Northern Lights Christmas Cards

I've seen various people make northern lights backgrounds for card and wanted to give it a go.  I tried the ones where they create swirls of colour but I ended up with a horrid mess and tossed them.  Then I tried the technique in this video where the colour is in more vertical bands.  I ended up with three backgrounds I was happy with and turned them into three Christmas cards.

My favourite is this one as I got a bit of quite vibrant colour.

I stamped the image in black using my MISTI so that I go quite an intense image.  I then sponged a lot of Distress Black Soot ink along the bottom of the panel.  I heat embossed the little Noel sentiment in white on black cs and cut it out with a tiny square die and covered up a bit of smudged ink.

My second favourite is this one:

I die cut the village scene out of black cs. layered it over the northern lights background, and added a very small sentiment.

My least favourite is this one:

My northern lights turned out a bit too muted and I wasn't happy with my white splattering as I got some blobs that are way too big.  Black stamping or a black die cut didn't look right - not enough contrast.  So I went with a white die cut sleigh and horse and added two coordinating sentiments.

I found it easier to sponge the sky on a very slightly glossy cs - not as glossy as photo paper but with a definite bit of gloss.  I didn't find much difference between regular Distress inks and Distress Oxide inks (the first one was done with Oxide, the second and third with Distress).

My friend, Loll, also did some northern lights cards and we decided to post them on the same day.  Please go to this post on her blog to see hers - quite different to mine but beautiful!

Supplies:
Stamps - Stampendous "noel", Katzelkraft deer and trees, SSS tiny Merry Christmas, SSS Jingle Bells and Dashing All the Way sentiments
Ink - various Distress and Distress Oxide inks, SSS Intense Black, Versamark, Versafine Clair Twilight
Paper - white and black cs, slightly glossy cs
Size - A2 (the first two) and 6x4.25" (the third card)
Accessories - white acrylic paint, white embossing powder, tiny Spellbinders square die, Memory Box Country Landscape die, tiny sentiment die, SU sleigh and horse die

Christmas Horse and Snowy Dove

Two Christmas cards today.

For 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, the theme is "Critters".  I chose a horse.

The image is stamped and then coloured with coloured pencils.  To add some background colour, I used a simple bordering panel of red cs, and die cut the focal panel with a dotted rectangle that lets bits of the red show through.  And then stamped the sentiment in red.

And for Can You Handle the Pressure, the challenge is "In the Sky" (anything you can find in the sky), I chose a dove and placed it against a snowflake embossed background.

I ran the focal panel through the embossing folder and then lightly rubbed a blue ink pad over the raised sections.  I cut the dove and the sentiment out of a scrap of background I'd made using blue Inka Gold.  

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Serendipity Clyde, Make an Impression sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, ColorBox Chianti
Paper - white and red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Sizzix dotted rectangle die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps -
Ink - Distress Broken Glass
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - snowflake embossing folder, dove die, peace sentiment die, fun foam

Snowman in Joy

The new Peace on Earth mood board consists of four images of snowmen, all wearing scarves and hats.  I pulled out an old snowman stamp that would fit inside the letter "o" of my large "Joy" die.  I also wanted to use some dp as a background - I'm on a mission to try and use dp on at least two cards a month!  I have to make a dent in my stash!!

I stamped the snowman and sentiment in grey ink and did a bit of colouring with coloured pencils.  The snowman stamp includes some snowflakes around the snowman but I needed to add a bit more snow to fill in the circle so I used an old peg stamp of random dots.

I die cut the "Joy" once out of matte silver cs and once out of scrap cs and glued the two together.  I trimmed the snowman panel to fit behind the "o".  Then added the whole thing to the snowy dp background.  I went over all the snowflakes and dots with a Clear Star gelly roll pen and added some fun flock to the hat brim, pompom, and mitts' cuffs.

There's lots of other ideas from the rest of our Peace on Earth Design Team.  We'd love to see if our mood board inspires you or if you just want to do an "anything Christmas" card.

I'm also linking this card up with the Neglected Stuff Challenge as the snowman stamp is one of my very oldest stamps and hasn't been inked up for a long time.

Supplies:
Stamps - Old Island Stamp Co. snowman, Rubber Soul sentiment, Rubber Stamp Tapestry dots
Ink - Versafine Clair Morning Mist
Paper - white and matte silver cs, red dp
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - Penny Black "Joy" die,

Cut Up Christmas and a CAS Cardinal

The latest Cut It Up Challenge is "Christmas in July".  Here's my Christmas card featuring lots of die cuts.  It's also for Inkspirational "Three of the Same" - I have three doves and three fir trees.  Christmas Cards All Year Round wants "Blue Christmas"

I die cut the house / trees die and the small doves out of white shimmer cs and layered them over a background created by smooshing with blue Inka Gold and then trimming with a square die.  I cut a square out of plain white cs and out of a dp that matched the smooshed background perfectly and layered everything on a square card base.

And a twofer for Sweet Stampin' "Christmas in July" and Addicted to CAS "Code Word Christmas":

A simple stamped and coloured (with markers) image, then trimmed with a rectangle die, and to add more interest, a thin frame was cut out of the rectangle and then cut again out of red cs and the red one was inlaid into the rectangle. 

         

 

       

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Art Impressions sentiment
Ink - Distress Faded Jeans
Paper - white and white shimmer cs, Paper Pizazz dp
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Memory Box house / trees die, Memory Box small doves dies, Spellbinders square dies

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Impression Obsession bird/holly, Hero Arts sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, SU Real Red
Paper - white and red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - markers, SSS thin frames die, Spellbinders rectangle die ms

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