A Reindeer and Jingle Bells

The Twelve Months of Christmas have an "Anything Goes - Optional Twist Santa challenge" - I don't have an image of Santa, but my card does mention Santa!

And the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is asking for "Smooshing".

The reindeer stamp has "Believe in Santa" as part of the image, and I added a sentiment that says "Believe in the Magic.

The background is smooshed with various blue Oxide inks on watercolour paper. The reindeer is stamped and heat embossed in copper, then fussy cut. The sentiment is heat embossed and cut out with a SU sentiment punch.


Today you get a second card as I've been working hard at building my Christmas stash.  This one is for The Christmas Kickstart Challenge "Jingle All the Way".

I started by stamping and heat embossing the sentiment in gold on white shimmer cs, then trimmed the panel.  I die cut the bells out of gold shimmer cs, attached them to the white panel with gold cord and foam tape, and glued on a few of the tiny stars that came out of the bells.  The white panel is popped up on fun foam on a matching gold card base.

Be back soon with more Christmas cards!!

Supplies for card 1:

Stamps - unknown reindeer, Make an Impression "Believe in the Magic"

Ink - various blue Distress Oxide inks, ColorBox copper

Paper - watercolour paper, white cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - TH detail copper embossing powder, Lil Inker stitched square, fun foam, SU sentiment punch

Supplies for card 2:

Stamps - Impression Obsession sentiment

Ink - ColorBox gold

Paper - gold and cream shimmer cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Lil Inker bell die, gold cord, Ranger Princess Gold embossing powder, foam tape, fun foam

A Silhouette, an Animal, and Velocity

Combining a few challenges with this card!

ABC Christmas Challenge "V is for Velocity"

Double D Challenge "Silhouettes"

Jingle Belles "Rudolph and Friends"  (any animal)

Double D Challenge has a mood board to inspire us:



I was inspired by the sleigh but went with a horse drawn sleigh silhouette instead.  And I think horses could be friends with Rudolph for the Jingle Belles challenge!

The background is made with the embossing folder stamping technique - inking up one side of the embossing folder, spritzing a little, and then stamping it onto either watercolour paper or mixed media cs. I used various shades of blue mini Distress inks - it's easier to get more colour variation with the mini inks.

Then stamped and heat embossed the image and sentiment. To add snow to the ground, I rubbed my Versamark pad along the bottom edge and heat embossed with a sparkly white embossing powder. Some of the powder got onto the horses and sleigh but I left it there when heating as it gives a sense of powdery snow blowing up from the ground onto them as the horses move through it - the "velocity" for the ABC Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:

Stamps - TH sleigh, Stampabilities sentiment

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, various blue mini Distress inks, Versamark

Paper - watercolour paper, PTI Vintage Cream cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder, clear embossing powder, Judikins White Diamond embossing powder, fun foam

Two Variations on Nativity

Christmas Cards All Year Round is asking for Angels or Nativity this time.  I went with nativity as I have a couple of friends who always want that theme at my Christmas card sale.

It's also for the Inspiration Challenge over at SCS where I was inspired by this Christmas ornament:

I used the same stamp for two cards but changed the layout.

In this one, I stamped the image once on white cs and once on gold cs, and fussy cut the star from the gold one and paper pieced it onto the white.  Added the gold circle border and the white die cut sentiment below the image.

In this one I didn't paper piece the star.  Added the same gold circle border.  Flipped the layout to have the sentiment die cut (a different one) at the top.  And added extra interest to the sentiment by cutting once out of white and once out of gold and offsetting one on top of the other.  Finished off with a tiny gold star for the dot above the letter "i".

Which layout do you prefer?  And do you prefer the paper pieced star or the plain one?

Supplies:

Stamps - unknown nativity scene stamp

Ink - Memento Nautical Blue

Paper - white cs, gold and blue shimmer cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Spellbinders circle dies, sentiment dies, fun foam

The Other Two CAS Challenges

Sneaking in under the wire with cards for the other two CAS challenges run by Loll and Bonnie.

