Birthday bird

I’m playing with Katzelkraft stamps again. I’m not sure what this chap actually is — I’m tending towards albatross but if anyone knows any better, let me know! In any case, he has wings so I’m playing at Lost Coast Designs where this month’s theme is Winged Things. As this is a newly-acquired stamp I’m also joining We Love Stamping where the theme is “New”.

The Perspective Floor stamp gave him a great grounding. I did have to fill in a bit by hand as I didn’t cut the mask between his legs (too fragile and unstable) so the flooring pattern was missing there. Don’t tell anyone but I messed up matching the filled in squares — I don’t think the recipient would notice if you didn’t point it out! I kept the slightly psychedelic feel going with the background stencil.

I added just a little bit of smudged pencil around the die cut sentiment to accentuate it a bit. The original plan was to  just have it white but it looked a wee bit lost once it was stuck down. I figured if the pencil didn’t look right either I could always erase it!

Stamps:
We Are All Mad Here (Katzelkraft, no longer with us)
 Perspective Floor (Lost Coast Designs)

Paper:
Bristol board 

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Hero Arts Shadow Ink (Soft Granite)
Tim Holtz Distress Ink by Ranger (Peacock Feathers)

Other:
Copic markers
Posca paint pen (white)
Time Tunnel stencil (Visible Image)
Clear detail embossing powder
Momento marker (London Fog)
Happy Birthday Poe Script die (Poppystamps)

Link in the chain — March

It’s reveal day once again at Card Chain Challenge. My card has gone to Brenda this time so it didn’t have too far to travel. 

From the options on offer I chose the theme of birds and the colour palette. Of course the product option of stamps was pretty much a given for me! I intended to use proper watercolours but somehow got sidetracked into using Distress inks instead. 

This beautiful bird stamp is one of Maria Kitano’s designs for Crafty Individuals, I don’t use him nearly enough. He makes a lovely robin with some orangey red for breast feathers. I added some leaf shapes to the twiggy bit of the stump — it seems in springtime anything with even a bit of life in it will push out optimistic leaves!

The sentiment is from a very old set but it fell in to my hands while I was looking for something else and this sentiment seemed right — we often associate robins with winter and Christmas time but they’re around and singing loud and clear to herald spring, too!

Stamps:
Perching Bird (Crafty Individuals)
Scene It Sentiments (Hobby Art)

Paper:
Watercolour

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Rustic Wilderness, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door)

Other:
Corner Chomper 

There are still a few days to sign up for the next chain, why not come and join us — it’s a lovely way to spread crafty happiness around the world!

Into the woods

Miri is setting our challenge at Daring Cardmakers this week — she’d like to see woods and forests represented in some way. I decided to combine with the current challenge at Lost Coast where the team would like to see at least three stamps being used on our cards. 

I stamped the trees background directly onto the card base and brushed on a little ink in blue shades, stamped and cut out the owl and tucked him behind a die cut frame (black card dusted with Perfect Pearls in autumn shades). I coloured the card outside the frame with a black marker and added oak leaves cut from a larger stamped image. I was aiming for foreground with leaves then owl, background with bare trees but I can’t quite convince myself the oak leaves look right — maybe it will grow on me!

Sorry the photo looks a bit washed out, it was the best I could manage on a particularly dreary morning here in Northumberand. Hopefully any owls around here have good shelter - apparently they're not waterproof!

Stamps:
Trees backgrounder (Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)
Oak branch (Beeswax Stamps)
Twit Twoo (Indigo Blu)

Paper:
Bristol board
Black

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate, Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers)

Other:
Stitched square frame die (Paper Rose)
Copic markers
Perfect Pearls by Ranger (Heirloom Gold, Bronze, Copper)
Black Fineliner

Early bird

Miri is setting our challenge at Daring Cardmakers this week: it's the early bird that catches the worm! She'd like to see birds, worms, sunrises - anything to do with the saying.

Lost Coast Designs are currently asking us to "tweet this" so I'm linking up there too.

