Win a Stamps / Dies Set over at Snippets!

Di over at Pixie's Crafty Workshop has invited me to Guest Design and offer up a prize for the new challenge in the Snippets Playground.  I had a hard time deciding what to offer up but decided to go with something representing one of my other crafty passions - knitting.

The prize is a set of matching stamps and dies - Hero Arts "Knitting" and "Knitting Frame Cuts".

Do lots of you have a stash of white and cream snippets?  I sure do.  There is always a pile like this on my craft desk, mostly created by cutting cs down for square cards:

 

I made two cards using some of the stamps and dies and using up some of the snippets of white cs.

 

I used the same stencil for both backgrounds but on the first card I did a stencil monoprint (see the video tutorial here) with a couple of shades of blue Distress inks, and on the second I lightly and somewhat randomly coloured through the stencil with turquoise and purple Distress inks and my blending brushes.

The images are stamped and coloured (with Inktense watercolour pencils for the first card, and regular coloured pencils for the second), then I die cut the coloured image and a second one out of more snippets, glued the two together for more dimension and added to the background.

Please note that the sentiment "Sweater weather" is not part of the prize.

Please come and join us over at Pixie's Crafty Workshop for a chance to win this set of stamps and dies.

Supplies:
Stamps - Hero Arts Knitting, unknown "Sweater Weather" sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black, various shades of Distress blue, purple, and turquoise
Paper - white and black cs, mixed media cs
Size - 4.75" square and A2
Accessories - Hero Arts Knitting Frame dies, Inktense watercolour pencils, regular watercolour pencils, Tim Holtz knitting stencil

Holly on Holly

Flying through May and it's time to remind you to enter CAS Christmas before May 24th.  Christine is hosting and wants to see Foliage and Berries.

I did holly for the challenge launch and I'm afraid I'm doing holly again for the reminder - but I do love holly on Christmas cards.

I stamped and heat embossed the holly, then watercoloured it with Inktense watercolour pencils.  I fussy cut it and layered it over a holly embossed background, and added a sentiment.

Head over to CAS Christmas's reminder post for more inspiration from the Design Team.

Thanks for coming by today!

Supplies:
Stamps - Serendipity holly, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs and watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - Cuttlebug holly embossing folder, embossing powder, Inktense watercolour pencils

A Vintage Santa

I was thrilled to be asked to be the Guest Designer for one of the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown challenges - a theme challenge "Santa".

I stamped the vintage-style Santa from an old SU set and used my Distress markers to colour everything except the stars which I coloured with a Marvy Liquid Gold Paint marker. I got a blob of the gold paint on the top right of the image so decided to make a slimline card (which suits the size of the image anyway) and gave me room for a sentiment to cover up my blob of gold paint - I'm always happy when I find a solution to save something from a mistake!!!  I bordered the image with gold shimmer cs, layered it on a star embossing folder background, and used the same gold shimmer cs for the card base.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's cards featuring Santa at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.

I'm also adding it to the Jingle Belles "The Spirit of Christmas Past" challenge.  I always think of a Santa dressed like this one as being a Santa from the olden days.

Supplies:
Stamps - SU Star Santa, Great Impressions sentiment
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - PTI white cs, gold cs
Size - 6.25x3.5"
Accessories - Distress markers, Marvy Liquid Gold Paint marker, Nesties label, dimensionals, Crafts Too star embossing folder, gold ribbon

A Starry Tree on Fleur de Lis

I needed a notecard to send to a friend and she loves stars and all things French.

 

 

I stamped and heat embossed the starry tree in white on navy cs.  Die cut a fleur de lis piece to go behind it.  Layered that on silver shimmer cs, and popped the panel up on fun foam.

Off it goes to:

Just Us Girls "Trend Week: Layers"
 

Tic Tac Toe Challenge - I chose Heat Embossing, Die Cuts, Circles / Squares

Thanks for stopping by today.  Time for me to go back to my gardening!

Supplies:
Stamps - Hero Arts Star Tree
Ink - ColorBox White
Paper - silver shimmer, white, navy cs
Size - 5.5" square
Accessories - Spellbinders Fleur de Lis square die and plain square dies, white embossing powder, fun foam

Hollyhocks are a Favourite

The Flower Challenge is asking for us to use our favourite flower.  Well that is almost impossible!  I have so many favourites!  But one of them is the hollyhock.  I grow them along my back fence every summer.

I stamped the hollyhocks stamp with Versamark on mixed media cs and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I then sprayed the panel with a couple of different blue sprays. When dry, I rubbed over the embossed hollyhocks to remove any spray clinging to them.

I die cut the hollyhocks die out of mixed media cs and smooshed them into pink and mauve Oxide inks that I'd tapped on my craft sheet and spritzed with water. I layered them on top of the resist panel and added a few of the white centres that fell out when I die cut them.

I wrapped a strip of vellum with the sentiment around it all and popped the panel up on fun foam.

Challenges: 

The Flower Challenge "Use your Favourite Flower"

AAA Birthday Card Challenge

 

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Impression Obsession hollyhocks, SU sentiment
Ink - Versamark, various pink and mauve Oxide inks
Paper - mixed media and white cs, vellum
Size - 5" square
Accessories - Impression Obsession hollyhocks dies, clear and blue embossing powders, blue sprays, fun foam

CAS Christmas Foliage with Berries

Christine is the host for CAS Christmas for May and she's asking us for "Foliage with Berries".  That immediately makes me think of holly so I made this card:

I started by sprinkling a few different shades of green Magicals on mixed media cs and spritzed with water.  I allowed it to air dry and then die cut the holly from it.  I die cut the holly again from heavy white cs and glued the two together for more substance.

I glued it to a square panel of white cs, bordered it with green shimmer cs, and added a simple heat embossed sentiment.

For the berries, I added stick-on red gemstones.  

I hope you can see the wonderful shimmer from the Magicals!

Please come and join us!  Just be sure to follow the theme and keep your card clean and simple.  For more inspiration, check out the CAS Christmas blog and see what the rest of the Design Team and this month's Guest Designer, Robyn (Waterlily Cards) made.  You have until May 24th to link up.

Supplies:
Stamps - A Muse sentiment
Ink - Versamark
Paper - green shimmer and white cs, mixed media cs
Size - 5" square
Accessories - platinum embossing powder, various green Magicals, Penny Black holly die, red gemstones