Christmas Tags and Shakespearian Words

I have a bunch of backgrounds and pieces of backgrounds sitting in a box so went through them for bits that would make good gift tags.  I also have a huge stash of snippets of ribbon.  I'm linking up to Sparkles Christmas Challenge "Add Ribbon or Twine" and the Snippets Challenge.

The two poinsettia ones are a TH stencil, sponged with Distress inks with clear embossing paste over the top. The star / holly one is stamped with a die cut Christmas star added to it. And the snowflake one is stencilled.

I die cut them with a stitched tag die, stamped a sentiment or added a die cut sentiment to the front, stamped "To / From" on the back, and added ribbon to the top. 

My second project is for Word Power - have the sentiment be the focus of the card:

It's my friend Gerald's birthday - he is very involved in the theatrical world so this quote from Shakespeare is a perfect birthday wish for him. He's also Dutch in origin so orange is an important colour for him so I sponged around the sentiment (stamped in sepia ink and heat embossed) with various shades of light brown and orange, and mounted it on a red / orange dp layer.

   

Supplies for the tags:
Stamps -
Ink -
Paper -
Size -
Accessories -

Supplies for the card:
Stamps - Rubber Soul ? Wordsworth ? sentiment
Ink - Versafine Vintage Sepia;  Distress light browns and oranges
Paper - off white cs, orange dp
Size - A2
Accessories - Spellbinders label die, clear embossing powder

Simplified Bokeh

The Group of Seven Cardmakers are trying a simplified bokeh technique, following the instructions in this video "Bokeh Made Easy".

I liberally wet my watercolour paper and then dropped various shades of blue and purple watercolour paints into the wet paint.  Once dry, I tried stencilling different sized circles over it with white pigment ink but I think my ink was too dry to be effective.  So I put a blob of white acrylic paint on my craft mat and thinned it down with water, and then sponged that through the circles stencil, overlapping some of the circles.

My piece was large enough to make two cards.  One with a dandelion circle die over the bokeh and a blue glitter cs circle under it.  The other has white acrylic paint splattered on the bokeh and a winter cabin / trees die on top.

There's lots more inspiration from the rest of the Group of Seven cardmakers.  Feel free to join us by trying the technique and linking up your card.

Supplies:
Stamps - Hero Arts Merry Christmas
Ink - Distress Faded Jeans
Paper - white cs, blue glitter cs, watercolour paper
Size - first one is 4.75" square, second one is A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, white acrylic paint, SSS Twinkle Flower die, Memory Box Countryside die, Lil Inkers stitched circle dies, Spellbinders

Christmas Twofer - Royal Blue Ornaments and Copper Nativity

We've had a lot of rain lately so a good chance to get busy on my Christmas stash!

I couldn't pass up the Colorful Options "Royal Blue" challenge!

I stamped the ornament image in ColorBox Royal Blue and then embossed with a sparkly royal blue embossing powder.  Trimmed it, added it to royal blue shimmer cs, and stamped and die cut the sentiment.

52 Christmas Card Throwdown has a tic tac toe challenge.  I chose the right hand vertical row - nativity, holiday sentiment, die cut.  ABC Christmas Challenge wants J for Jesus.  A good chance to use a never before used die (so I'm also entering it at the NBUS challenge).

I die cut the nativity scene out of copper shimmer cs and again out of scrap cs and glued them together for more dimension.  I cut a rectangle out of cream cs using a dotted pierced die.  I glued the die cut nativity to it and added a copper heat embossed sentiment.  I layered that over more copper shimmer cs and added it all to a cream card base.

 

  

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Impression Obsession ornaments, Mama Elephant sentiment
Ink - ColorBox Royal Blue
Paper - royal blue shimmer cs, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Stampendous Blue Magic embossing powder, Mama Elephant sentiment die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SSS sentiment
Ink - ColorBox copper
Paper - copper shimmer and cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - copper embossing powder, Penny Black nativity die, Sizzix dotted rectangle die

Flowery Twofer

I've got two flower cards for you today.

