Penny Black Challenges

A while back, I tried a new technique with Loll Thompson and Christine Alexander.  This card is my second attempt at it (see the first here).

Here's the technique for the poinsettia:

With the stamp in my MISTI, I inked it up with Versamark.  Then shook out a bit of my Brushos colours onto a palette, slightly moistened a paintbrush, picked up some colour and painted it onto the stamp over the Versamark.  When I'd painted the whole stamp, I lightly spritzed with water and stamped onto watercolour paper.

I got way better coverage with this second attempt.  I went in with coloured pencils and added back some of the definition that was lost, stamped the sentiment, added a bit of black splatter and a black border, and embellished the centre of the poinsettia with tiny sequins.

Since the main focus of the project is a Penny Black image, I'm linking it up to two Penny Black challenges:

Penny Black and More - Traditional Christmas Colours

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Winter or Christmas

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black poinsettia, SU sentiment

Ink - Versamark, Archival Jet Black

Paper - white and black cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - brushos, coloured pencils, tiny sequins

An Older Poinsettia

This month's Flower Challenge is:

I went with a poinsettia I've had for years but haven't inked up in the last couple of years (or more!).

I love white on white Christmas cards. 

I stamped the poinsettia on vellum twice with white ink and heat embossed with sparkly ep. I fussy cut one whole flower and just the inner section of the second flower and layered them.

The branches and circle are die cut out of glittery cs. The sentiment is stamped in pale grey and heat embossed with the sparkly ep.

The centre of the poinsettia is embellished with small sequins.

Supplies:

Stamps - SU Joyful Christmas poinsettia, Rubber Soul Joy

Ink - ColorBox White and Wild Hare

Paper - vellum, white, and glitter cs

Size - A2

Accessories - TH greenery die cuts, Spellbinders inverted scallop and circle dies, sparkly embossing powder, small sequins

Three Wooden Snowflakes

December's AAA Cards challenge is:

And 52 Christmas Card Throwdown wants us to choose one of the 2017 challenges.  I had such a hard time chosing as there were lots of challenges that appealed to me so I chose two.  I posted the first one yesterday and now here's the second one from October 2017:

I went with three wooden snowflakes.

A very simple card with a rectangle of thin cork stuck to my card base, wooden snowflakes on top of it, and then a stamped vertical sentiment.


Has anyone heard how well these wooden snowflakes go through the mail?  They seem kind of fragile to me!

Supplies:

Stamps - Impression Obsession sentiment

Ink - Distress Oxide Vintage Photo

Paper - rustic white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - wooden snowflakes, thin cork

Musical Notation with Bells

The 52 Christmas Card Throwdown wants us to pick one of the challenges from 2017.  I chose April 2017:

Here's my card:

I die cut the bells out of scraps of white cs, rubbed Versamark over them and added the new Emerald Creek Charred Gold embossing powder, and then repeated both steps again to get a lovely thick coating that really looks like metal. I die cut another set of the bells and glued them to the backs of the heat embossed ones to give more substance.

The sentiment (that is words to a carol so appropriate with the musical notation background) is heat embossed with a detail platinum embossing powder and then trimmed with a deckle edge die.

Bells and sentiment are mounted on a music embossed background, and for the cords on the bells, I twisted pieces of both gold and silver SU metallic cord together - blended together they are closer in colour to the bells.

I hope you're all enjoying the Christmas music.  I don't like it to start too early - round about now is when I always start listening.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black sentiment

Ink - Versamark

Paper - white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Lil Inker Jingle Bells dies, PSX Platinum embossing powder, Emerald Creek Charred Gold embossing powder, Sizzix embossing folder, Spellbinders deckle edge die, SU gold and silver cord