Masculine Christmas and Poinsettias Embossed and Stamped

Cardz 4 Guyz wants a masculine Christmas card. 

I started with the background - used a circle die to cut a round mask for the moon and a hilly slopes die for the snowy ground (both cut out of masking paper). Then splattered masking fluid on the sky for snow. Then sponged with two shades of blue Distress ink, leaving it lighter around the moon. Once the ink was dry, I removed the paper masks and rubbed off the masking fluid. I die cut the buildings and trees out of black cs and added them to the background. Finished off by using white gouache on a fine paint brush to add snow to the roofs.

My second card today is for Can You Handle the Pressure (dry embossing with an optional theme of poinsettias - I went with this theme).

I stamped and watercoloured the candle / poinsettia image, trimmed it with a square die, popped it up on fun foam on a square of off white cs that I'd run through a floral embossing folder that could well be poinsettias.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Make an Impression sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Chipped Sapphire and Dusty Concord
Paper - white and black cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - masking fluid, masking paper, SSS Winter Village dies, circle die, hilly slope die, Dr Phil Martin's bleed-proof white gouache

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Stamplorations
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, square dies, Sizzix embossing folder

Window, Window Box, and Greenery

Peace on Earth's new mood board reminded me that I haven't used my window dies for ages.  So using the bottom left image (see mood board at end of post) as my inspiration, I created this card:

I used a dp for the background that reminds me of the rustic wood in the mood board image.  I die cut the window and window box twice and glued them together for more dimension.  Using Distress Frayed Burlap, I randomly sponged them to give them a rustic look.  I stamped the sentiment on the bottom of the window box with the same ink.  I die cut lots of bits of greenery and glued them under the window box.  And backed the window with a bit of dp.

We'd love to have you join us at Peace on Earth, either with a card inspired by the mood board or an "anything Christmas" card.  There's lots more inspiration by our wonderful design team over on the challenge blog.

Supplies:
Stamps - SU sentiment
Ink - Distress Frayed Burlap
Paper - cream cs, scraps of green and cream cs, patterned papers
Size - A2
Accessories - Memory Box window and window box dies, Sizzix greenery dies

Christmas and Winter

My Time to Craft Christmas challenge's theme is Lights (candles, lamps, etc.).

A simple stamped and watercoloured image, bordered in red, popped up on fun foam on a panel embossed with stars.

Shopping our Stash wants to see "Winter not Christmas", My Time to Craft wants "Something Snow Related", and Stamping Sensations  wants "Winter".

I stamped a large snowflake background stamp in Versamark and then went over it with a couple of shades of Pan Pastels (a product I rarely use).  I trimmed the panel, popped it up on fun foam on a cream card base, and stamped and heat embossed a sentiment on a strip of the same cream card stock and popped it up on the panel.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - unknown candle stamp, Stampendous sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, square dies, Sizzix stars embossing folder, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown snowflake background stamp
Ink - Versamark, Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - cream cs, mixed media cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Pan Pastels, embossing powder, fun foam, rectangle dies

Watercoloured Winter, Peaceful Ornament, and Grungy Birthday

Two more Christmas cards and one birthday card today!  

First, for ABC Christmas Challenge "W is for Watercolouring", Stamping Sensations "Winter", and Four Seasons "Winter" (the top left image on their mood board inspired me to pull out an old stamp that has a rustic wooden cabin as part of it).

The image is stamped, watercoloured, and added to a kraft cardbase.  Then I went over the snow lines, the snow on the fences, trees, and roof with a quickie glue pen and added glitter.  I put the sentiment inside as I didn't want to cover up any of the lovely image.

Next up for Addicted to CAS "Ornament":

A friend and I regularly go for tea at a little French bakery / coffee shop and the pastries are served on gold cardboard holders that I carefully clean and recycle to make large ornaments for cards. In this case, I dripped a couple of shades of red alcohol inks on the round part of the pastry holder and spritzed with rubbing alcohol to get it to run and cover the round part. When dry, I added a dove die cut from white glitter cs and a branch cut from green shimmer cs. I embellished with three little stick-on gold glitter circles and some matching gold glitter strips for the ornament's hanger. I let it all take centre stage on a plain white card base with just an added stamped and heat embossed sentiment. 

