Posting a Letter

Squeaking under the wire with a card for the June Christmas Cards All Year Round Challenge - "something that starts with K or L".  I chose letter and letterbox.

Stamped, watercoloured, matted with green, and popped up on fun foam on a red card base.  I die cut the sentiment from the same green as the mat and added some glue and glitter on the snowflakes, snow on the letterbox, and snowy ground.

Christmas Cards All Year Round Challenge - "Something that starts with K or L"

I also intended to enter it in the ABC Christmas Challenge "L is for Letters" but just missed the deadline as it's on UK time - darn!   I meant to do the blog post last night but I had my second Covid vaccine yesterday morning and ended up with a headache and feeling really tired last night.

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Crafters Companion
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - watercolour paper, red and green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, glitter, Tattered Lace sentiment die, fun foam

For My Best Friend

The Day of the Month Card Club wants us to celebrate Best Friend Day by making a card for our best friend.

My best friend's favourite colour is blue so I used blue foil.  I put the Transfer Gel through the stencil, let it dry for a bit as per the instructions, laid the bright blue foil on it, and ran it through the laminator.

Peeling it off to reveal what is left on the cs is quite wonderful. And it is so shiny! Hard to capture in a photo.

I added a sentiment (unknown - it's been in my stash for years). Then trimmed the panel and bordered it with black shimmer paper.

Day of the Month Card Club "Best Friend Day"

Supplies:
Stamps - unknown unmounted sentiment
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - white cs, black shimmer paper
Size - 4.25" square
Accessories - branch stencil (unknown brand), bright blue Deco foil, Deco Foil Transfer Gel

The Stockings Were Hung

I found a great new stamp that has image and sentiment all together so makes for a nice quick Christmas card.

 

Stamped in black, coloured with coloured pencils in festive colours, bordered with green and red, and popped up on fun foam for some dimension.  I plan on making a few of them to build up my stash.

Linking up with:

Christmas Kickstart Challenge

Never Before Used Schtuff Challenge

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Clarity Stamp
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white, red, and greeen cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - coloured pencils, fun foam

Mistletoe and Another Snowman

ABC Christmas Challenge wants "L for Letters or M for Mistletoe" this month.  I went with mistletoe.

A friend (and I'm sorry, I don't remember which one) sent a few die cuts in my birthday card last November including this mistletoe branch.  I smooshed it into a mix of green Distress inks to match a scrap of background cs in my UFO box.  I die cut the background scrap into an oval.  I added the mistletoe to the oval by gluing the top of the stem and using pieces of foam tape to give dimension to the leaves.

I layered it on a larger background embossed with an old embossing folder, added a heat embossed sentiment tag, and finished off with white stick-on pearls for the mistletoe berries.

My second card is another one I made for CAS Christmas' Snowman Challenge.

I stamped and watercoloured the snowman, using the blue for shading the snow.

I used glitter embossing paste through a tiny snowflake stencil to fill in the background around the snowman.

I bordered the panel with green glitter cs and mounted it on red card base.

CAS Christmas

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment
Ink - various green Distress inks, Versamark
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - platinum embossing powder, Cuttlebug snowfall embossing folder, Spellbinders sentiment tag die and oval die, foam tape,

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Old Island Stamp Co.
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - watercolour paper, red cs, green glitter cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, Memory Box tiny snowflakes stencil, glitter embossing paste

CAS Flowers for Sympathy

A dear family friend passed away and I needed to make quick sympathy cards for her two daughters.  My go-to for this is SU's Love and Sympathy set.

I inked up the flower with markers, used grey ink for the sentiment, trimmed with a stitched rectangle die, and popped it up on an embossed background.

The other one is similar but has a different sentiment and a scattering of stick-on pearls:

I'm linking up with The Flower Challenge "CAS".

Supplies:
Stamps - SU Love and Sympathy, PTI sentiment on the second card
Ink - Ranger Archival Watering Can
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tombow markers, SU embossing folder, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, fun foam, stick-on pearls

No Stamping Birds and Branches

A notecard for a friend who loves birds.  Done for Just Us Girls "No Stamping" Challenge.

I have an embossed layer on a white card base, and a white die cut circle image layered on top of the embossing folder piece.

I die cut a circle in the embossed piece to allow the scrap of blue (a piece from my backgrounds box - I think it was done with watercolours) to show through behind the birds. I die cut the circle with the birds three times to give it dimension.

Just Us Girls

 

Supplies:
Paper - white cs, scrap of watercoloured background
Size - 4.25" square
Accessories - Taylored Expressions die, Spellbinders circle die, Cuttlebug embossing folder

A Vancouver Snowman

Here in Vancouver, Canada where I live we don't get much snow and, when we do, it's often nasty wet snow so lots of people use umbrellas when it's snowing (which seems very weird to me!).  When I saw this stamp, I thought it was a perfect depiction of a Vancouver snowman!

