Reindeer and Christmas Leaves

I've been entertaining two of my sisters who came to visit this month from back east so not much time for creating or blogging.  But finally a chance to catch up with some challenges.

Sparkles Christmas Challenge is "Include a Reindeer".

I inked up the trees with brown Distress ink and the shadows on the ground with grey, inking up and stamping in my MISTI until I got a good impression. I then cleaned the stamp (while it was still in the MISTI), reinked it with Versamark, stamped over the coloured stamping, and heat embossed in clear. That way I had a resist for my background sponging. I used various yellow and blue Distress inks to sponge the sky.

I added a die cut reindeer and sentiment.


Christmas Cards All Year Round wants to see "Christmas garlands, leaves, or flowers".

I stamped and heat embossed in silver, added a small part of a longer sentiment, mounted on a silver card base, and embellished the berries with silver gemstones.  A perfect CAS card for making multiples if one was so inclined!

Supplies for the 1st card:

Stamps - Penny Black woods

Ink - Versamark, various Distress inks

Paper - brown, cream, and mixed media cs

Size - 6x4.25"

Accessories - Dee's Distinctively reindeer, Tattered Lace sentiment die, clear embossing powder

Supplies for the 2nd card:

Stamps - Penny Black A Berry Branch, part of a SU sentimen

Ink - ColorBox silver

Paper - white and silver cs

Size - A2

Accessories - silver embossing powder, silver gemstones

Little Cardinals

Combining two challenges with today's card:  the CAS Mix Up "Ombre" challenge and the ABC Christmas "L is for Little" challenge.   I have a blue ombre background and some very little cardinals on my card.

I masked off a rectangle on my watercolour paper and used various blue watercolour paints to make an ombre background.

I am in the midst of reorganizing my craft room and couldn't find my brown cs for die cutting the branches so watercoloured a scrap of w/c paper in brown (and also in red) and die cut the branches and birds. I die cut the birds twice and glued them together to raise them up off the branches more.

I trimmed the panel and popped it up on fun foam on a kraft card base.

The requirements of CAS Mix Up are:

My sentiment is stamped, I have the ombre background, and for my choice, I have die cutting and watercolouring.

Supplies:

Stamps - Rubber Soul sentiment

Ink - Recollections Chestnut

Paper - watercolour paper, kraft cs

Size - A2

Accessories - watercolour paints, Memory Box branch and tiny cardinals dies, clear embossing powder, fun foam

The Snowbaby's Gift

Reminder time for CAS Christmas!  And the theme this month is "Gifts".

I went with a sweet little snowman - more like a snowbaby, with too big a toque for its little head, sitting in the snow, wondering what the package is!

Stamped, watercoloured, trimmed into a square, bordered with an offset red square to balance with the red gift.  I used gold watercolour paint for the gift's ribbon and went over it with Wink of Stella for more sparkle.  And added Stickles to the snowy ground and Fun Flock to the pompom and brim of the toque.

Please head over to CAS Christmas to check out more cards featuring gifts - by the Design Team and this month's talented Guest designer, Leslie (Running with Scissors).  You have until June 24th to link up.  Please keep your cards clean and simple, and be sure to include the theme of gifts.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, cream and red cs

Size - 5" square

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Wink of Stella, Stickles, Fun Flock

Blue Forget-Me-Nots

Time to remind you that you only have until June 24th to enter a card in the CAS Watercolour "Something Blue" challenge!

Every spring / early summer, my garden is full of blue Forget-Me-Nots.  I'm always sad when they are finished and I have to pull out the dying plants - but as you pull them out, they drop their seeds everywhere, ready for next year.

I stamped the image on hot press watercolour paper with archival ink and watercoloured with my Gansai Tambi paints, using quite an intense blue for the flowers, a very pale bit of green for the leaves, a bit of very pale blue on the postmark, and adding an even paler blue wash around the flowers (so pale it doesn't show in the photo!).

I used a linen cardstock for the card base and for the stitched frame.  The frame is popped up on foam tape over the image.

I added a tiny drop of cream from a Viva Pearl Pen to the centre of each flower.  Here's a close-up:

Please head over to CAS Watercolour and check out the rest of the Design Team and June's wonderful Guest Designer, TaeEun (rainbow in november).

