Glittered Snowflakes

I made this card on a lovely sunny August day - hard to think of snow at this time of year!  It's my reminder card for the CAS Christmas Card Challenge "Glitter".

Snow and snowflakes are the first thing to come to my mind when I think of glitter on Christmas cards so I'm afraid I used snowflakes for both of my Design Team cards for this challenge!  But ended up with quite different cards and techniques.  Today's snowflakes are stenciled:

Because glitter is so hard to photograph, I'm including this close-up done under different light:

I used a homemade stencil (made for me by my dear friend, Loll Thompson).  I mixed a bit of blue ink into a sparkly embossing paste without mixing it thoroughly.  Depending how well mixed the ink was, determined how much blue shows up in the snowflakes - I quite like the variation in depth of colour.

I die cut the sentiment out of blue glitter paper, and added a border of the same, and popped it up on fun foam on a cream shimmer card base that matches the snowflakes quite well.

Please come and join us at CAS Christmas between now and August 24th.  For inspiration, check out the cards by the rest of the Design Team and our wonderful Guest Designer, Michelle (of Seashell Creations).

I'm also linking up my card over at The 12 Months of Christmas challenge "Sparkle, Glitter, and Bling".

Supplies:

Ink - SU Bashful Blue

Paper - mixed media, blue glitter, and cream shimmer cs

Size - 5.75" square

Accessories - homemade snowflake stencil, Cosmic Shimmer Frosty Dawn Sparkle paste, Cutplorations sentiment die, fun foam

Butterfly with Vellum Embossed Background

Time to remind you that CAS Watercolour wants to see "Colourful Butterflies" this month!

My reminder card uses a watercolour technique for the background of the butterfly.

I took a few colours of Distress inks and tapped them on my craft sheet, spritzed liberally with water, and pressed some mixed media cs into it.  When dry, I die cut the background of the butterfly out of a section that would give vibrant colour closest to the butterfly's body, and the paler colours out on the edges.  I die cut the outline from a scrap of mixed media cs and glued it over the top.

The background is a piece of iridescent vellum - depending on the lighting and the angle, it changes from blue to plum to purple.  Here's a close-up of a photo taken outside in sunlight that shows one of the other colours of the vellum:

I ran the vellum through an embossing folder to give it texture, set it behind an oval aperture, and added the butterfly to it, popping up the wings with foam tape.

You have until August 24th to link up your CAS butterfly-themed cards.  There's lots of lovely inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and this month's Guest Designer, Amy (of Miss Lomax Art).

Supplies:

Stamps - Judith sentiment

Ink - Distress Seedless Preserves, Faded Jeans, Milled Lavender

Paper - white and mixed media cs, iridescent blue / purple vellum

Size - A2

Accessories - Lil Inker stitched oval die, Cuttlebug embossing folder, foam tape

Blue with Black Words and Birds

Here's a Christmas card I made:

Blue, as many of you know, is my favourite colour.   And I need to make several cards for my best friend to buy, all with a peace / dove theme.

I made a blue watercolour wash background for my image, stamped it and heat embossed it in a sparkly clear embossing powder, framed it with a double stacked frame to give more dimension, and added it to the cardbase.

It's off to two challenges:

Jingle Belles "Blue Christmas"

The Paper Players "Black, White, and One Other Colour"

Supplies:

Stamps - Stampendous Dove Tidings

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - watercolour paper, ivory cs

Size - A2

Accessories - blue watercolour paints, clear sparkle embossing powder, MFT stitched frame die, fun foam

A Challenge Card and an Improved Card

I'm on birthday cards today, a brief break from Christmas cards.

Seize the Birthday wants "Flowers" as its topping.

And The Flower Challenge is "Use Your Favourite Flower".

I used a new flower stamp that I love because it is an agapanthus, definitely a favourite flower because it is blue!

I put the stamp in the MISTI and inked up with various mini Distress inkpads and markers, spritzing with water, and stamping onto watercolour paper until I was happy with the results.

I trimmed the panel with a stitched rectangle die, added a vertical sentiment, and bordered in navy blue cs.

It will go off to my cousin in England who grows the most amazing agapanthus!

On to a second birthday card.  I made this card a couple of years ago:

See this post here for the details.  I was not totally happy with it and never sent it but my friend who is an artist has her birthday coming up so I pulled it out again and revamped it a little bit:

I re-stamped the image and added some watercolour paints to the jar, the brushes, and the tips of the brushes.  Then fussy cut it and glued it on top of the original stamped image.  A simple fix but it made all the difference - I am so much happier with the card now!

Supplies for card 1:

Stamps - Penny Black agapanthus, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment

Ink - various mini Distress inkpads and markers

Paper - watercolour paper, white and navy cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, blue pearls

Supplies for card 2: 
See this post here