No Stamping Birthday and Green with Butterflies

Seize the Birthday wants to see a "no stamping" card and the AAA Birthday Card Challenge wants something masculine.  I combined the two for my nephew's upcoming birthday.

I started by spraying some mixed media cs with gold and a little bit of silver metallic sprays. When dry, I die cut the gears border and the sentiment.

I glued them to a background on which I'd lightly stencilled some gold ink, and then popped the panel up on fun foam for some dimension. 

Triple B wants to see birds, blooms, or butterflies in green, and the Double D challenge wants to see mostly green on the card.

I created a debossed inky resist with my butterflies embossing folder by rubbing the raised pattern with Versamark, putting mixed media cs into the folder, and running it through my Cuttlebug, and then adding clear embossing powder and heating it.  See this video for instructions.

I then smooshed the panel with a bunch of green Distress inks and a little touch of blue.  I added the panel to the card base and die cut a solid butterfly out of white shimmer cs and the top layer of the butterfly out of blue shimmer cs (I tried doing it with green shimmer cs but there wasn't enough contrast and also I wanted to bring out the touch of blue in the background a bit).

Supplies for card 1:
Ink - Martha Stewart gold ink
Paper - white and mixed media cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - various gold and silver sprays, TCW screen print stencil, gears die

Supplies for card 2:
Ink - Versamark, various green and blue Distress inks
Paper - mixed media cs, white cs, white and blue shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Darice embossing folder, memory Box butterfly dies

Nordic Winter and Blinged Holly

For the ABC Christmas Challenge, I'm going with "D for Die Cuts".

I got out my Tim Holtz Nordic Winter die - it's so much fun to use.  I die cut it three times, once each out of white, green, and bronze shimmer cs, then made a blue shimmer card base, glued the negative piece from the white die cut over it, and then inlaid the green trees and bronze reindeer.  I added a sentiment on a narrow strip banner.

 

The problem with using this die (which I love) is that you always end up with many leftover little bits, and how many cards do I want to make to use them all up?!!   But it is fun doing the inlaying and coming up with colour combinations for it. 

I've also got a card today for the Jingle Belles challenge "Bring on the Bling".  Lots of gemstones on this card:

 

I laid a holly stencil over watercolour paper, spritzed generously with water, lifted off the stencil, and sprinkled with a few shades of green Brushos. After it was dry, I trimmed it down to the best section, stamped the sentiment, die cut a frame (twice so I could layer them together for more substance), added it all to a red card base, and added red gemstones to the berries in the image.

 

 

 

  

Supplies for card 1:
Paper - white, green, blue, and bronze shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - TH Nordic Winter die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Memento Cottage Ivy
Paper - watercolour paper, dark red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tim Holtz holly stencil, green Brushos, red gemstones, MFT pierced rectangle frame die

Two Birds with a Fence, and a Dove Framed with Snowflakes

My Time to Craft has a fun challenge.  It's called "1-2-3".  You have to use 1 of something, 2 of something else, and 3 of something else.  I have one fence, two birds, and three words.

I created a background with some blue watercolour paint to make a sky and some Distress Snowfall Grit Paste to make the snowy ground.  Added the die cut fence.  Then die cut two of the Time Holtz birds and did a bit of sponging on them with Distress Aged Mahogany.  Added them to the fence and ground, and finished with a three word sentiment on a banner die cut and some white splattering.

Try It on Tuesday wants to see embossing of some sort.  I went with both dry and heat embossing.  And I used a stamp I haven't used since I started my blog in 2015.  The last time I used it was in 2013 on a card I posted on SCS.  So I'm adding it to The Neglected Stuff Challenge.

I stamped my image / sentiment in dark blue in the centre of a layer of cs and then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.  I coloured in the bird and the stars with a bit of lighter blue watercolour paint.  Then placed it in the snowflake embossing folder and ran it through my Cuttlebug.  

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - Archival Cobalt ink, Distress Aged Mahogany
Paper - white and red cs
Size - 6x3.25"
Accessories - TH bird dies, unknown fence die, sentiment banner die, blue watercolour paint, Distress Snowfall Grit Paste, bleed proof white ink

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Stampendous Classic Peace
Ink - ColorBox royal blue
Paper - chalk cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Ultimate Crafts snowflake frame embossing folder, clear embossing powder, blue watercolour paint

Sled Against a Brick Wall

The new Peace on Earth challenge's mood board has an image of a sled leaning against a brick wall.  It inspired this card.

Using the Tim Holtz brick wall stencil, I sponged with Hickory Smoke and Pumice Stone Distress inks, then went over it with translucent embossing paste.  I trimmed the panel and tore a piece of white cs to create snowy ground.  I stamped the sentiment on it in dark green (and chose a sentiment with the word "believe" in it to go with the word on the sled in the inspiration photo).  I die cut a couple of pieces of greenery (inspired by the greenery on the sled in the photo) and put them on the top of the wall.  I used a white pearl pen to put the white berries on one of them.  The sled is die cut twice from scrap cs and once from a leftover bit of brown smooshed cs, all glued together to give it more dimension.