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - hot press watercolour paper, linen cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, cream Viva Pearl Pen, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, foam tape

Duck Egg and Plum

Less is More has a colour challenge going on right now:

 

I went with some ink blending to use the challenge colours.

 

I sponged Distress inks, getting the colours to overlap. Then I put my stamp and background in the MISTI and stamped the poppy. Leaving everything in the MISTI, I used a brush and bleach to remove the colour from the poppy, and then restamped to keep the outline distinct.

I framed it with a stitched window die, and added a sentiment and some dark irridescent gemstones.

I've really enjoyed using the bleach technique lately.

Supplies:

Stamps - SU Simply Sketched poppy, Savvy Stamps sentiment

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Faded Jeans, Seedless Preserves, and Broken China

Paper - white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Die-namics peek-a-boo window, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, dark iridescent gemstones, bleach

Santa Inchie

For the latest Jingle Belles Christmas Card Challenge, "Santa Baby".

I went with a Santa inchie:

I love the sweet little image of Santa riding a horse / rocking horse.

I stamped the inchies and punched them out. I mounted them on a scrap of dp, then bordered it with green cs.

It's good to pull out that old set of Christmas inchies!

Supplies:

Stamps - Darkroom Door Christmas Inchies

Ink - Memento Rhubarb Stalk

Paper - white and green cs, scrap of dp

Size - A2

Accessories - 1" punch

A Small Amount of Embossing

Less is More is asking for less than one third of the card to be either heat or dry embossed:

I went with a narrow strip of dry embossing under my image.

I thought that the dry embossed wavy line of snowflakes echoed the slopes and piles of snow, the plumes of smoke, and the snowflakes drifting down among the houses.  I chose a sentiment with a font with some wavy lines to complement everything.

The image is coloured with coloured pencils and Gamsol. I bordered it in black and popped it up on fun foam. 

Supplies:

Stamps - Serendipity village, Stampabilities sentiment

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - white and black cs

Size - A2

Accessories - coloured pencils, Gamsol, snowflake embossing folder border, fun foam

A Bear Bearing Gifts

June's CAS Christmas challenge is "Gifts".

I used a never-before-used stamp in a Penny Black set that I bought for one of the other stamps.  Not sure why I never inked up this adorable bear!

A very easy CAS card!  I watercoloured the image and went over the ribbons, bows, and polka dots with a silver metallic paint pen.  I bordered the image with silver mirri card, die cut the sentiment from the same silver card, and popped it up on fun foam.

Please head over to the CAS Christmas blog to see the lovely cards by the rest of the Design Team members and this month's Guest Designer, Leslie (Running with Scissors).  And then link up your clean and simple Christmas card featuring gifts!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, silver mirri card, ivory cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - watercolour paints, silver metallic paint pen, fun foam

Blue Butterflies

I love the new CAS Watercolour challenge!  Those of you who know me know that my all-time forever favourite colour is blue.  And that is this month's challenge!

I went with blue butterflies:

And I went back to an older watercolour technique - Wrinkle Free Distress.  Because it's an old technique, I often forget to use it, but it is so effective and such a great way to create backgrounds.

I swiped a few shades of blue Distress inks on my craft mat, spritzed with water until I got droplets of colour, and then pressed and tapped white cs into it.  I dried it with a heat tool.

I die cut the butterflies, layered them over the blue panel, and added it to my card base.  I stamped my sentiment on the butterfly layer but got it crooked so redid it on a scrap of cs, heat embossed it and die cut it with an oval die.

Wrinkle Free Distress is a Tim Holtz technique from at least ten years ago.  If you can't decide what to do for this month's CAS Watercolour challenge, why not revisit it?  Or head over to the CWC blog and get some inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and June's wonderful Guest Designer, TaeEun (rainbow in November).

You have until June 24th to link up your card.  It must be clean and simple, must use a watercolour technique, and must follow the theme.

Supplies:

Stamps - A Muse sentiment

Ink - ColorBox True Blue; Distress Faded Jeans, Broken China, and Tumbled Glass

Paper - white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Memory Box reverse butterfly die, Spellbinders oval die, clear embossing powder