A male friend has a birthday coming up so I had my usual struggle to make a masculine card.  I'm linking it up with Sweet Stampin' "It's our Birthday" - they are celebrating the 15th year of their challenge.  And also Seize the Birthday "Masculine".

I found the stencilled piece in my unused background box - it was very intensely orange and I didn't like it, so I watered down some gesso and painted over it to lighten it up.  I stamped the Tim Holtz image in black and edged around it with Tea Dye Distress ink.  Then cut a rectangle out of the stencilled piece and layered it over the stamped image as a frame.  Added a birthday sentiment to the top of the frame.

   

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Northwoods
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, kraft cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, quickie glue pen, glitter

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - A Muse sentiment
Ink - ColorBox Gold, red alcohol inks
Paper - white cs, white glitter cs, green shimmer cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Impression Obsession dove die, recycled pastry holder, gold embossing powder, Anita's Glitterations gold strips and dots

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Tim Holtz man, unknown sentiment
Ink - various orange Distress inks, Distress Tea Dye, Versfine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Spellbinders rectangle die, clock stencil, gesso

Candy Canes, Candles, and Reindeer

I have this card for Jingle Belles:

They wanted a card in inspired by their banner:

I saw the image (on the left of the banner) of the candy canes tied up with Christmas greenery and gold ribbon, and immediately thought of a stamp I have.  And I kept lots of red in the card as the banner has a lot of red.

The image is stamped and coloured with coloured pencils, including a metallic gold pencil for the ribbon.  I trimmed it with a label die and went around the edge with a fine black marker to give the edge some definition.  I popped it up on fun foam on a border cut out of candy cane dp, using the next size up of the same label die.  I used a red cs for the base that has a tiny bit of gold shimmer in it (hard to see in the photo).

Next up:

Festive Friday is celebrating a Traditional Christmas - my card has quite a few of the elements from its list - I've got red, green, gold, candles, and a Christmas sentiment.  And the Colorful Options Challenge wants red, green, and gold so I'm linking it up there too.

Stamped and watercoloured, a bit of gold splatter added, a gold shimmer border and a gold sentiment cut out with a banner die. 

 

And one more card today:

Shopping our Stash wants a masculine card and The Paper Players want a deer - the two go together really well.

 

My card was inspired by a video I saw online a while back (that unfortunately I can't find again). The moon and the snowbanks are done with masking and sponging. Then the reindeer and the holly branches are stamped on top. I bordered with black cs, went along the snow lines with clear Stickles, painted the berries with a red Posca paint pen, splattered with a white Posca paint pen, and added a Tim Holtz sentiment sticker.  

I made a second version, adding a bit of text stamping to take the place of the sentiment sticker on the first version:

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - either Serendipity or Creative Images candy canes, tiny joy sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - red shimmer and white cs, candy cane dp
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, metallic gold pencil, Spellbinders label dies, black marker, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - mixed media, off white and gold shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, small banner die

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Lavinia
Ink - various Distress inks, Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - red and white Posca paint pens, clear Stickles, TH sentiment sticker, 

Snowman for Peace on Earth

When I saw the top right hand image on the Peace on Earth mood board (see below), I immediately thought of my new Tim Holtz snowman stamp and used it to make this card.

I stamped the snowman, pine branches, and sentiment and heat embossed them all.  Then painted the snowman and background with watercolour paints.  I stamped some pale shrubs either side of the snowman.  I used a white Posca paint pen to add snow to the pine branches, and then die cut a little red bird to sit on the branches.  For the falling snow, I sprinkled chunky embossing enamel over the piece and heated it from underneath to prevent it blowing away.

We'd love to have you join us at Peace on Earth.  Here's our mood board in case it inspires you - if not, just enter an "anything Christmas" card instead.

 

                                                                                                             

Supplies:
Stamps - Tim Holtz snowman, various branch stamps, Hero Arts sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, ColorBox Evergreen
Paper - mixed media, chalk cs, scrap of red cs
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - watercolour paints, white Posca paint pen, Memory Box bird die, Stampendous Chunky White Embossing Enamel

Textured Backgrounds Using Die Cuts

The Group of Seven is playing with a technique to get more out of our dies - using die cuts to create a textured background similar to an embossed background.  Because it is tone-on-tone, it is basically faux dry embossing.  Unlike an embossing folder, using die cuts allows you to arrange the embossed sections as you wish.

