A Snowglobe, Flowers, and a Bird

It's been cold and snowy (unusual for Vancouver at this time of year) so I've spent more time in my craft room than usual, so today I've got three cards.

A snowglobe for Jingle Belles ("a holiday card with a see-through element") and 52 Christmas Card Throwdown ("acetate).

I die cut the snowglobe out of white cs and out of two layers of fun foam.  I glued a circle of acetate between the white cs and the top layer of fun foam.  I die cut a tree out of a scrap of green smooshed background and the deer out of a scrap of textured gold cs, and tore a scrap of white cs for snowy ground.  I glued them all to the navy card base, sprinkled a little bit of Stampendous "Spoonful of Snow" on top and then added the snowglobe to the top of that.  The sentiment is die cut from the same scrap of gold as the reindeer.

Here's another photo, taken flat (rather than standing up) so that you can see the snow sprinkles better.

 

Next up, for Penny Black Saturday Challenge ("hearts and / or flowers") and Beautiful Blossoms ("focus on flowers / florals").

A very CAS card - flowers coloured with coloured pencils and the colouring blended with Gamsol, a heat embossed blue sentiment, trimmed with a stitched rectangle die, bordered in blue, and popped up on fun foam for some dimension.

 

And finally, for AAA Card Challenge ("a CAS card with a circle").

The background is coated cs sprinkled with bister and then spritzed with water. I stamped the little bird collage image on it in brown archival ink and then thought it would stand out more if it was heat embossed - luckily it was in my MISTI so I was able to stamp with Versamark on top of the brown archival ink, and then heat emboss with clear embossing powder. I added it behind a die cut circle opening in a cream shimmer card base.  I put an insert inside the card to cover the mess of taping the image piece on the inside - and also to write on as it's hard to write on the shimmery cardstock.)

Challenges:

Jingle Belles

52 Christmas Card Throwdown

Penny Black Saturday Challenge

Beautiful Blossoms

AAA Cards Challenge

 

 

Supplies for Card 1:
Ink - green Distress inks
Paper - navy and white cs, gold textured cs
Size - A2
Accessories - small deer die, snowglobe die, Christmas tree die, Stampendous Spoonful of Snow, fun foam

Supplies for Card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white and blue cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Gamsol, clear embossing powder, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, fun foam

Supplies for Card 3:
Stamps - Carabelle Studio bird collage
Ink - Archival Acorn, Versamark
Paper - coated cardstock, cream shimmer c
Size - A2
Accessories - green and brown bister, clear embossing powder, Spellbinders circle die

Holly with a Robin

I got out a stamp I haven't used yet and inked it up for this Christmas card:

I stamped the stamp with Fadeout No-Line ink so that I could have a better idea of the image, then coloured directly on the stamp with Tombow markers, one colour at a time and spritzing lightly with water after each one.  I did the text stamping and background sponging with Distress Antique Linen and Vintage Photo, and added a sentiment in brown.  I popped the panel up on fun foam.

The method I used for the text stamping is in this video - inking up the stamp, spritzing it, laying it on my work surface rubber side up, and pressing the panel onto the stamp lightly, avoiding the image as much as possible.

Challenges:

Sparkles Christmas Challenge "Holly and / or Ivy"

 

Rudolph Days "Anything Christmas"

NBUS "Never Before Used Stuff" 

 

Penny Black Saturday Challenge "Anything Penny Black"

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black image, unknown sentiment
Ink - Fadeout No-Line Colouring Ink, Memento Rich Cocoa, Distress Antique Linen and Vintage Photo
Paper - watercolour paper, cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tombow markers, fun foam

Mice and Hedgehogs

I'm really trying to use stamps I've never used before so thought I'd choose one of my never-before-used Penny Black stamps for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge "Christmas".

Love these sweet mice and hedgehogs celebrating Christmas together!

Stamped and watercoloured, bordered with black, and a sentiment and a string of gold peel-off stars to finish.

