Pine with Pinecone

Time for the latest challenge from Peace on Earth.  I was inspired by one of the images on their new mood board for this card:

I put the pine branch in my MISTI, randomly dabbed various mini Distress inks over the branches and stem to get some colour variation, spritzed lightly with water, and stamped on watercolour paper.  I did the same with the pinecone stamp.  Added a sentiment, bordered with brown cs, splattered some light ink, and used a Quickie glue pen and glitter on the white areas of the pine cone and in some of the angles of the branch (it's quite subtle and doesn't show up in the photo).

Peace on Earth is an "anything Christmas goes" challenge but if you want to be inspired by our mood board, here it is:

There's lots of other inspiration from the rest of the Design Team over at Peace on Earth.

Supplies:
Stamps - SU Ornamental Pine, unknown sentiment
Ink - Distress minis (Forest Moss, Pine Needles, Evergreen Bough, Gathered Twigs, Frayed Burlap)
Paper - watercolour paper, brown cs, PTI Vintage Cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - glitter

California Poppies Outside and Inside

Day of the Month Card Club is celebrating California Poppy Day.  I have a friend who loves them and her birthday is coming up this weekend so made this card:

I inked up the poppies with mini Distress inks. I used just one green for the stems but three colours for the flowers letting them overlap to get a nice blend of colours, then spritzed with water, and stamped on watercolour paper. The colours didn't run as much as I'd intended but the stamp slipped out of place (even though it was in my MISTI) so I couldn't spritz again and restamp. So I don't have as much of a watercoloured look as I'd wanted.

The sentiment (a belated birthday one as the postal system won't get the card there by this weekend!) is stamped and heat embossed on vellum and wrapped around the panel. I added a thin green border.

I added a sentiment I really like to the inside of the card and then fitted the poppies around it at the bottom, inking them up with mini Distress inks, but not spritzing them like I did on the outside as they're being stamped here on cs, not watercolour paper. They didn't stamp very well over the centre crease of the card, but I think it's good enough.

 

Day of the Month Card Club "California Poppy Day"
   

 

Supplies:
Stamps - SU Pleasant Poppies, SU sentiment on the outside, TH sentiment on the inside
Ink - mini Distress Bundled Sage, Fossilized Amer, Spiced Marmalade, and Carved Pumpkin, Versafine Olympic Green, Memento Bamboo Leaves
Paper - PTI Vintage Cream cs, green cs, watercolour paper, vellum
Size - A2
Accessories - clear embossing powder

Snowy Cardinals and Snowy Postcard

Two Christmas cards today.  First of all for Christmas Cards All Year Round "Red and Green with Circles", I used inverted scallop circle dies for this card:

The cardinals and leaves are watercoloured, and the snow has glitter on it. 

Today's other card is for Double D Challenge "Show a Building on your Project" and for We Love Stamping "Favourite Stamps".  Like the Santa Horses card I posted a few days ago, I love the Snowy Postcard stamp so much I've bought a spare in case this one wears out.

I watercoloured the image inside the oval and sponged Antique Linen around the edges and up to the oval, and then darkened the outer edges with Brushed Corduroy.  I went over the roofs and the fence tops with a Quickie glue pen and added glitter.  I sprinkled white chunky Frantage over the image and heated it from underneath so it wouldn't blow off.

 

 

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Serendipity cardinals, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, green and red cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, Spellbinders inverted scallop circles, Quickie glue pen, glitter

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Stampendous Snowy Postcard
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Antique Linen and Brushed Corduroy
Paper - watercolour paper, linen cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, glitter, Frantage embossing powder, fun foam

Yellow Tulips

Just one card today, something bright and cheery for Vancouver's grey rainy day:

I watercoloured the image, trimmed it, and popped it up on fun foam on a dry embossed panel.

I'm linking it up with the Colorful Options Challenge "Yellow"

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Stamplorations tulips, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, white linen cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, SU embossing folder

Rainy Day Christmas Cards

It's supposed to be gardening season but it's a horrible wet day - the forecast says 100% chance of rain all day.  So what better to do than make Christmas cards!

For 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Children's Xmas", I thought these sweet friends watching out the window for Santa were perfect:

A very simple stamped, watercoloured, bordered with navy, and popped up on fun foam on the card base. I added some snowflakes with a white gel pen.

