Santa Flying over Woods and Snowy Monoprint

Our hot weather has ended and I actually have socks and a sweater on today so posting Christmas cards seems quite appropriate!

First up for My Time to Craft Christmas "Woods" (a grove of trees, a forest, etc.), I have Santa flying over a grove of evergreens.  It's also for Rudolph Days (anything Christmas) and Stamping Sensations "Christmas in July".

I brayered the background on coated cs, using a mask for the moon and two shades of blue Distress ink. I stamped the trees and sentiment while the background was in my MISTI to make sure I got a good impression and to avoid smudging. Then added a die cut Santa and sleigh, and a black border.

Next up, Jingle Belles want to see snow.

For my snowy background, I used a technique I learned from this Jennifer Maguire video.  I blended a couple of shades of blue Distress inks on a piece of white cs, then stamped the snowflake background in Versamark and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  I spritzed it generously with a clear shimmer spray and then placed a second piece of plain white cs on top of it and ran it through my Big Shot.  The clear embossing creates a resist and only the surrounding ink transfers to the second piece of cs as the Big Shot applies pressure.  It's that second piece that I've used as my background for this card.

I allowed the lovely soft background to take centre stage on the card.  I bordered it with a blue glitter cs and die cut the sentiment out of the same glitter cs (and also out of white cs that I slightly offset to give a bit of white showing behind the blue glitter).

 

 

   

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Impression Obsession tree line, Make an Impression sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne, Distress Speckled Egg and Faded Jeans
Paper - coated cs, white and black c
Size - A2
Accessories - Frantic Stamper Santa's Sleigh die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown snowflake background stamp
Ink - various blue Distress inks, Versamark
Paper - white cs, blue glitter cs
Size - A2
Accessories - SSS Snowy Greetings die, clear embossing powder, clear shimmer spray

Thin Framed Cardinal and Mixed Media Christmas Lights

Christmas Kickstart wants to see a frame on the card.  I did a very thin circular frame around my cardinal.  And Stamping Sensations has a twist of Christmas in July.

I stamped the image and watercoloured it.  I die cut a thin circle out of the panel with the SSS Thin Circle Frame die and watercoloured it the same red as the cardinal. I trimmed the remaining outer part of the panel into a square, attached it to a piece of fun foam, then carefully glued in the thin red circle frame, and then finally added in the circle with the image. Those thin circle die cuts are very flimsy to deal with!

Inkspirational has a different kind of challenge - feature products from 2 or more stamp companies.  This card uses products from several different companies - Mama Elephant, Simon Says Stamp, and Impression Obsession stamps, Tim Holtz and Carta Bella stencils, Versafine, Distress, and Delicata inks, and Tim Holtz and Cosmic Shimmer pastes.  Mixed media is a great way to use different brands together.

On a piece of heavy cs, I brayered different shades of blue ink and sprayed with some mica spray, stamped with a snowflakes background stamp in darker blue, stamped a few bits of tiny stars in gold, and stenciled some larger stars and snowflakes with grit paste.

I stamped some small sentiment stamps on two of the edges with the dark blue ink, and went around the edges with a shimmery blue paste.

Because one of my small sentiments says "love the twinkle lights", I die cut some lights out of gold mirror cs and added them on top, along with a sentiment strip.

 
 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - SU Christmas Cardinal
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, SSS Thin Circle Frame die, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Mama Elephant long sentiment, SSS small sentiments, Impression Obsession snowflakes and stars background stamps
Ink - Versafine Clair Twilight, various blue Distress inks, Delicata gold
Paper - white cs, gold mirror cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Mama Elephant sentiment strip die, Distress mica stain Frosted Juniper, TH grit paste, TH star stencil, Carta Bella snowflake stencil, Cosmic Shimmer blue opal past

Blue Christmas for Peace on Earth

Blue is my favourite colour so I immediately knew which images on the new Peace on Earth mood board (see at end of my post) would inspire this card:

I chose a stamp I've never used before as it had both the candle for the top right hand image and ornaments and a poinsettia for the bottom left hand image.  I used both the pale blues of the candle image and the rich royal blues of the other image.

I stamped my image and sentiment in dark blue ink.  Then watercoloured the image with regular watercolours for the candle, greenery, and poinsettia, and shimmer watercolours for the ornaments and tiny stars.  I trimmed the panel with a label die.

I created the background by using glitter paste through a snowflake stencil on dark blue shimmer cs.  The candle image is popped up on it on fun foam.

Here's the Peace on Earth mood board:

There is lots of other inspiration from the rest of the Design Team.  Please join us!  I'm curious to see how many of you enter with something inspired by the blue images like me or choose to go with the red and green Christmas plaid.  Or of course you can opt for an "anything Christmas" card.  

I'm also entering this card in the NBUS "Never Before Used Stuff" challenge as it's the first time the candle stamp and the "snow angel" glitter paste were used.  And also the Stencil Fun Challenge "Shades of Blue".

  

Supplies:
Stamps - unknown candle stamp, SSS sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Twilight
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs, dark blue shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - PaperArtsy snowflake stencil, Crafter's Companion "Snow Angel" glitter paste, watercolour paints, Sizzix label die, fun foam

Loving Hearts and Birthday Flowers

Simply Clean and Simple want us to use a heart and Colorful Options want to see the colours of our flag.  The Canadian flag is red and white so that works perfectly with hearts!

I die cut the heart once out of red cs and twice out of scrap cs and glued them together for substance and diminsion.  Also die cut the sentiment out of red red, and added both to the top white panel which is popped up on fun foam on the card base.

Then for The Flower Challenge (a birthday card), AAA Birthday Challenge (Fabulous Flowers), Hero Arts Stay Crafty Challenge (Color My World - I coloured in my focal image), and the Triple B Challenge (Birds, Blooms, Butterflies - I used two of them).

I stamped and heat embossed the reverse image stamp of the flowers in black, and then watercoloured them. I made a piece of smooshed cs and die cut the butterfly from it. Added the floral panel and butterfly to an off white layer, and stamped the sentiment on it. Then added it all to a blue card base.

    

   

 

Supplies for card 1:
Paper - white and red cs
Size - 5" square
Accessories - heart die, Love You die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Hero Arts Garden Silhouette, Hero Arts Happy Birthday, Impression Obsession Belated
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - blue and offwhite cs, watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, clear embossing powder, unknown butterfly die