Black and Grey Dove / Happy Birthday, Double D / Happy New Year

I've been negligent lately about getting blog posts written up and now I'm getting close to deadlines for challenges I want to enter.  So I've got three cards for you today.

First up for Color Throwdown "Black, White, Grey", I had a great time playing with mixed media (not my usual style but I enjoyed this so much I want to do more of it).

I started by die cutting the dove out of white cs and, with it placed on a piece of scrap copy paper, I sponged grey ink on parts of it (and a touch of green ink on the leaf).  The sponging left interesting patterning on the copy paper (you can see some of the dove's feathers just above the polka dots) so I trimmed it to be my focal panel.  I then tore a bit of black and white TH collage paper (the music in the top left) and a bit of tissue paper (the grey and white polka dots in the bottom right) and glued them onto the copy paper panel.  I added some grey text and diamond stamping.  Then added it to the card base.  I die cut two more doves from scrap cs and glued them together with the sponged one, added it to the card, and also added some small die cut stars sponged with the same grey ink.

Next up, it's Double D's 9th year of challenges so they are asking for birthday cards and Beautiful Blossoms has a lovely mood board full of pink flowers.

I put the flower stamp in my MISTI and inked it up with pink and green markers, misting lightly, stamping and repeating until I was happy with the results.  I added a bit of stamping with a honeycomb stamp and a postage stamp using Distress Antique Linen ink, and also sponged around the edges.  Added a birthday sentiment and a few die cut, watercoloured butterflies.

And my third card for today is for Shopping our Stash "Feature Stars".  Because of the postal strike we had before Christmas, I didn't mail out any Christmas cards so am getting a few Happy New Year cards made for family outside of Vancouver and mailing them now.

I chose a starry embossing folder and inked it up with Distress inks close to gold in colour and spritzed with water before embossing my panel with it. I was pretty happy with the results I got.

I stamped and heat embossed my sentiment on white cs and die cut it with a star die, popped it up on fun foam, and scattered some multi-coloured tiny star sequins around for some bling.  It's going to my youngest sister who loves bling more than the rest of us!

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Tim Holtz small diamonds, Old Island Stamp Co. script background
Ink - Distress Iced Spruce and Hickory Smoke
Paper - TH Christmas collage paper, dotted tissue paper, white cs, copy paper
Size - A2
Accessories - tiny star dies, Penny Black dove die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Magenta flowers, TH postmark, Kaisercraft honeycomb
Ink - Distress Antique Linen
Paper - watercolour paper, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tombow markers, tiny butterfly dies

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Studio G sentiment
Ink - Distress Wild Honey and Mustard Seed
Paper - watercolour paper, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Darice embossing folder, sparkly embossing powder, Spellbinders star die, fun foam, tiny star sequins

 

Winter Wonderland and a Single Snowflake

I chose a lovely winter village scene for Sparkles Christmas Challenge "Winter Wonderland".

The image is coloured with plain old inexpensive watercolour paints - they aren't as vibrant as a lot of the newer watercolour mediums but I think the softness suits the wintery scene. I added glitter to all the rooftops and trees and along the snow lines. I cut the image out with an oval die and bordered with dark silver cs.

Christmas Cards All Year Round has an image of a Christmas sweater with one large gold snowflake on the front of it.  It inspired me to make this card with a gold snowflake.

I started by using gesso to stencil the snowflake on black cs to create a resist for my stamping, then stamped the Christmas script background stamp over it in white. I replaced the snowflake stencil and sponged gold ink through it quite lightly so that some of the white gesso showed through.  I trimmed the panel and popped it up with fun foam on a platinum shimmer card base.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Art-Kure Castle Combe Village, SU sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, dark silver and natural cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, SU label punches, Nesties oval dies, dimensionals, glitter

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - text background stamp
Ink - gold and white ink
Paper - black cs, platinum shimmer cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - snowflake stencil, white gesso, fun foam

Decorating the Tree / Happy New Year

I'm a big fan of the original Penny Black Christmas stamps with the adorable animals in them.  So chose one of them for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge "Christmas".  I'm also adding it to ABC Christmas Challenge "Y is for Your Choice" and Sweet Stampin' "Christmas".

Stamped, watercoloured, trimmed with a stitched square die, bordered with gold cs, and added to an off-white card base.

My Time to Craft Christmas wants a Happy New Year card.  Here's mine:

I started with my top layer.  I die cut the large star and stamped and heat embossed the sentiment, then trimmed with a stitched square die, and then dry embossed with a little narrow star embossing folder.  I taped a small square of starry holographic paper on the card base and then popped up the top panel on foam tape over top of it.

It's also going to the NBUS challenge as I've never used the narrow star embossing folder or the holographic star dp before. 

    

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black, unknown "joy"
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - off white cs, watercolour paper, gold cs
Size - 5.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, Glossy Accents, Lil Inker stitched square die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU sentiment
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - white cs, Hot off the Press holographic star paper
Size - 5" square
Accessories - gold embossing powder, MFT star die, Kokorosa narrow star embossing folder

A Snow Globe and Gold and Silver Stars

52 Christmas Card Throwdown wants to see snow globes.  And The Sisterhood of Crafters want to see a Christmas card.  So I made this:

I used a snow globe die with a stamp that fits perfectly inside it.  I stamped the image on the focal panel in dark blue and stamped random bits of the splatter stamp from Gorgeous Grunge in silver around it.  The snow globe is die cut once from silver matte cs and three times from scrap cs.  The three scrap ones are glued together and then a circle of acetate is glued on top of them, and the silver snow globe on top of the acetate.  I sprinkled a bit of rock candy glitter on top of the image, then glued the snow globe over it.  I added a die cut sentiment cut from the same silver cs as the snow globe.  