First up, CAS Stencil "Patterned Paper":

The idea is to stencil over patterned paper - a great way to use up some of our stash.  I pulled out a piece of snowy patterned paper that looks like this:

I turned it into this card:

I took the mini Tim Holtz snowflake stencil and went over it with Snowflake Paste.  When dry, I framed it with SU glitter cs, and die cut my sentiment from the glitter cs and from navy blue cs - layered them together to have a bit of navy shadow to help set off the sentiment.  I added glitter dome embellishments to the centre of each snowflake and over the "i" of winter.

Here's a close-up of the centre panel:

There is sparkle in the paste but my camera isn't picking it up.

Then there is CAS Mix Up "Foiling":

I only recently got a foiling machine so I made this card that will go to one of my sisters who, like me, loves blue.

I foiled the flower, using the foiling transfer gel on the stamp, then adding the blue foil to the stamped image, and running it through the laminator.  Unfortunately the camera won't pick up the shine of the foil.

I added some text stamping and some sponged stenciling with a scrap of drywall tape over top, avoiding the foiled flower.

I die cut the panel, stamped the sentiment on vellum, added the panel to the card base with fun foam for dimension.

Phew, got them posted in time to link up!

Supplies for card 1:

Paper - ivory cardstock, SU glitter cs, scrap of patterned paper, scrap of navy cs

Size - 6x4.25"

Accessories - Tim Holtz mini snowflakes stencil, Arlene's Snow Glitter Paste, SSS winter die, glitter dome embellishments

Supplies for card 2:

Stamps - Magenta wildflower stamp, SU sentiment, unknown text stamp

Ink - Distress Oxide Tumbled Glass and Mermaid Lagoon

Paper - white and blue cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Deco Foiling Transfer Gel, blue foil, dry wall tape, Sizzix label die, fun foam

Pink Poinsettia for the Cure

Lauren and Stephanie of the Jingle Belles challenge are generously donating $2 each to breast cancer research for each card entered in their "Pink Christmas...For the Cure" challenge.   It's such a wonderful idea so I had to quickly get a card made before I missed their deadline.

Penny Black and More are also recognizing Breast Cancer Awareness Month with their "Pretty in Pink" challenge.

I put a few drops of Ken Oliver's Rose Liquid Metallics onto a piece of mixed media cs and spritzed with a bit of water to get the colours to move until I'd covered enough space for my Penny Black poinsettia stamp.  I stamped, heat embossed and fussy cut.  I mounted it with the middle part taped flush to the white cs and the outer edges bent and curled, with bits of foam tape under them to give dimension.

I added black gemstones to the centre, a black sentiment, and a black border as I also want to enter it in the Penny Black Saturday Challenge "Black, White, and One Other Colour".

And it's being linked up at The Flower Challenge "CAS".

I rarely make a card that works for more than one or two challenges so I'm pretty amazed that this card works for four!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black poinsettia, Rubber Soul sentiment

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - mixed media, white, black cs

Size - 5.25" square

Accessories - Ken Oliver Rose Liquid Metallics, black gemstones, Lil Inker stitched square die, foam tape, embossing powder

Glittering Winter Scene

A card to remind you to take part in our CAS Christmas "Winter Scene" challenge.

I went with a black and white card with glitter.

I stamped the image and sentiment in black archival ink, trimmed it, and mounted it on fun foam for dimension.

I went over all the snowy bits with glue and added SU Dazzling Diamonds glitter - probably the sparkliest glitter I have.

As usual, glitter is hard to photograph so here are a couple of close-ups that hopefully give you the sense of sparkle.

You've got until October 24th to get your CAS Winter Scene cards linked up.  There's lots more inspiration over at the CAS Christmas post!

While I had that stamp out, I decided to do another card with it:

This time I simply stamped it in black, covered the panel with a sheet of Sookwang double-sided tape, and then added Dazzling Diamonds to the whole panel.  I popped the panel up on fun foam on a textured cream card base.

I prefer the first one as the image is clearer and whiter.  Covering the whole image with glitter in the second one made it more cream-coloured.

Which one do you prefer?

