A Selection of Christmas Cards

A few last minute Christmas cards that I made for some SCS challenges in the last couple of weeks but never posted on my blog.  I've put the link to the SCS post under each if you're interested in techniques or supplies.

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2682212?&cat=500&ppuser=179658

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2682351?&cat=500&ppuser=179658

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2682373?&cat=500&ppuser=179658

If I don't do another post before Christmas, here's wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Boots for Merry Monday

This week's Merry Monday challenge is "Boots".  My friend Bonnie Klass, one of the Design Team members, made an adorable card that inspired mine.  I realized that I've had the SU Snow Much Fun set for a while but have never used the short snowman from the set though I've used the other stamps a lot. So decided to ink him up for both Merry Monday and for the SCS CAS challenge to use a snowman.

A very basic card - inked, coloured with markers, bordered in grey and some dp that needed using up and have round white circles on it that tie in with the snowman's snowball.

Supplies:

Stamps: SU Snow Much Fun, Rubber Soul sentiment

Paper: Basic Grey dp, white and gray cs

Paper Size: 5x4.25"

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Stormy Sky

Accessories: Tombow markers, Spellbinders rectangle dies, foam tape

Leftovers, Smooshing, and a Basic Tree

I'm still making Christmas cards! I sold everything I'd made throughout the year at my fundraiser so am now making cards to mail out. Luckily there have been some good challenges this week at Splitcoaststampers to inspire me. First up is for the Free for All challenge "One-Word Wonder" - to have one word, and only one word, on the card. And Monday's Technique Lover's Challenge was "Rags to Riches" - to use up leftovers. And it's also going to the Addicted to CAS challenge - use the code word "Joy".

I'd been playing with gilding flakes earlier in the month so used up some little leftover pieces (made by covering cs in double sided tape, then the gilding flakes rubbed in to the tape) and die cut small ornaments out of them.

I layered them over an embossing folder, using foam tape to pop them up, and pieces of twine to hang them - because the gilding flakes had gold, silver, and copper in them, I used three different colours of twine.

For the Free for All challenge, I added the single word "Joy", heat embossed in copper.

Next up is a card for the Ways to Use It challenge "Bring on the Bling".

I did the background using Loll Thompson's "smooshing" technique with Distress inks, keeping the ink more saturated around the outer edges of the piece of watercolour paper. The poinsettia is stamped in the centre, and painted with a couple of shades of red Distress inks. I flicked some very watered down ink on the panel, and sponged around the edges.

The centre of the poinsettia is filled with a variety of gold gemstones and I added a few in random spots on the background as well. To emphasize the gold of the bling, I bordered with gold shimmer cs before mounting on a cream cardbase.

And lastly, a very simple basic card for the CAS challenge "Trim the Tree".

 

My tree is stamped, the ornaments coloured with Copics and then gone over with Glossy Accents, and the star was coloured with Copics and then sparkled with a Stardust gel pen.

It's also for the CASology challenge "Tree" and the 'Tis the Season challenge "O Christmas Tree".

Ornaments supplies:

Stamps: Rubber Soul "Joy"

Paper: white cs

Paper Size: A2

Ink: ColorBox Copper

Accessories: mixed gilding flakes, Spellbinders ornament dies, Crafts Too embossing folder, copper embossing powder, foam tape; gold, silver, and copper twine

Poinsettia supplies:

Paper: watercolour paper, gold shimmer and cream cs

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Ranger Archival Black, various Distress Inks

Accessories: various gold gemstones

Tree supplies:

Stamps: Rubbernecker tree, Rubber Soul sentiment

Paper: red, white, and dark green cs

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Ranger Library Green

Accessories: Copics, Glossy Accents, Stardust pen, SU tag punch

Mixed Media with Reindeer

It's time for another Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media Challenge - and it's wide open this month as it's "Anything Goes".  I'm still in Christmas card production mode so created a snowy scene for two little reindeer.

My media are ink, embossing powder (two different kinds), white acrylic paint, glitter, and Deco Art Snow Writer.

I started by sponging the background with three shades of blue Distress ink.  Then stamped the trees and used this great new embossing powder that really adds tones and dimension.  I splattered with white acrylic paint and a toothbrush for a light snowfall.  The sentiment is stamped in dark brown and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

I cut a curved edge to a scrap of white cs and coated it with Deco Art Snow Writer and some glitter.  And finished off with two dark brown die cut reindeer glued to the snow and popped off the background with foam tape.

I'm also adding it to the Splitcoaststampers Christmas Card Challenge theme of "Santa, sleighs, or reindeer".

The Happy Little Stampers challenge is open all month so please come and join us!

