Merry Monday Tag Two

The Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge is one of my favourite challenges.  It has really helped me over the years to get a good stash of cards built up by November.  I liked this week's challenge "Tag, You're It!" so much I decided to do a second card for it.

I find tags are a great way to play around with mixed media and I really like the look of them on a card.

A few weeks ago, my friend Christine came over and we made some mixed media backgrounds together.  This is the last piece of one of those backgrounds.  It consisted of blue and green acrylic paints swiped on mixed media cs, then toned down with gesso, torn pieces of text paper layered over it, then some stencilling and embossing paste (in this case a harlequin stencil and clear paste so it doesn't show up much) on top.

I die cut the sentiment out of a scrap of shimmery green cs.  The dove is die cut twice and layered together for extra dimension, then rubbed with versamark and heat embossed once with Frantage Shabby Blue ep, then again with Frantage Chunky White.

The background is sprinkled with both Frantage Shabby Blue and Shabby Green and heated from underneath to add a bit of interest to it.

It's also for my June quota at SCS's Christmas Card Challenge.

Here are the challenge links:

Merry Monday

Splitcoast Stampers' Christmas Card Challenge

Paper: white cs, mixed media cs, shimmery green cs

Card Size: A2

Ink: versamark

Accessories: Tim Holtz Peace on Earth die, Memory Box dove die, green ribbon, green and blue acrylic paint, gesso, Stampendous Frantage (Shabby Green, Shabby Blue, and Chunky White), SU tag punch, harlequin stencil, clear paste, dimensionals

Merry Monday Tag

One of the challenges I love to take part in is the Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge.  This week's theme is "Tag You're It" - to put a tag on your card.

I also take part in the SCS Christmas Card Challenge.  It basically encourages you to create a certain number of Christmas cards each month so that come November, you have a stash ready to go.  Someone suggests a theme each month, but it is optional.  For this card, I've used the September theme of snowflakes with some blue on the card.

I used the faux mother of pearl technique on the tag, done by pouncing a scrunched piece of cling wrap in sparkly white liquid ink and then pouncing that onto the cs. When dry, I sponged over it with various blue Distress inks - the liquid ink acts as a resist. Then cut it out with a tag die cut.

I added a dove die cut in sparkly cs. I die cut two of the main body and glued them together, but just one of the separate small wing - it gives a nice dimensional effect to the wings. The small die cut snowflakes were randomly tapped with my Versamarker and heat embossed with sparkly ep. The sentiment is attached with dotted ribbon to match the ribbon at the top.

The background is a Darice embossing folder and the cardbase is the same shimmery green cs I used for the dove's branch.

Here are the links for the two challenges:

Merry Monday Challenge

SCS Christmas Card Challenge

Supplies: A Muse sentiment stamp, Gina K luxury white cs, Coredinations glittered cs, green shimmery cs; Distress Tumbled Glass, Faded Jeans, and Salty Ocean inks;  Darice embossing folder, dotted ribbon, Impression Obsession dove die, Cheery Lynn snowflakes die, Memory Box Teramo label die, Die-namics tag die, Tsukineko Frost White liquid ink, Versamarker, sparkly ep

An Inspired Wreath

Here is my first attempt at posting a card!  It's one I just did for the Inspiration Challenge at Splitcoast Stampers - to be inspired by a photo on a Pinterest board of wreaths.  I chose this one.

As soon as I saw the photo, I thought of an old Penny Black stamp I haven't used for quite awhile. It even has a bow as part of the image. I kept the colour scheme subtle like the Pinterest photo. I stamped and heat embossed the wreath in gold and bordered it with gold cs to match the gold in the dp.

This is a pretty straightforward card - the style I consistently made when I started out years ago (and still enjoy making).  As my blog progresses, you'll see a whole variety of styles as I've evolved in all sorts of directions.

It's also a card with stars on it (though only in the background this time) - you'll see stars quite frequently!

Supplies:

Stamps: Penny Black Adornment

Paper: white and gold cs, SEI dp

Paper Size: 4.75" square

Ink: ColorBox Gold

Accessories: gold embossing powder, Nesties circles, dimensionals

Welcome to my blog!

Welcome to the start of my blogging experience.  My name is Susan (known as susanbri at Splitcoast Stampers).  I've been making cards for many years.

I'm a retired librarian (I worked for many years at the public library) and have happily reinvented myself since retiring six years ago.  I now split my life between my volunteering (more about that in a minute) and my home life where I make cards, garden, cook, knit, walk my dogs, get together with friends for wonderful food, and read (how could a retired librarian not be a reader?!).

In my volunteer life, I'm a Friend of the Garden at the UBC Botanical Garden, I teach dog obedience classes, and most relevant of all, I volunteer at Southlands Therapeutic Riding Society (STARS).  You'll see that stars play a big role in my cards, and also the majority of them are Christmas cards.  That's because I make many Christmas cards each year to sell, with the proceeds going to Southlands to help fund their Therapeutic Riding programs for children and adults with special needs.  I spend two to three days a week at the barn, helping to get the horses ready for lessons, leading the horses or walking next to riders who need extra help.  It's incredibly rewarding and makes my retirement so very rich.

I have been a member of Splitcoast Stampers since 2009.  There's a link to my SCS card gallery in the right hand column, if you'd like to take a look at my previous cards.  I'd always thought I'd just stick with posting my cards on Splitcoast Stampers, but my dear card-making friend, Loll Thompson (Stamping with Loll) has convinced me I should start a blog to share my future cards, my volunteer life, and my love of gardening.  I hope you'll take this journey with me.

Since a post with no picture is kind of boring, here's my favourite photo from the therapeutic riding.  You can't see me very well but I'm up at the front on the left leading the horse.  The young rider is confined to a wheelchair with a whole host of physical disabilities but when he's on a horse, he sits up straight with just a bit of support and smiles the most wonderful smile the whole time.

Helping to fund his riding (and other riders like him) is the reason I make so many Christmas cards to sell, so please enjoy all the Christmas cards posted throughout the year!

I have to end by saying I would not be blogging without all of Loll's help to set up the blog and to teach me how to use it!   Thank you so much, Loll!