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black landscape, unknown sentiment

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - white cs, cream textured cs

Size - A2

Accessories - SU Dazzling Diamonds glitter, fun foam

Autumn with Maple Leaves

Reminder time at CAS Watercolour!  How are you doing with autumn cards, specifically maple leaves?

I didn't think I had any maple leaf stamps and dies but just found the tiny maple leaf die I used on this card:

I used a leftover piece of smooshed Distress Oxide background (patting the inks on my craft sheet and spritzing with water, dabbing mixed media cs into it, and drying between layers).

Then stamped the definition of autumn on a scrap of cs and distressed the edges slightly.

I had a leftover piece of orange watercoloured cs that I'd been experimenting with ghost stamping (stamping with water with a fine-lined crackle background stamp on the solid orange watercolour wash).  I die cut the little maple leaves from that and tucked them around the definition.

And popped up the whole panel of fun foam for some dimension.

It's also a special month as it is CAS Watercolour's 3rd birthday...

 ...and to celebrate, we're offering two prizes:

$25 GC for SSS for Challenge Winner

$25 GC for SSS for one random draw of eligible entries

So it's a great month to enter!  You have until October 24th.


Because it used up so many bits and pieces, I'm taking it over to Pixie's Snippets Playground as well.

I hope all my Canadian friends had a great Thanksgiving!

Supplies:

Stamps - Purple Onion seasonal definitions

Ink - various brown Oxide inks for background, Versafine Clair Fallen Leaves for definition

Paper - mixed media and white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - unknown little maple leaf die, fun foam, TH distressing tool

Reindeer in Birch Trees

It's Canadian Thanksgiving weekend and I had a wonderful turkey dinner with a big group of friends yesterday.  Today I cleaned up my vegetable garden and put my garden furniture away - always sad to see summer truly at an end, but I'm looking forward to more crafty indoor time.  After the work in the garden, I hit the craft room and made this card:

The blue background is a piece of faux mother of pearl from my box of backgrounds.  I die cut the reindeer out of brown cs and sponged some light brown on his chest and belly, and some dark brown on his antlers.  It was a great chance to use my new birch trees die to layer over the background.

For two challenges:

Christmas Kickstart "Woodland Creatures"

52 Christmas Card Throwdown:

Supplies:

Stamps - Rubber Soul sentiment

Ink - Memento Rich Cocoa

Paper - white and brown cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Paper Rose birch trees die, Dee's Distinctively reindeer die

Autumnal Thanks and Masculine CAS

A couple of cards for a couple of challenges today.

First up, for The Color Throwdown and The Flower Challenge:

  

I'm going to friends for Thanksgiving dinner this weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving) and I  will need a card to thank them so the autumnal colours of the Color Throwdown are perfect.

The background was created by smooshing various Distress inks on watercolour paper. When dry, I laid the Harlequin stencil over it, then sprayed with water, immediately removed the stencil, waited 10 seconds, and then blotted with paper towel. Again when dry, I stamped with a bit of text.

The flower is stamped and watercolour with Distress inks, then fussy cut. The detail of the stamens almost disappeared when I watercoloured the flower, so I went back in with a brown marker and filled them in.

And then switching back to Christmas, a card for The Male Room's CAS challenge.

I struggle with masculine cards so am happy to have done this Christmas one:

I used a technique called "Black Ice" that I learned from a tutorial over at SCS last year.  I took piece of silver foil cs and lightly dragged my black Staz-on pad down it to create some streaks.  I then stamped the tree with the black Staz-On and then heat set just to be sure I wouldn't smear it.  Then I lightly dragged a Versamark pad over it in the same direction as the black streaks, covered with clear embossing powder, and heat set it.

I trimmed the panel and popped it up on fun foam on a white cardbase.  I added a white die cut sentiment and lots of clear gemstones.

It's far shinier in real life - just very hard to photograph!  It would have been perfect for The Male Room's previous challenge ("Use Embellishments") but I had missed the link deadline. 