I thought I was going to have to miss the DCM challenge this week but I managed to make a super-fast one layer card with a stamp that does a lot of the heavy lifting to make a dramatic impact with very little effort. A little stencilling for a background, a few sequins and a simple stamped sentiment and call it done.

Stamps:
Spring bird (Bloom Art Stamps)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Versafine
Tim Holtz

Other:
Rays stencil (Visible Image)
Sequins
Corner Chomper

 

 

Time for a check up

Our challenge at Daring Cardmakers this week is all about checks - backgrounds, accents, clothing patterns… there are lots of ways to add checks to your designs.

I opted for textured checks by using an embossing folder and went mixed media on this one. I rubbed a white crayon over the embossed piece (best done while it’s still on the folder as the support means you can press quite hard with the crayon) and then used a couple of Dylusions sprays. The crayon resists the spray but as you’ve generally got imperfect crayon coverage, you tend to get a nice slightly grungy effect.

The Party Puffin hasn’t been out to play for a while and I thought he’d be fun on the bright background. His crown and heart have some subtle sparkle courtesy of Spica glitter pens  

Stamps:
Party Puffin (Crafty Individuals)
Essential Messages (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Bristol board
Black

Ink:
Brilliance (Graphite Black)

Other:
Dylusions sprays (Vibrant Turquoise, Fresh Lime)
Checkerboard embossing folder (Tim Holtz/Sizzix - retired)
White crayon
Black fineliner
Spica glitter pens (gold and red)
Copic markers
Stitched rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose)

Thanks for stopping by!

Flag pole

Kathy has set the challenge for us at Daring Cardmakers this week and she'd like us to take inspiration from the flag of a country other than our own (we used this site for a guide to flags of the world).

I chose the flag of Estonia and in finding out a litte more about it, I discovered that the national bird is the barn swallow. I'm not sure mine is exactly the right type but it is a swallow so I thought it should see the light of day.

Representing a white stripe proved a bit difficult - I ended up doing a very, very light wash of colour underneath so hopefully the eye sees blue, black, white above the sentiment. The image is stamped on the card base and then again separately on Bristol and just the bird cut out and stuck on with gel glue for a bit of lift.

Maybe I was drawn to the Estonian flag because I've been listening to some Arvo Pärt recently (I'm in good company, he's apparently the most performed living composer). Spiegel im Speigel is just beautiful - if you have a few quiet minutes to spare, this version has the string part taken by cello rather than the more usual violin and I think it has a lovely, haunting almost hypnotic quality.

Stamps:
Joy (Carabelle Studio)
Say It All (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Watercolour
Scrap of Bristol board

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Watercolors (Winsor & Newton)
Pearl pen by viva Decor (Ice White)
Copic markers
Pinflair glue gel

Thanks for stopping by!

January’s Elements

Happy New Year everyone, let’s hope that 2021 is a bit kinder to us all than 2020 turned out to be. 

Daring Cardmakers are back from a little festive break with the first elemental challenge of the year. As ever, just choose at least three elements from the inspiration picture (chosen by Dawn this time) to kick start your project. 

I chose a bird, bokeh background and colours. I could probably count squares too since I started with the intention of making this a standard A6 card but maybe looking at the inspiration pic cast a square spell since that’s what wanted to happen once the image was painted! Hubby got me some watercolours as a birthday gift and this is my first play with them. They do behave differently than the inks I’ve been using when I’ve done watercolour style projects and I need practise but it was fun to have a little try out with them. 

The bird was stamped with a light brown ink and used in much the way an artist might use a pencil sketch as a guide. The bokeh circles might be a bit subtle, I think I’d let the paint dry too much to have much success in lifting the colour with water so I used some white watercolour to add circles over the top of the base layer. I used Gansai Tambi White Gold (another birthday gift) for a few of them so they have a slight sheen.

The current Lost Coast Designs challenge is things that begin with B - I have a Brown Bird on a Bokeh background so I’m hooking up there. If you stamp a project featuring something that begins with B why not join in too, there are always prizes on offer!

