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

Happy birthday to Ewe

Hi there :)  Today's card is my #6 for the #I'mbringingbirthdaysback project.  My nieces birthdays seem to come in a big bunch - three of them in March!  This card is the one I made for Miss Kody.

Kody is a little farm girl and she loves her animals.  For the last few years she's had a pet lamb for school and she's won lots of ribbons for her lamb training skills so when I saw the Clearly Besotted 'Feeling Sheepish' stamp and die set I knew I had to get it.  I purchased this one directly from Craft Stash in the UK as it was the only place I could locate both the stamps and the dies, and their service was pretty awesome.

I started off by stamping the images I wanted onto some watercolour paper.  I even used pieces that were left over from a previous card project... very thrifty of me LOL

I did all the colouring using my Zig Clean Color Markers. I started off by doing the grass:

Then I die cut them and used my water brush to blend the grass right out to the bottom edge.

Next I started on the sheep. I used some greys to do their wee feet and some peachy colours for their faces along with some pink in their ears and for their cheeks.

I used some Micropore tape to hold the dies in place while I die cut these little babies... which led to a little bit of a learning curve!

It turns out that even though Micropore tape isn't super sticky it IS sticky enough to lift your carefully coloured paper off if you are a bit 'enthusiastic' about removing it... and that might actually cost you time because then you have to do another sheep to replace it!  Just saying :)

I did consider keeping this 'oopsy' for Darnell's Boo Boo challenge... but the honest truth is that I've got a much bigger oopsy to share for that one!

Anyway... onto the next step... I had a bit of a loose idea as to what I was going to make for Miss Kody so I started laying out the pieces I had in mind.

I used some Tumbled Glass Distress Ink to create a bit of sky:

The hills were a little more challenging!  Darn perfectionism really got in my way with this one!  I started off with some Mowed Lawn Distress Ink...

...nah too bland!  Maybe I could create some interest with some water droplets...

... ahh... nah!!!  Maybe spray on some glimmer mist??

Hmm... it's kinda getting there.  Maybe some Twisted Citron Distress Ink would help...

Yay!  Loving it!  And every little hill paddock needs a cute little fence thanks to the Rolling Hills die from My Favorite Things.

Before I added my sheep I had to stamp the sentiment... and the MISTI really helps get everything lined up perfectly.

Of course I wanted to heat emboss the sentiments before I added the wee sheep to the card front!

My little sheep that I had to do a replacement copy of was saved for the inside of the card:

Next I layered my card front onto some perfectly coordinated paper from my stash... I'm pretty sure it's an Autumn Leaves paper from YEARS ago.

But wait... there's more... my little sheep weren't quite finished.  I knew I wanted to have white sheep but I thought my niece might appreciate a bit of bling so I got out my Wink of Stella pen and got busy... and I love the results!

And since it was Kody's birthday... and I already had everything on my table... I decided to make her a gift card holder to match her card... and of course to hold the actual gift card I'd bought her.  Of course I used my Lawn Fawn Small Stitched Envelope die set... super useful die!

Having just turned 10, she was able to appreciate the puny nature of the sentiments... and she thought it was especially funny that her Auntie would use 'ewe' instead of 'you' since she was a school teacher LOL

Here's the finished card and gift card holder:

Thanks for visiting today... I hope 'ewe' have an awesome day xx