I love these Colorado Craft Co. images by the artist Anita Jeram!  I've treated myself to a few of them recently.

 

Next up for Just Us Girls "Red, Black, White" and for We Love Stamping "Favourite Stamp", I chose my all-time favourite Christmas stamp.  Most of you know I love horses so of courseI love this stamp - so much so, I bought an extra one in case this one wears out!

 

 

Stamped in black, the hats coloured with a red marker, trimmed with a stitched rectangle die, popped up on fun foam, and Fun Flock added to the brims and pompoms on the hats, and added glitter to the fence line.

 

And finally for Jingle Belles "Earth Day" (recycle, re-use, up-cycle something), I took a tree off of the Christmas card I received from Julia of createwithjulia and used it on this card:

I found a piece of smooshed green background in my UFO box, stamped the Christmas text stamp on it, mounted it on a white card base, added Julia's Christmas tree to the centre and framed it with a white double-stacked frame die cut.

52 Christmas Card Throwdown

We Love Stamping "Favourite Stamp"

Just Us Girls 

 

 Jingle Belles

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Colorado Craft Co. "On the Lookout"
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, cream and navy cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, TH merry die, Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Impression Obsession horses, unknown sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - red marker, Fun Flock, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, fun foam, glitter

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - unknown text stamp
Ink - various green Distress inks for background, Distress Vintage Photo for text
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Impression Obsession frame die, up-cycled tree

Ornaments for Peace on Earth

Time for another Peace on Earth challenge.  I was inspired by all the gold and silver ornaments in the mood board.

I stamped the image with Versamark and then sprinkled gold glitter embossing powder randomly over some sections, tapped the excess off, and then sprinkled silver glitter embossing powder over the remaining sections.  I saw or read somewhere that it's better to heat glitter embossing powders from underneath as the glitter bits can blow off easily - they need the embossing bits to melt first so that they hold the glitter bits.  In real life, the image is more glittery than it looks in the photo - glitter is always so hard to photograph.

I bordered the panel with silver glitter paper and also die cut the "joy" sentiment out of it.

Here's the mood board that inspired it:
 

Please come and join us at Peace on Earth.  It's an "anything Christmas goes" so you don't have to follow the mood board. 

Supplies:
Stamps - Indigo Blue
Ink - Versamark
Paper - white cs, silver glitter cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Penny Black joy die, Stampendous Silver Tinsel and Papermania Gold Tinsel embossing powders

A Brown Bunny

I had fun today making a couple of Easter cards.  This one is for Addicted to CAS "Code Word: Animals", CASology "Fluffy", and Double D "Easter".

I created a background by die cutting a stencil out of scrap cs and sponging with green and mauve, stamping the sentiment on it, and die cutting into a square.  I sponged and fussy cut the bunny, glued his feet down and popped his head and shoulders up with foam tape.  I added the panel to the card base with fun foam for dimension.  And added Fun Flock to his tail to fit the "fluffy" challenge.

I was supposed to be going to my best friend's for Easter brunch on Sunday but she's come down with Covid so it's cancelled.  I'm going to pop this through her mail slot without seeing her.  So annoying - Covid restrictions are finally lifted and we can all get together but then she goes and catches it!  Easter brunch is one of our annual traditions so this makes three years in a row of not being able to have it!

Addicted to CAS

Casology

 

Double D "Easter"

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Technique Junkies bunny, SU sentiment
Ink - Archival Potting Soil, Distress Shaded Lilac and Peeled Paint
Paper - white cs
Size - 5" square
Accessories - Memory Box Wildflower Landscape die, Spellbinders square die, Fun Flock, fun foam

One for Christmas, One for Easter

Another twofer from me.  First up, one for Christmas for the 52 Christmas Card Challenge "Blue, White, and Silver":

Out of silver shimmer cs, I die cut the branches and the bird.  I then sponged blue inks on the bird.  I stamped the sentiment in blue ink and heat embossed with sparkly embossing powder, then die cut it with a label die.  I assembled it all on a panel die cut with a stitched rectangle, popping up the bird on foam tape.  The panel is mounted on fun foam on the card base.

Then I moved on to making an Easter card for the Double D "anything Easter" challenge.

