Thank You Wheels

The new Addicted to CAS challenge is "wheels".

I have a great stamp of an old penny-farthing bicycle that I rarely use so it seemed a great opportunity to get it out.

I made a shaving foam background, then stamped in black pigment ink and heat embossed.  I bordered in black and popped it up on fun foam.

My brother-in-law is an avid cyclist and often helps me out with things when he comes to visit so I'll save this for the next time I need a thank you card for him.

Supplies:

Stamps - unmounted, unknown stamps

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black; reinkers: Distress Antique Linen, Salty Ocean, and Vintage Photo

Paper - white and black cs

Size - A2

Accessories - clear embossing powder, shaving foam

Rainbow Christmas

A quick card for the Jingle Belles challenge "Here Comes Santa Claus" and the Christmas Card Throwdown challenge:

I chose a stamp that lends itself to being coloured with several different colours and includes Santa Claus.

I stamped in black and then coloured the houses and moon with Copic markers.  I layered it to create a thin black border and popped it up with fun foam on a red card base.

Another one for my stash!

Supplies:

Stamps - Crafty Individuals

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - white and black cs, red card base

Size - A2

Accessories - Copic markers, fun foam

No Stamps

Less is More challenge is asking for no stamps this time.

A great chance to use some dies, including my sentiment dies.

It's a very CAS card made with a wreath die and a sentiment die. The tiny stars came out of the wreath when I die cut so scattered them around as a matching embellishment.

Thanks for dropping by!

Supplies:

Paper - ivory and gold shimmer cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - Memory Box star wreath, Tim Holtz noel die

Decorative Paper or Embossed Background?

This week's Merry Christmas Challenge is to use patterned paper - a good one for me as I have quite a stash of it and rarely use it these days.

I picked a pretty green dp with a small print, and then found a piece of light kraft cs that blended with it well and stamped and heat embossed in white.  I coloured with white and green coloured pencils, trimmed it down and bordered in white. 

A pretty basic card that takes me back to my early days of cardmaking.  I like it but I'm not sure it's my style anymore (maybe I really should get rid of a lot of that dp!!).  So while I had the stamp and the kraft cs out, I made an alternate version.

I used a darker kraft cs for more contrast, the same heat embossing and colouring, but this time bordered with dark green cs and mounted on an embossed background.

The question then was "do I like it any better?".  Or should I also get rid of a bunch of my embossing folders too?  My style seems to have evolved away from this too and I'm enjoying more mixed media stuff, making my own backgrounds, etc.  It will be interesting to see at my annual card sale what cards sell the fastest.  If people still really like these ones and they sell quickly, then I need to keep making some of them so will have to keep my dp and embossing folders!  I'll report back in December!

What do you think?  Decorative paper or embossed background?  Move on from both of them?  Since I'm ambivalent myself, you won't hurt my feelings!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black

Ink - ColorBox white

Paper - white, green, and kraft cs; unknown dp

Size - A2

Accessories - white embossing powder, coloured pencils, Darice embossing folder

Belated Dragonflies

I seem to be so far behind these days that I'm making belated birthday cards for everyone!

For this one, I used another tissue paper background using the technique I learned from Loll Thompson's video.

Tissue paper was carefully smooshed with yellow and orange Distress Oxide inks, drying between each layer.  I then crumpled it up and glued it down to white cs.  Thoroughly went over it with an embossing buddy and then gently rubbed Versamark ink over the raised creases, added gold embossing powder, and heated.

I then stamped and heat embossed the sentiment, trimmed the panel and set it behind a black frame I die cut with two rectangle dies.  I added the dragonfly stems die to the lower corner.  The whole panel is popped up on fun foam.

I'm linking it up with July's CAS Mix Up challenge to use tissue paper, stamping, and at least one other option from the CMU list.

Thanks for dropping by today!