Supplies for card 1:

Stamps - PTI sentiment, TH flower, unknown text stamp

Ink - various Distress inks

Paper - watercolour paper, white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - watercolour paints, brown Tombow marker, Harlequin stencil, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:

Stamps - unknown tree stamp

Ink - StazOn black, Versamark

Paper - white cs, silver foil cs

Size - A2

Accessories - clear embossing powder, clear gemstones, TH merry die, fun foam

Hanukkah and a Creature

Jingle Belles wants to see a Hanukkah card instead of a Christmas one.  Here's what I made:

I sprayed a piece of mixed media cs with blue spray for my background and added a silver glitter die cut and silver heat embossed sentiment.

I trimmed the panel with a stitched rectangle die and popped it up on fun foam.


And then over at Addicted to CAS, the challenge is "Creature".

A very CAS card for my sister who is a fellow dog lover:

A simple heat embossed image and sentiment on a deckle edged rectangle, popped up on fun foam.

I'll be back next time with some Christmas cards.  Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies for card 1:

Stamps - SU sentiment

Ink - ColorBox silver

Paper - white and mixed media cs, silver glitter cs

Size - A2

Accessories - blue spray, PTI Star of David die, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, silver embossing powder, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:

Stamps - Raintree dog stamp, TH sentiment

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - clear embossing powder, Spellbinders deckle edge rectangle die, fun foam

Winter Cabin

I'm hosting this month's CAS Christmas Card Challenge, and I've chosen "Winter Scene" as the theme.  I live in the Pacific Northwest so more often than not, my typical winter scene is grey and rainy.  To make up for this, I love to make what I call true winter scenes - snowy, sparkly, frosty!

 
I used a stamp I have had almost since I very first started stamping.  It's such a sweet little scene - and ideal for CAS cards.

I started by dry embossing my top layer with an old Cuttlebug embossing folder (I'm really in the mood to get more use out of my older supplies!).  Then I took an exacto knife and a ruler and cut out the centre of the embossed panel.  The stamp fits perfectly into the opening it creates.

I stamped the image on a scrap of white cs and then sponged the sky in a new ink that I wanted to try out - the colour is called Winter so I thought it would be perfect for a winter sky (but once done I decided it's a bit too turquoise so won't use it for skies again).  I coloured the rest of the image with coloured pencils and taped the piece behind the aperture.  I went over the roof and the ground with a Quickie glue pen and added glitter.  Here's a close-up of the lovely sparkle:

Please come and join us at CAS Christmas - you know you really need to get going on your Christmas cards!!  There is lots of inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and October's Guest Designer, Lyn (Lyn's Paper Petunia).

Supplies:

Stamps - Stampendous Snowy Retreat

Ink - Archival Jet Black, Mama Elephant Winter

Paper - white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - coloured pencils, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Quickie glue pen, SU Dazzling Diamonds glitter

Falling Maple Leaves

It's autumn and this month's CAS Watercolour Challenge host, Loll, came up with "maple leaf" as our challenge.

It's also a special month as it is CAS Watercolour's 3rd birthday...

 ...and to celebrate, we're offering two prizes:

$25 GC for SSS for Challenge Winner

$25 GC for SSS for one random draw of eligible entries

So it's a great month to enter!

Here's my maple leaf card:

Shame on me as a Canadian, but I realized I don't have any maple leaf stamps.  Fortunately the October issue of Craft Stamper came with a small maple leaf stamp and I was able to use it for this card.

I inked it up in Distress oxide Barn Door, spritzed lightly, and stamped.  I tapped some Barn Door, Fired Brick, and Candied Apple ink onto my craft sheet and spritzed with water.  Then wet the whole image and dropped in bits of the watered down inks.  I made three leaves this way.  When dry, I fussy cut them.  I die cut the branch, stamped my sentiment, die cut the panel with a stitched rectangle, attached the leaves, and popped the panel up on fun foam.

When I attached the centre leaf, I set it a bit below the branch as if it was dropping off the tree.

Head over to CAS Watercolour for more inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and a truly fabulous card from our Guest Designer, Ros (Mikey's Mom blog).

Supplies:

Stamps - Craft Stamper's gift stamp

Ink - Distress Oxide Barn Door, Candied Apple, Fired Brick

Paper - white and brown cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Sizzix branch die, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die, fun foam