My first example is simply white-on-white.  I followed this video but simplified it a bit.

I die cut a variety of small stars and glued them to my panel for my faux dry embossed background.  Then die cut the large star three times, twice out of scrap cs and once out of white shimmer cs, and glued them together.  I "hung" it on the card with fine silver thread that I also wrapped around the star.  Added a sentiment die cut with a banner die, and put the whole piece on a matching white card base, and I was done.

For my other example, I followed this video that uses the same technique but with a blended ombre background and a matching ombre piece for the die cutting.

With various green Distress inks, I blended two A2 size panels in an ombre of greens.  Then I die cut the holly from one of them and added it to the same colour sections of the other panel.  I left an open section where I wanted to add my sentiment.  I splattered with a bit of gold acrylic paint and die cut a few gold holly leaves to tie in with the gold die cut sentiment (cut twice and glued together for dimension.  It's on a cream shimmer card base.

It's a fun technique so please give it a try and link your card up over at Group of Seven to add to the inspiration.

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs, white shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - various small star dies, MFT large star die, banner die, fine silver thread

Supplies for card 2:
Ink - various green Distress inks
Paper - mixed media cs, cream shimmer cs, gold cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Sizzix holly dies, Penny Black holly jolly sentiment die, gold acrylic paint

Aqua Snowflakes and Tiny Wise Men

Sparkles Christmas Challenge wants to see snowflakes.  Double D's theme is winter and it has a lovely wintery mood board that inspired this card:

Here's the Double D mood board - you can see the colours and snowflakes in the top left and bottom right images.

I placed my snowflake stencil over white cs and sprayed with a Mr. Huey's spray. Trimmed the panel, bordered it with blue glitter cs, die cut three snowflakes from the same glitter cs, and added a sentiment on a stitched banner die.

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge wants "wise men three".  The only stamp I could find in my collection has three very small wise men!

Stamped and heat embossed in gold, bordered with gold cs, and a simple sentiment die cut added on top.

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Distress Broken China
Paper - white cs, blue glitter cs
Size - A2
Accessories - PaperArtsy snowflake stencil, various snowflake dies, Mr. Huey's spray, stitched banner die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment, unknown wise men / Bethlehem stamp
Ink - ColorBox Gold
Paper - white and gold cs
Size - 6x3.25"
Accessories - gold embossing powder, small rectangle die

CAS Christmas and Shiny Stars with Sheep

AAA Card Challenge wants Anything CAS with an Optional Twist of Christmas and Simply Clean and Simple has an optional theme of Christmas (so of course I went with the optional twist / theme!).

I have the Tim Holtz Nordic Winter die and I like cutting it with different colours and mixing them up for different cards - which means there are always some little leftover pieces. I'm in the process of making some in rustic greens and browns and there are some leftover houses and reindeer so thought I'd turn a few of them into a CAS card.  I'll post the full versions later once I've finished inlaying all the little pieces - for an idea of what using the full die looks like, see this card I made a while ago in a totally different colour scheme.)  

I tore a strip of plain white cs for my snowy ground, stamped the sentiment on it, arranged my die cuts on it, then set it inside a pierced dot frame cut from white shimmer cs, and added it all to a white shimmer cardbase.

 
My other card for today is using the sheep in sweaters stamp that I love.  But this time I used it for the Stencil Fun Challenge's optional theme of "make it sparkle or shine" - I have surrounded the sheep with shiny stencilled stars.

I stamped the sheep and big star and coloured with coloured pencils.  I went over the stars on the sheep's sweater and the big star with a Gelly Roll clear stardust pen.  Then I laid the star stencil over the panel and sponged with Golden Glitz ink - the stars are very shiny in real life.

   

 
Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - PB sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white and navy cs; green, white, and copper shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tim Holtz Nordic Winter die, MFT pierced rectangle frame die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Inky Doodle sheep, sentiment, and star
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Delicata Golden Glitz
Paper - white cs
Size - 5.5" square
Accessories - star stencil, coloured pencils, Gelly Roll clear star pen