There's lots more inspiration from the rest of our Design Team over at Peace on Earth!  We'd love to have you join us!

Supplies:
Stamps - Make an Impression sentiment
Ink - Distress Hickory Smoke and Pumice Stone, Memento Northern Pine
Paper - white and green cs, scrap of brown smooshed cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tim Holtz brick wall stencil, Dreamweaver translucent embossing paste, Penny Black sled die, Tim Holtz greenery dies, Viva white pearl pen

Floating Poinsettia Frame

This month the Group of Seven Cardmakers are trying a technique called Floating Frames.  It's a technique I'd never done before so I watched the two videos we're linking to on Group of Seven.  I ended up following the instructions in the Natasha Foote video as the Jennifer McGuire one called for Press'n'Seal kitchen wrap and I didn't have any. 

I don't buy many stamp and die cut sets but just happened to have bought this one recently.  I stamped the image twice on watercolour paper and coloured it with watercolour paints, then die cut it with the matching die.  I added foam tape to the back and arranged the two die cuts on opposite corners of my focal panel piece of cs.  I trimmed off the parts hanging over the edges.  From those extra parts, I chose bits of them that would fill in the gaps around the edges between the two pieces I'd already stuck down.  I used one of the sentiments from the same stamp set and its matching die and glued that to the centre.

I really like the final effect - the die cuts really do look like they are floating.  But I found it took a long time to make this card so if you're looking for a quick technique, this wouldn't be it.  If I had more stamp / matching die sets, I might try it again, but not if I had to fussy cut images for it!

Head over to Group of Seven and see what the others made in the way of samples, and then give it a try and link your results up with us!

I'm also adding it to the latest NBUS challenge as it's the first time I've used the stamps and dies.

Supplies:
Stamps - Simon Says Stamp Poinsettia Swag set
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs
Size - 5.5" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, Simon Says Stamp Poinsettia Swag dies, foam tape

Neglected Dragonfly, Smooshed Birthday, and a Blue Heart

Diane and Darlene have started another new challenge - The Neglected Stuff Challenge.  A great way for me to dig out something I haven't used for years.  This month I went with a Tim Holtz dragonfly stamp that I've always really liked.  Why, then, did it sit unused for 10 years!!?  I actually did a search on my blog and the last time I used it was in 2015!

I started by smooshing a piece of mixed media cs with two Distress colours. Using the same colours I stamped a bit of subtle harlequin and mesh stamps to add interest and texture. Then I stamped the dragonfly stamp in black on top. And stamped it again on a scrap so that I could watercolour the wings (using the same two ink colours with Glimmer Spray in the place of water). I fussy cut the wings and popped them up with foam tape on top of the original stamping. I stamped a sentiment, die cut it with a banner die, smooshed it in the inks a bit, and popped it up with foam tape.

And a bit more smooshing on this card, for the AAA Birthday Challenge "Ink Smooshing".

I started by smooshing white cs into two shades of blue Distress ink and when dry, stamped some text on it.  Then cut out sections with two sizes of octagon dies and arranged them on an embossed background.  I die cut a leaf out of a green smooshed leftover background scrap and layered it on the octagon.  I spritzed two shades of Distress Mica spray on my craft mat and smooshed another piece of cs and cut the butterfly out of that.  I stamped the sentiment on bit of blue smooshed leftover scrap.

And a third card for today, so that I can enter it into the Penny Black Saturday Challenge "Hearts" before it closes.  A very quick CAS card compared to my first two cards on this post.

The image is stamped in royal blue ink and heat embossed.  Then trimmed with a stitched square die, and mounted on the card base.  It's such a lovely stamp I didn't want anything to detract from it.

 

Supplies for card:
Stamps - Tim Holtz dragonfly, Savvy Stamps sentiment, unknown little harlequin stamp and mesh stamp
Ink - Distress Tumbled Glass and Shabby Shutters, Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - mixed media cs, off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Glimmer Spray, banner die, foam tape

Supplies for card:
Stamps - Inkadinkado text stamp, AMuse sentiment stamp
Ink - Distress Broken China and Tumbled Glass, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Spellbinders octagon dies, Memory Box leaf die, Tim Holtz butterfly die, Altenew embossing folder, Winter Frost and Fresh Balsam Distress Mica spray

Supplies for card:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - ColorBox Royal Blue
Paper - white cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - clear embossing powder, Lil Inker stitched square die

A Sleigh Ride and a Bird in a Heart

A card for the Twelve Months of Christmas challenge "Couples" (I've got the man and woman, and a couple of horses), Christmas Cards All Year Round "Inspired by Jingle Bells", and Sweet Stampin' "Masculine Makes":

I stamped the snowflake background in light blue and the sleigh in black, trimmed the panel and dabbed on some Snow-tex paste for the snowy ground.  I bordered with black cs and added a sentiment on a stitched die cut sentiment banner.