Supplies:

Stamps - Rubber Stamp Farm sentiment

Ink - Distress Oxide Spiced Marmalade, Antique Linen, and Fossilized Amber; Versamark, Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - white and black cs, tissue paper

Size - A2,

Accessories - Memory Box Dragonfly Stems, Spellbinders layering rectangles, clear and gold embossing powder, fun foam

Summer Revisited

The current Addicted to CAS challenge is :

One of my favourite summer memories from childhood involves warm Ontario days spending hours in an Adirondack chair (aka Muskoka chair) under a tree reading a book.  I did a variation on this card a few weeks ago evoked by the fir trees at the cottage we used to go to, but wanted to do one in memory of the Adirondack chairs we had at home under the deciduous trees in our backyard.

I stamped and heat embossed the chair, then watercoloured it and the grass and sky areas with my Gansai Tambi paint.  I stamped the sentiment and tree trunk in darker brown, and the grass and leaves in green.

 

The panel is popped up on fun foam.

 

I'm sending it to my Dad who still loves his Adirondack chair!

Supplies:

Stamps - Local King chair, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment, A Muse grass, SU tree

Ink - Recollections Chestnut pigment ink, Memento Rich Cocoa and Cottage Ivy

Paper - white cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, fun foam, clear embossing powder

Brusho'd Butterflies

It's mid-July (yikes, where is the summer going?!!) and I'm here to remind you to enter CAS Watercolour by July 24th.  This month the theme is "butterfly":

I used a new stamp from Carabelle and my brushos.

I stamped and heat embossed the image (it's a negative image) in black on coated cs.  Then I lightly sprinkled yellow and blue brushos over it and spritzed with water - I wanted quite a pastel look with just a bit of the brusho speckling and it worked!

I die cut with an oval, and put fun foam on the back of it.  Then mounted that on a larger black oval that is flat on the card base.

It's going off to a friend whose birthday was on Sunday - I've been so busy lately with travelling, my sister's visit, and my garden that all my birthday cards seem to have to be belated ones!

Speaking of being late, you only have until July 24th to link up your butterfly card at CAS Watercolour - please be sure it is clean and simple, and includes some form of watercolour!

Supplies:

Stamps - Carabelle "Background Papillons", Rubber Stamp Farm sentiment

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - coated cs, white and black cs

Size - A2

Accessories - yellow and blue brushos, clear embossing powder, Spellbinders oval dies, fun foam

Snowflakes on Tissue Paper

Time to remind you to that you only have until July 24th to link up a card to this month's CAS Mix Up challenge:

For my reminder card, I used the Metallic Tissue Paper Technique that Loll demonstrates in this video.  It is a technique that Loll learned from Karen of Karen's Kreative Kards.  Karen coloured her tissue paper with brushos but I used Distress Oxide inks and smooshing to colour mine.

My order for the second release of the Oxide inks arrived on Friday.  This set contains some of my favourite Distress colours so I had to play with them!!

Here's my card:

I smooshed with Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers, and Antique Linen Oxide inks on a piece of tissue paper, then crumpled it up and glued it to a scrap of white cs.  Next is an important step: go over your piece very well with your embossing buddy.  Then I gently rubbed Versamark over the ridges created by the crumpling and heat embossed with silver.  The silver is far shinier and more metallic in real life than in the photo.

I die cut a circle from my piece and topped it with a circular snowflake frame and some small snowflakes - all of that was die cut twice and glued together for more dimension.

I stamped and heat embossed my sentiment in Salty Ocean and popped the circle up on fun foam.

Please come and join us by July 24th with a clean and simple card featuring stamping, tissue paper, and at least one other element from the list on the CAS Mix Up blog.

It's also going over to the Christmas Cards All Year Round where the July challenge is "anything goes", Merry Monday where the July challenge is "pick one of the previous challenges" (I chose "Monochromatic Blues"), and Jingle Belles where there is a photo inspiration:

Supplies:

Stamps - Old Island Stamping Co. sentiment

Ink - Distress Oxide Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers, and Antique Linen; Versamark

Paper - white tissue paper, white cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - silver and clear embossing powder, Memory Box Stitched Snowflake Circle Frame, Impression Obsession small snowflakes, fun foam

Gesso and Distress Oxides Done Correctly!

In my post yesterday, I showed a card I made where I didn't quite follow the instructions for Brenda's great technique at Country View Crafts.

Here's yesterday's card so that you have it here for comparison:

And here's the version I did after realizing that we hadn't read Brenda's instructions properly:



As you can see, I didn't lose all the lovely colouring layering from the Oxide inks in this version.

