Slimline Branches and Shiny Trees

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge wants a mini slimline card.  And it's Rudolph Days - anything Christmas goes.  I pulled out a Penny Black stamp I haven't used for a couple of years.

I put the stamp in my MISTI and inked it up with Tombow markers, spritzing lightly, and re-inking as needed.  I pressed some Distress Iced Spruce onto my kraft mat and diluted it with water and carefully painted it around the bottom of the image.  I stamped the image in brown, trimmed the panel, and ran a brown marker around the edge of the panel to give it some definition on the card base.  I added a bit of glue and glitter to the white parts of the pine cone and branches, very lightly splattered some watered down white acrylic paint, and added glossy accents to the berries.

And a second card for today, this one is for Christmas Crafts All Year Round "Tree and / or Gifts", Christmas Craft Creations "Two Colours" (I used blue and green), and Day of the Month Card Club "Love a Tree Day".

I created by trees by covering some scrap cs with double sided tape and green foil and then die cut the two trees from it.  Then I grabbed a piece of leftover smooshed background from my UFO box, tore some scraps of white cs for the snowy hills, stamped the sentiment on the bottom one, assembled everything and popped it up on fun foam.

Christmas Kickstart Challenge "Mini Slimline"

 

Rudolph Days

Christmas Crafts All Year Round "Tree and / or Gifts"

Day of the Month Card Club

 

Christmas Craft Creations

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black branches, Paper Smooches sentiment
Ink - Distress Iced Spruce, Versafine Clair Fallen Leaves
Paper - watercolour paint, cream cs
Size - 7x3.5"
Accessories - Tombow markers, glossy accents, glitter, white acrylic paint

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Rosie's Roadshow sentiment
Ink - Broken China Tumbled Glass
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Impression Obsession tree dies, green foil, fun foam

Reindeer and Silent Snow

I love larger sentiment stamps but often have trouble combining them with an image.  I thought it worked well in this card with the reindeer kind of looking up at the snowflakes around him.

I created the background by using the Embossing Folder Stamping technique (see SCS tutorial).

I tore some white cs to create the snowy ground. The sentiment is stamped and heat embossed with a bit of the brown ink sponged around the edge of the panel. The reindeer is cut from piece of mixed media cs sprinkled with brown bister and spritzed with water. I sponged a bit of the brown ink on parts of it to add some definition. I die cut two extra reindeer from scrap cs and glued them all together for more dimension.

For these challenges:

Jingle Belles "Masculine Merry Christmas"

Cardz 4 Guyz "Wildlife"

Sparkles Christmas Challenge "Sentiment"

Supplies:
Stamps - Hobby Art sentiment
Ink - Distress inks - various blues and Ground Espresso
Paper - white and mixed media cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Cuttlebug embossing folder, Sizzix reindeer die, brown bister, clear embossing powder

Monochrome Brown and a CAS Nativity

The Double D challenge is "Monochromatic (any colour)" and the ABC Christmas Challenge is "K for Kraft" so I've combined the two for this card:

This uses a wonderful technique that my friend Loll taught me.  Here are the steps:

-       Stamp image in brown permanent ink

-       Using torn masks, create snow hills, sponging white over most of the area, leaving just a little at the top of each hill

-       Continue to add sponged snow hills down your card front…you can add in some trees, or whatever you want along the way to add depth to the scene. Sponge sky as well (leave halo around images).

-       Use white pigment ink, white acrylic ink, or white acrylic pen to add snow on buildings, trees, etc.

-       Splatter diluted white acrylic paint to add falling snow

-       Stamp sentiment in same brown ink as image

I then trimmed the panel, cut a dark brown panel and angled it behind the main panel, and added it to a kraft card base. 

While that card took a fair bit of time to make, my second card was quite a quick card.  It's for the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown theme challenge "Nativity".

The image and sentiment are heat embossed in gold and then trimmed with a hemstitch die.  I created a matching gold panel to go behind it by rubbing gold ink around the edges of the piece and heat embossing in the same gold.  Popped it up on fun foam and it was done.

Double D Challenge "Monochromatic (any colour)"

ABC Christmas Challenge "K is for kraft"

52 Christmas Card Throwdown

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Art-Kure St. Mellion Church
Ink - Distress Walnut Stain, ColorBox white
Paper - kraft and dark brown cs
Size - A2
Accessories - white acrylic paint

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown nativity stamp, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - Gina K ivory cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold embossing powder, Spellbinders hemstitch rectangle die, fun foam

A Christmas Tree and A White House

I seem to always be doing "twofers" these days!

The first one for today is for 52 Christmas Card Throwdown's colour challenge "Red, Green, & Brown".

I put the stamp in my MISTI, inked it up with various mini Distress inkpads, spritzed lightly, and stamped on watercolour paper, repeating in areas I wasn't happy with.  I added a brown sentiment, then trimmed the panel, mounted it on a cream card base, and added red gemstones to the tree.

The Paper Players want to see a house on the card.

I created a smooshed background with two shades of blue.  Then die cut the house twice out of white cs, once out yellow cs.  I glued the two white ones together, mounted it on my background, and inserted just the yellow windows from the yellow die cut.  Added a navy sentiment and a navy border, and popped it up on fun foam on the card base.

