Recycled Owl

The 52 Christmas Card Throwdown challenge wants:

I've saved quite a few of the store-bought cards I've received over the years and I do love recycling parts of them.  It's how I got into card-making in the first place!  I had received so many beautiful cards that I couldn't bear to toss in the recycling bin so I made them into new cards and bought one ink pad and one Merry Christmas stamp and it all snowballed from there!

This card is for a friend who loves owls - I make her an owl-themed Christmas card every year so I'd saved the image on this one specially for her (I only have so many festive owl stamps!).

I trimmed the owl image with an inverted scallop die, cut a mat using a blue-silver shimmer cs and the next largest inverted scallop die, layered it on off-white cs that I stamped with the sentiment, and then used a gold shimmer card base.

I need to do more of this as I have lots of lovely store-bought cards I can use.

Supplies:

Stamps - Rosie's Roadshow sentiment

Ink - Vivid Cobblestone

Paper - gold and blue-silver shimmer cs, off-white cs, owl image cut from commercial greeting card

Size - A2

Accessories - Nesties inverted scallop dies

Winter Birds

I love birds on cards and also in real life - I have several bird feeders up in my backyard and love seeing all the birds out there.  I get a lot of birds in the winter so thought they'd be a good subject for this month.

This image reminds me of the clusters of birds sitting in my trees, waiting their turn at the feeders.

I tried using cling wrap with a watercolour wash (without the spray starch that I usually use with cling wrap).  I did quite a wet wash with blue watercolour paint and then scrunched up the cling wrap and left it overnight to dry.  I didn't get the really noticeable texture that you get with spray starch - just a bit of very subtle texture - easiest to see down at the bottom right corner.

When thoroughly dry, I stamped the image.  It looked a bit blah, so I sponged a bit of blue ink around the edges, since I wasn't planning on bordering it with anything.

I popped it up on fun foam and scattered a few die cut snowflakes (cut out of the same white cs as the card base) around the outside.

Supplies:

Stamps - Viva Decor

Ink - Archival Jet Black, Distress Salty Ocean

Paper - watercolour paper, white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - blue watercolour paint, cling wrap, small snowflake dies, fun foam

Singing "Let It Snow"

Vancouver's snow and colder temperatures are lingering.  I still have large sections of snow in my garden and neighbourhood wherever the sun isn't reaching to melt it.  They are forecasting some light snow for tomorrow so we could have more!  With this weather it's very easy to come up with a snowy card!

And Christmas Cards All Year Round is asking for a card inspired by a Christmas song or carol so what better than "Let It Snow"?

I started by doing a very pale stencil monoprint with blue brushos and letting it dry, then replaced the stencil and stenciled the snowflakes with a turquoise glitter paste. When dry, I trimmed the panel, bordered with turquoise glitter cs, and added a small sentiment - easy, quick (except for letting the paste dry), and flat for mailing!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black sentiment

Ink - Versamagic Ocean Depth

Paper - turquoise glitter and white cs, mixed media paper

Size - A2

Accessories - PaperArtsy snowflake stencil, Cosmic Shimmer Electric Blue Sparkle Shimmer paste, blue brushos, clear embossing powder, SU label punch

Glittered Poinsettia

The Jingle Belles challenge is "All that Glitters" and I've used plenty of glitter on this card:

I stamped the poinsettia in black on a piece of acetate and heat embossed with clear ep.  Working on the opposite (or back) side, I added glue carefully inside the lines of the image, doing the leaves first and adding green glitter, and then doing the flower, except for its centre, and adding red glitter, and finally the centre of the flower and adding gold glitter.  I set it aside to dry for a few hours.

I dry embossed the background, created a frame to go on top of the acetate, and stamped and heat embossed a white sentiment on black cs, trimming it into a banner.  I tucked the sentiment under the frame and put everything together.

It was really hard to photograph the card to capture the sparkle of the glitter, but trust me it's there!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black poinsettia, Make an Impression sentiment

Ink - ColorBox white, Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - white and black cs

Size - A2

Accessories - acetate, SU embossing folder; green, red, and gold glitter; Spellbinders rectangle die, clear and white embossing powder

Starry Twofer

Sneaking in under the wire before this month's Twofer Challenge closes!

Here's my Twofer, one for a birthday and one for Christmas:

First up is the one on the left as it's the one I did first:

I took a piece of Distress Oxide background out of my UFO box, and used my small star background die to cut the stars out of it (the die is that exact size so great for CAS cards).  I layered it over a piece of glittery gold cs.

