Happy Batty Birthday

I've got a bit of creativity to share with you today... this time in the form of a 'Batty' Birthday card.  I made this card for one of my nieces who really likes things that are a little bit different... and since it was for her birthday, I made a matching gift card holder which she was absolutely delighted with!

Here's the finished project:

I used some super cute bat stamps from Gerda Steiner designs - Bats:

Luckily for me I took photos while I was making this card because I've had a couple of requests to make more for other people... definitely helps when you can't quite remember what you did.  For those of you crafters out there that like to gather ideas from others... and don't we all???... I've got a little tutorial for you about how I made my card.

I started off with my MISTI and stamping my chosen bat image straight onto some watercolour paper.  After stamping my image I heat embossed it which is totally my favourite thing to do when I'm watercolouring.

Next I chose another one of the bats and stamped and heat embossed him onto the label for the gift card envelope which I made using Lawn Fawns small stitched envelope die.

Then is was time to make a mask for each of my bats using masking paper.   I love how easy masks are to use to get awesome results.

I fussy cut the bats out and then stuck them over my embossed images.

I wasn't quite done with the masking yet though... I decided to cut a moon for each bat since bats only come out at night.

With both masks firmly in place I started adding some colour using Spun Sugar Distress Ink.  I went in fairly close to the moon and the bats since this was going to be the lightest colour in my background.

Next came Shaded Lilac Distress Ink:

Followed by Picked Raspberry Distress Ink:

Then some Wilted Violet Distress Ink:

And finally, Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink.  As you do each layer you need to stop a little before the last colour so that there is a graduation of colour.

Now that all the inking was finished, I went ahead and added some water to a little bit of Pearl paint and then 'artistically' flicked it over the background.

Now comes the hard part... for me at least... let the paint dry!  I'll admit that I always want to get my heat gun out at this point, but I've found that with the pearl paint the heat gun seems to make it blend in with the background rather than stay pearly on the top of the ink.

I have a sneaky suspicion that Cookie Monster would have just gotten out the heat gun LOL

Once the paint is completely dry it's time to take the masks off the moons... leave the bat masks on for now!

I decided to try to add a bit on interest to the moons using Distress Ink and my water pen.  You can see the difference here between the altered moon on the card and the untouched moon on the gift card holder.

After a bit of experimenting I found the colours that worked best for me were Pumice Stone and Weathered Wood Distress Inks. 

Once the moons were both done I removed the masks from the little bats.  They looked super white!

I coloured the bats using Zig Clean Color Markers in the following colours: 090 Gray, 097 Pale Gray, 080 Violet, 082 Purple and 200 Sugared Almond Pink.

Next I stamped a sentiment on the front of my card and heat embossed it:

Since I had my embossing supplies out I also embossed some little bats onto the back of the gift card holder:

I backed the card front with black cardstock to match it in with the gift card holder and it certainly made the colours pop.

The sentiment on the card front reads: I bat you don't know... so of course I had to put something cute on the inside as well:

I took a quick photo with my camera when I'd finished and I love how it looks like the moon is really glowing!

Here's my finished card:

And here's another look at the set:

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today xx

# Bringing Birthdays Back

Hi there :)

Today I've got a little project that I'm working on this year thanks to my lovely friend Sheree.  Back in the middle of January, Sheree and I did a road trip to Wellington to stay with our good friend Esther...  we visited scrapbooking places, Spotlights, ate out and generally had a super awesome time... we SOOO need to do this again! 

I digress... I go off on tangents all the time!  So back to Sheree... she was telling us about a project called 'Bringing Birthdays Back' that she'd heard about through Stampin Up.  Here's the explanation in her own words:

I would like to share with you a project that I am working on.  Stampin Up released a stamp at the beginning of last year and it was a project of Shannon West from the home office.  She was wanting to encourage people to send snail mail.  To encourage this 'Card Movement' she designed a stamp #imbringingbirthdaysback.   I purchased the stamp last year and it sat in my stash till this year.  I decided over the Christmas holidays that I would like to do the same thing.  So since the beginning of January I have been making and sending cards and stamping this stamp on the envelopes. I have attached a photo of a couple of cards that were sent at the beginning of the week to show you the stamp. I am also numbering them as I send them out. This has been very rewarding so far and I will definitely keep this up - it will be interesting at the end of the year to see how many have been sent - so far it is 20 birthday cards.

That email was sent to me over a month ago so I'm sure the card count is a bit higher by now! 

To be honest I'm a slack birthday card sender... Esther can attest to that... I think she's had 2 (or maybe 3) birthday cards in the last 10 years.  I have 'good intentions' of sending cards but then time disappears and it just doesn't happen.  So... I decided to buy this stamp from Sheree and make it a goal to send friends and family birthday cards that I have made... and so far so good!

Sheree's birthday is actually in January so I decided that she would get my #1 card with this stamp and here's what I made for her:

Sheree asked me how I'd made it and luckily I'd taken a couple of photos of the process so here it is in a few easy steps.

I started off by stamping the image with black ink and then heat embossing it with Ranger clear embossing powder.  The image is called 'Fairytale' and it's from Lavinia Stamps.  If you live in New Zealand you can get it from Krafters Cart in Auckland and they have a fabulous service.

I wanted this image stamped on watercolour paper and it was a good thing I had my MISTI handy because it took about six stampings before I finally had the image completely black!

Next I masked off a moon area where the dandelion flower was stamped... at this point I knew exactly how I wanted the finished card to look!

Then I added some colour to my background using Distress Inks - Spun Sugar and Shaded Lilac.  I didn't mask the wings of the fairy but I was super careful around this area because I didn't want any colour in the wings.

Before I removed the mask I added some 'artistic' splatters with Ranger Pearl paint.  I put a bit of the paint onto a stamping block, watered it down a bit and then just 'flicked' it (artistically of course!) from a tiny paint brush. 

Then I unmasked the moon and painted in the wings with my Wink of Stella pen for some sparkle.

I thought the moon was a bit stark so I softly added some watercolour shading using Distress Inks - Pumice Stone and Weathered Wood.

At the last minute I decided to die cut the image with a stitched border die and pop it onto some cardstock to make it stand out.  I also stamped Sheree's name using Concord & 9th's Sophisticated Script stamps - Upper & Lower Case... totally LOVE these stamps!  They have FAB service too!

The final step was to stamp my new stamp on the back of the envelope - I didn't use the MISTI for this one and it stamped perfectly the very first time!

So far I've made (and sent) 8 birthday cards this year... total miracle!  I'm just crossing my fingers I don't run out of steam before Esther has her birthday in October!!  LOL

Thanks so much for visiting xx