Christmas Kaleidoscope

The new Group of Seven Cardmakers' technique is something that our member, Darnell, is calling Kaleidoscope Technique.  We were inspired by this card of Jenny's (My Paper Epiphany).  Here's my interpretation:

I stamped the Pink Fresh background stamp with Versamark and heat embossed in gold.  Then watercoloured the image.  It was supposed to be loose watercolouring but I'm just no good at that so ended up watercolouring in my usual traditional way of staying inside the lines!!  Then cut the panel into 1/2" wide strips and played around with rearranging them out of order and deciding what I wanted the card to look like.  I decided to have a vertical sentiment so stamped it and heat embossed it in gold.  Then I glued two strips to the left hand side of it and four to the right.  I felt the card needed a little something else so I found an "encrusted jewels" star that was the same shade of gold in my UFO box and added it.  Here's a close-up of the star:

If you want information on how I do the encrusted jewel technique, see this post on my blog.

There are lots more examples of the Kaleidosope Technique over at Group of Seven Cardmakers from the rest of our members.  If you decide to try this technique, we'd love to have you link up your card for more inspiration for everyone.

Supplies:
Stamps - Pink Fresh background stamp, Impression Obsession vertical sentiment
Ink - Versamark
Paper - watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - Ranger Princess Gold embossing powder, watercolour paints, star die, glitter

Santa Flying over Woods and Snowy Monoprint

Our hot weather has ended and I actually have socks and a sweater on today so posting Christmas cards seems quite appropriate!

First up for My Time to Craft Christmas "Woods" (a grove of trees, a forest, etc.), I have Santa flying over a grove of evergreens.  It's also for Rudolph Days (anything Christmas) and Stamping Sensations "Christmas in July".

I brayered the background on coated cs, using a mask for the moon and two shades of blue Distress ink. I stamped the trees and sentiment while the background was in my MISTI to make sure I got a good impression and to avoid smudging. Then added a die cut Santa and sleigh, and a black border.

Next up, Jingle Belles want to see snow.

For my snowy background, I used a technique I learned from this Jennifer Maguire video.  I blended a couple of shades of blue Distress inks on a piece of white cs, then stamped the snowflake background in Versamark and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  I spritzed it generously with a clear shimmer spray and then placed a second piece of plain white cs on top of it and ran it through my Big Shot.  The clear embossing creates a resist and only the surrounding ink transfers to the second piece of cs as the Big Shot applies pressure.  It's that second piece that I've used as my background for this card.

I allowed the lovely soft background to take centre stage on the card.  I bordered it with a blue glitter cs and die cut the sentiment out of the same glitter cs (and also out of white cs that I slightly offset to give a bit of white showing behind the blue glitter).

 

 

   

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Impression Obsession tree line, Make an Impression sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne, Distress Speckled Egg and Faded Jeans
Paper - coated cs, white and black c
Size - A2
Accessories - Frantic Stamper Santa's Sleigh die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown snowflake background stamp
Ink - various blue Distress inks, Versamark
Paper - white cs, blue glitter cs
Size - A2
Accessories - SSS Snowy Greetings die, clear embossing powder, clear shimmer spray

Thin Framed Cardinal and Mixed Media Christmas Lights

Christmas Kickstart wants to see a frame on the card.  I did a very thin circular frame around my cardinal.  And Stamping Sensations has a twist of Christmas in July.

I stamped the image and watercoloured it.  I die cut a thin circle out of the panel with the SSS Thin Circle Frame die and watercoloured it the same red as the cardinal. I trimmed the remaining outer part of the panel into a square, attached it to a piece of fun foam, then carefully glued in the thin red circle frame, and then finally added in the circle with the image. Those thin circle die cuts are very flimsy to deal with!

Inkspirational has a different kind of challenge - feature products from 2 or more stamp companies.  This card uses products from several different companies - Mama Elephant, Simon Says Stamp, and Impression Obsession stamps, Tim Holtz and Carta Bella stencils, Versafine, Distress, and Delicata inks, and Tim Holtz and Cosmic Shimmer pastes.  Mixed media is a great way to use different brands together.

