A Sleigh and a Fairy

It's a busy time of year but I've been fitting in a bit of crafting.  First I have a card for Sparkles Christmas Challenge "Include a Sleigh":

I stamped the image and coloured it with coloured pencils. I carefully sponged around it with two shades of blue Distress ink, being careful to leave the pale yellow glow of the lantern. I flicked a bit of water on it for more interest. I went along the ground with a glue pen and then sprinkled glitter on it (hard to photograph, but in real life it's sparkly).

And for Stamping Sensations, the challenge is to add a stencil to a stamped card.

 

This card was inspired by a video by Eileen Godwin.

I masked a circle on white cs and then stencilled around it in light blue. I removed the mask and stamped around the circle with the garland stamp. I then stamped the fairy in black directly on the card and again on a scrap of cs but only the wings. I went over the wings with a Versamarker pen and heat embossed them with Kaleidocolor embossing powder. I fussy cut the wings and glued them over the plain stamped wings. I trimmed the panel with a square stitched die and popped it up on fun foam on the card base. Finished off with blue Stickles and a white Pearl Pen on the berries.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Katzelkraft Santa and reindeer, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Speckled Egg and Stormy Sky
Paper - white and black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, glitter

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Lavinia fairy and garland, unknown sentiment
Ink - SSS Barely Blue, Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - Lavinia stencil, Versamarker pen, Stampendous Kaleidoscope embossing powder, Lil Inker stitched square die, fun foam, blue Stickles, white Pearl Pen

Ink Blending on Coloured Cardstock

Our Group of Seven Cardmakers technique for May was ink blending on coloured cardstock.  It's a great easy technique to add extra interest to coloured cardstock.  We used a video called "Be Bold and Add Drama to Your Cards".

I ended up making three cards while practising the techniques, two for Hannukah and one for Christmas.

For both of these cards, I used a lighter blue cs and a slightly darker shade of blue ink for blending around the edges.  The images are heat embossed in silver and the panels are bordered in silver.  On the first card I added some water splatters as well as the white splatters, but on the second, I just did white splatters.

Here's the Christmas card:

I did this first on a darker red cs but the ink blending didn't show up enough so I redid it using a lighter red cs.  Gold heat embossing, gold splatters, and a gold card base tied it all together.

These really are quick and easy cards to make so I'm sure I'll be using the technique again.  My only piece of advice to those of you who want to try it is to make sure your coloured cs is light enough to leave some contrast with your ink blending.

Head over to Group of Seven for more information and samples from the rest of the group.  Feel free to link up any cards you make using the technique but just be aware we are not a challenge and don't promise to comment on all of your cards.

Supplies for Hanukkah cards:
Stamps - SU Jewish Celebrations
Ink - Versamark, Distress Faded Jeans
Paper - white, blue, silver cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - TH silver embossing powder, white paint

Supplies for Christmas cards:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - ColorBox gold, Distress Aged Mahogany
Paper - red, black, gold cs
Size - A2
Accessories - TH gold embossing powder, gold paint

Blue (My Favourite Colour) and Pink (An Okay Colour)

First up today, Colorful Options is asking for "Blue" (truly and undoubtedly my favourite colour) and both Christmas Craft Creations and Jingle Belles want "No Stamping".

I used a scrap of background from my box, made (I think) with various inks or sprays applied to an embossing folder before running it through the Cuttlebug.

I die cut the reindeer and joy twice, once out of white glitter cs and once out of scrap cs, glued them together for more dimension, and added them to the background.

My other card is for Double D "Flowers" and Triple B "Birds Blooms and / or Butterflies".

As I said in the subject of this post, pink is an okay colour, but definitely not my favourite!  I do grow some beautiful pink hollyhocks in my garden so this celebrates them and it uses up some of my decorative paper for the background.  In real life, the pink in the dp matches the pink I painted the flowers with perfectly, but somehow the tones are messed up in the photo.

     

Supplies for card 1:
Paper - white cs, white glitter cs, scrap of embossed background
Size - A2
Accessories - Penny Black reindeer die, Tattered Lace joy die, snowflake embossing folder, blue sprays

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Local King
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs, Japanese decorative paper
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, fun foam

Christmas Music and Three Kings

A couple of Christmas cards today, both very basic and simple to make.  First for 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Music":

The image is stamped and heat embossed in gold, die cut with a fancy edged die, and bordered with gold shimmer cs.

And for My Time to Craft Christmas "We Three Kings":

The image is stamped and watercoloured, bordered with black, and added to a kraft card base.

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Old Island Stamp Co.
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - cream cs, gold shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold embossing powder, Spellbinders die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Flourishes
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, kraft and black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints

Rustic Sled

This time the Peace on Earth mood board includes a great image of a rustic sled.  I was at my friend Loll's house recently and spotted a perfect stamp in her collection so stamped it off and brought it home to turn into this card for my DT card for the challenge.

It's coloured with coloured pencils, then I trimmed the panel with a rectangle die and then took a thin frame out of the white panel so that the red of the card base can show through.  I went over the snow at the bottom with a Quickie glue pen and added some glitter but it's not showing up in the photo.

I somehow stamped my sentiment upside down on the white panel so had to restamp it on a scrap and die cut it with an oval to cover the upside down one!

Head on over to Peace on Earth to see what the rest of the Design Team came up with!  Here's the mood board for this challenge if you want to be inspired by it - if not, enter an "anything Christmas" card.

