Reindeer Gazing on the Star of Wonder

Have you entered a card in the CAS Christmas challenge yet?  I'm hosting this month, and I chose "Deer" as the theme.

I wanted to do something quite different to the card I did for the opening of the challenge.

I started by sponging the deep blue sky, adding a bit of gold sponging in the area where the star would be giving off light.  I die cut two of the star of wonder, gluing them together to give that star more substance than the three small stars that were just single layers.

I tore two strips of white cs for snowy ground.  I stamped my sentiment on the lower one - it's actually just the first line of a longer sentiment.  I die cut the reindeer out of dark bronze shimmer cs (unfortunately it looks black in the photo) and added it to the upper strip of snow in a position where he is looking up at the star of wonder.  I put a bit of foam tape under his neck and head to emphasize him looking up.


It's CAS Christmas's first birthday, so we'd love to have you join us this month!

You have until March 24th to link up your card.  For more inspiration, head over to CAS Christmas and take a look at the cards by the rest of the Design Team and this month's Guest Designer, Chrissie (Simply One of a Kind).

Supplies:

Stamps - Serendipity sentiment

Ink - Delicata Golden Glitz, Distress Chipped Sapphire

Paper - white, gold shimmer, and dark bronze shimmer cs

Size - 6x4.25"

Accessories - Dee's Distinctively deer die, Memory Box Star of Wonder die, small star die, foam tape

Brushos and Zigs on Vellum

Time to remind you to give watercolouring on vellum a try!  It's the March challenge at CAS Watercolour.

 I decided to try using Brushos and Zigs on vellum, and came up with this card:

For the lighter green background, I sprinkled some green Brushos on vellum, spritzed it, and then let it air dry for several hours.  I stamped the sentiment on it with Staz-on ink.

I die cut the holly sprig and the three layers of the small poinsettia out of heavy-weight vellum, then watercoloured them with my Zig markers (two shades of green and two of red) and a waterbrush. 

I die cut a frame for the background vellum, tucked the holly under it and added the poinsettia to one corner.

I used red gemstones for holly berries and a single gold gemstone for the centre of the poinsettia.

You have until March 24th to link up your clean and simple card featuring watercolouring on vellum.  Head over to CAS Watercolour to see more inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and this month's Guest Designers, Birgit (Rapport fran ett skrivoord) and Ros (Mikey's Mom).

Supplies:

Stamps -  Stampendous sentiment

Ink - Staz On Claret

Paper - white cs, vellum

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - Tim Holtz holly die, Memory Box poinsettia die, MFT frame die, Lil Inkers stitched square die, green Brushos, green and red Zig markers, red and gold gemstones

Gorgeous Greens

Two cards for some colour challenges.  First up, this one:

I put the "Berry Branch" stamp in my MISTI and inked it up with different green mini Distress inks, spritzed lightly and stamped onto mixed media cs, repeating till I was happy with it.  I trimmed the panel and added it to a green cardbase.   Some of my inking and spritzing made a blob in the middle so I covered that with my stamped and heat embossed sentiment.  I added rhinestone stickers to the berries (the berries are on the mistletoe branches so needed to be white - no berries on the holly branch).

It's going off to two challenges that must have St. Patricks Day in mind:

The Male Room - Gorgeous Greens

Krafty Chicks - Shades of Green

And since one of the branches is mistletoe, it's heading off to this challenge as well:

Christmas Cards All Year Round - Under the Mistletoe

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black "A Berry Branch", SU sentiment

Ink - Distress Pine Needles and Bundled Sage, Versamark

Paper - green and mixed media cs

Size - 6x4.25"

Accessories - Sizzix label die, Platinum embossing powder, Recollections Rhinestone Stickers, foam tape

White and Gold

I've done some more playing with the "encrusted jewels" technique, and put two pieces together for this card:

To make the tree and star, I die cut them out of thin chipboard, then placed them on a warm grill on top of a layer of non-stick craft mat then parchment paper.  I sprinkled them with gold embossing powders.  Once they had melted, I added multi-coloured chunky glitter pieces on top.  The melted embossing powders hold the glitter in place.  To finish it off, I melted UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) on top.  I then die cut the same two dies from fun foam and attached them immediately to the encrusted star and branch to give them a bit more body so that they wouldn't bend and crack.

I stamped and heat embossed my sentiment, scattered some Frantage Shabby White on the focal panel and heat embossed it from underneath,  then attached my two encrusted jewel pieces, and popped the panel up on fun foam.

Here's a close-up of the encrusted jewels:

The card is going off to the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown challenge - "White and Gold".

Love all the challenges out there that keep me working on my Christmas cards!

Supplies:

Stamps - Old Island Stamping Co. sentiment

Ink - ColorBox Gold

Paper - thin chipboard, white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - star and tree dies, various gold embossing powders, various glitters, UTEE, Stampendous Shabby White embossing powder, fun foam