Red and White, and Red, White, and Blue

Cards for two colour challenges today.

For Color Hues "Red and White", I did a Christmas card.  It features poinsettias so it's also going to the Jingle Belles challenge "Poinsettia Perfection".

I stamped and heat embossed the poinsettias and the sentiment.  Trimmed the poinsettias with a square die and bordered with red cs.  Cut the sentiment out with a tag die and attached it with a red brad.  Added it all to a white card base.

Shopping Our Stash wants to see red, white, and blue.  I made a summer birthday card for my cousin who lives on the south coast of England - she loves the traditional beach huts on their beach front and of course, red, white, and blue are the colours of the British flag.  I am also linking it up with AAA Birthday's Summer Birthday challenge.  And I've never used the beach huts die before so I'm adding it to the NBUS challenge.

I die cut the beach hut die three times, out of red, white, and blue cs and then inset the blue and red into the white.  It was very fiddly but thank goodness for my fine-pointed scissors.  I used mottled blue and mottled light brown cs for the sky and sand, and added a die cut sentiment.

     

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Impression Obsession poinsettias, Northwoods sentiment
Ink - Versamark
Paper - white and red cs
Size - 4.5" square
Accessories - Ranger Rich Red embossing powder, Spellbinders square dies and tag die, red brad

Supplies for card 2:
Paper - red, white, and blue cs; light brown and light blue mottled cs
Size - A2
Accessories - unknown beach huts die, Lawn Fawn Happy Birthday die

Thank You Flowers and the World is a Circle

Stamping Sensations wants to see Summer Flowers and ATCAS wants a thank you card, so I combined the two for this card.

 

 

I put the wildflowers stamp in my MISTI and inked it up with Tombow markers, spritzing with water, repeating as necessary. Added the sentiment, trimmed the panel, and popped it up on fun foam on the card base. 

 

The Paper Players' challenge is called "Round We Go" (feature circles - I've got an image of a globe and I die cut it with a circle die) and Time Out wants something to do with travel, and what better than an image of the world and all the places one could go.

  

I stamped and heat embossed the globe / dove image on a scrap of background that I'd made using watercolour paper and alcohol inks (using the technique in this video) and die cut it with a circle die. I die cut a leafy flourish from another scrap and entwined it around part of the circle. The sentiment is a TH metallic sticker, stuck on another scrap. Mounted it all on black cs and then on a white card base.

  

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Indigo Blu wildflowers, unknown sentiment
Ink - Memento Cottage Ivy
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tombow markers, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Deep Red World Peace
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, white and black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Spellbinders circle die and leaf flourish die, TH metallic sentiment sticker, clear embossing powder, alcohol inks

Sparkling Blue Tree

Many of you know that blue is my favourite colour.  So when I saw the new Peace on Earth mood board, I was pretty happy.  I picked the top right image as it made me think of a new Lavinia stamp of a tree with gifts underneath it that I hadn't yet inked up.

I stamped it, then keeping with the colour scheme in the mood board, I used coloured pencils to add some colour to the gifts under the tree, trimmed the panel, bordered it with a dark shade of blue shimmer cs, mounted it on a dry embossed background, and added everything to a lighter shade of blue shimmer card base.

Then the fun started - I added many tiny and small gemstones in a few shades of blue to the blank circles on the tree and many tiny stick-on shimmery stars to the blank stars on the tree

Here's a close up of the tree with the gemstones and stick-on stars:

Here's the Peace on Earth mood board that inspired me:

We'd love to see cards from you either inspired by our mood board or "anything Christmas".

It's a stamp I hadn't inked up before so I'm linking it up over at the NBUS Challenge as well. 

I'm also entering it at the Sparkles Christmas Challenge where this month's challenge is "sparkle & bling".  I have lots of that with the sparkly stick-on stars and the gemstones!

  

Supplies:
Stamps - Lavinia tree, Art Impressions sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Faded Jeans
Paper - white cs, light and mid blue shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die, Spellbinders rectangle dies, embossing folder, fun foam, light and dark blue gemstones, Stamendous tiny stick-on stars

A Sympathy Card with a Horse and a Dog Sympathy Card

The Cut It Up challenge wants to see die cuts of critters.  I still had this horse die out on my desk as I made a card from it a few weeks ago but this time I gave it a very different treatment.

My sister asked me to make a sympathy card for her riding coach whose father suddenly passed away. She wanted a horse on it. So I thought I could make a night sky to go with the sentiment I used as it talks about stars. I created the sky by smooshing with dark blue Distress inks. Then stamped the sentiment over it in black. I layered the die cut over it, popped it up on fun foam, and added some die cut gold stars.

My other card today is for Try It On Tuesday "Add Some Text". 

I stamped and fussy cut the dog. The sentiment is stamped and cut with a narrow rectangle die, and then sponged around the edge. I created a background with a mixture of stencilling, text stamping, watercolouring, and sponging.

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Stampotique sentiment
Ink - various dark blue Distress inks, Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white and gold cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - small star dies, Starlit Studio horse die, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Technique Junkies dog, SU sentiment, Kaiser Craft script
Ink - Distress Tea Dye, Memento Rich Cocoa
Paper - cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - TCW stencil, watercolours, sentiment rectangle die, dimensionals

Double Stencilled Butterfly and a CAS Dove

Inkspirational wants us to use stencils.  I used both a butterfly stencil and a text stencil.  Try It On Tuesday wants us to add some text.  And Seize the Birthday wants to see silhouettes.

I sponged through the butterfly stencil with various blues and mauves, then laid the script stencil over it, and went over the script with embossing paste. Because the butterfly stencil was still in place, I only got text embossing within the butterfly.