For The Flower Challenge "Colour Your Flower":

A simple stamped and watercoloured image, with a vertical sentiment. It's larger than my usual A2 as it's a big image.

Addicted to CAS and Simply Clean and Simple both want to see a flower.  I wanted to make a notecard for a friend who loves all things Scottish so I used a thistle flower.

Stamped, coloured with markers, trimmed with a stitched rectangle, bordered with green, and popped up on fun foam on a purple card base.

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Stamps Happen Sweet Peas, Hero Arts sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs
Size - 6.25x4.75"
Accessories - watercolour paints

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Old Island Stamp Co. thistle
Ink - Memento London Fog, Vivid Cobblestone
Paper - white, green, purple cs
Size - A2
Accessories - markers, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, fun foam

Christmas Twofer - Scandinavian and Humour

52 Christmas Card Throwdown wants to see something Scandinavian style.  I thought it was the perfect chance to use my Nordic Frames dies and also a stamp of a Scandinavian reindeer.

I stamped the reindeer with Versamark on navy cs (it looks black in the photo but it is really navy) and heat embossed in white.  Then trimmed the panel with one of the Nordic Frames dies, cut one of the other frames out of off-white cs, layered it all on another piece of navy cs, and then finally on an off-white card base.  I added a small sentiment stamped in navy on a little strip of off-white cs.

My second card is for the "Lots of Laughs" challenge at The Paper Players.

I embossed a piece of green cs with pine tree branches to represent the tree mentioned in the stamp.  I stamped the image of the cat on watercolour paper and lightly watercoloured it.  I die cut the three tiny ornaments and put them on the card as if they'd fallen off the branches.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Studio Light reindeer, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versamark, Distress Chipped Sapphire
Paper - navy and off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Greetery Nordic Frames, white embossing powder

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Technique Junkies
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - green, gold, and white cs, watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - Sizzix embossing folder, mini ornament dies, grey watercolour paint

Blue Ornaments for Peace on Earth Challenge

Many of you know that blue is my favourite colour so when I saw the latest Peace on Earth mood board, I was pretty happy.  The top left image (see the mood board at the end of my post) made me immediately think of a set of Penny Black ornament stamps I have (but shamefully had never used).

I stamped and heat embossed the pine branch in silver (having seen the silver tinsel in the top right image).  I then stamped and heat embossed the outer two ornaments in sparkly blue.  On a separate piece of cs, I did the same with the centre ornament, cut it with the matching die, and popped it up on dimensional tape.

I bordered with silver mirror card and added it to a matching blue shimmer card base.

There's lots more inspiration over at the Peace on Earth Challenge blog.  We'd love to have you join us and be inspired by our mood board or just post an "anything Christmas" card.

Since I've never used the ornament stamps and die before, I'm linking it up with the NBUS challenge.

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black ornaments, Hero Arts sentiment, unknown branch
Ink - ColorBox Royal Blue and Silver
Paper - blue shimmer cs, silver mirror cs, white cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - Stampendous Blue Magic embossing powder, Ranger silver embossing powder

Starry Peace and Embossed Flowers

Jingle Belles want us to create cards without a speck of decorative paper - cardstock only.  Inkspirational wants a Seasonal card.   And Cardz 4 Guyz wants stars and / or stripes.

Except for the stamped sentiment, everything is cardstock.  I started off with a piece of gold shimmer cs that I'd cut a large star out of for another card. The star opening was just the right size for my sentiment so I stamped and heat embossed it on cream cs and layered the gold cs over it. I die cut a few tiny gold stars and two cream doves and scattered them about to tie in the themes of stars and peace in the sentiment.

If it's hard to read the sentiment in the photo, it says "Star light, star bright, a wish for peace on earth tonight."

I needed to make a congratulations card for my niece who is getting her PhD.  She always tells me she likes cards I make with dry embossing on them so it was the perfect opportunity to make a card for Can You Handle the Pressure "A Twist of Flowers".