Oh, Gundi (who often takes part in the Card Chain Challnge) just alerted me to a new-to-me challenge - thank you Gundi! The current theme at Day of the Month is National Bird Day so I’m entering this card there, too. I love bird images, I suspect they’re the second most common thing in my stamping stash (after florals). Our garden attracts a great variety of birds too - DH always jokes that the pheasants know they’re safe here as we’re vegetarian!

Here's this month's inspiration picture at DCM:

Stamps:
Perching Bird (Crafty Individuals)

Paper:
Watercolour
Kraft

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen)

Other:
Winsor and Newton watercolours
Stitched Square frames dies (Paper Rose)
Gansai Tambi Starry Colours set

  

Thanks for stopping by, stay safe!

Keep it in the family

It's my turn to set this week's challenge over at Daring Cardmakers. It's World Family Day today so I chose the topic of "family". When I chose the topic I had no idea that it would have extra poignancy as many of us are not able to see our families at the moment because of the lockdown restrictions.

I chose a stamp that has “family” in its name and I reckoned that maybe we could all do with a bit of owlish wisdom to help us through the tough times.

Stamps:
Owl Family (Crafty Individuals)
Sentiment from Big Day Today (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Watercolour 

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Vintage Sepia)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Blueprint Sketch, Mowed Lawn, Spiced Marmalade)

Other:
Stitched rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose Studio)

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are staying safe and well.

Inky!

Rizwana is setting her first challenge for us over at Daring Cardmakers this week - she'd like to see some inky backgrounds.

I have two quite different projects to share for this one but they both use the same basic technique - add some ink to a sheet of acetate, spritz with water and add to a sheet of heavy cardstock or watercolour paper.

For this bird card I stamped the image first and masked it, then added the inky background in a pale blue for a subtle effect. I painted the berries in green in the hope they'd look more like leaf buds for a more spring-time feel.

Stamps:
Blue bird with branch and berries (Crafty Individuals)
Sentiment from Big Day Today (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Tim Holtz watercolour

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Mustard Seed, Salty Ocean, Mowed Lawn, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Tumbled Glass)

Other:
Stitched Rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose Studio)

The second project features more postcards for my dad and brother.

I added three different blues to some watecolour paper, building up layers using the acetate technique. Then I stared at them for ages trying to figure out what to do with them. I finally settled on a VE Day theme and added some bunting and stamped numbers since we're commemorating 75 years this year.

The blues lifted quite well from the open flag areas just with water but I decided I wanted a cleaner white so those are painted with a bit of gesso.

Stamps:
Artsy Banners (Crafty Secrets, no longer with us)
A&P Numbers (Ma Vinci's Reliquary, no longer with us)

Paper:
Watercolour

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocen, Blueprint Sketch, Barn Door)
Mid tone ink by Hero Arts (Charcoal)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Gesso
Microglaze

Thanks for stopping by, if you fancy getting inky to distract yourself in lockdown why not come join us?

Spring postcards

I made more postcards to send to my dad and brother  - the first ones are here if you’d like a peep - inspired by thoughts of spring. In Covid-19 related news for the week was that more people are hearing birdsong as the world goes quiet in other ways so a bird seemed like a good way to go.

This handsome stamp and a pale blue evoked a spring vibe, I thought - he is called “spring bird” after all! We have both thrushes and blackbirds busy in the garden at the moment finding nesting materials.

I masked the bird's body before stencilling the background so those lovely woodcut-style lines stayed white and crisp.

The theme of the current Lost Coast Designs challenge is spring - all the challenge details are here and this time around I’m taking advantage of the fact you don’t have to use Lost Coast or Carmen’s Veranda stamps to play along, all rubber or clear stamping is welcome! If you’re tempted to break out some spring time images or colours why not play along too?

Stamps:
Spring Bird (Bloom Arts Stamps - store is now on Etsy)
Sentiment from Wildflowers (Crafty Secrets, no longer with us)
On the Desk (Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board 

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass)

Other:
Strobes stencil (Visible Image)

Thanks for stopping by, stay safe and healthy.