For the Tic Tac Toe challenge (heart, die cut, love sentiment), Simply Clean and Simple (love and / or hearts), and Triple B (at least one of birds, blossoms, or butterflies, inspired by an all red mood board:

I die cut a red heart and red sentiment.  Then die cut a circular opening in the heart.  The bird is cut from a scrap of smooshed cs and glued into the circular opening.  

   
 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Tim Holtz sleigh, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Distress Tumbled Glass, Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white and black cs
Size - 6x3.25"
Accessories - Impression Obsession snowflake background stamp, Snow-tex embossing paste, stitched sentiment banner die

Supplies for card 2:
Paper - rustic cs, red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Memory Box heart die, Poppy Stamps sentiment die, TH bird die, Spellbinders circle die, Lil Inker's stitched rectangle die

Red Acetate Poinsettia and Pink Watercoloured Sweet Peas

The Jingle Belles Christmas Challenge is asking for see-through elements.  I decided to create a layered acetate poinsettia.

I coloured a piece of acetate with a few different red alcohol inks and a bit of gold mixative.  Then die cut three layers of a poinsettia, and stuck them together with dimensionals in the centre.  To hide the dimensionals I added a gold sparkly rhinestone sticker.

I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in gold on my focal panel, die cut with a hemstitch square.  I wanted to have exactly the same gold as the sentiment showing through the hemstitch openings so I took a scrap of cs, ran ink around its edges, and heat embossed the edges.

Here's a close-up of the poinsettia showing how see-through the layers are:

 

 

As a nice contrast to a red poinsettia, I went with shades of pink in my next card.  It's for The Flower Challenge "Feature the Colour Pink".

 

I love sweet peas and grow them every year in my garden.  The image is stamped and watercoloured, with a little bit of black splatter around the image.  Since it's a large image and not really enough room to add a border layer, I took a black marker and went around the edges of the focal panel.  I left it without a sentiment as I'll either use it as a notecard or add a sentiment on the inside. 

 

 

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Northwoods sentiment
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - off white cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - acetate, red alcohol inks, gold mixative, gold embossing powder, poinsettia die, dimensionals, Recollections gold sparkly rhinestone sticker, Spellbinders square hemstitch die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Stamps Happen Sweet Peas
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, black marker

Bits and Pieces 2 - the Tree Edition

Those of you who were kind enough to take a look at my post from a few days ago called Bits and Pieces - the Reindeer Edition, would have noticed there were quite a few die cut trees combined with the reindeer.  Well, I had even more leftover die cut trees hanging about on my desk.  So today those trees are the focus of the cards.  Again, these were put together to use up bits and pieces, rather than with any particular design in mind or to fulfill a challenge.

Thanks for taking a look, and if you desperately want to know what anything is on one of these cards, leave me a comment and I'll look for it in my supplies and get back to you.

I might be back with one more collection of odds and ends!

 

A Masculine CAS Card and a Sympathy Card

A few of the challenges I enjoy are asking for masculine cards:  Sweet Stampin' "Masculine Makes", 52 Christmas Card Countdown "Masculine Christmas", and The Paper Players "Masculine Clean and Simple".

Using a brick wall stencil, I went over it with a rough mixture of black, copper, and white embossing paste. It came out way to dark and too shiny so I then sponged white gesso over it to lighten it and dull it down a bit. I also splattered a bit of the white gesso on it and then trimmed it with a square die. I popped it up on the card base with fun foam.

I stamped the sentiment in grey and trimmed it with a narrow strip die sentiment. I die cut the wreath twice out of scrap cs and once out of off white shimmer cs, glued them together and added it to the brick wall.

For my second card today, I needed to make a sympathy card so used Can You Handle the Pressure's "Something Starting with F".  I went with a floral embossing folder and a flower for my focal image.

I inked up the stamp with Tombow markers, trimmed the panel with a stitched rectangle die, popped it up on fun foam on a background embossed with a floral folder, and added a drop of yellow Liquid Pearls to the centre of the flower.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Distress Pumice Stone and Hickory Smoke, Versafine Smokey Gray
Paper - mixed media cs, chalk cs, off white shimmer cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - MFT brick wall stencil, Dreamweaver black, copper, and white embossing paste, Sizzix wreath die, fun foam, white gesso, narrow strip die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU Love and Sympathy flower, unknown sentiment
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Craft Concepts embossing folder, Tombow markers, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle, fun foam, liquid pearl