Christmas Rose

November is flying by at a frightening speed.  How are you doing with getting your Christmas cards done?  I'm here to remind you to get a card made for CAS Watercolour that will be perfect for the season:

My card includes both florals and greenery, and it uses a really old (but still much loved by me) stamp:

One reason I love it so much is because I have various Hellebores (commonly called Lenten roses) growing in my garden, one of which is the Christmas rose, more officially and properly known as Helleborus niger.  Botanical names and common plant names get so incredibly complicated - the older brain reels from trying to keep them straight!  The Christmas rose is supposed to bloom at Christmas but mine doesn't usually do much till mid-January, but every year I hope to see it at Christmas.

I stamped in Versafine Onyx Black on watercolour paper, and watercoloured the image.

When dry I trimmed it down with a Spellbinders rectangle die and left it in the die while I carefully sponged around the image with Distress Antique Linen.  When I took it out of the die, I was left with a nice narrow white border.  I attached it to red cs so that I'd have a narrow red border as well.

And finally popped it up on fun foam on a green cardbase.

There's more inspiration over at CAS Watercolour from the rest of the Design Team and this month's wonderful Guest Designer, Maura (see her SCS Gallery here).  You have until November 24th to link up your card.  Please remember to keep it clean and simple with quite a bit of "white space" (on my card the white space is dark green - that's okay because we're talking about "empty space", not literally "white".  Also please note that we're looking for florals and / or greenery, but not Christmas trees.

Hope to see you in our gallery!

Supplies:

Stamps - SU Christmas Rose (from the SU Christmas Cardinal set)

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Antique Linen

Paper - watercolour paper, red and dark green cs

Size - A2

Accessories - watercolour paints, Spellbinders rectangle die, fun foam

Gingerbread

Two happy little gingerbread fellows helping me use up some of my decorative paper - my ongoing self-inflicted challenge!

Inspired by November's Christmas Cards All Year Round "Gingerbread".

A pretty obvious card, reminiscent of my old style of cardmaking!  Stamped and die cut gingerbread boys, popped up on a die cut label, added to decorative paper, and finally a simple die cut sentiment - I chose "Be Jolly" because they look so jolly!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps - Stampin' Up

Ink - Memento brown

Paper - PTI Vintage Cream, dark red, Basic Grey dp

Size - A2

Accessories - Sizzix label die, Tattered Lace sentiment die, SU gingerbread die, foam tape

Flowers for a Colour Challenge

It's my second week of being a Guest Designer for the November SCS Color Challenges.  This week's colours are:

They are not colours I would normally put together so this was a real challenge for me!   The only thing I was comfortable using them with was a floral bouquet.  The dessert option (just for fun) is NBUS (Never Before Used Stamp) - I had a perfect never used flower stamp!

I used the closest colours in my Zig Clean Brush markers. I inked up each colour one at a time in the MISTI, spritzed very lightly with water, and stamped onto mixed media cs. 

When dry, I added a bit more definition with the Zigs and coloured pencils, sponged lightly around the edges in blue, added a white embossed sentiment on a banner of black cs, and popped it up on fun foam.

I'll be back next week with my third SCS Color Challenge DT card.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black flowers, SU sentiment

Ink - ColorBox Frost White, Memento Sky Blue

Paper - white and black cs, mixed media cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Zig Clean Brush markers, coloured pencils, pearl embellishments, white embossing powder, fun foam

Festive Wishes

The ABC Christmas Challenge is one of my new (new-to-me) favourite challenges - I really like being given a cue word.  This month it is either "W for Wishes" or "X for Xmas".  I went with the first as it was a good chance to use a sentiment stamp I hadn't yet used.

The partridge in a pear tree stamp was sitting out on my desk begging to be used again.  I stamped and heat embossed both the image and the sentiment in copper, trimmed it, bordered it with copper cs, and popped it up on fun foam on an embossed musical background (since the partridge in a pear tree comes from a Christmas carol!).

Since I used an embossing folder, I'll link it up over at CAS Mix Up:

I have an embossing folder, stamping, and heat embossing.

And The Sparkles Christmas Challenge is "Embossing - Heat or Dry or Both" - I have both.


Thanks for dropping by today.

Supplies:

Stamps - Old Island Stamp Co. Partridge in a Pear Tree, Penny Black sentiment

Ink - ColorBox Copper

Paper - PTI Vintage Cream cs, copper cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Ranger copper embossing powder, musical embossing folder, fun foam