52 Christmas Card Throwdown

The Paper Players

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - various green and brown mini Distress inks
Paper - watercolour paper, cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - red and gold gemstones

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Savvy Stamps sentiment
Ink - Distress Broken China and Tumbled Glass, Memento Nautical Blue
Paper - white, yellow, and navy cs
Size - A2
Accessories - unknown house die

Snowman in Red

Time for the new Peace on Earth Challenge!  Don't the weeks just fly by?  Here's my card to help inspire you:

I stamped the image and coloured the scarf and hat band with a red alcohol marker.  Then trimmed it with a circle die.  I bordered it with a red polka dot paper, added a sentiment stamped in red, and layered it on a snowflake embossed panel.

I was inspired by the lower left image on the mood board.  There's lots of other inspiration from the rest of the Design Team so head on over to Peace on Earth.  It is an "anything Christmas goes" challenge but feel free to be inspired by the mood board.

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Inkadinkado snowman, SU sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black, Memento Rhubarb Stalk
Paper - white cs, Recollections dp
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - red alcohol marker, Spellbinders circle dies, Darice snowflake embossing folder

Daredevil and Birds

Cutting it fine to get cards posted for two challenges today.

First up Cardz 4 Guyz wants "D is for .....".  I went with "D is for Daredevil" with this card:

I created the background by sprinkling green, blue, and turquoise Brushos over mixed media cs and spritzing with water. When dry, I stamped bits of text and mixed media stamps on it in grey.

I stamped and heat embossed the image and sentiment in black, trimmed the panel, bordered in dark grey, and added it to a cream cardbase.

Next up, for the Double D Challenge "Birds / Nests / Birdhouses", I have both birds and a birdhouse:

     

 

I stamped on watercolour paper, painted, bordered in red, used a dark green card base, and went over the branches with a Quickie glue pen and added some glitter.

 

Cardz 4 Guyz

 

 

Double D Challenge 

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Tim Holtz tightrope walker and quote, various unknown text and mixed media stamps
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Hickory Smoke
Paper - cream and dark grey cs, mixed media cs
Size - A2
Accessories - green, blue, and turquoise Brushos, clear embossing powder

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Magenta, Make an Impression sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, red and dark green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, glitter

A Yellow Rose on Mother's Day

Just Us Girls is looking for cards with flowers.  Since it's Mother's Day and my Mum loved roses (and grew wonderful ones in her garden), I went with a stamp of a rose.

I stamped the collage-style image of the rose and watercoloured it, and then did a light blue/grey wash over the script background. I trimmed it and popped it up on fun foam on a white background embossed with a border of flowers.

Just Us Girls

I'm also adding it to a fairly new challenge called "Can You Handle the Pressure" - cards entered in it always have to include the use of an embossing folder.  This month the optional element is "Pastels" so my card has that as well.

I hope all of you who still have your mothers celebrated with them today.  I miss mine so much.

Supplies:
Stamps - Stamplorations
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - white cs, watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Crafts Too embossing folder, fun foam

Resisting Snowflakes and a Bleached Bird

52 Christmas Card Throwdown wants a card using the Emboss Resist Technique.  I used a snowflake stencil to create my resist:

I pressed my Versamark pad through the snowflake stencil and then heat embossed the snowflakes with clear ep.  I then sponged various blue Distress inks over the panel and when finished, wiped off the snowflakes with a damp cloth.

I cut it with a tag die thinking I'd enter it in Cardz 4 Guyz "Tag" challenge but just missed the deadline.  Because I wanted to be sure it looked masculine, I added a metal token (attaching it with a brad) and a dark silver die cut sentiment.  The tag is added to an embossed background panel.

I'm also cutting it fine to enter The Paper Players "Birds" challenge but at least I'm in time for this one.  Here's my card:

I created the green Brusho background by sprinkling the Brusho powders on watercolour paper and then spritzing with water. When dry, I stamped the image and heat set it. Then I used bleach and a paint brush to lift the green colour from the bird.

I stamped the sentiment that came with the image across the bottom and a Happy Retirement sentiment up at the top.

I added gold gel pen to all the tiny berries in the image and bordered with a matching gold cs. I found a blue grey cs that matched the colour of the bird (the bleach never seems to take enough colour out to go right back to white) and used it for the card base. The panel is popped up on fun foam.

52 Christmas Card Throwdown

The Paper Players

Supplies for card 1:
Ink - Distress Broken China, Stormy Skies, Faded Jeans; Versamark
Paper - white cs, dark silver cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Paper Roses snowflake stencil, clear embossing powder, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Tim Holtz token, Dee's Distinctively "Merry" die, stitched tag die, dark silver brad

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Carabelle "Dream Wings", SU "Happy Retirement"
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, gold shimmer cs, pale blue grey cs
Size - A2
Accessories - two shades of green Brushos, gold gel pen, bleach, fun foam

Winter Fun and Flowery Thanks

The Jingle Belles want to see "Winter Fun" this time.  I went with some animals have fun sledding in the snow:

Stamped on watercolour paper, watercoloured, trimmed with wonky stitched die, bordered in copper, and a bit of glue and glitter along the snowline.

The Penny Black Saturday Challenge is "Anything Goes".  I made a thank you card:

Using my MISTI, I inked the agapanthus up with various Distress markers, one colour at a time, spritzing after each colour and stamping, then going back to do the next colour.

I bordered it with a dark green, heat embossed the sentiment in white on the same dark green, and added a few iridescent gemstones that have the same dark blue and purple in them.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Craft Emotions, Make an Impression sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, cream cs, copper shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - MFT Wonky Stitched rectangle die, watercolour paints, glitter

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black flowers, Memory Box sentiment
Ink - ColorBox white, Distress markers
Paper - watercolour paper, cream and dark green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Distress markers, white embossing paste, label die, iridescent gemstones