I stamped and heat embossed a gold sentiment on white cs and then die cut part of a larger winter village die out of it.  Layered that over the starry sky and popped it up on fun foam.

And here's card number two:

For this one, I used the stars that got cut out of the Distress Oxide piece on the first card.

I stamped and heat embossed an old star stamp and a birthday sentiment, and then trimmed it with a wonky stitched die.  I glued the leftover stars around it, and popped it up on fun foam on a coloured card base.

Love not having all those pretty blue stars go to waste!!

Supplies for the Christmas card:

Stamps - SU sentiment

Ink - ColorBox gold, various Distress oxide inks

Paper - white, gold, and mixed media cs

Size - A2

Accessories - gold embossing powder, small star background die, village die, fun foam

Supplies for the Birthday card:

Stamps - SU In the Stars, SU sentiment

Ink - ColorBox Colonial Blue, various Distress oxide inks

Paper - white, blue/grey, and mixed media cs

Size - A2

Accessories - MFT Wonky Stitched rectangle die, small star background die, clear embossing powder, fun foam

Tin Tiles and Dimensional Die Cut

Sneaking in at the last minute to get a card made for CAS Mix Up.  This month the challenge is:

I created dimension for my die cut by cutting it three times and gluing them together.

The background was done for a SCS challenge (MIX317: Tin Ceilings) - to be inspired by old tin ceilings.

I took a strip of silver duct tape and stuck it to a scrap of cs, then ran it through an embossing folder.

I stamped and heat embossed a vertical sentiment on my front panel, then used a die with three square apertures and layered it over the embossed silver piece to give the impression of three square tiles.

I finished it off with the flower die - I cut it three times and glued them together for more dimension. I went over the flowers and flower buds with glue and added clear glitter to them.

Here's a photo from another angle that captures the "tin tiles" better:

For CAS Mix Up, I have stamping, die cuts, heat embossing, dry embossing, and silver foil.

Supplies:

Stamps - Technique Junkies sentiment

Ink - ColorBox silver

Paper - white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - silver duct tape, embossing folder (brand?), Memory Box Honeyblossom Sprig die, PTI Take Three die, clear glitter

Brand New Dogwood Stamp

The provincial flower for my province in Canada is the dogwood and when I saw a lovely dogwood stamp on Technique Junkie's website, I decided I had to have it.  Because it's new, it's perfect for this month's Flower Challenge:

I wanted to use a technique that I'll be leading when I get together with a group of lovely crafty women in May.  This card will be one of my samples.

I sprinkled a couple of colours of Brushos onto watercolour paper, spritzed with water, let the colours run and mingle, and then set it aside to air dry.

Next I stamped my image in archival ink.  I lifted the colour from the flowers with bleach, and then went back in with watercolour paints to add touches of colour to the flowers.  I was trying to get them close to this image of a dogwood flower, with the pink bits around the dip in the petals and the greenish centres:

I wanted to add more interest to my panel so did some stenciling with Picked Raspberry and some grey text stamping.  The panel is popped up on fun foam.

It's snowing here again - so kind of ironic to be making a card that says "happy spring"!  I think I'll go back to Christmas cards!

Supplies:

Stamps - Technique Junkies dogwood, Stampendous sentiment, unknown script stamp

Ink - Archival Jet Black, Memento London Fog, Distress Picked Raspberry

Paper - watercolour paper, white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - pink and orange Brushos, TCW stencil, bleach, watercolour paints

Monochromatic Sky with Winter Trees

There's still a bit of lingering snow so it's easy to make Christmas cards!

I pulled out a leftover snippet of shaving foam marbled background and used it as a wonderful monochromatic winter sky for my trees.  They are die cut from a snippet of white cs, as is the sentiment tag that I stamped in a dark aqua ink.  The panel with the trees is popped up on fun foam.  I went over the trees with a Quickie glue pen and added glitter to them.

Playing in three challenges with this card:

The Paper Players - Monochromatic

And 52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Winter Trees

And Pixie's Snippets Playground, where you have to use up snippets of paper, ribbon, etc. - I always have plenty of those leftover!

Supplies:

Stamps - A Muse sentiment

Ink - dark aqua ink spot (unknown brand)

Paper - white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - stitched tree frame (unknown), fun foam

A New Delphinium Stamp

This month's Flower Challenge is:

One of my favourite flowers is the delphinium so when I saw this stamp by Magenta, I had to have it.  Here's the first card I made with it:

I chose to stamp it on kraft so that I could also enter it in the SCS Technique Lover's Challenge to colour an image on kraft cs.