 

Challenges:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge "Anything Goes or Christmas"

NBUS Challenge "Never Before Used Schtuff"

Christmas Kickstart Challenge "If It's Christmassy, Link It Up"
 

Jingle Belles "It's a Wrap" - any last minute Christmas cards 

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black critters, Stampabilities sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, cream and black cs
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - watercolour paints, gold peel-off stars

Painting with Shimmer Paints

I have some much neglected, but very beautiful, Yasutomo Pearlescent Watercolour Paints and thought they'd be perfect for a Christmas card.

I stamped the Penny Black winter scene and watercoloured it with pearlescent paints. It has a wonderful shimmer but I couldn't capture it very well in the photo.

I've just got time to sneak it into the Penny Black Saturday Challenge "Anything Goes" before it closes.

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black, Make an Impression sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - watercolour paper, shimmer copper c
Size - A2
Accessories - Yasutomo Pearlescent Watercolour Paints

Christmas Berries

Loll is hosting the May challenge at CAS Christmas and she is asking for "Winter Berries".

I love this theme and was hard pressed to decide which of my many Christmas / winter stamps to use.  I ended up going with this one because it basically is nothing but berries.

I put the stamp in my MISTI and inked it up with various Distress markers, spritzing lightly, stamping on watercolour paper, and repeating until I was happy.

I added the sentiment and a bit of splatter, bordered with a matching brown, and popped it up on a red card base.  I went over the snowy bits of the image with a glue pen and added glitter.

Please come and join us.  You have until May 24th to link up.  Head over to CAS Christmas for more inspiration from the Design Team and May's wonderful Guest Designer, Lynne (Designs from the Loft).

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Distress Gathered Twigs
Paper - watercolour paper, red and brown cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Distress markers, glitter, fun foam

Tulips for Spring

I've been playing along with some of the VSN challenges over at SCS and made this card for the "Tulips from Amsterdam" challenge.

I created the background with red and green brushos. When dry, I put it into my MISTI and angled the stamp to get most of the leaves on the green and the flowers on the red. I stamped and heat embossed the tulips and the sentiment.

I'm going to send it to a friend with the message inside following on from "delight" on the front, and say "delight in the little things" - seems a good message when all of the big things are out of our control right now.

The card is perfect for the following challenges:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge "Think Spring"

Penny Black and More Challenge "Spring Flowers"

Just Us Girls Photo Challenge - be inspired by this photo:

 Seeing spring flowers is one of the simple joys in life right now.

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black tulips, SU sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Fallen Leaves
Paper - white cs, watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - red and green brushos, clear embossing powder, fun foam

Bonnie's Bouquet

My reminder card for CAS Watercolour is also a birthday card for my dear friend, Bonnie Klass - the co-founder of the CAS challenges (and one of our DT members), as well as being someone I've known on line for several years and finally got to meet this May at the Eat, Sleep, Craft, Repeat Retreat (see the photos on the retreat button at the top of my post).

July's theme for CAS Watercolour is "Bouquet".

I realized when planning my cards for this challenge that I have a lot of stamps of bouquets of flowers!  So hard to choose the ones to use (though the fact that it needs to be a CAS card with white space limited it a bit).  Peonies are one of my favourite flowers so went with a bouquet of them for this one:

I stamped the image and sentiment on watercolour paper, painted it with my Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, trimmed it with a stitched rectangle, popped it up on a dark pink shimmer card base, and embellished with a few shimmery flower sequins.

We'd love you to join us at CAS Watercolour before July 24th.  Please be sure your card is clean and simple, and depicts a bouquet of flowers - we don't want just a stem of flowers, nor a line of flowers - it needs to be a bouquet.  There's lots of inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and July's Guest Designer, Leslie (Running with Scissors).

Here's wishing you a very Happy Birthday, Bonnie, and many more to come!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black bouquet, Savvy Stamps sentiment

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, dark pink shimmer cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, tiny flower sequins, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die, fun foam

Bright Summer Flowers

This month's Penny Black challenge is "Summer Colours" - they want bright and cheerful pretty summer colours.  What better than a bouquet of beautiful summer flowers?

