Gentle Christmas and Floral Thanks

For the Cut It Up challenge, we have to use a die cut and our favourite colour.  Mine is blue.  I have a friend whose husband just passed away so I need to send her a different kind of Christmas card.  "Merry Christmas" won't really apply for her first Christmas on her own.  So I made this:

I created a faux mother of pearl background with blue Distress inks and silver paint, laid the die cut over it, stamped and heat embossed the sentiment.  I like this sentiment for people who aren't going to be enjoying their first Christmas after a major loss.

I've also got a thank you card today for The Flower Challenge "Thanks".

 I created a background using various light greens and blues of Distress Oxide inks.  Then stamped and heat embossed the flowers in white, and painted them dark blue.  Trimmed the panel and put it on an embossed layer.

  

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Impression Obsession sentiment
Ink - various Distress blue inks, ColorBox silver
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - silver paint, unknown die, platinum embossing powder

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - PB flowers, unknown thank you
Ink - various light blue and green Distress Oxide inks
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - SU embossing folder, white embossing powder, blue paint, stitched sentiment banner die

CAS Christmas Bird and a Winter Scene

I've got a CAS card of a sweet little chickadee with some berries for The Paper Players "CAS Favorite Holiday Image" - I love birds on Christmas cards and have many bird stamps.  It's also for Time Out Challenges "Your Favourite Holiday to Celebrate" (Christmas is my favourite holiday) and Sweet Stampin' "Use Red for Remembrance" (the only colour in my card is red).

Very CAS and very quick to make - stamped, watercoloured the berries bright red, trimmed with a stitched rectangle, bordered with red, popped up on fun foam, and Glossy Accents added to the berries.

 

My second card took longer to make.  It's for the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown that wants a winter scene.  I've got a white (i.e. snow covered) winter village against a very frosty sky.

The background uses the mixed media smooshing (see this tutorial on SCS). I used a few shades of blue and one of purple Distress inks, tapped them on my craft mat, added a bit of white shimmer paint and a bit of iridescent medium, spritzed all with water, and smooshed and dragged my watercolour paper in it. The village die cut and card base are white shimmer cs.

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Magenta chickadee, Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne, Memento Rhubarb Stalk
Paper - white and red cs, watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - red watercolour paint, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, Glossy Accents, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - Distress Faded Jeans, Stormy Sky, Dusty Concord
Paper - watercolour paper, white shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - village die, Tsukineko Frost White liquid paint, Windsor & Newton Iridescent Medium

Gingerbread Men

The Peace on Earth challenge is celebrating its 100th challenge!  I've been on their Design Team since challenge #7 and I've enjoyed every single one.  Darlene and Diane come up with the best mood boards that always inspire me. 

The new mood board is full of gingerbread men.  I don't have any gingerbread stamps and I couldn't find my die.  But I did find some patterned paper covered in gingerbread men and I had an old card with a tiny cluster of die cuts that included one so I pulled it off the old card and used it for this card.

The sentiment is one of the great Kay Foley sentiments - I have quite a few of her sentiments and I just love them.  Sadly, the company that carried them (River City Rubber) has closed.  This sentiment mentions baking fancy cookies so I thought it went with the gingerbread men theme.  It also mentions decorating gifts with gold sparkly stuff so I included some gold thread behind the die cuts.  I stamped it in brown, layered it over the patterned paper, and added my little cluster of die cuts.

Please come and join us at Peace on Earth.  Maybe you'll be inspired by the mood board.  If not, "anything Christmas" goes.

I'm also linking it up with the Word Power Challenge where the sentiment is the focus of the card.

Supplies:
Stamps - Kay Foley sentiment (River City Rubber)
Ink - Archival Acorn
Paper - white cs, gingerbread men patterned paper
Size - A2
Accessories - tiny die cuts, gold thread

Favourite Things Dove and Leftover Dove

Shopping our Stash new challenge is "A Few of My Favourite Things".  They want us to use two or more of our favourite crafty things.  I love blue and white as a colour scheme, peace (and peace doves) as a favourite theme on Christmas cards, die cuts, a CAS design, and interesting ways to border or frame a focal image (I especially love stitched effects in die cuts for framing).

I die cut a stitched border opening in the card base and added a piece of decorative paper behind it.  I die cut a dove out of the leftover bit of cs and attached it to the decorative paper, popping up the wings with dimensional tape.  I stamped and trimmed a small sentiment in blue.