I stamped and watercoloured, trimmed with a stitched rectangle, popped it up on fun foam on a shimmery blue-grey card base, and added Stickles to those wet snowflakes!

It's my reminder card for this month's CAS Christmas challenge.  Our host, Hideko, has chosen Snowman as this month's challenge.  So please join us with your CAS cards depicting snowmen.  You have until June 24th to link up.  There's lots of inspiration from the rest of the Design Team over at CAS Christmas!

Supplies:
Stamps - TH sentiment, Serendipity snowman
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, light blue shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, Stickles, fun foam

Blue Birds Chirping in Birch Trees

This card came together after playing around with inks and stencils.

I made a mixed media background with oxide and regular Distress inks, smooshing and spritzing with water, then adding a couple of stencils and a couple of stamps.

I die cut the birds and birch trees twice, watercoloured the birds dark blue, added a bit of watercoloured shading to the trees, and layered the two layers together to add dimension.

Instead of a sentiment, I used a Tim Holtz clippings sticker.

It's for the Color Throwdown Challenge:

And for CAS Mix Up (watercolouring with anything that flies):

 

 

Supplies:
Stamps - various mixed media stamps
Ink - various blue and grey Distress and Distress Oxide inks
Paper - mixed media cs, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - TCW stencils, Tim Holtz sentiment sticker, birch and bird dies

Sparkle on Scraps of Decorative Paper

I'm back with a Christmas card today.

This one if for the Jingle Belles Challenge "All Bundled Up" - create a card with lots of layers.  It's not my usual style but I managed to have silver, then white, then the patterned paper collage, and then two layers of the die cut sentiment - that's a lot for me!

The patterned paper collage is done using a technique I saw on SCS.  A good idea to use up scraps of dp! I tore up little pieces of dp and used ModPodge to glue my little scraps down.  So I'm taking it over to the Snippets Challenge at Pixie's Playground.

I added some grid stencilling with silver embossing paste and some tiny silver heat embossed snowflakes. I got a bit too much unwanted embossing powder on the piece but in real life, it is very sparkly! I cut four little squares out of the finished piece and arranged them on a larger square of white cs, then bordered with silver shimmer cs.

I die cut "sparkle" out of white and silver cs and glued them together slightly offset. I went over it with Wink of Stella (the sparkle on the word doesn't show in the photo).

Supplies:
Stamps - tiny snowflake stamps
Ink - ColorBox silver
Paper - scraps of dp, silver shimmer and white cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Concord & 9th "sparkle" die, Wink of Stella, silver tinsel embossing powder, silver embossing paste, TCW grid stencil, ModPodge

A Die Cut Bird and a Circle

Playing along with the Tic Tac Toe Challenge and CAS Mix Up, and getting a friend's birthday card made.

I started out by creating my background - green and blue Magicals sprinkled on mixed media cs and spritzed with water.  I stamped a foliage stamp on it with black ink.

I stamped and heat embossed the bird, then die cut it.  

On a white panel, I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment, trimmed it with a stitched rectangle die, and die cut a circle out of the upper centre.

I layered the panel over the background using foam tape for dimension, added it to the card base, and added the die cut bird to the top, popping up its head on foam tape where it goes over the background.

I chose the centre vertical row - "die cut - circle - bird" from the Tic Tac Toe Challenge.

CAS Mix-Up - anything that flies with watercolour as a main element - my Magicals are my watercolour element.

Supplies:
Stamps - Local King Stamp Co. bird, Hero Arts sentiment, Magenta foliage
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white and mixed media cs
Size - A2
Accessories - blue and green Magicals, Local King Stamp Co. bird die, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die, Spellbinders circle die, foam tape

Snowman in a Circle

It's time for the June CAS Christmas challenge.  And Hideko is asking us to make cards featuring a snowman - one of my favourite themes!

I stamped the image with Versafine ink, let it dry, and then watercoloured the scarf with my Gansai Tambi paints and the shading and snowy ground with a blue metallic paint.  

I trimmed the panel with a circle die cut, sprinkled with Frantage Chunky White embossing powder, and heated it from underneath so that the grains of embossing powder wouldn't blow off before melting.

I then bordered the circle with a mottled blue-grey cs, popped it up on fun foam on the card base, and added a sentiment die cut from the same mottled cs.

Here's a close-up of the Frantage Chunky White embossing powder - it makes fabulous snow:

 

It may seem funny to think about snowmen in June when summer is well underway but you'll be glad come November when you have those cards made, ready for mailing.  So please join us before June 24th with your CAS snowmen cards.  For more inspiration, check out the cards by the CAS Christmas Design Team and this month's wonderful Guest Designer, Steph (My Paper Corner).

Supplies:
Stamps - Inkadinkado snowman
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, mottled blue/grey cs, ivory cs
Size - 5" square
Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, metallic blue watercolour paint, Tattered Lace sentiment die, Spellbinders circle die, Lil Inker stitched circle die, Stampendous Frantage Chunky White embossing powder, fun foam