Penny Black Robin

The Penny Black and More Challenge is asking for "Christmas" this month.  

When I was watercolouring the image, I ended up with a big red blob on the white space to the right of the robin. So I fussy cut around the right edge of the image. I had a leftover die cut stitched rectangle on my desk so laid the image over that and trimmed the straight edges to fit. Then stamped my sentiment on the white section, added Glossy Accents to the berries, and popped it up on fun foam on a kraft card base.

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black bird, PTI sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - watercolour paper, kraft and white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Glossy Accents, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle, fun foam

Twofer Greenery

Darnell's Twofer Challenge has a slight twist this month.  Instead of having the two cards be for totally different occasions, they can both be for the same occasion.  This is to help us get our Christmas cards done.

I love Christmas greenery as a theme.  Here are my cards:

I love this Penny Black greenery stamp.  I've used it with traditional colours before (as I did here for the second card), but have never tried foiling it.  I love the way it turned out, but it is darn hard to photograph.  Here are two shots of it, with slightly different lighting to try and pick up the wonderful shine of the foil:

 

I used Deco Foil Transfer Gel on the stamp and added gold foil.  I trimmed the image panel and cut a narrow diagonal strip out of the centre, leaving space for my heat embossed sentiment.  The two sections of the image are popped up on fun foam.

My second card uses traditional Christmas colours, with the stamp turned the other way.  

 

I put the stamp in my MISTI and first inked up the leaves with a few shades of green Memento Dew Drop ink pads (their pointed shape make it easy to ink things like this) - stamped and reinked and stamped until I was happy with it. Then did the berries with a couple of red markers and the stems with a brown marker. Stamped the sentiment in brown ink and popped the panel up on fun foam.

So great to get two more Christmas cards done!

Supplies for 1st card:
Stamps - Penny Black greenery, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Deco Foil Transfer Gel, gold foil, gold embossing powder, fun foam

Supplies for 2nd card:
Stamps - Penny Black greenery, Paper Smooches sentiment
Ink - various Memento Dew Drop green inks, Archival Potting Soil
Paper - mixed media and red cs
Size - 5.25x4.75"
Accessories - red and brown Tombow markers, fun foam

Sweater Weather

Time for a reminder to enter the CAS Christmas Challenge "Warm and Cozy"!

Nothing is more warm and cozy for me than a lovely thick sweater.  I particularly love the beautiful Fair Isle sweaters with snow motifs like this one:





So I used a stencil and white paste on blue cs to create this card:

To keep the card CAS, I only used a portion of the stenciling.  I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment on vellum and tucked it around the stenciled panel.  Then added a frame (cut twice and glued together for more dimension).

Please come and join us with your interpretation of "Warm and Cozy".  There is more inspiration from the Design Team and this month's Guest Designer, Bobby (bits & pieces), over at CAS Christmas.  You have until November 24th to link up.


This is the last CAS Christmas for 2019.  The team is taking a break over December, but will be back January 3rd with a new challenge.

I'm also linking my card up over at the Jingle Belles Challenge where they want something you wear when it's cold outside.

Supplies:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - Versamark Onyx Black
Paper - blue and white cs, vellum
Size - A2
Accessories - clear embossing powder, MFT pierced frame die, TH stencil, white embossing paste

Blue Monochrome

Today's card is my reminder to you to join us at CAS Watercolour!

My card for the original challenge post was in red, so thought for this one, I'd go to my favourite colour, blue.

I took a stencil and used a few shades of mini Distress inks on the stencil, spritzed with water, and created a stencil monoprint.  Love the blend of the shades of blue!

I did a sentiment strip in a matching blue on vellum and attached it under a pierced frame die cut (cut twice and stacked for dimension).  I added a few blue sequins for a bit of bling, still in the monochromatic colour scheme.

In real life, the sentiment shows up more but somehow it doesn't in my photo.  Here's a close-up to show it better and to also show the lovely blend of blues:

 
You have until November 24th to link up over at CAS Watercolour.  There's lovely inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and this month's fabulous Guest Designer, Birgit (Rapport fran ett skrivbord).  

Please note that there will not be a CAS Watercolour challenge in December as the Design Team is taking a break over the holidays.  We'll be back January 3rd with the first of next year's challenges.

I'm also linking the card up with our sister challenge, CAS Stencil as they are asking for a stencil monoprint.

 

 

Supplies:
Stamps - The Artful Stamper sentiment
Ink - mini Distress inks (Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, Broken China), Memento Bahama Blue
Paper - white and mixed media cs, vellum
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Memory Box Texture Flourish stencil, blue sequins, MFT pierced square frame dies, fun foam

A Red and Green Card, and a Shimmer Card

The 12 Months of Christmas challenge wants red and green this month.

I stamped the inchies and punched them out. They are popped up on fun foam, as is the background dp.  

I'm also entering it at the Pixie's Snippets Playground as I used a scrap of dp and some scraps of ivory cs for the inchies.


Next up is the AAA Cards CAS challenge "One Image and Shimmer".

I stamped the stars in copper pigment ink and, with a Versamarker, drew a bar for them to hang from, then heat embossed with Stampendous Aged Taupe embossing powder to get a bit of an uneven rustic look.  Then sprinkled a bit of the same embossing powder around the image and heat embossed it from underneath, and painted the insides of the stars with gold watercolour paint.   I popped it up on fun foam and added a heat embossed sentiment.  The card base is gold shimmer cardstock.

Here's hoping everyone is getting their Christmas cards done in plenty of time!!

