Two Winter Cards

It actually feels wintery here in Vancouver today - frost on all the roofs, chilly temperatures (going down to -7C tonight which is cold for us).  So what better day to do some winter-themed challenges?

For the Four Seasons Challenge "Winter", I was inspired by the top left image of their mood board with the blue sky and white tree.

I made a smooshed background with blue Distress inks, tore a strip of white cs for the snowy ground, die cut a tree and a deer out of white cs and put my scene together.

The Stencil Fun Challenge has an optional theme of winter.  And The Sisterhood of Crafters want snowflakes.

I stencilled the background with light blue inks, added a die cut snowflake and a round sentiment cut from blue shimmer cs.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - various blue Distress inks
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - TH tree die, reindeer die, sentiment banner die

Supplies for card 2:
Ink - light blue Distress inks
Paper - white cs, blue shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - TCW Winter Wonderland stencil, TH snow die and snowflake die

Blue with Dove and Starry Sympathy

 Many of you know I love blue so I'm thrilled to see these two challenges - Addicted to CAS "Code Word Blue" and Try It on Tuesday "Feeling Blue".  And AAA Cards wants a CAS card with something that flies in the air.

I roughly painted a paneil with a couple of shades of blue acrylic paint and then stamped and heat embossed my dove in white.  I trimmed the panel with a hemstitch square die and mounted it on a white card base.

My Time to Craft wants to see a sentiment - I went with the sentiment being a major part of the card.  It's also perfect for Word Power where the sentiment has to be the focus of the card.

I stamped my sentiment in black and then lightly stencilled some stars over and around it.  Trimmed the panel and popped it up on fun foam of a dull gold shimmer card base.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - unknown dove stamp
Ink - ColorBox white
Paper - white cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - blue acrylic paints, white embossing powder, Spellbinders square hemstitch die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Verses sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne, Distress Oxide Antique Linen
Paper - white cs, dull gold shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - star stencil, Spellbinders rectangle die, fun foam

Festive Bear, Red and Kraft Valentine, and Snowy Horses

Three cards again today - I was home all day (that's rare for me) so spent the afternoon making a few cards to enter in challenges before they close.

First up for Festive Friday "National Winnie the Pooh Day".  My card has nothing to do with Winnie the Pooh but it uses five of the elements from Festive Friday's list - brown, yellow, red, bear, and colouring techniques (I used coloured pencils with Gamsol).  It's also for The Twelve Months of Christmas "Polar Bears".

I stamped the image in dark brown then coloured with coloured pencils, using lots of red, yellow, and brown.  I blended the shading on the bear with Gamsol and blending stumps.  I trimmed it with a stitched square, bordered with brown cs, and added it to a square card base.

Next up the first of the Valentines I make every year for my best friend (she orders 10 every year).  She loves seeing text on the background of the cards.  It's for The Color Hues Challenge "Red and Kraft".

The background is a kraft dp printed with old fashioned script.  I topped it with a die cut heart duo and die cut sentiment, and added it to a matching red card base.

And back to Christmas cards, for Jingle Belles "Something Old, Something New" and Simply Clean and Simple "Something New".  I used a new horse stamp I hadn't yet used (so I'm also linking it up with the NBUS Challenge) and a snowflake background stamp I've had for many years.

I stamped snowflake background in pale blue, then stamped the horses below it. Added a sentiment, trimmed the panel with a square die, bordered with black cs, and used a quickie glue pen and glitter along all the snowy lines on the fence.

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - SU Bearing Gifts
Ink - Versafine Clair Fallen Leaves
Paper - white and brown cs
Size - 4.5" square
Accessories - coloured pencils, Gamsol, Lil Inkers stitched square die

Supplies for card 2:
Paper - red cs, kraft script dp
Size - 6.25x3.25"
Accessories - Tim Holtz love die, Poppy Stamps Heart String die

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Cardio horses, Penny Black sentiment, Impression Obsession snowflake background
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Broken China
Paper - white and black cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - square dies, glitter

 

Black and Grey Dove / Happy Birthday, Double D / Happy New Year

I've been negligent lately about getting blog posts written up and now I'm getting close to deadlines for challenges I want to enter.  So I've got three cards for you today.

First up for Color Throwdown "Black, White, Grey", I had a great time playing with mixed media (not my usual style but I enjoyed this so much I want to do more of it).

I started by die cutting the dove out of white cs and, with it placed on a piece of scrap copy paper, I sponged grey ink on parts of it (and a touch of green ink on the leaf).  The sponging left interesting patterning on the copy paper (you can see some of the dove's feathers just above the polka dots) so I trimmed it to be my focal panel.  I then tore a bit of black and white TH collage paper (the music in the top left) and a bit of tissue paper (the grey and white polka dots in the bottom right) and glued them onto the copy paper panel.  I added some grey text and diamond stamping.  Then added it to the card base.  I die cut two more doves from scrap cs and glued them together with the sponged one, added it to the card, and also added some small die cut stars sponged with the same grey ink.

Next up, it's Double D's 9th year of challenges so they are asking for birthday cards and Beautiful Blossoms has a lovely mood board full of pink flowers.

I put the flower stamp in my MISTI and inked it up with pink and green markers, misting lightly, stamping and repeating until I was happy with the results.  I added a bit of stamping with a honeycomb stamp and a postage stamp using Distress Antique Linen ink, and also sponged around the edges.  Added a birthday sentiment and a few die cut, watercoloured butterflies.

And my third card for today is for Shopping our Stash "Feature Stars".  Because of the postal strike we had before Christmas, I didn't mail out any Christmas cards so am getting a few Happy New Year cards made for family outside of Vancouver and mailing them now.

I chose a starry embossing folder and inked it up with Distress inks close to gold in colour and spritzed with water before embossing my panel with it. I was pretty happy with the results I got.

I stamped and heat embossed my sentiment on white cs and die cut it with a star die, popped it up on fun foam, and scattered some multi-coloured tiny star sequins around for some bling.  It's going to my youngest sister who loves bling more than the rest of us!

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Tim Holtz small diamonds, Old Island Stamp Co. script background
Ink - Distress Iced Spruce and Hickory Smoke
Paper - TH Christmas collage paper, dotted tissue paper, white cs, copy paper
Size - A2
Accessories - tiny star dies, Penny Black dove die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Magenta flowers, TH postmark, Kaisercraft honeycomb
Ink - Distress Antique Linen
Paper - watercolour paper, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tombow markers, tiny butterfly dies

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Studio G sentiment
Ink - Distress Wild Honey and Mustard Seed
Paper - watercolour paper, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Darice embossing folder, sparkly embossing powder, Spellbinders star die, fun foam, tiny star sequins