I love the look of white heat embossing on kraft so used that for my stamp, and then coloured with Faber Castell coloured pencils. I trimmed the panel and edged it with a narrow strip of dark blue, then popped it up on fun foam for dimension.

I have a couple of other new flower stamps so hope to get another card made for this month's Flower Challenge - always good to be inspired to ink up new stamps!

Supplies:

Stamps - Magenta delphiniums, Chocolate Baroque sentiment

Ink - ColorBox white

Paper - white, kraft, and dark blue cs

Size - A2

Accessories - coloured pencils, white embossing powder, fun foam

A Reminder Peace Dove

Time to remind you about CAS Christmas's Peace theme challenge!

I'm not being very original with my reminder card as I'm doing yet another card with a peace dove, but a friend orders several cards from me every Christmas featuring a dove and a peace sentiment, so this helps me get some of hers made well in advance!  But I'm using a very different technique this time!

I stamped the dove with Versamark and then embossed with "Heat and Stick" powder.  After heating, this embossing powder will remain tacky and allow you to apply gilding flakes, glitter, etc.  I've decided it is the easiest way to use gilding flakes with a stamp - far less mess than the glues that are sold for gilding flakes.

The trick with the Heat and Stick embossing powder is to keep your embossing gun a little bit further away than normal, and heat the powder just until it turns from granular to shiny-wet in appearance then immediately move the tool to the next area.  If you over heat this powder it will harden and then lose its tackiness.

I stamped onto a navy cs and used silver gilding flakes that have lovely little bits of other colours in them.  I then stamped the sentiment and heat embossed with regular silver embossing powder.  I bordered with silver glitter cs and popped the panel up on fun foam.

You have until February 24th to link up a card on the theme of Peace.  Please be sure it is clean and simple.  There's lots of inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and this month's very talented Guest Designer, Linda (Scrappin', Stampin', & Singin'), over at CAS Christmas.

Supplies:

Stamps - SU Calm Christmas dove, TH sentiment

Ink - Versamark, ColorBox Silver

Paper - silver glitter, navy, and white cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - Heat and Stick powder, Cosmic Shimmer silver gilding flakes, Stampendous Silver Tinsel embossing powder, fun foam

Pink and Red Birthday Card

Valentine's Day has come and gone but we're still doing Red and Pink at CAS Watercolour.  The Design Team and our wonderful Guest Designer, Darnell (djkardkreations) have made more cards to inspire you.  Here's what I created:

I stamped the lovely collage image onto watercolour paper, then painted it with my watercolour paints.  To add a bit more true red, I used a red Inktense watercolour pencil.  I added a very pale neutral watercolour wash around the flowers.

I trimmed the image, added a very narrow red border, and popped it up with fun foam on a die cut stitched rectangle on which I'd stamped the sentiment.

Please join us at CAS Watercolour with your clean and simple cards, featuring watercolouring and red and pink.  You have until February 24 to link up your card.

Supplies:

Stamps - Stamplorations image, SU sentiment

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, red and white cs

Size - A2 

Accessories -  watercolour paints, red Inktense pencil, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die, fun foam

Poinsettia on Corrugated Card

The Sparkles Christmas Challenge is asking for Poinsettias - one of my favourite themes for my Christmas cards.

I used part of a corrugated coffee cup sleeve for a background panel. The holly is cut out of regular green cs and the poinsettia and sentiment out of dark red shimmer cs.

I taped the top and bottom of the holly die cut under the corrugated cardboard so that it looks entwined around it.

I shaped the poinsettia a bit with a stylus and put little rolls of tape behind some of the petals to pop them up a bit more. I added large gold gemstones to the centre. And small dark red ones to the holly.

We're having a lot of snow here in Vancouver so I'm definitely in the mood to make Christmas cards!

Supplies:

Paper - dark red shimmer, green, and white cs, corrugated coffee cup sleeve

Size - A2

Accessories - Tim Holtz joy and poinsettia dies, Memory Box holly die, large gold and small red gemstones

Stenciled Bister Hearts

The CAS Stencil challenge for February is:

I needed to make some Valentine cards for a friend so thought I'd use a heart stencil and red Bister powder.

