Whimsy Stamps ~ Birthday Girl Extraordinaire!

Hey crafty friends, it's Deb Davis birthday today, she's our Creative Director at Whimsy Stamps and one of my favourite crafty peeps. She's one of the hardest working people in the industry and works tirelessly along side Denise the owner of Whimsy Stamps, to bring us the most innovative and fabulous releases every month! She's a powerhouse talent, you just need to look at her latest creations in the Halloween Releases over in the Whimsy Store! She doesn't have time to craft often, but Halloween is her favourite time of the year and she just can't help herself, but join in the Halloween fun with us! I for one am so glad she has, because her creations are SO inspiring and the slimline card I shared recently was heavily inspired by her! So, the Whimsy team, which are more like family and friends, are showering Deb with love today, flooding Instagram with Birthday wishes for our lovely Deb. Halloween is Deb's favourite time of year, so, many of our creations will be Halloween themed Birthday cards. 

I tried to hide this from Deb, by putting it in a different Dropbox, but she saw it earlier today and sent me a message saying how much she loved it, it was all I could do to not say, 'it's your birthday card!' But what a lovely feeling to know she'll be pretty chuffed when she realises it is! 

Excuse the warmer tones in this shot, this was taken indoors during my making process. I find it a good way to remind myself of what I used if I snap a quick pic! Hehe, brain is getting old! I used Walnut Stain Distress Ink to edge the paper and also the card base itself, which I trimmed with the Tim Holtz Deckle Trimmer to add a bit of interest and texture to the edges. I used a Scrapbook.com Clear Shimmer Pen to add some shine over the white hightlighted areas and on the front side of the cameo in the picture and tops and facing sides of the cats, as if the Crystal Ball was casting some light and magical shine on them. This does not show well in these photos sadly.

I wanted to highlight just the front of the witches silhouette as if magical light was being cast from the Crystal Ball, so I diecut a white silhouette, glued the front edge in place and then trimmed away the rest that I didn't want to show. But I added back in some sections as I wanted the image to lay the same height when glued down, so this image shows all those little bits being added back into prop up the areas that were only a single layer after trimming the excess away.

I imagined this cameo would come to life like the Harry Potter paintings and our resident Witchy Woman here would be having a deep and meaningful consultation with him. I layered the cameo over two white layers so it pops up a bit from the frame, giving it a bit of dimension. The wonderful Crystal Ball I added from a flat back set of iridescent bubbles from This Calls For Confetti called Iridescent Dew Drops. There are several sizes in the set, I used the largest for this Crystal Ball.

Now of course a witch needs her familiar, or three! There are three adorable cat silhouettes included in this die set, so I of course need to use all three in this image and they are just so adorable loitering around her. I love their different poses. The team really nailed this amazing die set, it's brilliant. The paper of course makes the most wonderful backdrop for this whole scene! All I did was add in the players. The frame on the paper is empty, perfect for adding that fabulous Aged Cameo Diecut and then adding in the witch and her three familiars to complete the scene. All I did was add a little Walnut Stain around the edge of the paper, otherwise, voila, it pretty much does all the hard work for you! I LOVE Whimsy's paper range for this reason. They have some really incredible 'scene' papers, especially in the Halloween Range. This set is called Nevermore and it's sadly out of stock right now, but I'll be grabbing some more as soon as it's back in stock, because this one is just brilliant for Halloween scenes, though it also has a few pages that can go beyond Halloween, as they're just fabulous neutral backgrounds, great for a grungy make.

Our amazing Whimsy teams have pulled out all the stops to make Deb's day really special, sharing their creations over on Instagram which is Deb's favourite crafty haunt, using the hashtag #whimsystampsbirthdaygirldeb. Thanks so much for popping in to visit, I appreciate it so much and love reading your comments! Nothing better than a message from a friend. I will be back before long with another crafty adventure, but until then, have a wonderful remainder of your week and I hope you have some fun crafty 'you' time soon xoxo

(I use affiliate links where possible, which helps the companies I design for to improve their marketing practice. I receive a small commission, which costs you no extra whatsoever, but helps these companies see where their marketing efforts are most effective and is a way they can say 'thank you' to and support their hard working affiliates and design team members. I only design for companies whose products I absolutely love and buy for myself. My opinions are always my own. If you're new to Whimsy please feel free to use the Whimsy Stamps discount code in my sidebar if you're doing some shopping and remember to check out their retiring section, the deals are phenomenal!)

Challenge Entries:

Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge: September ~ Anything Halloween Goes