Under the Wire Again

There are so many great challenges out there but sadly I miss some of the deadlines and then there are these where I just get a card posted in time.

For Christmas Cards All Year Round "Holiday Song or Carol", I chose O Little Town of Bethlehem:

Stamped, coloured with coloured pencils, and a strip of gold tape added down one side for a bit of embellishment.

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge wants "Christmas not as we know it" so I went with some very different looking snowmen:

My friend Bonnie kindly stamped off a few of this image and sent them to me.  This is a variation on one I posted a couple of months ago.  Stamped, watercoloured, bordered in black.

And a threefer today.  Inkspirational wants a card for any of the seasonal holidays so I am posting a Hanukkah one for this one.

I created the focal image by stamping and heat embossing the menorah in silver and die cutting with a circle die.  The background has a flourish and sentiment stamped and heat embossed in blue.   I embellished with little silver jewel stickers on the flourish.

   

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Woodware Peaceful Night
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white cs
Size - 7.25x3.75"
Accessories - coloured pencils, gold tape

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Rubber Cottage "Snowflakes"
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, off white and black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Hero Arts Happy Hanukkah, SU flourish, Rubbernecker Hanukkah sentiment frame
Ink - ColorBox True Blue and Silver
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - clear and silver embossing powders, Dazzles silver jewel stickers, Spellbinders circle and rectangle dies

Smooshing with Cling Wrap

The Group of Seven Cardmakers are using cling wrap with smooshing this month.  Here's my first card:

For this one I used Magicals on black mixed media cs.  Love the sparkle and the texture I got.

I die cut a reindeer out of silver glitter cs and had him leaping off a sentiment die.

Up next:

This card uses Magicals on watercolour paper.  I didn't get as much texture with this one but I do love the colours.  I had to use quite a lot of Magicals and a lot of water to stop the colour getting absorbed too quickly into the watercolour paper.  Loll kindly lent me her reindeer stamp that I've been trying to buy for ages and I stamped and heat embossed it in black.  Luckily I was using my MISTI as it took a lot of repeat inking and stamping to get a good impression on the watercolour paper.  

I wanted to border it in black but all my black cs looked dull next to the shine of the black heat embossing and the sparkly streaks from the Magicals, so I ran Versamark around the edges of a die cut rectangle of cs and then heat embossed with black embossing powder.  It's much more effective as a border.  To continue the shine I used a white shimmer cs for the card base.

Head on over to Group of Seven Cardmakers if you want to see more examples of this technique using different papers and different products.  And feel free to add an example of your own to the linky!

Supplies for card 1:
Paper - black mixed media cs, white cs, silver glitter cs
Size - 7x3.75"
Accessories - aqua Magicals, Penny Black reindeer die, Memory Box sentiment die

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Studio Light
Ink - Versamark, Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, white shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - black and clear embossing powders, blue and mauve Magicals

A Squirrel for Autumn and a Winter Landscape

It seems I'm often sneaking in under the wire for challenges!  Here I go again with two cards.

First up, for The Four Seasons Fall challenge, I was totally inspired by the sweet little squirrel in the bottom right image on their mood board (see below).

I stamped the squirrel on watercolour paper and then again on masking paper - fussy cut the mask and laid it over the squirrel on the watercolour paper. I then stamped the berry branches over the squirrel. Watercoloured, trimmed the panel, bordered with black, added to a cream card base, and went over the berries with Glossy Accents.

I'm sending it to my sister - she's moving and said one of the little things she'll miss (hence the sentiment) is the antics of the squirrels at her present house.

Next up, for Cardz 4 Guyz "A Winter Scene" and 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Winter Countryside":

I stamped the image, coloured the buildings and trees with alcohol markers, sponged the sky with pearlescent ice blue ink, sprinkled with chunky white embossing powder and heated it from underneath to create the falling snow, and popped the panel up on fun foam on a dark green card base.

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - ArtSpecially squirrel, Penny Black berries, Chocolate Baroque sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, black and cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Glossy Accents, masking paper

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Serendipity Winter Farm, SSS sentimen
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne, Brilliance Pearlescent Ice Blue,
Paper - mixed media cs, dark green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - alcohol markers, Stampendous Frantage Chunky White embossing powder, fun foam

Dry Embossed Snow, Heat Embossed Poinsettias

Two new Christmas cards today.  For Can You Handle the Pressure (anything goes with dry embossing;  I didn't use the twist of turkey / Thanksgiving as I'm in Canada and we've already had our Thanksgiving), and for Stamping Sensations "Christmas":

The image is stamped in black and coloured with coloured pencils, then trimmed and bordered with black cs, layered on a dry embossed panel, and added to a white card base.

My second card is for My Time to Craft Christmas "Poinsettias" and Color Hues "Red and Gold":

I sponged a bit of darker red ink around the edges of a piece of red cs, then stamped and heat embossed the Christmas poinsettias / holly image in gold.  I bordered in gold shimmer cs, added a sentiment from my leftovers box (die cut from a piece that had gilding flakes stuck to it), and added Glossy Accents to all the berries in the image.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Serendipity farm, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white and black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Darice embossing folder

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - ColorBox gold, Distress Aged Mahogany
Paper - gold shimmer and cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold embossing powder, Glossy Accents, Tattered Lace "greetings" die, gilding flakes

Black Trees, Blue Sky

Peace on Earth has a lovely mood board of winter tree scenes.  I chose the top right image to inspire this card:

Rather than do a splattering of many tiny snowflakes, I did a few large snowflakes by using snowflakes masks on a gelli plate with a couple of shades of blue acrylic paint.  I die cut a line of evergreen trees twice out of black cs and glued them together for more dimension.  The sentiment is heat embossed in white on a banner die cut.