On a piece of heavy cs, I brayered different shades of blue ink and sprayed with some mica spray, stamped with a snowflakes background stamp in darker blue, stamped a few bits of tiny stars in gold, and stenciled some larger stars and snowflakes with grit paste.

I stamped some small sentiment stamps on two of the edges with the dark blue ink, and went around the edges with a shimmery blue paste.

Because one of my small sentiments says "love the twinkle lights", I die cut some lights out of gold mirror cs and added them on top, along with a sentiment strip.

 
 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - SU Christmas Cardinal
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, SSS Thin Circle Frame die, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Mama Elephant long sentiment, SSS small sentiments, Impression Obsession snowflakes and stars background stamps
Ink - Versafine Clair Twilight, various blue Distress inks, Delicata gold
Paper - white cs, gold mirror cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Mama Elephant sentiment strip die, Distress mica stain Frosted Juniper, TH grit paste, TH star stencil, Carta Bella snowflake stencil, Cosmic Shimmer blue opal past

Blue Christmas for Peace on Earth

Blue is my favourite colour so I immediately knew which images on the new Peace on Earth mood board (see at end of my post) would inspire this card:

I chose a stamp I've never used before as it had both the candle for the top right hand image and ornaments and a poinsettia for the bottom left hand image.  I used both the pale blues of the candle image and the rich royal blues of the other image.

I stamped my image and sentiment in dark blue ink.  Then watercoloured the image with regular watercolours for the candle, greenery, and poinsettia, and shimmer watercolours for the ornaments and tiny stars.  I trimmed the panel with a label die.

I created the background by using glitter paste through a snowflake stencil on dark blue shimmer cs.  The candle image is popped up on it on fun foam.

Here's the Peace on Earth mood board:

There is lots of other inspiration from the rest of the Design Team.  Please join us!  I'm curious to see how many of you enter with something inspired by the blue images like me or choose to go with the red and green Christmas plaid.  Or of course you can opt for an "anything Christmas" card.  

I'm also entering this card in the NBUS "Never Before Used Stuff" challenge as it's the first time the candle stamp and the "snow angel" glitter paste were used.  And also the Stencil Fun Challenge "Shades of Blue".

  

Supplies:
Stamps - unknown candle stamp, SSS sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Twilight
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs, dark blue shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - PaperArtsy snowflake stencil, Crafter's Companion "Snow Angel" glitter paste, watercolour paints, Sizzix label die, fun foam

Loving Hearts and Birthday Flowers

Simply Clean and Simple want us to use a heart and Colorful Options want to see the colours of our flag.  The Canadian flag is red and white so that works perfectly with hearts!

I die cut the heart once out of red cs and twice out of scrap cs and glued them together for substance and diminsion.  Also die cut the sentiment out of red red, and added both to the top white panel which is popped up on fun foam on the card base.

Then for The Flower Challenge (a birthday card), AAA Birthday Challenge (Fabulous Flowers), Hero Arts Stay Crafty Challenge (Color My World - I coloured in my focal image), and the Triple B Challenge (Birds, Blooms, Butterflies - I used two of them).

I stamped and heat embossed the reverse image stamp of the flowers in black, and then watercoloured them. I made a piece of smooshed cs and die cut the butterfly from it. Added the floral panel and butterfly to an off white layer, and stamped the sentiment on it. Then added it all to a blue card base.

    

   

 

Supplies for card 1:
Paper - white and red cs
Size - 5" square
Accessories - heart die, Love You die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Hero Arts Garden Silhouette, Hero Arts Happy Birthday, Impression Obsession Belated
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - blue and offwhite cs, watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, clear embossing powder, unknown butterfly die

Embossed Pine with Star and a Partially Gilded Butterfly

I made this card for the Jingle Belles challenge "Emboss-able" - embossed texture or heat embossing.  I've got both:

I made a dry embossed background with a 3D folder and also made a heat embossed star using the "encrusted jewels" technique.  I die cut the star from thin chipboard, then placed it on a warm grill on top of a layer of non-stick craft mat then parchment paper.  I sprinkled it with gold embossing powders.  Once they had melted, I added chunky gold glitter and tiny star glitter on top.  The melted embossing powders holds the glitter in place.  To finish it off, I melted UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) on top.

