Monochrome Christmas and Birthday

This month the Group of Seven Cardmakers chose Monochrome as the technique for our cards.  I opted to do Christmas cards to build up my stash.  The first card I made followed the method in this video.

I stamped and heat embossed the poinsettia in white on red cs, then added colour to the poinsettia with red coloured pencils.  I trimmed the panel, added a red glitter border, added it to a red card base, popped on a white heat embossed sentiment, and embellished with clear gemstones in the centre.

Next up, shades of green:

For this card, I put the stamp in my MISTI and coloured it directly on the stamp with Memento Dew Drop ink pads, stamping and reinking until I was happy with the results.  Trimmed it, mounted it on a dark green card base, and added sparkly embellishments on the berries and a green bow on top of the stems.

And I had to get some blue in here so my third card is all shades of blue, and will go off to my sister in Ontario for her birthday.

I sprayed the background with various blue sprays, then die cut the hexagon out of it in three places.  I stamped various script and postmark stamps on the hexagon pieces I'd cut, and sponged around their edges.  I then cut hexagons again from scrap cs - put the scrap ones in first and then the sprayed and stamped ones on top for some dimension.  I created a piece of smooshed blue and die cut the wildflowers, sentiment, and tiny butterflies from that.    

There are lots of ways to make monochromatic cards - head on over to the Group of Seven blog and see all of the cards our Design Team has made.  We'd love to have you link up a card using your favourite method for monochromatic cards.

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black poinsettia, unknown sentiment
Ink - ColorBox white
Paper - red cs, red glitter cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - white embossing powder, coloured pencils, Spellbinders square dies, clear gemstones

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black greenery, Purple Onion sentiment
Ink - Memento Dew Drops Northern Pine, Bamboo Leaves, Cottage Ivy
Paper - light green and dark green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - sparkly stick-ons, green ribbon

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - various postage and script stamps
Ink - Distress Faded Jeans
Paper - mixed media and off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tattered Angels, Perfect Pearls, and Mr. Huey's blue sprays; Gummiapan sentiment die, Poppy Stamps butterfly dies, Tim Holtz wildflowers dies, Spellbinders hexagon die

Stencilled Birthday and Starry Sympathy

A birthday card for my nephew using the Stencil Fun "Birthdays" challenge and the Cardz 4 Guyz "Anything Masculine Goes" challenge.

I made a globe stencil using my globe die and laid it down on white cs and sprayed over it with a couple of different brown sprays.  When dry, I stamped a sentiment on top of it.  Stamped the vertical Happy Birthday on another strip of cs and added both to a black panel.

The Double D challenge wants stars and Word Power wants the sentiment to be the focus of the card.

I stencilled the stars in gold ink so that they would curve around the sentiment, trimmed with a square die, bordered in dull gold shimmer cs, and popped it up on the card base with fun foam.

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Peddler's Pack Happy Birthday, Tim Holtz sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white and black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - various Lindy's sprays, globe die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Stampotique sentiment
Ink - Martha Stewart gold, Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white cs, dull gold shimmer cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - Funky Fossil star stencil, Spellbinders square dies, fun foam

A Christmas Candle and a Sympathy Card

The Color Throwdown Challenge wants red, blue, and green on a card.  I went with making a Christmas card.

I stamped and heat embossed in platinum, watercoloured with red, blue, and green (including a white shimmer watercolour paint for the candle), popped up on fun foam on a green card base, and added red, green, and blue gemstones to the ends of the twirly lines.

The Paper Players want a CAS sympathy card.

I inked up the flower with two mini Memento ink pads, spritzed very lightly, and stamped. I trimmed the panel and popped it up on fun foam on the embossed background.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Jofy candle, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - ColorBox Gold
Paper - watercolour paper, green shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - platinum embossing powder, watercolour paints, fun foam, coloured gems

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU Love and Sympathy flower, PTI sentiment
Ink - Memento Sweet Plum, Bamboo Leaves, and Tuxedo Black
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - SU embossing folder, fun foam

A Snarky Cat and a Winter Wonderland

More Christmas cards!  One for Christmas Crafts All Year Round "Dogs and / or Cats" and Christmas Kickstart "Gift":

Stamped, watercoloured, trimmed with a wonky stitched rectangle, bordered in black, put on a kraft card base, and a bit of Fun Flock added to the brim and pom pom of the hat.

Next up for My Time to Craft "Winter" and 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Winter Wonderland":

I have lots of unused backgrounds in a box and found this one - blue and mauve inks brayered on glossy cs.  I stamped the trees and sentiment with Versamark and heat embossed with white.  Trimmed it and bordered with a glittery cs that blended in well with the colours.