Who/what do you love?

Our challenge theme at Daring Cardmakers this week is "love" - who or what do you love?

I love bird images! After florals, I think they come a close second in terms of what I have in my stamp collection.

I also love clean  and simple and one layer designs. CAS designs are often great when you need a romantic card that's not too feminine - anniversaries, Valentines or "I love you" for the man in your life perhaps. Can you guess what hubby's Valentine looked like?

Pan Pastels made this a quick card -  I blended three colours into a square masked off with low tack tape, stamped the image and sentiment after removing the tape and gently erased colour from the birds' breast and cheek areas.

A stamping platform is really helpful here as the first impression tends to "lift" the pastel, a second stamping will give you a cleaner image (give the stamp a wipe in between).

Stamps:
Tree Swallows and Key Expressions (both Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)
Paper: Bristol board
Ink: Graphite Black Brilliance by Tsukineko
Other:
Pan Pastels (Turquoise, Phthalo Green Tint, Magenta Tint)
Spectrafix Degas fixative
MISTI
Low tack tape
Putty eraser

Thanks for stopping by!

I've got your number!

Ruth has set the challenge for us over at Daring Cardmakers this week - she'd like to see numbers on our projects as her son celebrates a significant birthday soon!

I wanted to have a go at a reductive painting technique that featured in a recent challenge at Splitcoast Stampers and thought this might be a good opportunity. I used Tim Holtz alphabet masks that I've had forever and a day over a shaving foam background left over from a play with the oxidised shaving foam technique. A layer of black acrylic paint and there you go - a dramatic background!

The quirky Party Puffin is always fun and he's useful for cards where people don't have specific hobbies or anything to theme things around. I gave him a bit of a "halo" with a white pencil to reduce the risk of him disappearing against the background.

Stamps:
Party Puffin (Crafty Individuals)
Sentiment words from Say It Loud (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board
Shaving foam piece done on preimum weight copy paper

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:
Copic markers
White pencil
Stitched rectangles A6 size dies (Paper Rose)
Black acrylic paint
Pinflair glue gel

Thanks for stopping by!

Come fly with me

Svenja is setting today's challenge over at Daring Cardmakers and she’d like us all to take flight. Birds, superheroes, planes, hot air balloons, helicopters... feature anything that flies on your project.

We’re lucky enough to have owls around us - there’s a tawny that we sometimes hear in our back garden although we’ve never actually seen it! Hubby has seen a barn owl at the bottom of the hill and there’s a family of little owls just up the lane. So this lovely owl stamp from a recent release at Crafty Individuals was a no-brainer for hubby’s anniversary card this year!

The berries have a touch of glitter pen on them but it’s otherwise unadorned and just the way he tends to like his cards!

Stamps:
Owl Family (Crafty Individuals)
Sentiment from Putting on the Ritz (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Watercolour

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Tim Holtz Distress ink (Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo, Antique Linen, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door - used as watercolours)
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide (Evergreen Bough)

Other:
MISTI (invaluable for a detailed stamp on a textured paper!)
Spica glitter pen (red)

Thanks for stopping by!

Link in the chain - February

It's time for the reveal of the Card Chain Challenge for February! As usual we had lots of options to play with - I chose the theme of birds and the colours (honey, raspberry,  strawberry). My card has gone to Gail who does a fabulous job each month as part of the team who keep us all organised!

I inked up my circular Gel Press Petite rather like a big stamp (I will get round to using it some other way soon!) and then sponged extra ink over the impression to blend a bit more. I thought the colour combination was quite reminiscent of a sunset.

I added tiny speckles and "twinkles" in faint colour by stamping off on scrap first.

Stamps:
Spring Bird (Bloom Art Stamps)
Believe in Unicorns (Visible Image)

Paper:
Bristol board:

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Wild Honey, Picked Raspberry)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Watermelon)

Other:
Gel Press Petities
Charcoal pencil
Black fineliner
Hello die (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
Pinflair gel glue

There are a still a few days to sign up if you'd like to be a link in the next chain - make and send one card to the person "up chain", receive a card from the next link!