Jingle Belles wants to see "Holiday Leftovers" - bits and pieces that were too nice to toss, leftover die cuts, etc.  I made another dove / peace themed card.

I had this lovely white feather, the die cut dove, the stamped sentiment, and the inverted scallop circle sitting on my desk leftover from projects that never used them.  I put them all together for this card.  The cardstocks don't match - the dove and the background for the sentiment are white shimmer cs and the rest is plain white cs. The sentiment is heat embossed.

  

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Simon Says Stamp sentiment
Ink - Distress Stormy Sky
Paper - white cs, Echo Park dp
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Memory Box dove die, MFT square stitched frame die, dimensional tape

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Art Impressions sentiment
Ink - Versamark
Paper - white cs, white shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - feather, Spellbinders inverted scallop die, Impression Obsession dove die, platinum embossing powder

Gifts with Vertical Sentiment and a Starry Tag

The ABC Christmas Challenge is U for Uncluttered (i.e. CAS) and / or V for Vertical.  I've made a CAS card that has a vertical sentiment..  

Stamped, coloured with coloured pencils (including a silver, red, and green metallic pencils for the ribbon and bow, with a small vertical sentiment, and framed with a pierced dot frame die, cut twice and glued together for more dimension.

Another Christmas card for Inkspirational "Seeing Stars":

I sponged a tag with three Distress inks, then flicked some water droplets on it. When dry, I stamped "joy" and "peace" in gold and I took my Memory Box Stardust stencil and sponged over it with Golden Glitz ink. I stamped the "star light, star bright" sentiment with dark blue ink on gold shimmer cs and heat embossed with clear ep. I cut it out with a star die and popped it up with dimensionals.

I added baker's twine to the top of the tag and attached the tag to a white card base.

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

  

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Power Poppy Cozy Cupfuls, Rosie's Roadshow sentimen
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, metallic pencils, MFT pierced rectangle frame die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Hero Arts Joy and Noel, Great Impressions "Star light..."
Ink - Delicata Golden Glitz; Distress Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans, and Dusty Concord; Versafine Majestic Blue
Paper - white cs, gold shimmer cs, manila tag
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - Spellbinders star die, baker's twine, dimensionals, Stampendous Detail Gold embossing powder, Memory Box Stardust stencil

Circles with Reindeer

I was immediately inspired by the bottom left image on the new Peace on Earth mood board (see it at the end of this post) and created this card.

I loved the white ornaments with the platinum-coloured reindeer.  Rather than create an ornament, I just went with circles.  I die cut a stitched circle out of white shimmer cs and then a plain circle out of platinum shimmer cs.  I cut the Memory Box Deer Circle die out of the centre of it, and cut the sentiment out of the leftover.  The white circle is popped up on fun foam for some dimension on the white shimmer card base.

We'd love to have you join us at Peace on Earth, either inspired by one of the images in our mood board or with an "anything Christmas" card.

Supplies:
Paper - white and platinum shimmer cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Memory Box Deer Circle die, Spellbinders circle die, Lil Inker stitched circle die, SSS peace die

Textured Tissue Paper with Dry Embossing

This month the Group of Cardmakers is watercolouring tissue paper and dry embossing it for interesting textured backgrounds.  Full instructions are on our website.

I made three Christmas cards using the technique.  For the first two, I made green backgrounds and brayered over the raised sections with gold paint.

For the first card, I trimmed the panel and added a two-die sentiment (which perfectly covered up a blob of gold paint that wasn't on the raised part of the embossing).

For the second card, I die cut an ornament and the sentiment out of the panel and again out of scrap cs, and glued them together for more dimension.  I added gold cord to the top of the ornament, and embellished the card base with gold gemstones.

I then changed background and paint colours for this third card.

I used various blues and turquoises for this one (but I think there was a bit of green left on my craft mat!).  Then used a 3D snowflake folder and silver paint.  I added a snowflake / music die (cut three times for dimension - it needed that to make it really stand out), and a Let It Snow sentiment stamped in one of the ink colours and trimmed with a label die.

More examples over on the Group of Cardmakers' blog, as well as detailed instructions.  Be sure to read the information on different types of tissue paper!