I die cut the pine branch out of a piece of smooshed green background that I had in my box (and again out of scrap and glued them together).  Then glued the branch on the dry embossed panel and hung the star from it with gold cord.  Finished off with a sentiment die cut with a banner die.

For Sweet Stampin' "Things with Wings", I made this:

I stamped the butterfly in my MISTI with Frayed Burlap ink. Then applied FlitterGlu to the stamp, only getting it on parts of the stamp, and restamped it. Pressed gilding flakes onto the butterfly and rubbed off the excess. I like the way it's only partially gilded and looks a bit rustic.

Added the sentiment and a die cut pierced frame.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Ink - various green Distress inks
Paper - white cs, thin chipboard
Size - A2
Accessories - TH 3D embossing folder, IO pine branch die, Spellbinder star die, gold embossing powder, UTEE, gold glitter and tiny stars, banner die, gold cord

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black butterfly, Savvy Stamps sentiment
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Frayed Burlap
Paper - white and dark grey cs
Size - A2
Accessories - FlitterGlu, gilding flakes, pierced rectangle frame die

Nordic Christmas Card

Peace on Earth has a red, white, and blue themed mood board for its first July challenge.  I was inspired by the many images in the top right photo to use my still unopened Tim Holtz Nordic Winter die, and of course I did it in red, white, and blue.

The die is really fun to use but very time-consuming.  I cut it three times - once in blue shimmer cs for the main panel, once in white shimmer cs, and once in red cs.  I had to poke out all the little bits, then glued the blue panel to a white shimmer card base, then inset the red houses and birds, and the white reindeer, trees, and stars.  For random deer, trees, and houses, I put the blue one back in first and stacked the white or red one on top to give some dimension here and there.  Fortunately I love doing jigsaw puzzles so I enjoyed the process of doing this!  I have lots of little bits leftover so will definitely do more with this die to use them up!

Head on over to Peace on Earth to see how the rest of the Design Team interpreted the mood board (or maybe skipped it and made an unrelated Christmas card).  Then come and join us with your creation.

I'm also linking this card up with the Shopping our Stash challenge to use NBUS (never before used stuff - I'd never used this die before), with the NBUS Challenge, and with the Colorful Options challenge to use the colours of a flag (I was born in England and my card has the colours of the Union Jack - the British flag - and also the colours of many other flags).

    

  

Supplies:
Paper - red cs, white shimmer cs, blue shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tim Holtz Nordic Winter die

Flowery Birthday and Two Notecards

For AAA Birthday "Fabulous Flowers" and My Time to Craft "Summer Florals":

I created the background by sponging with various brown Distress inks, stamping some grid lines and sentiment, and splattering a bit.  The I stamped the floral branch on top and used Posca paint pens to colour it - they have enough pigment to colour over the background colour.  I trimmed it with a square die and sponged a bit more of the darker brown around the edges.

Color Hues wants white and aqua.  I made a simple notecard that I can add a sentiment to the inside of when I need it.

A simple smooshed background in shades of aqua, a stamped text / tree image, than a thin black border, a white border with some faux stitching, and then another thin black border.

Addicted to CAS wants to see Critters and I needed a notecard to send to one of my fellow horse-loving friends.

 

 

A simple stamped image, trimmed with a wonky stitched rectangle die, and added to a very thin border of pink glitter cs (my friend loves pink and loves sparkle!).

 

    

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black First Blush, Visible Image grid lines, PTI sentiment
Ink - various brown Distress inks, Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - Posca paint pens

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Viva Decor
Ink - various aqua blue oxide inks, Archival Jet Black
Paper - white and black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - piercing tool, fine point black marker, fun foam

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Serendipity mustang
Ink - Distress Walnut Stain
Paper - white cs, pink glitter cs
Size - A2
Accessories - MFT wonky stitched rectangle die