    

   

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Tim Holtz
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, black and kraft cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, MFT wonky rectangle die, Fun Flock

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Paper Rose winter trees, Serendipity sentiment
Ink - Versamark, blue and mauve inks
Paper - glossy coated cs, blue/mauve glitter cs, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - white embossing powder

Christmas Rose for Peace on Earth

Peace on Earth has a lovely mood board for the new challenge.  The minute I saw the Christmas rose floral arrangement in the bottom right photo, I knew I wanted to pull out a really old stamp I have.

I stamped in dark green and watercoloured it on watercolour paper, then trimmed into a rectangle, then used one of the Simon Says Stamps thin frames dies to take out a thin rectangle frame.  I used the same thin frames die to cut a frame out of dark copper cs and inserted it into the gap in the watercolour paper.  I mounted that onto a dark green rectangle, cut out with a hemstitch die, and layered that onto a dark copper card base.

While I had the stamp out, I had stamped the image twice.  The card below is the one I made first - much more CAS and with more muted watercolouring.  But I didn't feel I'd captured the richness of the image on the mood board so for the second card (the one above), I aimed for more intense colours and more layers and added in the copper cs to reflect the copper pot on the mood board.

But I do also like this more muted, more CAS version:

I stamped it in a really dark green, watercoloured, trimmed with a hemstitch rectangle die, and mounted on a green card base.

We'd love to see something you create inspired by our mood board or an "anything Christmas" card.  Check out the cards by the rest of the Design Team over at Peace on Earth.

Supplies:
Stamps - Stampin' Up
Ink - dark green ink
Paper - watercolour paper, dark green cs, mid green cs, copper shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Spellbinders hemstitch rectangle die, SSS thin frames rectangle die

Blue and Aqua

People who follow my blog regularly will know that my favourite colour is blue.  Today I've got two cards with different shades of blue.

First up, for the Triple B Challenge which require birds, butterflies, or blooms and this month has a gorgeous blue mood board. 

A very CAS card - I stamped and heat embossed the flower and sentiment in white on black cs, then painted the flower with Posca paint pens.  Then mounted on a white card base.

Here's the Triple B mood board.  You can see I was inspired by the left and right hand images.

I then went on to the Colorful Options Challenge "Aqua".

I first sprayed the background with 3 different blue Lindy's sprays on mixed media cs. Then stamped the collage image over it. From a leftover sprayed piece, I die cut the solid base of the butterfly. The lacy top of the butterfly is out of blue shimmer cs.

Here's the Colorful Options mood board.  

Loved making these cards but I really need to get back to Christmas cards as I'm behind on the numbers I like to get made by June!

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Visible Image
Ink - ColorBox white
Paper - white and black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - white embossing powder, blue and green Posca paint pens

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - PaperArtsy leaf/script stam
Ink - Versafine Clair Twilight
Paper - blue shimmer, mixed media, and white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - 3 different Lindy's sprays (Baby Blue Eyes, Buccaneer Bay Blue, Mystic Malachi), Sizzix butterfly die

A Framed Cat and a Pulled String Flower

A card for the Inkspirational Challenge "Word Prompt: Frame":

The image is watercoloured and the pierced frame is die cut three times and stacked together to give dimension.

It's a Penny Black stamp so I'm also adding it to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge.

For the Color Hues Challenge "Blue and Yellow", I made a card with the pulled string technique:

I followed the method in this video.  In the video she used watercolour paints. For mine, I used acrylic paints.

I dipped the top end of my piece of string in blue acrylic paint and the bottom end in yellow. I really liked the resulting mixture of colour. The shape makes me think of a calla lily.

I masked it and then stamped randomly inked text around it with Distress Shabby Shutters. And then stamped and heat embossed my sentiment. So my mixed mediums are acrylic paint and ink.

I bordered in yellow and popped it up on a blue card base.

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black cat, unknown sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, cream cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, MFT pierced square frame die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Hero Arts sentiment, Wendy Vecchi script stamp
Ink - ColorBox Royal Blue and yellow
Paper - mixed media, blue, and light green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - string, blue and yellow acrylic paint, clear embossing powder, fun foam

A Blue Snowflake for Peace on Earth

Today I've got a very CAS card made with dies, inspired by the top right image in the new Peace on Earth mood board (see at the bottom of my post).

It was fun to use both a negative snowflake die and a negative sentiment die - cut out of white shimmer cs and laid over light blue shimmer cs.

There's lots more inspiration from the rest of the Peace on Earth Design Team.  We'd love to have you join us by linking up a card either inspired by the mood board or an "anything Christmas goes" card.

Supplies:
Paper - white shimmer cs, blue shimmer cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Memory Box negative snowflake die, Tim Holtz negative merry die