precautions turned out to have been unnecessary. Lucky me, because this was enough measuring and masking for one evening!

I stamped 'happy' several times with versamagic and brilliance ink, and ended with stamping 'Happy Birthday' with black Versamagic. I colourized cat and lilies with Polychromos.

Stamps:
- Katzelkraft KTZ177 - Hibiscus
- Katzelkraft KTZ294 - Cats on wall
- Katzelkraft KTZ276 - Whatchamacallit ('happy')
- Stampin'Up - Sky is the Limit ('Happy Birthday')

Challenges:
- Allsorts Challenge - #781 - 15th Birthday celebrations, AG
- Stamping Sensations - May challenge - Mood board or AG

Thank you for watching!

Special stamp, special card

 A couple of months ago, I was the very lucky winner of the 31 Days of Halloween challenge on Lost Coast Portal to Creativity. I was allowed to spend $10 on stamps from Lost Coast Designs or Carmen's Veranda. Well, that wasn't easy. All these beautiful stamps and I had to pick just one or two of them ... I fell in love with a fabulous stamp of a tree with birds in it. I love trees and I love birds! 

A couple of weeks ago, my stamp finally arrived. By now, it must be the most admired stamp of The Netherlands because I have showed it to my family, my friends, even the teachers at my children's school. My mother asked me if I could make her a card with it. Of course! 

The tree with birds from Carmen's Veranda is a big stamp, it's full size if your card is standard size (A6). I decided to make a XL card with it. After all, it's a special request with the first stamp I have ever won with a challenge. 

I started with stamping the girl (an old stamp from Stampin'Up) with black versafine on both PaintOn paper and masking tape. I colourized the girl with my Polychromos pencils. The pencils are oil-based and resist watercolour and Inktense (to a certain degree). I added the mask and stamped the sentiments ((Darkroom Door - 132 Gum Trees) with Versamark. I colourized the background with Inktense pencils. I used a lot of water because I wanted the pigment to spread unevenly. It turned out very well this time, you can see the 'clouds' in the sky. I stamped the flowers in the background with Brilliance Moonlight white. It gives a wonderful special effect. The bold flower is also an Stampin'Up stamp, the other one is from KiCoStamps. 

Background finished, time for the tree with birds to make this picture complete! I stamped the tree with black Versafine and removed the mask. The rest can be seen on the picture. 

My mother hasn't seen the card .... yet. Please, don't worry about her seeing her card on this blog, she spends very little time on the internet. 

Challenges:

- We Love Stamping - January Challenge - Something new: I have used new stamps, ie the tree with birds and both of the sentiments. 

- Let's Craft and Create - Challenge #203 - AG & a penny for your thoughts.

- Lost Coast Portal to Creativity - Challenge #181 Anything Goes: Due to technical difficulties, I use my Dutch blog to play in the challenges of Lost Coast. Both of my blogs are updated more or less simultaneously. 

Please note I do stick to all the rules of every challenge. 

Thank you for watching!