I used the same two shades of blue Oxides to smoosh the background and dried between layers, and then watered down some gesso on my craft sheet and smooshed the panel into it a few times, drying between each time.  The big difference between today's and yesterday's version is the smooshing of the gesso instead of painting it on like a wash.

I then stamped the wildflowers, using the MISTI and spritzing before stamping.  I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment.  This time I used blue glitter cs for the die cut. 

The gesso tones down the Oxide colours and gives a nice vintage feeling.  Here is the background panel, with just the Oxide smooshing:

And here it is with the gesso smooshing over it:

It's even more effective in true vintage tones of pinks, browns, etc. but I needed a birthday card for one of my sisters who loves blue as much as I do!

Supplies:

Stamps - Tim Holtz wildflowers, Memory Box sentiment

Ink - Distress Oxide Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers, and Faded Jeans

Paper - mixed media cs, white cs, blue glitter cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Tim Holtz wildflower die, gesso, clear embossing powder, fun foam

Gesso and Distress Oxides

Loll Thompson hosted a few of us for a fun day of crafting on Sunday and one of the things we wanted to try was this technique Brenda posted on Country View Crafts.  Loll and I were looking at the instructions as we went along, and you'd think, being two educated adults, we'd be able to read and follow instructions well, but we just rushed ahead picking up odd details.  Needless to say, our results didn't look like Brenda's!

We did the smooshing with Oxide inks really well as we've done that before and ended up with great backgrounds.  What we did wrong was to read the next step as making a wash with gesso and water, and brushing it over the whole panel.

We ended up with kind of murky chalky pieces but went ahead and stamped our images on them.  Here's my finished card:

It's a pretty enough card but I lost all the lovely colour layering from the Oxide inks.

The flower stamps were inked up with Distress markers, using a MISTI, then spritzed with water and stamped on the background - I repeated the process to get a bit more detail.

The wildflower die was cut out twice and glued together for more dimension, and coloured with the same Distress markers.  I went over it with Wink of Stella for a bit of sparkle.

I kept the sentiment muted so as not to take away from the busy flower layers.

When I got home that night, I re-read Brenda's instructions and realized we'd done the gesso wash wrong.  So made another card doing it correctly, using the same colours, die, etc..  Come back tomorrow to see it - this blog post is already long enough!

Supplies:

Stamps - Unity "Insightful Meadows" flower, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment

Ink - Distress Oxide Peacock Feathers and Salty Ocean

Paper - mixed media and white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Tim Holtz wildflower die, Tim Holtz blue and green markers, gesso, Wink of Stella, fun foam

Summer Blackcurrants

Two challenges inspired today's card!

Addicted to CAS has the code word "Summer" - one of my great joys in summer is all the fresh fruit.

And today's CAS challenge over at SCS is "Summer Fruit" - the timing of the challenge was perfect as I spent the morning at a friend's picking blackcurrants from her blackcurrant bushes. I have enough for a lovely batch of my favourite jam!  So I went with them as my summer fruit for this very CAS card:

I used a Magenta berry stamp I've had for years. I stamped and watercoloured the image. To get a fairly accurate blackcurrant colour, I mixed some black, purple, and navy watercolours.

The small square is popped up on fun foam, as is the stitched rectangle it is set on.

I added a "thank you" sentiment as I'll give the card to my friend who shared her garden's bounty with me.

Supplies:

Stamps - Magenta berries, Judith sentiment

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, PTI Vintage Cream cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die, fun foam

Pink Version

I loved the card (see this post) that I made for the opening of the CAS Watercolour challenge so much that I decided to do another version.  The original was in shades of blue (my favourite) but this one is in pink, orange, red, and violet - not my preferred colours so more of a challenge to use.

I used the same technique of painting the Zigs directly on the stamp and then spritzing with water..  I used my MISTI in order to be able to re-ink and re-stamp.  It's tricky to get just the right amount of water when spritzing so I recommend experimenting first!

I roughly masked the butterfly and stamped a text lightly behind it with Adirondack Lake Mist - a great colour for backgrounds (sadly discontinued).  I added strips of dark pink cs to the two edges and popped it up on a cream card base.