I created the background piece by rubbing the debossed side of the embossing folder with pale pink ink and then ran it through my Cuttlebug.  For the focal panel, I used a brass Dreamweaver stencil.  I rubbed it all over with various mini Distress inks to get darker colours and a variety of colours compared to the background, and then ran it through my Cuttlebug to get the stencil to create embossing.  I bordered the focal panel with silver cs and die cut the sentiment out of the same silver cs.

    

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Great Impressions sentiment
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - gold shimmer and cream cs
Size - 4.25" square
Accessories - Spellbinders star die, SSS tiny stars die, Memory Box tiny doves dies, gold embossing powder, fun foam

Supplies for card :
Ink - various pink and mauve Distress inks
Paper - white and silver cs
Size - A5
Accessories - Dreamweaver flower stencil, unknown embossing folder, TH sentiment die

For an Important Woman and a Recycled Santa

Shopping our Stash is asking for a card for either Mothers' Day or for an important woman in our lives.  My Mum passed away several years ago so I made this for my sister.

Stamped, colour, trimmed with a pierced dot rectangle, bordered with pink (love the way it shows through the pierced dots), and embellished with sequins.

Jingle Belles want to see Santa.  I'd meant to enter this in their last challenge (Earth Day - use recycled items) but I didn't get it finished in time.  Seems appropriate that it still gets posted at Jingle Belles!

I used a Santa off a commercial card I received last Christmas.  I added him to a gelli plate background from my box of many backgrounds, and stamped and die cut the sentiment, rubbing a bit of gold ink around the edge of the die.

 
 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - ?
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white and pink cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - PTI sentiment
Ink - ColorBox Fresh Green, gold ink
Paper - gelli print background, white cs
Size - 6.25x4.75"
Accessories - Sizzix label die

Pink Candy Canes and Bow

Check the bottom right photo on the Peace on Earth mood board at the end of my post and you'll see my inspiration for this card:

I stamped the image and coloured it with Tombow markers.  Trimmed it with a stitched rectangle die, bordered with dark pink cs, went over the ornaments with glossy accents, and over the edges of the ribbon with a sparkly gel pen.

Please head over to Peace on Earth for more inspiration from the Design Team and then join us with either a card inspired by the mood board or an "anything Christmas" card.

I'm also adding the card to Christmas Craft Creations "Non Traditional Colours".

Supplies:
Stamps - Stampendous candy canes, Hero Arts sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white and dark pink cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tombow markers, glossy accents, pink sparkle gel pen, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die

Another Christmas Threefer

I really have to get on with making Christmas cards.  I've been stuck at home this week with a mild case of Covid - so annoying after getting through the four years since Covid erupted with never getting it.  So am getting a few done and posted this week.

For Christmas Craft Creations "Non Traditional Colours" and 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Slimline":

I smooshed a background with various blue and purple oxide inks and then stencilled snowflakes over it.  The sentiment is die cut three times and glued together for dimension.

Next up, three snowmen in very wacky hats for ABC Christmas Challenge "H is for Hats":

Stamped, coloured with coloured pencils, trimmed with a hemstitch die, and added to a pale blue card base.

And a quick simple card for My Time to Craft "Everything Die Cuts":

I die cut the reindeer / tree and the sentiment out of a shimmery white cs and added it to a dark silver metallic cs that I'd cut with a hemstitch die.  In real life it's very shimmery but it's so hard to photograph metallic cs!

  

  

 

Supplies for card 1:
Ink - blue and purple oxide inks
Paper - white cs
Size - 6x3.25"
Accessories - Heidi Swapp silver texture paste, Tim Holtz snowflake stencil, Penny Black sentiment die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Rubber Cottage "Snowflakes"
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white and pale blue cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Spellbinders hemstitch rectangle die

Supplies for card 3:
Paper - dark silver cs, white shimmer cs, white cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Penny Black Be Merry die, unknown reindeer/tree die, Spellbinders square hemstitch die