Paper roses, paaa-per roses....

Sorry, since seeing Dawn’s challenge for Daring Cardmakers this week I’ve been singing the Osmonds in my head! The challenge is not limited to roses though, Dawn would like to see hand made paper flowers of any kind on our projects - you could use dies, punches, freehand shapes, roll them, sculpt them... just make a paper flower, however it takes your fancy!

I opted for a crepe paper number made with circles - alarmingly the first one I made was back in 2010 using this video tutorial. I ran a pale pink Copic marker round the petal edges for extra definition and then used various bits that were lying around on my desk (background, bird, clock) to make a sort of collage feel card. I didn’t include a sentiment so it’s an all-purpose card.

Stamps:
Bird from Spring Bird and foliage from Bird Paradise (Bloom Art Stamps)
Clock from Time To Stamp (Cornish Heritage Farms, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bamboo mixed media paper by Hannemuhl
Bristol board

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Memento Luxe by Tsukineko (Olive Grove)
Tim Holtx Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Juniper reinker)

Other:
Black fine line marker
Pinflair glue gel

For the flower:
Heavyweight crepe paper 
Spellbinder circle dies (large and small used here - the two smallest dies from the large set and the "in between" one from the small set)
Copic marker
Elmers glue 
Glamour Dust Crystal glitter 
Velvet brad 

Thanks for stopping by, we’d love to see your flower creations if you have time to join us!

Watch the birdie

Shabneez has set the challenge for us today over at Daring Cardmakers - she'd like to see some birds on our projects. It could be the focal point or an embellishment, a stamp or a die cut, anything birdie goes!

I love the woodcut style of this stamped image. I did have plans to use some of the other elements from the set (flowers and foliage) but in the end he just refused to share the limelight and insisted on flying solo!

I dripped inks in colours I hoped would evoke spring and stamped the bird once the ink was dry. I really wanted the etched lines of the image to show well (the intensity of the inks obscured them a bit) but I didn't fancy cutting out his legs! My usual solution is to stamp again on matching paper, cut out the main part of the image and stick over the top of the original stamping.

After adding some dots with a pearl pen I decided I'd like the ones on the blue ink to blend in a bit so once they’d hardened I painted over with Precious Metal paint. I’ve had my little pot of the stuff at least eight years and it’s probably a good six of those since it was last open but it’s still totally usable - hooray!

Stamps:
Spring Bird by Bloom Art Stamps
Sentiment from an old Hot Off The Press set

Paper:
Watercolour

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Time Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Mowed Lawn and Salty Ocean reinkers)

Other:
Misti (invaluable for a solid image on textured paper!)
Pearl pen by Viva Decor (Ice White)
Precious Metal paint by Viva Decor (Blue Azure)
Fineline marker

Thanks for stopping by!

Peace on earth

I love to watch the birds that come to the feeder and shrubs outside my window - this handsome chap would be a very welcome visitor!

This is my first project with this lovely bird stamp, I think the woodcut style of the illustration is just gorgeous. Bloom Art Stamps has just moved its store to Etsy which should make things easier for international shoppers, too!


Because this kraft card has quite a bit of texture, I stamped with the MISTI so I could make sure I got good coverage in the more solid areas of the stamp. I added just a touch of white pen to the markings on his head, wings and tail.
I cut tiny slits each side of his body so I could thread the die cut branch through to give him a wintery perch. Nail art gems provide berries for him to feast on and a "hidden" die cut sentiment adds to the overall calm feel, I think. I went over the stamped snowflakes with a Wink of Stella pen to give them subtle sparkle which is just about visible on the photo but looks lovely in real life!