Supplies:
Stamps - Serendipity sled, unknown sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocture
Paper - white and dark red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Simon Says Stamp thin frames die, Spellbinders rectangle and oval dies, glitter

A Threefer of Flowers, Tea, and Doves

Three cards from me today, getting some challenges done.

First up, flowers for The Sisterhood of Crafters:

I finally used this Tim Holtz large flower stamp - I've had it for a few years! For an A2 card, you can really only use part of the stamp.

I stamped it and coloured it with Distress markers and a water brush. A simple sentiment and a black border and it was done!

Next a card for a special woman in my life (one of my best friends who shares my love of going out for tea and treats) - for Shopping our Stash challenge:

Stamped, watercoloured, bordered with a co-ordinating colour - that's all there is to it. 

And last, (of course, I have to have one Christmas card in here as I really need to build up my stash for my sale), for Addicted to CAS "Monochrome":

I stamped and heat embossed (with a glittery blue embossing powder) the image and sentiment, trimmed with a stitched rectangle die, and added it to a dark shimmer card base that provides a nice frame for the image.

   

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Tim Holtz flowers, sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - mixed media, white, and black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Distress markers

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Serendipity Afternoon Tea, PTI sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, cream and red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, fun foam

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - SU Gifts of Christmas
Ink - ColorBox True Blue
Paper - white cs, dark blue shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, blue glitter embossing powder

A Mixed Media Card for a Guy

Cardz 4 Guyz want us to "Get Messy with Inks, Paints, or Sprays.  I really struggle with masculine cards but pulled out an older Tim Holtz image for this one.

I did a background of smooshing with Oxide inks - tapping them on my craft mat, spritzing with water, then smooshing my piece of mixed media cs into them, drying between layers. 

I then stenciled with a grid stencil and vintage photo ink, stamped the postmark and blue splats for extra interest.

The man and the sentiment are stamped in black and heat embossed in clear. And the panel is popped up on fun foam for extra dimension.

He's got an umbrella so I'm assuming it's a rainy day so I'm adding it to The Paper Players "Rainy Days" challenge.

 

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Tim Holtz man and sentiment, SU French Foliage postage mark and splat
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, various Distress oxide inks
Paper - mixed media and cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - clear embossing powder, grid stencil, fun foam

Animals and Flowers

Animals and flowers - two of my favourite things!  I've got a card for each today.

Sweet Stampin' wants to see animals.  One of my sisters has wild rabbits living in the woods behind her house so I thought I'd make this to send to her.

I inked up my background stamp with various Distress inks to give it mixed colours.

The bunny is inked in brown and fussy cut, then popped up on foam tape with some fun flock added to his tail. I thought the sentiment "adorable" suited him perfectly.

And for Beautiful Blossoms, I used an image of bluebells - they are just starting to bloom in my garden.

I used a Penny Black bluebell stamp. Stamped it and watercoloured it, and then added interest around it with a bit of stencilling through a piece of drywall tape, some random text stamping, a bit of diluted black splatter, and some sponging around the edges of the panel.

A simple sentiment and some fun foam to pop the panel up finished it off.

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black background, Technique Junkies Little Bunny, SU sentiment
Ink - Archival Potting Soil, various Distress inks
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - fun flock, foam tape

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black bluebells, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment, unknown script stamp
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress and Distress Oxide Stormy Sky
Paper - watercolour paper, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, a piece of drywall tape, fun foam

Pastel Poinsettia

Peace on Earth has a very pretty pastel mood board for this challenge.  I used the colours to inspire the poinsettia on my card.

For the poinsettia, I smooshed Spun Sugar and Tattered Rose pinks onto a piece of mixed media cs and Cracked Pistachio green and Tumbled Glass blue onto another piece.  Then die cut my poinsettia layers and leaves.  I put it together on top of an embossed poinsettia background and added a sentiment on a little rectangle - and stepped out of my comfort zone and put it on an angle!

Here's the Peace on Earth mood board:

You can be inspired by it or you can make an "anything Christmas" card.  Please check out the rest of the cards made by the Design Team over at Peace on Earth and then come and join us!

I'm also adding the card to The Flower Challenge "Pretty Pastels".

Supplies:
Stamps - SU sentiment
Ink - Distress Spun Sugar, Tattered Rose, Tumbled Glass, and Cracked Pistachio; Memento
Paper - mixed media and white cs
Size - 6.25x3.25" mini slimline
Accessories - unknown slimline poinsettia embossing folder, Spellbinders poinsettia dies, champagne stick-on pearls

A Window and Some Dogs in a Boat

Addicted to CAS wants to see a window.

 

 

I found a bit of leftover background (probably smooshed with various Distress inks) in my UFO box. I stamped the Magenta stamp onto it (the sentiment is part of the stamp) in brown, trimmed it down to fit behind a die cut window (cut twice and glued together for more dimension), and popped it up on fun foam.

 

And Penny Black Saturday Challenge wants to see something funny.  I created my own humorous sentiment for it.

I made this card for my niece who has a wonderful English bulldog called Norman. Norman's favourite thing to do is sleep so this image is totally perfect as the bulldog is asleep while all his friends enjoy their boat ride.

I typed and printed a sentiment to fit the scene. Watercoloured the image, bordered with navy cs that I trimmed with my deckle trimmer.

 

    

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Magenta
Ink - Archival Acorn
Paper - white cs, scrap of a background
Size - A2
Accessories - Memory Box window die, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - watercolour paper, white and navy cs
Size - A2
Accessories - computer generated sentiment, watercolour paints, TH deckle edge trimmer