Here's the Peace on Earth mood board:

Please come and join us.  We'd love to see how you're inspired by the mood board (but if you're not, you can post an "anything Christmas" card.

 





Supplies:
Stamps - Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - ColorBox white
Paper - mixed media cs, black and white cs
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - snowflake masks made on a cricut, evergreen tree die, white and various blue acrylic paints, stitched banner die, white embossing powder

Two Colour Challenges

Two recent colour challenges inspired my most recent Christmas cards.

First for 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Kraft, Black, and White" and also for Cardz 4 Guyz "A Winter Scene":

I die cut the birch trees out of white cs and layered them over black shimmer cs.  I added a few snowflakes cut from white glitter cs.  The deer are cut twice from kraft cs, glued together, and sponged a little bit with Distress Brushed Corduroy.  Their legs are glued to the white ground and their upper bodies popped up on the black background.  

Then a very traditional colour challenge from The Paper Players - "Red, Green, and Gold":

I put the berry branch stamp in my MISTI and inked it up with red and green markers, spritzed lightly with water, and stamped on watercolour paper.  Repeated until I was happy with the results.  I trimmed the panel with a pierced dot rectangle die, and layered it over a gold shimmer card base.  I die cut the sentiment twice out of the same gold cs, glued them together, and added to the card.

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Simon Says Stamp sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne, Distress Brushed Corduroy
Paper - black shimmer cs, white and kraft cs, white glitter cs
Size - A2
Accessories - deer dies, birch tree die, small snowflake die, pop dots

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black
Paper - watercolour paper, gold shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - red and green markers, Spellbinders pierced dot rectangle die, Penny Black Be Merry die

Blue / Purple Sky and a Birthday Cat

Sneaking in under the wire for Color Hues "Light Blue and Purple":

The background was done with blue and purple reinkers on mixed media cs, then covered in wrinkled cling wrap while it dried.  The snowy tree die is cut from white glitter cs, and it's mounted on a blue/grey card base that in real life matches the blue in the background better than it does in the photo.

As you probably know, I'm very focused on making Christmas cards right now, but friends do have birthdays coming up.  I used Seize the Birthday "Neutrals Only" to get me to make one for a guy friend.  He adores his black cat, Maisie, so I had to add her to the card!

I inked up the background stamp randomly with various Distress Oxide inks, spritzed lightly with water, and stamped onto mixed media cs.  Once dry, I stamped the cat in black (using my MISTI to get a good solid impression) and heat embossed it, then bordered in black cs, and added to an off-white card base.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Make an Impression sentiment
Ink - ColorBox Heliotrope, various blue and purple reinkers
Paper - blue / grey cs, white glitter cs, mixed media cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - cling wrap, Spellbinders circle die, Memory Box trees die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Savvy Stamps sentiment, Lavinia cat, Magenta (?) branches
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne, various Distress Oxide inks
Paper - mixed media, black, and off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - SU label punch, black embossing powder

One New Stamp, One Very Old Stamp

More Christmas of course!  Today I'm using a new stamp on my first card and a very old stamp on my second one!

First for the Double D challenge "Oh Deer".  They have a lovely mood board (see below) and I chose the upper left image of the spotted fawns to inspire me to choose the stamp I used:

I just love the Anita Jeram stamps from Colorado Craft Co. so am buying a lot of her Christmas designs.  Since it's a new stamp that I hadn't yet inked up, I'm linking it at NBUS as well.  

Watercoloured, trimmed with a pierced dot die, layered over copper shimmer cs, with glitter added to the snow lines and on the tree branches.

My second card is for Shopping Our Stash "Embossing Wet or Dry".  I went with an embossed background and one of the stamps I bought in my early years of card making.

I created an embossed script background with cream shimmer cs for my focal panel of a stamped and watercoloured image of a chickadee and greenery.   I die cut the image with an oval die cut and also die cut a red oval border. 

    

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Colorado Craft Co., SSS sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, copper shimmer and off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Spellbinders pierced dot rectangle die, glitter

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU Beautiful Season, Impression Obsession sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - cream cs, red shimmer and cream shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Twinkling H2Os, script embossing folder, Spellbinders oval dies

Cardinals on Greenery and Monochromatic Blues

Can You Handle the Pressure? challenge has a perfect twist to lend itself to a Christmas card - "a twist of greenery". 

I used a snowflake embossing folder on the card base and then chose the beautiful cardinals sitting on snowy greenery to tie it all together.  The image is coloured with coloured pencils, then trimmed with a circle die, and mounted on green glitter cs cut with an inverted scallop circle die.  I went over the snow on the branches with a quickie glue pen and added glitter, and used a small die to cut "merry" out of red cs.

And for Christmas Card Creations "Monochromatic", Tic Tac Toe Challenge (I chose the right vertical line "ribbon, free, blue"), and Snippets (I used a snippet of leftover alcohol ink background, some snippets of white cs for the tree die and the sentiment tag, and a snippet of blue ribbon to attach the sentiment tag):

The focal image is die cut trees layered over alcohol inks on glossy cs.  The background is embossed with a simple texture embossing folder.

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Serendipity
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white and red cs, green glitter cs
Size - 4.5" square
Accessories - coloured pencils, Paper Smooches merry die, glitter, Spellbinders circle and inverted scallops circle dies

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - Distress Broken China
Paper - glossy cs, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Memory Box tree die, blue alcohol inks, Spellbinders tag die, SU texture embossing folder, blue ribbon