Stamps:
Bird Paradise by Bloom Art Stamps
Grunge Flakes by Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous
Peace Stamp & Cut by Hero Arts

Paper:
Kraft
Scrap of dark brown for branch

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)

Other:
Branch die by Craft Emotions
Nail art gems
Wink of Stella pen (clear)
White Posca paint pen
Fine line brown marker
Glossy Accents by Ranger
MISTI

I'm afraid I failed with this week's DCM challenge - do check it out though, it's another in the Christmas countdown so a chance to get ahead with those festive projects!

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday bird

I needed a birthday card for my nephew this week so combined some slightly quirky stencilled stars with the very quirky party puffin!

More chat about the card in this post on the Bubbly Funk blog.

Stamps: 
Party Puffin by Crafty Individuals
Say it Loud by Waltzingmouse Stamps

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko - Graphite Black
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger - Tumbled Glass and Broken China

Other:
Starry Starry Night Stencil by Dylusions/Ranger
Chit Chat Stencil by Claudine Hellmuth/Ranger
Typeset die - Tim Holtz/Sizzix
Copic markers
Wink of Stella clear glitter pen
Charcoal pencil
Black fineline marker

Thanks for stopping by!

Party on, puffin!

This week's challenge from the Daring Cardmakers is "You can leave your hat on" and they want to see any sort of headgear making an appearance on our cards.

My first plan was elegant water colouring of a vintage image - that one ended up in the circular file! Scouting around my desk for other ideas, I found this party puffin already stamped and cut out so I picked him up and played - colouring with Copics and using a black and white background to make the colours look even more vivid.

I did end up stamping again so I could cut out an extra crown and layer it up on a bit of gel glue so it has some more dimension. The puffin is also raised just a wee bit off the card surface.

Stamps:
Party Puffin by Crafty Individuals
Numbers background by Kaisercraft
19th Century French Script by Hero Arts (the post cancellation mark)
Essential Messages by Hero Arts

Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black by Tsukineko

Other:
Copic markers
Black Enamel Accents by Ranger
Clear Wink of Stella pen
Pinflair glue gel
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

"New" postcard

We've just had one of our occasional postcard swaps on Bubbly Funk. Our theme this time was "new" with interpretation completely up to the players! As ever, our cards are posted as genuine postcards so keeping it flat is good.

I tried to shoehorn in several "new" elements - a new technique, a New Year theme (it is still January - just!) and a new stamp (OK, not that new but the first time I've used it since it didn't get used for what I originally planned for it). I've gone a bit "eclectic mixed media" in the hope it will suit the recipient!

My new (to me) technique was to tint modelling paste with Pan Pastels. The dots on the left are made from the paste applied through a sequin waste mask so they have a bit of dimension. Tinting with acrylic paint can make the paste a bit sloppy but this worked brilliantly, especially as the pigment is so strong you don't need much. Just squeeze a little paste out onto a non-stick mat, rub a sponge over the Pan to dust some powder off onto the paste and mix with a spatula. The dots on the right are flat - I just inked the card and then used a babywipe through the mask to remove some of the Distress ink.

The Pan Pastel blog has another "anything goes" theme this week with an option to play along with the DT in using a metallic (details here). I don't have any of the metallic Pan Pastels (they do look lush though!) so although I incorporated the theme, I did it by giving the party puffin a sparkly crown with a metallic gold glitter pen. If you fancy playing, there's no requirement to use Pan Pastels or other Premium Craft Brands products, it's just that I tend to use the challenge as a push to use the Pans I have.

Stamps:
Party Puffin by Alice Palace at Crafty Individuals
Just My Type alpha stamps by Ma Vinci's Reliquary

Paper: Smooth white

Ink: 
Graphite Black Brilliance by Tsukineko
Broken China Distress ink by Ranger

Other:
Maimeri Light Modelling Paste
Turquoise Pan Pastel
Black pastel pencil
White Posca paint pen
Copic fineline marker
Fiskars squeeze punch (stars doodled by drawing round a punched shape and cross hatching to fill)
Copic markers
Sequin Waste mask by Tando Creative
Gold Spica Glitter pen

Thanks for stopping by!