A Partridge in a Pear Tree

Reminder time for October's CAS Christmas challenge!  You only have until October 24th to join in!

I'm hosting this month and I chose "Bird" as the theme as I love Christmas cards with birds.  I went back to my cardmaking origins and used one of the first stamps I ever bought.  Way back when, I had been cutting up old commercial greeting cards I'd received and turning them into new cards and then I was at a craft fair and saw a booth selling rubber stamps and demonstrating heat embossing.  I was entranced and bought some stamps (including this one) and started using heat embossing on every card I made.

So for this card, I have heat embossed the image, but added newer more modern things like a die cut sentiment and a dry embossed background.  I love how we're always expanding our craft!  Here's a close up:

I wanted the green of the sentiment to match the image so a swiped ink over a scrap of cs and heat embossed with the same embossing powder as the image and then die cut the sentiment from that.

I was going to use a more Christmas-y embossing folder but realized that the leaves on this one almost perfectly matched the leaves in the image so went with it - it makes me think that the pear tree expands out of the image.

There's lots more inspiration for you over at CAS Christmas from the rest of the Design Team and this month's great Guest Designer, Sue (Sue's Card Craft)!

Supplies:

Stamps - Old Island Stamping Co. Partridge in a Pear Tree

Ink - ColorBox Evergreen

Paper - PTI Vintage Cream

Size - A2

Accessories - Cuttlebug embossing folder, Tattered Lace sentiment die, Stampendous Pearlustre Emerald embossing powder, fun foam

Deciduous Azaleas

Hard to believe we're at the midpoint of October already!  That means it's time for a reminder about CAS Watercolour!

Rather than an autumn themed card which would definitely suit the colours, I went with a spring flowering shrub - deciduous azalea - as I have a new die that makes me think of it.  Here's a photo of the type of deciduous azalea that inspired me:

 

My background is part of a stencil monoprint I made using various shades of brown Distress inks on mixed media paper.

I die cut the azalea circle and watercoloured it using Distress inks.  I die cut a second one and glued them together to give it more substance.  And then glued it on a circular piece of my stencil monoprint.

When I stamped "thank you" directly on the piece, it smudged, so I restamped it on a scrap of the stencil monoprint, and punched it out with an old SU label punch so that I could layer it over the smudged one.

I popped the circle up on fun foam.

Here's a close-up:

 

Please come and join us at CAS Watercolour before October 24th.  For more inspiration, check out the cards by the rest of the Design Team and our talented Guest Designer Brenda (Friends Craftin' with Friends).  And don't forget, we are turning two this month so we've got prizes to celebrate!

Supplies:

Stamps - Rosie's Roadshow sentiment

Ink - Distress Vintage Photo, Ripe Persimmon, Spiced Marmalade, Mowed Lawn (and various browns for the stencil monoprint)

Paper - mixed media and white cs, watercolour paper

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - Prima stencil, Spellbinders circle die, Ali Express die, fun foam

Silver with Black Ice

I've been away on vacation so haven't posted anything for ages.  It's good to be home and back to crafting, gardening, walking my dog, seeing the horses and kids I volunteer with, etc.  I'll be very focused on Christmas cards in the next while as my fundraiser sale is coming up at the end of November.  So here's one for today:

The October colour challenge for 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is:

And the October CAS Mix Up challenge this month is:

Recently SCS posted a tutorial called Black Ice Technique.  It uses silver foil as a background so that seemed perfect for the 52CCT challenge.  And for CAS Mix Up, I have silver foil, black ice technique, stamping, and heat embossing.

I took piece of silver foil cs and lightly dragged my black Staz-on pad down it to create some streaks.  I then stamped the tree and sentiment with the black Staz-On and then heat set just to be sure I wouldn't smear it.  Then I lightly dragged a Versamark pad over it in the same direction as the black streaks, covered with clear embossing powder, and heat set it.

I trimmed the panel and popped it up on fun foam on a white cardbase.

It's very hard to photograph silver foil so here's another view of it:

Thanks for stopping by today!

Peaceful Bird

It's October already and I'm hoping you've all been building up your collection of Christmas cards ready for posting in a couple of months.  I'm hosting the October CAS Christmas challenge to spur you on to making another one:

I have a friend who always asks me to make several cards with a dove and a "peace on earth" sentiment for her to buy at my November fundraiser sale.  So I wanted to use this challenge to get one made for her:

I love spray starch, brushos, and cling wrap backgrounds, and I also love blue and white together (as does my friend who will buy the card!) so used all of that for my card.

I sprayed starch on mixed media cs, sprinkled blue brushos over it, and then placed cling wrap on top and scrunched it up.  I love the texture it gives to the background.

I trimmed the piece down, popped it up on fun foam and added a die cut dove to it, and a simple stamped sentiment beneath it.

Please come and join us with your clean and simple Christmas cards featuring birds.  The challenge is open until October 24th and there is wonderful inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and our fabulous Guest Designer, Sue (Sue's Card Craft) so head on over to CAS Christmas!

Supplies:

Stamps - A Muse sentiment

Ink - Vivid Inky Blue

Paper - white cs, mixed media cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Impression Obsession dove die, blue Brushos, spray starch, cling wrap, Spellbinders rectangle die, fun foam