I coloured the image with watercolour pencils by using a wet paintbrush to pull the colour off the tips of the pencils.  It's a technique that Darnell had us do at the May retreat I was on with her and several other stampers.

I trimmed the panel and wrapped a strip of vellum on which I heat embossed the sentiment around it.  I then popped the panel up on fun foam.  I added yellow and black pearls to the centres of the flowers.

It's going off to a dear friend who is a very keen flower gardener and whose birthday is this month.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black bouquet, SU sentiment

Ink - Archival Jet Black, Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - watercolour paper, cream cs, vellum

Size - A2

Accessories - watercolour pencils, clear embossing powder, fun foam, yellow and black pearls

Reindeer and Christmas Leaves

I've been entertaining two of my sisters who came to visit this month from back east so not much time for creating or blogging.  But finally a chance to catch up with some challenges.

Sparkles Christmas Challenge is "Include a Reindeer".

I inked up the trees with brown Distress ink and the shadows on the ground with grey, inking up and stamping in my MISTI until I got a good impression. I then cleaned the stamp (while it was still in the MISTI), reinked it with Versamark, stamped over the coloured stamping, and heat embossed in clear. That way I had a resist for my background sponging. I used various yellow and blue Distress inks to sponge the sky.

I added a die cut reindeer and sentiment.


Christmas Cards All Year Round wants to see "Christmas garlands, leaves, or flowers".

I stamped and heat embossed in silver, added a small part of a longer sentiment, mounted on a silver card base, and embellished the berries with silver gemstones.  A perfect CAS card for making multiples if one was so inclined!

Supplies for the 1st card:

Stamps - Penny Black woods

Ink - Versamark, various Distress inks

Paper - brown, cream, and mixed media cs

Size - 6x4.25"

Accessories - Dee's Distinctively reindeer, Tattered Lace sentiment die, clear embossing powder

Supplies for the 2nd card:

Stamps - Penny Black A Berry Branch, part of a SU sentimen

Ink - ColorBox silver

Paper - white and silver cs

Size - A2

Accessories - silver embossing powder, silver gemstones

Nature for The Male Room

I really struggle with masculine cards no matter what the occasion so I keep my eye on The Male Room challenge to see if any of their challenges can inspire me.  The latest one did:

It seemed perfect for my Penny Black woodland stamp and some deer.

I used Jill Foster's technique seen in this video.

I put the image in the MISTI and coloured the different parts of the image with various small Distress inks (in the video, Jill Foster uses Distress markers - either are fine). When all was stamped, I restamped it all with Versamark and heat embossed in clear. That way I had a resist for sponging the sky and the snow.  But I realized I also needed to have something on the snowflakes so that they would resist the sponging, so went over all of them with a Molotow fine tip masking fluid marker.  After I did my sponging and heat set it, I rubbed off the masking fluid.

I die cut two reindeer, once out of copper cs and once out of heavy white cs, glued them together to give them more substance and dimension, and added them to the foreground.  I added some glitter to the snowline in front of the trees and around the legs of each reindeer.

Trimmed the panel, bordered it with the copper cs, and popped it up on a cream card base.

The Penny Black tree stamp is really large - this only used half of it so I made a very similar second card out of the rest of it.  It felt very productive ending up with two!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black trees, A Muse sentiment

Ink - Delicata Celestial Copper for the sentiment, various Distress inks for the sky

Paper - mixed media and PTI Vintage cream cs, copper cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Impression Obsession reindeer dies, glitter, fun foam

Penny Black Challenges

A while back, I tried a new technique with Loll Thompson and Christine Alexander.  This card is my second attempt at it (see the first here).

