French Marigold

I spent a wonderful day at Loll Thompson's house on Saturday.  We made lots of backgrounds using different techniques and did some watercolouring using Twinkling H2Os.  I made this card with two of the pieces from that day.

 

The background was made by spraying the honeycomb ef with yellow and orange sprays (homemade by Loll), and then the mixed media cs was pressed onto it.  I love the random coverage and the splatters I got at the top.

The marigold is stamped and heat embossed in gold on mixed media cs, then watercoloured with Twinkling H2Os.  It was fussy cut and then the stem was glued flat to the background and the upper part of the flower popped up.  I bordered the panel with gold cs.

Supplies:

Stamps - Stamplorations French Marigold, unknown sentiment

Ink - Versamark

Paper - mixed media cs, cream and gold cs

Size - 5.25" square

Accessories - yellow and orange homemade sprays, Sizzix honeycomb embossing folder, Spellbinders oval die, gold embossing powder, Twinkling H2Os, foam tape

Bittersweet Christmas Tea

This week's Merry Monday challenge is "Hot Beverages".  In the last couple of months, I drank many cups of tea - many of them sitting in a Toronto hospital with my Mum.  To my everlasting sorrow, she passed away on January 6th.  I'm recently back home from Toronto and am trying to get back into my usual activities.

I haven't had much enthusiasm for anything but yesterday my friend Christine (calex on SCS) and I spent a wonderful day at Loll Thompson's house playing around with some techniques (the results from that will show up on future posts).

It sparked a desire to get into my craft room so this morning I checked recent challenges and realized I just had time to get a card done for Merry Monday.  The challenge is perfect for right now as my Mum loved tea as much as I do and we must have shared thousands of cups together over the years.  I also brought back many of the corrugated cup sleeves from the Tim Hortons coffee shop in the hospital to recycle in card-making.

So here's a cup of tea in honour of my wonderful Mum.

I trimmed the corrugated cup sleeve down to a rectangle and went over it lightly with gesso.  I bordered it with red cs to match the ink I stamped the mug in.  For the steam coming out of the tea, I used part of a Memory Box snowflake flourish.

My Mum loved to go out for English "high tea".  Here's a photo of her from July with me and two of my three sisters when we went out for high tea:

I just wish my Mum would be here next Christmas so that I could send this card to her.  Cheers, Mum - wherever you are now, I'm sure there are endless cups of tea.

Supplies:

Stamps - SU mug, Northwoods

Ink - SU Cherry Cobbler

Paper - white and red cs, corrugated cup sleeve

Size - A2

Accessories - gesso, SU mug die, Memory Box snowflake flourish, gemstone

Mixed Media Winter Colours

It's time for another Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media challenge.  This month it is "stencil".

Vancouver has had a week of chilly sunny frosty weather and the early morning sky has been the loveliest colours of pale blue with some pale pink in it.  I decided to try and capture those colours in my card.

 

I started by stencilling a partial background of snowflakes using a stencil made for me by my great card-making friend, Loll Thompson.  I used Viva Decor's Holographic Iridescent glitter paste.

Then I used a technique I learned from Loll to colour some mixed media cardstock - floating alcohol ink - using a blue and a pink alcohol inks.  When dry I spritzed it with sparkle spray (which I couldn't get to show up in the photo).  I die cut the sentiment and the top border of snowflakes from it and from scrap white cs, and glued them together to give more substance to the die cuts.

I bordered it with glitter cs and kept it flat as I'm mailing it to the UK and didn't want to add to the postage.

You've got until the end of the month to join in so please use a stencil to make a mixed media card and bring it over to Happy Little Stampers for the chance to win a set of Happy Little Stampers stamps.

Supplies:

Viva Decor Holographic Iridescent glitter paste, homemade snowflake stencil, Memory Box Frosted Border die, Penny Black winter wishes die, Adirondack Alcohol Inks Sailboat Blue and Pink Sherbert, glitter cs, white cs, mixed media cs

Jingle Bells for Happy Little Stampers

It's time for another Christmas card challenge at Happy Little Stampers.  This month the theme is "jingle".  I had a few ideas for my contribution to the Design Team but ended up going with bells and a Happy Little Stampers' sentiment stamp.  Here's my card:

I started by embossing a frame for my bells, just to add more interest and texture.

Then I die cut the Lil Inker Jingle Bells dies out of three different glitter cs and out of scraps of white cs (to layer behind the glitter cs and give them more substance and dimension).

I attached them with matching colours of metallic twine.  And I just couldn't toss all those little stars that fell out of the die cuts so scattered them about the bells.

The "jingle bells" sentiment is stamped and heat embossed in copper.  And a layer of fun foam pops up the whole panel.

I know Christmas just ended but, if you're like me and enjoy making Christmas cards all year, you've got until the end of January to join in over at Happy Little Stampers (and possibly win a stamp set from Happy Little Stampers!).

Supplies:

Stamps - Happy Little Stampers Mixed Christmas Sentiments

Ink - ColorBox copper

Paper - white cs; gold, silver, and copper glitter cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Lil Inker jingle bells dies; gold, silver, and copper metallic twine; fun foam, copper embossing powder, Paper Studio embossing folder

Five Favourite Christmas Cards of 2015

There's a fun event over at Debby Yates' blog - list your five favourite Christmas cards that you made in 2015.  Since I love making Christmas cards, I had plenty to choose from but finally settled on these five.  The links for the first three take you to posts on this blog but the last two take you to my gallery on Splitcoaststampers as they are from before I started the blog.

Merry Reindeer

 

Quilted Star

 Red Birds

Winter Green

Sponged Winter

Thanks for looking!

Frosted Windowpanes

For two challenges over at Splitcoast Stampers - Free for All "Icing on the Cake" (to have something on the card that is frosted) and Mixability "Snow".

I started with a Tim Holtz brick embossing folder, then used shimmer embossing paste and a light sprinkle of ice blue glitter through the Falling Snow stencil (it's hard to see it in the photo).

I took a piece of scrap of clear plastic acetate that has molded lines on it (it held dishwasher detergent cubes!) and cut a square of it and edged the ridges with Sparkle Texture Effect. And added the Texture Effect along the bottom edge for a build-up of snow.

I framed the window with thin strips of fun foam and a die cut square frame. Behind the window is a scrap of dp to represent interior curtains or wall paper.

And I added the perfect sentiment for the Free for All challenge - "frosted windowpanes" - heat embossed in Irridescent Ice.

It's my first card for next Christmas's stash and for the Christmas Card Challenge on SCS - a great way to motivate you to work on Christmas cards all year!

Supplies:

Stamps: Impression Obsession sentiment

Paper: white cs, Anna Griffin dp

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Archival Brilliance Pearlescent Ice Blue

Accessories: Tim Holtz brick embossing folder, Nesties square dies, fun foam, SU Irridescent Ice ep, Simon Says Stamp Falling Snow stencil, Cosmic Shimmer Aurora Sparkle embossing paste, ice blue glitter, Martha Stewart Sparkle Texture Effect, scrap of molded plastic