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Darkroom Door Christmas Inchies
Ink - Memento Rhubarb Stalk
Paper - Gina K Pure Ivory cs, Graphic 45 dp
Size - A2
Accessories - 1" square punch, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Anita's stars, unknown sentiment
Ink - ColorBox Copper
Paper - white cs, gold shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Stampendous Aged Taupe embossing powder (stars), Ranger Pirate Gold embossing powder (sentiment),  Spellbinders label die, fun foam

Purple and White

I'm honoured today to be the Guest Designer over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown after winning their white, blue, and brown colour challenge with this card!  The challenge is:

And it was a challenge for me as I'm not used to using purple on a Christmas card!  Here's what I made:

 

For the background, I sprinkled purple Magicals onto mixed media cs and spritzed with water.  They spread beautifully into slightly sparkly shades of purple.  I let it dry naturally rather than heat drying so that the heat gun didn't blow the colours and make them pool.

I die cut the snowflake and glued over the purple panel (after first trimming it down).  Popped it up on fun foam on a white background piece on which I'd stamped my purple sentiment, and then popped that piece up on fun foam on the card base.

Since purple on Christmas cards is such a challenge for me, I'm looking forward to seeing what cards are entered over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown!

Supplies:
Stamps - Hero Arts sentiment
Ink - Memento Grape Jelly
Paper - white and mixed media cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Spellbinders Snowflake Snippets die, purple Magicals, fun foam

Wild Horse and Snowy Woods

I'm on a horse theme these days.  Here's another:

I splattered a piece of watercolour paper with Liquid Frisket to create snowflakes drifting down in the sky.

I stamped and heat embossed the horse, then took some brown watercolour paint and filled in the open areas of its body.

I created a mask for the snowy hill and stamped and heat embossed the trees so that they were not in the foreground. Leaving the mask in place, I sponged the sky.

I removed the liquid frisket, added a sentiment, and put white glitter on some of the tree branches, the upper line of the snow and behind each hoof as if the horse was kicking up snow as he galloped.

It's being linked up with the following challenges:

The Paper Players "Into the Woods" - I like to think the horse is galloping into the woods to shelter from the snow.

Christmas Kickstart "Snow"

Krafty Chicks Challenge "Winter"

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Local King Rubber Stamp mustang, Tim Holtz trees, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versafine Vintage Sepia and Olympic Green, Distress Stormy Sky
Paper - white cs, watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - liquid frisket, clear embossing powder, white glitter, brown watercolour paint

A Warm and Cozy Pony

The November Christmas Card Challenge is "Warm and Cozy".

As many of you know, I love horses and volunteer with therapeutic riding and also ride myself.  Come this time of year, it gets cold enough that the horses have to wear blankets when not being ridden.  The blankets are a real pain to take off and put back on, but the horses definitely stay warm and cozy in them.  Here is one of our therapy horses (on the left) and her friend in their winter blankets:

And here's my card, a tribute to all the winter horses and ponies:

The pony is stamped, watercoloured, and fussy cut.  I added a stitched hill line and some die cut snowflakes to my background panel, then added the pony with the hooves glued right down and the body and head popped up with foam tape.  I added glue and glitter to the hill line, around the pony's hooves, and to the snowflakes on her blanket, and fun flock to the bottom edge and neckline of her blanket.  The panel is popped up on fun foam.

Please head over to CAS Christmas and check out the examples made by the rest of the Design Team and this month's wonderful Guest Designer, Bobby (bits & pieces).  Looking forward to seeing what ideas you come up with for our "Warm and Cozy" theme!

This will be our last challenge of the year.  The Designers are taking the month of December off to relax and rejuvenate before all the amazing challenges coming up in 2020.

I'm also linking the card up at Christmas Cards All Year Round where the challenge is "Stockings or Other Winter Clothing".  I figure clothing on a pony counts!!

Edited to add colour variations:

Supplies:

Stamps - Whimsy pony, Stampabilities sentiment

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - white cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - Impression Obsession and Penny Black tiny snowflake dies, Simon Says Stamp stitched slope die, Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, glitter, fun flock, foam tape, fun foam

Monochrome Poinsettia

Karen (Snippets) is hosting this month's CAS Watercolour Challenge and she has chosen "Monochromatic" as the challenge - something Karen is very good at, but something I don't do very often.

I need more Christmas cards so went with red as my colour:

I stamped the poinsettia in Versafine Onyx Black and heat embossed with silver pearl embossing powder - it is slightly translucent so the black comes through but it's not as dark as a regular black embossed image.

I watercoloured the poinsettia using the wet on wet technique where I wet a couple of petals at a time and then dropped the paint into them, letting it run as it wanted to.

When dry, I did a bit of watercolour stenciling using a flat brush and the same paint as the poinsettia over random sections of the stencil.  And when that was dry, I stamped the sentiment, trimmed the panel, bordered with red, popped it up on fun foam on a cream card base, and added red gemstones to the centre of the poinsettia.

Now I'm feeling keen to create more monochromatic cards!  Thanks for the great challenge, Karen!

Head on over to CAS Watercolour to see what else the Design Team made and also the gorgeous card by our Guest Designer, Birgit (Rapport fran ett skrivbord).  Remember to follow the challenge and keep your card clean and simple.

This will be our last challenge of the year.  The Designers are taking the month of December off to relax and rejuvenate before all the amazing challenges coming up in 2020.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Memento Lady Bug

Paper - watercolour paper, red and cream cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, silver pearl embossing powder, TCW Tile Texture stencil, red gemstones, fun foam