I followed an Eileen Godwin video for the background (sorry, I can't find the video again).  I masked the circle and stencilled around it.  Then changed over and masked over the stencilling so that I could sponge a bit of blue and purple inside the circle.  Then with no masking in place, I stamped the berry wreath around the circle, coloured in the berries and added a sentiment.  I die cut the little bunny three times and glued them together and sat him on the berry wreath.

52 Christmas Card Throwdown
 

Double D Challenge "Easter" 

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - SU sentiment
Ink - Distress Chipped Sapphire
Paper - silver and white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - TH greenery dies, Memory Box bird die, clear sparkling embossing powder, Spellbinders label die, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU sentiment
Ink - various Distress inks, Ranger Archival Jet Black
Paper - white cs
Size - 4.75" square card
Accessories - Lavinia stencil, blue marker, Charlie & Paulchen rabbit die

Slimline Snowflakes

Just one card for you today.  I wanted to get it posted for a few challenges before they close.

I went over the TH snowflake stencil with embossing paste and then, while it was still wet, I added Speckled Egg embossing glaze to give it colour.  I heated it with my heat gun which caused some of the glaze to bubble a bit and then subside, adding even more texture to the snowflakes.

I added a very thin black cs border, stamped the sentiment in black on a small scrap and heat embossed it with clear powder, and added a thin black border to that piece as well.

Challenges:

ABC Christmas Challenge "E is for Embossing" (I have both embossing paste and embossing glaze.)

Christmas Craft Creations "Slimline"

 

Cardz 4 Guyz - "Add Texture"

 

Supplies:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocture
Paper - white and black cs
Size - 7x3.75"
Accessories - TH snowflakes stencil, embossing paste, TH Speckled Egg embossing glaze, clear embossing powder

Pink and Gold, Glitter and Copper

A twofer of Christmas cards today!

For Less is More "Pink and Gold", I stretched my comfort zone of traditional Christmas colours and made a mostly pink ornament:

I used alcohol inks for the solid section of my ornament and the sentiment. I used a few shades of pink and some gold mixative. Then die cut the ornament and sentiment from it. The top layer of the ornament is cut from gold cs. I cut a very thin strip of the same gold cs to use to hang the ornament from the top of the card.

I thought of embellishing with some sequins but I couldn't figure out a placement I liked so left it plain (and I think that is better for the Less is More challenge anyway)!

Then I went on to play with glitter for the ABC Christmas Challenge where one of the options is "G for Glitter":

Years ago I bought some ClearSnap Design Adhesives - they are double sided adhesive patterns. I'd stuck a few on a very odd-sized card base and added gold glitter to them, and then done nothing with it. I also had a heated copper die cut reindeer I'd made years ago that I'd never put on a card. It fit quite well between the glittered adhesive patterns and I found a sentiment that fit space-wise with all of it.

The reindeer was made using this SCS tutorial - this SCS tutorial.

Not sure what I think of it now it's put together but it used up some things from my "UFO" (unfinished objects) box.

 Less is More

 

ABC Christmas Challenge

Supplies for card 1:
Ink - various pink alcohol inks
Paper - coated cs, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold mixative, Memory Box ornament dies, TH joy die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versamark
Paper - white cs
Size - 5.75x4.75"
Accessories - thin copper, Sizzix reindeer die, gold glitter, platinum embossing powder, ClearSnap Design Adhesives

A Horse for Peace on Earth

It's already time for the new Peace on Earth challenge.  Diane and Darlene have a wonderful mood board to inspire you (and those of us on the Design Team).  Many of you know that I love horses so no surprise as to which image on the mood board inspired me to make this card:

And here's the mood board:

I had the perfect stamp for it, didn't I?  And I matched the colours as best I could.  I coloured it with coloured pencils and bordered with red and green shimmer cs.  I smudged the sentiment when I stamped it directly on the image panel so restamped it and die cut it with a little oval tag die that I attached with a green brad.

Please come and join us at Peace on Earth.  You don't have to be inspired by the mood board - it's an anything Christmas goes challenge.

Supplies:
Stamps - Serendipity "Clyde", SSS sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black, Memento Rhubarb Stalk
Paper - white cs, red and green shimmer cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - coloured pencils, green brad, Sizzix tag die