You can see the glitter in a pile at the bottom - but it will shake over the image as those three extra layers of the die cut give enough height for glitter.  If I'd wanted to add sequins or microbeads, I'd have had to use foam tape instead.

I've also got a card for Colorful Options - they want gold and silver and, rather than another Christmas card, I've got a New Year card:

I stamped the splatter stamp from Gorgeous Grunge in gold on the main panel. Then die cut various sizes of stars out of scraps of gold and silver cs (some glitter cs, some shimmer cs). I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment and die cut it with a label die. 

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Art-Kure church, Gorgeous Grunge splatter stamp
Ink - Versafine Clair Twilight, Martha Stewart silver
Paper - chalk cs, silver matte cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Taylored Expressions snow globe die, acetate, Ranger Rock Candy glitter, Memory Box sentiment die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU sentiment, SU Gorgeous Grunge splatter
Ink - ColorBox Gold
Paper - cream cs, gold and silver shimmer and glitter cs, black shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold embossing powder, label die, various star dies

Happy New Year!

Christmas and New Year are over and done with for another year, but all the Christmas card challenges are starting up again this week!  The first one I'm tackling is the Merry Christmas Challenge where it is Anything Goes, but with an optional theme of Happy New Year.  I went with the optional theme and created this card:



The background is out of my UFO box.  It was done by smooshing with Inka Gold  - smeared on my craft mat, spritzed with water, and then I smooshed my cardstock into it.

When dry, I stamped and heat embossed the branch and the sentiment.  It's bordered with black and on a a pale silver shimmer cardbase that I thought suited the Inka Gold.

Happy New Year to all my blog followers!  Thank you for your support!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black Berry Branch, Studio G sentiment

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - pale silver shimmer cs, black cs, mixed media cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - embossing powder,  blue and silver Inka Gold

Spraying Liquid Colour

It's time for a reminder card to join in the January CAS Mix Up challenge!

Liquid colours can be any colour medium that comes in liquid form.  It can be alcohol inks, re-inkers, stains, liquid paints, sprays, etc.

For my card, I chose sprays.

I used two shades of blue spray, one of which I misted over the mixed media cs and the other I took the applicator out of the bottle and dropped drips of it over the misted blue.  I wanted to use a bit of metallic silver spray as well but the applicator was clogged and all I got was a big splotch and a couple of droplets of it!  I liked the way the blues had turned out and didn't want to waste it so decided to use a silver cs for the cardbase to tie into the silver splotch!

I stamped and heat embossed my silhouette sprig and sentiment, and cut the panel out with a stitched rectangle die.  I popped it up on fun foam for some dimension.

I'm sending it to a friend that I exchange New Year's cards with instead of Christmas cards.

You have until January 24th to link up your card at CAS Mix Up.  Be sure to use stamping, liquid colours, and at least one other option from the list on CAS Mix Up.  My options are heat embossing my two stamps and die cutting my panel.

Supplies:

Stamps - Stampendous Silhouette Sprig, Happy Little Stampers sentiment

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - silver and mixed media cs

Size - A2

Accessories - clear embossing powder, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die, two shades of blue spray, silver spray

New Year Wishes

Happy New Year to all my followers!

A couple of challenges over at SCS inspired today's cards.  The Free for All challenge is "Happy New Year" and the Inspiration Challenge is to be inspired by a beautiful website of colourways called Design Seeds.

I found two colourways that I loved  "Winter Horizon":

and Color Dreams:

The first was a bit pale and the second a bit too bright - I wanted something in between (Goldilocks or what!).  Here's what I came up with:



I created a background with brushos on watercolour paper, and then stamped my image and heat embossed it in white. I darkened up the edges with a bit of sponging with Distress Faded Jeans.

I added white liquid pearls to the berries.  I stamped the sentiment directly on the panel and it came out crooked so re-did it on a scrap of the brushos background.


Then I decided to repeat the design with black embossing powder instead of white.

I made the brushos closer to the paler of the two inspiration colourways.  And got my sentiment straight on the panel this time!  Instead of sponging the edges, I mounted it on a piece of black cardstock.

I personally prefer the white version.  Which do you prefer?

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black bush, Happy Little Stampers sentiment

Ink - Versamark (1st card), Versafine Onyx Black (2nd card)

Paper - watercolour paper;  white linen cs (cardbase for 1st card); white and black cs (2nd card)

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - white liquid pearls; white embossing powder (1st card); black embossing powder (2nd card)

Shaking in the New Year

This week's CAS challenge on SCS is "Bringing in the New Year" - and the card has to have some kind of explosion theme - explosion of colour, explosion of fireworks, explosion of sparkle, etc.

I thought a shaker card works well as an explosion of sequins and glitter when you shake it.

I stamped and heat embossed a starry background for the shaker and a sentiment for the card front, filled it with sequins and tiny stars, and set it in a white card front. I added the sentiment and a scattering of the sequins and stars to the card front. The card base is gold shimmer cs.

I don't make many shaker cards but this was fun to make so must try a few more!

Supplies:

Stamps - Serendipity Happy New Year, Stamp Oasis star background

Ink - ColorBox gold

Paper - white and gold cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Impression Obsession shaker window, sequins and star glitter, Stampendous Pirate Gold embossing powder