Using mixed media cs, I sprinkled the Bister through the hearts and then spritzed with water.  After it dried, I framed it with dark red cs with a large heart die cut in the centre.  I trimmed the red cs with a stitched rectangle die and added it to a cream card base.  I die cut the sentiment out of the same cream card base.


So as not to waste all that lovely Bister colour left behind on the stencil, I flipped it over onto another piece of mixed media cs and got the negative print (or a "stencil monoprint").  I then created this card with the result:

I'd cut out the entwined hearts for an earlier project and was left with this piece with the negative heart so I used it to frame a section of my negative heart print.  I added a few red glitter die cut hearts (left over from yet a different project), stamped my sentiment, and popped the panel up on fun foam.

I felt quite virtuous making two cards out of one stencil / Bister session, and also using up lots of leftover bits on the second card.  I'm taking the second card over to Pixies' Craft Workshop "Snippets" challenge.

Supplies for the 1st card:

Ink - red Bister powdered ink

Paper - cream, red, mixed media cs

Size - A2

Accessories - TCW hearts stencil, Poppy Stamps sentiment die, large heart die, MFT Wonky Stitched rectangle die
 

Supplies for the 2nd card:

Stamps - PTI sentiment

Ink - Memento Lady Bug, red Bister powdered ink

Paper - red glitter, cream, mixed media cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - TCW hearts stencil, SU heart die, mini hearts die, fun foam

Birds with Hearts

Valentine's Day is coming up so time for a change from my many Christmas cards!  A friend always asks me to make her a few Valentine cards and specified she wanted birds on the one for her son-in-law.

It needed to be reasonably masculine so thought my NBUS bird die from Concord and 9th was suitably non-feminine!  And no pink or frills or lace!

I die cut the birds out of the card front and then backed it with red cs.  Out of the same red, I die cut a few tiny hearts to place between the birds.  And stamped the sentiment in red with another tiny heart beside it.

It was made with these challenges in mind:

The Male Room - a masculine Valentine

Double D Challenge - "hearts of any colour" 

The Paper Players - "Love is in the Air"

Addicted to CAS - "Birds"

Thanks for coming by today!

Supplies:

Stamps - Impress Cards & Craft sentiment

Ink - SU Real Red

Paper - red and white cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - Concord & 9th "By Your Side" birds, Impress Cards & Craft tiny hearts die

Nature for The Male Room

I really struggle with masculine cards no matter what the occasion so I keep my eye on The Male Room challenge to see if any of their challenges can inspire me.  The latest one did:

It seemed perfect for my Penny Black woodland stamp and some deer.

I used Jill Foster's technique seen in this video.

I put the image in the MISTI and coloured the different parts of the image with various small Distress inks (in the video, Jill Foster uses Distress markers - either are fine). When all was stamped, I restamped it all with Versamark and heat embossed in clear. That way I had a resist for sponging the sky and the snow.  But I realized I also needed to have something on the snowflakes so that they would resist the sponging, so went over all of them with a Molotow fine tip masking fluid marker.  After I did my sponging and heat set it, I rubbed off the masking fluid.

I die cut two reindeer, once out of copper cs and once out of heavy white cs, glued them together to give them more substance and dimension, and added them to the foreground.  I added some glitter to the snowline in front of the trees and around the legs of each reindeer.

Trimmed the panel, bordered it with the copper cs, and popped it up on a cream card base.

The Penny Black tree stamp is really large - this only used half of it so I made a very similar second card out of the rest of it.  It felt very productive ending up with two!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black trees, A Muse sentiment

Ink - Delicata Celestial Copper for the sentiment, various Distress inks for the sky

Paper - mixed media and PTI Vintage cream cs, copper cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Impression Obsession reindeer dies, glitter, fun foam

Blue Dove

Time for February's CAS Christmas Challenge!

I always make several different cards each year using the theme of peace and doves, so this is one of my favourite challenges for the year.

I used blue alcohol inks on coated cs to create the piece from which I die cut the dove.  I stamped the sentiment in navy and bordered the panel with navy cs, then popped it up on fun foam.  It would be a wonderfully easy card to mass produce if you needed to.

Please head over to CAS Christmas and check out the other inspiration from our Design Team and our wonderful Guest Designer, Linda (Scrappin', Stampin', & Singin').  You have until February 24th to link up your card.  Please be sure it is clean and simple, and includes the theme of "peace".

Supplies:

Stamps - Paper Smooches sentiment

Ink - Vivid Inky Blue, various blue alcohol inks

Paper - white, navy, and coated cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - Penny Black dove die, fun foam