Supplies:
Stamps - Tim Holtz trees, Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - Versamark, Memento Rich Cocoa; Distress Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire, and Broken China
Paper - white cs
Accessories - Impression Obsession reindeer dies, clear embossing powder, Ranger Verdigris Antiquities embossing powder, Deco Art Snow Writer, white acrylic paint, foam tape

"Jump Start" Backgrounds

Today over at Splitcoasstampers, Dini posted an interesting Mix-Ability challenge to start out a crafting session by making a bunch of backgrounds.  Then, if you like them, turn them into something shareable.  The challenge is called "Jump Start, Share Art".

I put some blue and silver Inka Gold on my craft sheet and spritzed it with some water and some homemade silver spray.   I smooshed pieces of watercolour paper and mixed media cs into it, spritzing in between each piece as needed.  I used way too much Inka Gold as I had enough on my craft sheet to make many background pieces.

 

But since I sold all of my Christmas cards at my fundraiser sale last weekend, I need to make a bunch more Christmas cards to send out myself!  So I decided these backgrounds would be perfect with simple black images stamped on them - a quick way to make lots of cards.  

Because the backgrounds were quite warped from the wet smooshing process and also a bit textured with lumpy bits of Inka Gold, I used the MISTI to stamp the images in Versafine Onyx Black - it's wonderful to have to option of restamping for a better image. I heat embossed with detail black powder.

 

Then I trimmed and mounted the images in various ways.  Here are some finished cards:

And a close-up of the owl one:

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps - Inkadinkado, Deep Red

Ink - Versfine Onyx Black

Accessories - silver and blue Inka Gold, homemade silver spray, Ranger detail black embossing powder, Bo Bunny silver glitter paste, Tim Holtz stencil, foam tape,  silver star sequins, MFT pierced frame die, SU sentiment punch

A Star for Happy Little Stampers

It's time for the December challenge at Happy Little Stampers!  This month it is "Star".  I especially love stars as a Christmas card theme.  And I love the giant star stamp I chose to use for my card:

 

I love the way it is easy to score and bend and then put foam tape under it to get some real dimension.

I usually stamp it in gold but was feeling the need for something different so stamped it in a bright red, then sprayed it with Shimmer Spray (it's much more shimmery in real life!).  And also in real life, the red border is a much better colour match than it looks in the photo!

The background is splattered with a copper watercolour paint and the sentiment is heat embossed with a copper ep.  The copper border matches those.

Please come and join us at Happy Little Stampers.  You've got till the end of the month to link up your starry creations! 

Supplies:

Stamps: SU Christmas Star, Paper Smooches sentiment

Ink: Memento Lady Bug

Paper: white, red, and shimmery copper cs

Accessories: copper watercolour paint, copper embossing powder, foam tape, Tsukineko shimmer spritz

Christmas Stockings, Gifts, and Pears in a Pear Tree

A couple of cards I made today for challenges.

First up is one that I've done for a few challenges:

• Less is More "Fruit"
• Merry Monday "Birds"
• Christmas Cards All Year Round "Keep It Simple with Minimal Embellishments and Lots of Open Space" 
• Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge "Favourite Technique".

It was very hard to pick my favourite technique as I enjoy doing so many.  But I went back to what got me hooked on card making in the first place - heat embossing.  I saw the Old Island Stamp Co. people do it at a craft fair years ago and I was hooked.  So in honour of them, I used one of their stamps that is perfect for heat embossing but also works for the fruit challenge and the birds challenge.

It's like a lovely old woodblock print of a partridge in a pear tree and it deserves to have lots of open space around it.  I heat embossed it (and the sentiment) in gold and bordered both with red, mounted them on a stitched rectangle, and popped that up on the card base.


My second card today is for today's SCS Ways to Use It "Put a Sock in It (Christmas Socks!)" and Christmas Stampin' All Year Long "Christmas Gift" challenges.

I used a Penny Black stamp that is perfect for both challenges as it has stockings and gifts.

I stamped it on watercolour paper and coloured it with Zig brush markers. I sponged around the edges with Antique Linen, and did the same to the sentiment label.

I had fun doing bits of the image with different things - red stickles on the ornaments / lights on the garland, a cream pearl pen on the candles, gold stickles on the candles' flames, and Flower Soft on the animals' hats.

Thanks for dropping by!

Supplies Card One:

Stamps: Old Island Stamp Co. partridge, A Muse sentiment

Paper: Gina K ivory cs, red cs

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Colorbox gold

Accessories: gold embossing powder, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die, SU sentiment dies, foam tape

Supplies Card Two:

Stamps: Penny Black dog and cat, Simon Says Stamp sentiment

Paper: red cs, watercolour paper

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Distress Archival black, ColorBox Evergreen, Distress Antique Linen

Accessories: Zig brush markers, label die, red and gold stickles, cream pearl pen, white flower soft