Supplies for card 1:
Ink - various green Distress inks
Paper - white tissue paper, white and gold cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold paint, SSS 3D greenery embossing folder, SSS Merry Christmas and shadow die 

Supplies for card 2:
Ink - various green Distress inks
Paper - white tissue paper, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold paint, SSS 3D greenery embossing folder, Spellbinders ornament die, Hero Arts noel die
 

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - various blue and turquoise Distress inks
Paper - white tissue paper, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - silver paint, SSS 3D snowflakes embossing folder, SSS Jingle Snowflakes die, Spellbinders label die

Snowfall and a Shopping Teddy Bear

A few of my favourite Christmas challenges are asking for snow.  The Christmas Kickstart Challenge "Snow Alert", The 12 Months of Christmas "Snowfall", and Jingle Belles "Dashing Through the Snow".

I masked the snowy foreground, then did a stencil monoprint to create the snowy sky above it.  Then stamped and heat embossed the horses / fence image.  Trimmed the panel, bordered in black, and used a Quickie glue pen to add glitter to the tops of the fence rails.

The Penny Black Saturday Challenge is "Too Cute to Spook".  I don't need Halloween cards so made a Christmas card with a very cute teddy bear who looks so confident I'm sure nothing would spook him.

Stamped and watercoloured, trimmed with a stitched rectangle die, bordered with dp.

  

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Cardio horses / fence, SSS sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Clair, Distress Weathered Wood and Faded Jeans 
Paper - white and black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - clear embossing powder, clear glitter, snowflake stencil

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black bear, SSS sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs, DCWV dp
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die

More Pink for Jingle Belles and a Hanukkah Card

I really admire Stef and Lauren of Jingle Belles for running their Pink Christmas challenge every year to raise money for breast cancer research.  It's a challenge for me for sure as I struggle with using non-traditional colours on my Christmas cards.  But I persevered and this year I made two pink Christmas cards (the other was posted in my previous post).  Here's the second:

This one has a real old rose shade of pink.  I used a piece of patterned paper for the background and then chose the closest shade of pink from amongst the several different shades of pink glitter cardstock that I have.  I die cut the poinsettia out of it once, and then cut it twice more out of scrap cs, then glued them together and added them to the patterned paper.  I used a very pale pink/grey shade of cs for the base and for the sentiment square.

My second card today is for Inkspirational - it wants to see a seasonal card (a card for one of the occasions in one of the seasons).  I chose Hanukkah for a change from Christmas cards.

There is a SCS tutorial for making the paper star here.  I used a lovely double-sided decorative paper I've had in my stash for ages.  I topped it with a silver glitter die cut Star of David and added it to a plain white card base with a heat embossed sentiment.

One more thing - few weeks ago, I posted this card:

In my post (see here), I mentioned not being that happy with the card.  A couple of people offered suggestions in the comments so I looked at it again and decided to add a green frame around the stencilling.  I cut a square out of the same green shimmer cs as the border layer and then used the original inverted scallop die to cut out the centre of the green square.  I glued it over the white layer.  Here's the result:

I was pretty happy with the results so I'll put the card in my fundraiser sale and see if it sells!

    

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - small noel
Ink - Distress dark pink
Paper - dp, pink glitter cs, light pink/grey cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Penny Black poinsettia die, small square die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU sentiment
Ink - ColorBox silver
Paper - white cs, patterned paper, silver glitter cs
Size - A2
Accessories - silver embossing powder, SSS Star of David die

Pink Snowy Village and Starry Song

Every year the Jingle Belles challenge hosts "Pink Christmas" and they donate $2 to breast cancer research for every card linked up.  It's also going to Sparkles "Non-Traditional Christmas Colours" challenge.  Here's my pink Christmas card:

I went through my unused background pieces and found three different pink pieces (one sponged, one sprayed, and one stencilled).  I die cut a house and a couple of snowflakes out of each, and then the sentiment out of two of them.  I used a narrow embossing folder of snowflakes on my focal panel and then glued all my die cuts on to it.  I added it to the card base with some thin dimensional tape.

For a second card today, I used lines from a song to make a card for Sweet Stampin' "Inspired by a Book, Song, or Film".  It's also for the Word Power challenge where the sentiment is the focus of the card.

I have some really old red laser-cut star paper that I haven't used for many years and thought it could go with the words from a Christmas carol.  I layered a piece of it over gold glitter cs and put them on a white cardbase. Then stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in gold on white cs, and die cut it with a fancy label die.

  

 

Supplies for card 1:
Ink - pink ink for some of the die cut colouring
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - pink sprays for some of the die cut colouring, harlequin stencil of some of the die cuts, SSS house dies, Cuttlebug narrow snowflake embossing folder, various tiny snowflake dies, dimensional tape

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - white cs, gold glitter cs, KI Memories red lace star cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Papermania Tinsel Gold embossing powder, Sizzix label die