You have until July 24th to add a clean and simple watercolour butterfly card to CAS Watercolour!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black butterfly, Stamp It Australia text stamp

Ink - Adirondack Lake Mist

Paper - watercolour paper, PTI Vintage Cream cs, scrap of dark pink cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Zig watercolour markers

Flag-related Christmas Card

Two current challenges relate to flags:

Less is More is asking for a card in your country's flag colour.

Jingle Belles is asking for a Christmas card using stars and / or stripes in honour of the USA July 4th holiday.

Since I'm Canadian, I went with red and white for our flag and just a star:

I used the large SU star, stamping it in my MISTI with red pigment ink (it took several reinkings and restampings to get solid coverage so thank goodness for the MISTI!), and then heat embossed with a sparkly embossing powder. I fussy cut it, scored the lines, and folded it.

The points are glued down to the cardbase and then there is foam tape under it. In the centre where it is raised higher off the card, I used a double layer of foam tape.

I used a very simple sentiment in keeping with "Less is More".

I'm also entering it in Christmas Cards All Year Round's current challenge of "Anything Goes".

I hope my Canadian friends enjoyed Canada Day, and wishing my American friends a happy 4th of July!

Supplies:

Stamps - SU Christmas Star, unknown joy

Ink - ColorBox red

Paper - white cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - sparkly embossing powder, foam tape

Zigs and Spritzing

Oh my, I can't believe 2017 is now half over!  Time for the new CAS Watercolour challenge:

I decided to try inking up a stamp directly with Zigs and then spritzing with water - a technique I've used with Distress and Tombow markers, but never with my Zigs.  I was pleased with the results!

I used three shades of blue, a grey, a green, and a yellow Zigs directly on the stamp and then spritzed with water..  I used my MISTI in order to be able to re-ink and re-stamp.  It's tricky to get just the right amount of water when spritzing so I recommend experimenting first!  

I stamped the sentiment in grey and splattered lightly (while roughly masking the butterfly image).   I popped the panel up on fun foam and added a few sequins.

Come on over to CAS Watercolour and check out the cards by our fabulous Guest Designer, Eunji (of Stamper EunjoA) and the rest of the Design Team.  You have until July 24th to link up your card - please be sure it is Clean and Simple, uses some form of watercolour, and follows our theme of "Butterfly".

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black butterfly, unknown sentiment

Ink - Versafine Smokey Grey

Paper - watercolour paper, PTI Vintage Cream

Size - A2

Accessories - Zig Clean Color Real Brush Watercolour markers, spritzer bottle, fun foam, sequins

Holly on Tissue Paper

We have an interesting challenge for you at CAS Mix Up this month.  We are asking you to use tissue paper in some way on your card.

Head on over to CAS Mix Up to get ideas from the rest of the Design Team and our Guest Designer, Sue of Sue's Card Craft.  There are also links to some videos and tutorials.

I had a piece of leftover green Christmas tissue paper with gold flecks in it so decided to use that and turn it into a Christmas card.

I scrunched up the tissue paper and stuck it down onto a piece of cs with Mod Podge.  I let it dry thoroughly and then cut out a panel with a deckle edged die.  I popped it up on the card base with fun foam.

I die cut the holly branch twice out of white cs and glued the two together for more substance, wound some gold thread around behind it, and then added it to the tissue paper panel.  Instead of the usual red gemstones for the holly berries, I used gold ones.

The sentiment is stamped and heat embossed in gold.

Here's a close-up of the gold specks in the tissue paper, the creases made by scrunching up the tissue paper, the gold thread, and the gemstones.

Please come and join us.  You have until July 24th to link up your card.  Remember to keep it clean and simple, and as well as the mandatory tissue paper and stamping, use at least one other choice from the list on the right hand side of the CAS Mix Up blog.

I'm also entering it in the SCS Mixability challenge "Silver Threads among the Gold" - use gold or silver thread on your card.

Supplies:

Stamps - A Muse sentiment

Ink - ColorBox gold

Paper - white cs, green with gold flecks tissue paper

Size - A2

Accessories - Mod Podge, Spellbinders deckle edge die, gold embossing powder, gold thread, holly die, fun foam