A Butterfly and a Quartet of Ornaments

The Penny Black Saturday Challenge wants "Things with Wings" so I got out one of my favourite Penny Black butterfly stamps.  It's also going to the Triple B challenge - I chose butterflies out of birds, butterflies, and / or blooms.

I made a background by inking up a tiny squares stencil with various Distress inks, spritzing it with water, and pressing it onto mixed media cs. When dry, I stamped some bits of text and postmarks on it in grey ink. I stamped and heat embossed the butterfly. Then watercoloured it and fussy cut it. I glued its body to the background and popped its wings up with dimensionals. Then stamped and heat embossed the sentiment.

My second card is for the ABC Christmas Challenge "Q is for Quartet" (four of something).  I have four ornaments in my image.  Christmas Cards All Year Round wants anything starting with "Q" so my quartet of ornaments works for them as well.   I'm also adding it to the Rudolph Days Challenge.

The ornaments are stamped in black (though it came out kind of light as the ink pad is old) and then coloured with two green and one red Tombow markers. I coloured the tops of the ornaments with a silver gelli pen. A small vertical sentiment fit well in the space. I used a green/grey cs to border it as black looked too harsh with the pale stamping.

   

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black butterfly, unknown sentiment, various script and postmark stamps
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black and Morning Mist, various blue and mauve Distess inks
Paper - watercolour paper, mixed media cs, off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - clear embossing powder, watercolour paints, stencil with little squares, dimensionals

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Great Impressions ornaments, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - white and green/grey cs
Size - 6x3.25"
Accessories - Tombow markers, silver gelli pen

Christmas Gifts on a Gatefold

The latest Peace on Earth challenge features a mood board showing images of southern hemisphere Christmases.  I have no use for a "beach" or "summer weather" Christmas card so I took the pile of gifts in the bottom left image as my inspiration for this card.

I folded my card base into a traditional gatefold.  I made a background panel by randomly inking up a snowflake / Christmas text stamp with pink and green Distress inks, spritzing lightly with water, and stamping on watercolour paper.  I split the background in two and added the pieces to the gatefold fronts.  I stamped the image of the pile of gifts, watercoloured it in the same colours as the gifts in my inspiration image, and fussy cut it.  I added fun foam to the back of it and glued it just to the left side of the gatefold.

Here's a close up of the gifts and some of the background:

Here's the Peace on Earth mood board.  Head over to our website and see what the rest of the Design Team made.  Then join us with either your interpretation of the mood board or an "anything Christmas" card.

Supplies:
Stamps - Jofy gifts, unknown snowflake / Christmas text background stamp
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Pickled Raspberry, Shabby Shutters, and Peeled Paint
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, fun foam

White on White Star and a Sledding Bunny

AAA Cards wants a CAS card featuring something that starts with "S".  My card features a star, score lines, silver thread, a sentiment "star light, star bright", and silver ink.  It's also for Sparkles Christmas Challenge that wants a CAS card.

I stamped the sentiment in silver and scored some lines on the card base.  Then die cut a star and several branches of greenery out of white cs, then arranged them with some thin silver thread onto the card.
 

For 52 Christmas Card Throwdown's colour challenge "Red, Green, Brown", I have a brown bunny, sledding on a green leaf, with a red card base.

Stamped and coloured with coloured pencils, added to a red card base and embellished with some die cut snowflakes.

  

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Great Impressions sentiment
Ink - silver ink
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - ScorPal, Spellbinders star die, Sizzix greenery dies, silver thread

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black Arctic Antics, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - whtie and red cs
Size - 5.5"x4"
Accessories - coloured pencils, various small snowflake dies

Candy Canes on a Christmas Tree

The new Peace on Earth mood board has images featuring candy canes, including one of a Christmas tree decorated with red and white striped decorations.  I decided to create a Christmas tree decorated with candy canes.

The tree is die cut once from green cs and twice from scraps of cs, and glued together.  I alternated the candy cane dies so I'd have some predominantly red ones and some predominantly white ones.  I ran silver metallic cord around the tree and hung the candy canes on it (and glued them down).  I die cut three small words and added them to the tree.  Then added the tree to a background embossed with a rustic frame border.

For more inspiration, check out the rest of the Design Team and see how they interpreted the mood board.

Supplies:
Paper - white, green, and red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Spellbinders tree die, Memory Box tiny candy cane dies, Sizzix embossing folder, silver metallic cord

Santa and Sleigh

CAS Christmas is asking for Santa's Sleigh.

The image is stamped and watercoloured, then I trimmed it with a mini slimline rectangle die and sponged around the image with two shades of Distress ink.  I popped it up on fun foam on an off white card base.

Check out what the rest of the Design Team created over at CAS Christmas, and then join us with your own card featuring Santa's sleigh! 

Supplies:
Stamps - Crafter's Companion Nordic Christmas, SSS sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Chipped Sapphire and Seedless Preserves
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs
Size - 6.25x3.25"
Accessories - watercolour paints, fun foam

Toile Blossoms and Lavender Silhouette

Two non-Christmas cards today.  First up for Try It on Tuesday "Summer Blooms", Time Out "Mother Nature", Seize the Birthday "Anything Birthday", and Triple B "Birds, Butterflies, or Blooms".  

Multiple stamping of the images from an old SU set called Toile Blossoms, leaving space in the centre for the sentiment.  Then watercoloured, trimmed, bordered with dusky pink and grey/green.

My front garden is blooming with so much lavender right now - it made me want to do a card with a lavender theme.  My only lavender stamp is a silhouette one.  So I created this card for CAS on Friday "Flowers".   

I decided to play with bleach for the background. I masked a rectangle on a piece of white cs and sponged two shades of Distress ink in the rectangle. Then laid a stencil that looks a bit like lavender over it and gently sponged with bleach to lift the colour. It seeped under the stencil a bit - if you look closely you can see how it weirdly caused the ink colour to pool around the openings in the stencil and I lost a lot of the definition. I added a bit of subtle splatter with black ink. I removed the masking tape and stamped the lavender silhouette over it and added a vertical sentiment and a bit more splatter with white acrylic paint. Then trimmed with a stitched rectangle and popped it up on fun foam on the card base.

      

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - SU Toile Blossoms, unknown sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, dusky pink, grey/green, and off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Spellbinders rectangle layering dies

Supplies:
Stamps - Magenta Lavender Silhouette, unknown sentiment
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Milled Lavnder and Spun Sugar
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Memory Box stencil. white acrylic paint, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, fun foam