I then stamped the two small butterflies on my main panel and trimmed it with a square die. Then stamped the larger butterfly and sentiment in purple on scraps of cs and heat embossed them, then die cut them with oval dies. I rubbed the edge of the ink pad around the ovals to give a bit of definition to them and then assembled the card.

I was going to add it to the Paper Players tic-tac-toe challenge (the top horizontal row - CAS, something that flies, square card) but realized it wasn't actually CAS once it was done.  So I made a quick Christmas card for the same tic-tac-toe row (and I really do need to plough on with Christmas cards).  I'm also adding it to Christmas All Year (blue Christmas).

A very easy card with a stamped and heat embossed peace dove, die cut with an oval, and mounted on white glitter cs cut with a fancy die, and on a blue shimmer card base.

   

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Visible Image butterflies, A Muse sentiment
Ink - Distress Faded Jeans and Dusty Concord
Paper - white and mixed media cs
Size - 5.75" square
Accessories - Visible Image butterfly stencil, Stamperia text stencil, Dreamweaver embossing paste, clear embossing powder, Spellbinders oval and square dies

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown small dove stamp
Ink - ColorBox True Blue
Paper - white cs, blue shimmer cs, white glitter cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Spellbinders Fleur de Lis square die and small oval die, clear embossing powder

Framed Cardinals and Framed Chocolate

Jingle Belles wants to see frames on our Christmas cards.  I framed some cardinals with a silver pierced rectangle frame.

The image is stamped and watercoloured. The sentiment is heat embossed. I went over the ornaments with Glossy Accents, and framed the image with a pierced dot die cut silver frame.

Festive Friday is celebrating World Chocolate Day.  It seemed a good opportunity to use a sentiment stamp I have that refers to chocolate.  I have these elements from the challenge list: a sweet sentiment, chocolates (in the sentiment), cream, and brown.

I sprinkled black and brown Brushos on cream cs and spritzed with water to let the colours run, then stamped the image in brown and heat embossed.   Since I had the pierced frame die out from the card above, I decided to create a frame for this card as well - this time in light brown - and then mounted it on a dark brown card base.

 

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black image, Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, ColorBox silver
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs, silver shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, silver embossing powder, SU label punches, MFT pierced frame die, Glossy Accents

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Kay Foley
Ink - brown pigment ink
Paper - cream cs, light and dark brown cs
Size - A2
Accessories - brown and black Brushos, MFT pierced frame die, clear embossing powder

Sympathy Card Using Generation Stamping with a Very Old Stamp

I'm part of the Group of Seven design team but shamefully failed to get my card done in time for their newest post.  I do have a good excuse - my sister and brother-in-law were visiting and we did a lot of work around my house and garden.  I had to make the most of the help while I had it.  My wonderful brother-in-law is the ultimate handyman and excellent gardener, and my sister is an amazing organizer and de-clutterer (though she refused to help me organize my craft room.

They've left now so I have crafty time again.  Sadly my dear friends just had to let their very old beloved black lab go so I decided to use this month's Group of Seven technique of "generation stamping" to make a sympathy card for them.

I created a background with the letterpress technique of rubbing black ink over the raised part of the paw print embossing folder and then running it through my Cuttlebug.

The focal panel is the dog stamp inked up once and then stamped three times in a row going off the edge of the panel as if it was the dog gently fading out of life.

I'm also adding the card to Stamping Sensations "Our Furry Friends", Can You Handle the Pressure? (Dog or Cat - I used my embossing folder for the letterpress technique), and The Neglected Stuff Challenge (this Stampin' Up set is many years old and I rarely use it).

For more ideas on using the generation stamping technique, head over to Group of Seven and feel free to give it a try and post your results.

   

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Stampin' Up
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Black Soot
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - unknown paw print embossing folder

Gelli Plate Snowflakes and a Reindeer

I had my sister and brother-in-law visiting for 10 days and we were so busy that I had no time for crafting or writing blog posts.  My sister bought 14 of the Christmas cards I'd already made this year for my fundraiser in November.  Happy to get advance money for my fundraiser but it's depleted my supply for the sale (I aim to have 100 Christmas cards made for it!).  So I have to get busy and make more (be prepared for lots of posts with Christmas cards!).

For The 12 Months of Christmas "One or Two Layers Only" and Colorful Options (blues from their mood board - see it at the end of my post).

The snowflake circle was done following the instructions on this video. I used a round gelli plate, various snowflake stamps, and various shades of blue ink.  I trimmed the panel with a round die and popped it up on fun foam on a coloured card base.

For the above card, I left off the gold snowflakes seen in the video but on this second card made at the same time, I did add them:

I trimmed my piece into a square and die cut "let it snow" out of the blue section.  I mounted it on a slightly larger square of gold cs that both borders it and puts gold behind the sentiment.

I carefully kept all of the letters die cut from this second card, and glued them onto the first card. 

And one more card for the Sparkles Christmas Challenge (Include the Word "Merry").

I smooshed a background with various blue oxide inks and then stamped and heat embossed the reindeer.  Trimmed the panel, mounted it on off-white, and added a sentiment. 

   

Supplies for card 1 and 2:
Stamps - various snowflake stampes
Ink - various blues and a gold
Paper - white cs, dark aqua cs (card 1), gold cs (card 2)
Size - 4.75" square (card 1), 5.5" square (card  2)
Accessories - gold embossing powder, Let It Snow die, gelli plate, fun foam

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Studio Light reindeer, Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, blue Oxide inks
Paper - mixed media cs, off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - clear embossing powder