Here's the technique for the poinsettia:

With the stamp in my MISTI, I inked it up with Versamark.  Then shook out a bit of my Brushos colours onto a palette, slightly moistened a paintbrush, picked up some colour and painted it onto the stamp over the Versamark.  When I'd painted the whole stamp, I lightly spritzed with water and stamped onto watercolour paper.

I got way better coverage with this second attempt.  I went in with coloured pencils and added back some of the definition that was lost, stamped the sentiment, added a bit of black splatter and a black border, and embellished the centre of the poinsettia with tiny sequins.

Since the main focus of the project is a Penny Black image, I'm linking it up to two Penny Black challenges:

Penny Black and More - Traditional Christmas Colours

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Winter or Christmas

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black poinsettia, SU sentiment

Ink - Versamark, Archival Jet Black

Paper - white and black cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - brushos, coloured pencils, tiny sequins

Paper Players Colour Challenge

I love the current Paper Players Colour Challenge as it is traditional Christmas colours plus one other.

Needless to say, I chose blue since it is my favourite colour!

I used a technique I learned from Jill Foster at Penny Black. You need a MISTI for this and must remember to leave the stamp in place till the very end!

I used my mini Distress inks in various browns, reds, and greens to ink up the image, spritzing very lightly before stamping each time. I kept building up the layers of colours till I was happy. I used Distress markers to add the brown tips of the berries and the veins on the leaves.

When it was all dry, I inked up the whole stamp with Versamark, stamped over the watercolouring, and heat embossed with clear powder.

I then used Distress Tumbled Glass (tapped on a palette and slightly watered down) to paint a wash background all around it. The embossing powder acts as a resist for the background so you don't have to worry about the colours of the image running.

I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment with Distress Oxide Vintage Photo - I find the Oxide inks are better for detailed or thinly lined images as they stamp more sharply.

At the end, I splattered with watered down white acrylic paint for snow.

I'm also linking it up over at CAS Mix Up's Emboss Resist challenge.  I have stamping, emboss resist, watercolour wash, and splatter.

Are you a traditional Christmas colour person or non-traditional?

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black branches, Northwoods sentiment

Ink - Distress Oxide Vintage Photo, Versamark, various brown, green and red mini Distress inks, Distress Tumbled Glass

Paper - watercolour paper, white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - green and brown Distress markers, clear embossing powder, white acrylic paint, fun foam

Flowers for a Colour Challenge

It's my second week of being a Guest Designer for the November SCS Color Challenges.  This week's colours are:

They are not colours I would normally put together so this was a real challenge for me!   The only thing I was comfortable using them with was a floral bouquet.  The dessert option (just for fun) is NBUS (Never Before Used Stamp) - I had a perfect never used flower stamp!

I used the closest colours in my Zig Clean Brush markers. I inked up each colour one at a time in the MISTI, spritzed very lightly with water, and stamped onto mixed media cs. 

When dry, I added a bit more definition with the Zigs and coloured pencils, sponged lightly around the edges in blue, added a white embossed sentiment on a banner of black cs, and popped it up on fun foam.

I'll be back next week with my third SCS Color Challenge DT card.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black flowers, SU sentiment

Ink - ColorBox Frost White, Memento Sky Blue

Paper - white and black cs, mixed media cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Zig Clean Brush markers, coloured pencils, pearl embellishments, white embossing powder, fun foam

The Great Outdoors

Today I have a card for a few challenges:

The Male Room - "The Great Outdoors"

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - "Colouring"

Penny Black - "Creative Christmas Challenge"

I used Jill Foster's technique seen in this video.

I put the image in the MISTI and coloured the different parts of the image with various small Distress inks (in the video, Jill Foster uses Distress markers - either are fine). When all was stamped, I restamped it all with Versamark and heat embossed in clear. That way I had a resist for sponging the sky, the sunset, and the snow.

I made a small sentiment banner out of kraft cs and mounted the panel on fun foam on a kraft card base.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black image and sentiment

Ink - various small Distress inks, Versamark

Paper -  kraft and white cs

Size - A6

Accessories - clear embossing powder, fun foam