Gold Angel

For the new Peace on Earth challenge, I was inspired by the top right image on our mood board to use an angel and keep the colour scheme gold and white.

I stamped and heat embossed the angel and sentiment in gold, trimmed it with a square die, layered it on some gold and white dp, and then added all that to a white card base.

Here's our mood board.  Check out how the rest of the Design Team was inspired by it over at Peace on Earth.

I'm also linking it up with Try It on Tuesday "Emboss It" challenge - the angel is heat embossed.

Supplies:
Stamps - Inkadinkado angel, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - white cs, gold and white dp
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - gold embossing powder, Spellbinders square dies

A Musical Angel and a Hexagonal Card

The ABC Christmas Challenge wants "M for Music" and My Time to Craft Christmas wants "Music for Christmas".  I've gone with an angel playing a trumpet.

I stamped and heat embossed the image in gold, fussy cut it, layered it over some DP, and added a die cut sentiment.

My twofer today is for Jingle Belles "Shaped Card" (anything other than a square or rectangle) and 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Color an Image".  I went with a hexagonal card and coloured the robin with markers.  This card is a CASE of something I saw elsewhere so cannot take credit for the overall idea.

To create the card base, I used stitched hexagon dies and joined them at the top with a cs hinge.  

I cut a third large hexagon to create my design on.  To create the outer border, I stamped the holly branches with green ink, using first, second, and third generation stamping.  Then added the pine branches with brown ink.  I coloured the holly berries with a red Posca paint pen marker.

I stamped the robin image in the centre and coloured it with markers.  Then with a smaller stitched hexagon die, I die cut the centre out.  Then glued the remaining part of the large hexagon to the front layer of the card base I'd created earlier.  I used the same small die to cut another small hexagon from scrap cs, set that one in the opening, and then added the one with the robin on the top of it.  This gave it a bit of dimension.

I finished by going over all the holly berries with Glossy Accents.

    

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Deep Red
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - off white cs, unknown dp
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - gold embossing powder, Penny Black joy die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Lavinia holly branch and pine branch stamps, Nellie Snellen robin
Ink - Versafine Clair Shady Lane and Pine Cone
Paper - white cs
Size - to fit in a 6" envelope
Accessories - hexagonal stitched dies, markers, Glossy Accents

Quick Heat Embossed Cards and a Mixed Media Tag

I made a couple of quick and CAS cards for last minute challenge entries today.

First up for Christmas Craft Creations "Metallics" , Inkspirational "Clean and Simple", and  My Time to Craft Christmas "Joy to the World":

I think gold heat embossing on cream cs is so elegant!  And this was so quick to make - sentiment and image stamped and heat embossed in gold, trimmed into a square, popped up on fun foam on the card base.  I put the sentiment right under the trumpet, thinking that maybe the angel is playing Joy to the World.

Next card, for The Twelve Months of Christmas "Christmas Baubles" and for NBUS as I used a stamp I'd never used before:

It's a large stamp that fills up most of the card and has some solid areas so I stamped it in my MISTI.  I used a beautiful blue metallic ink and heat embossed with a sparkly embossing powder.  Trimmed it, added it to the cardbase, and ran a sentiment strip across at an angle so that I could cover a bit over on the right where the heat embossing didn't cover it very well.

And finally for Sweet Stampin' "Tags":

I had great fun playing with a lot of mixed media products (quite out of my comfort zone) to create some backgrounds using Jennifer McGuire's recent video "Background Magic".

On a large piece of heavy cs, I brayered different shades of blue ink and sprayed with some mica spray, stamped with a snowflakes background stamp in darker blue, stamped a few bits of tiny stars in gold, stamped a few tiny Christmas words in blue and gold, and stenciled some larger stars and snowflakes with grit paste. Then trimmed the panel into a few different pieces.

I cut a tag out of part of it, added a couple of die cut snowflakes, a TH label sticker, and some ribbon printed with snowflakes.

You'll be seeing more cards that use pieces of my background soon.

  

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Deep Red angel, PTI sentiment
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - cream cs
Size - 4.25" square
Accessories - gold embossing powder, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Local King ornaments, Mama Elephant sentiment
Ink - Encore Metallic Blue, Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - SU Iridescent Ice embossing powder, Mama Elephant sentiment strip die

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - SSS small sentiments, Impression Obsession snowflakes and stars background stamps
Ink - Versafine Clair Twilight, various blue Distress inks, Delicata gold
Paper - mixed media cs
Size -5.25x3"
Accessories - Distress mica stain Frosted Juniper, TH grit paste, TH star stencil, Carta Bella snowflake stencil, tag die, TH snowflake dies, TH label stick-on, blue snowflake ribbon

M is for Music / Hollyhocks

The ABC Christmas Challenge is asking for either L is for Little or M is for Music - I'm going with M is for Music.

I made a very quick Christmas card with both a musical background and a musical instrument.  I heat embossed image and sentiment, and layered over an embossed musical score.

And a second card for today, this time for The Paper Players' "Green Thumb" challenge.  I love a lot of the old fashioned flowers and one of my favourites is hollyhocks.  I finally I have a good patch of them in my garden after letting them self sow each year.

I stamped them and painted them with the muted colours of my Cosmic Shimmer Botanical Stains. Added a sentiment on vellum and bordered it with black.

ABC Christmas Challenge

 

 The Paper Players

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Deep Red angel, unknown sentiment
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - ivory cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold embossing powder, musical score embossing folder

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - The Stampin' Place hollyhocks, Impression Obsession sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, PTI Vintage Cream cs, black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Cosmic Shimmer Botanical Stains, fun foam

Hark the Herald Angels Sing

This week's SCS CAS challenge is asking for a card relating to our Christmas Eve traditions.  I love to sit by the fire and listen to beautiful Christmas carols, especially those by fabulous choirs like Kings College, Cambridge.

Here's a You Tube video of them performing Hark the Herald Angels Sing to put you in the mood of this card:

 

You might not be able to see it, but this stamp has the words "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" written across the top.

I used a snippet of Yupo coloured with blue alcohol inks from my box of backgrounds. With the stamp in my MISTI so it wouldn't smudge on the Yupo, I used black pigment ink and clear embossing powder.

Trimmed the image, bordered with a scrap of slightly shiny black cs, and popped it up on a shimmery white card base.

I'm linking it up at the following challenges:

Snippets Pixie's Playground (I used snippets of background and black cs from my leftovers)

52 Christmas Cards Throwdown (use a previous 2019 challenge - I used both May's Theme Challenge "Choral" and January's Technique Challenge "Heat Embossing") 

Christmas Kickstart Challenge "Last Minute Madness" - making a card on Dec. 24th is definitely last minute!

Supplies:
Stamps - Deep Red
Ink - various blue alcohol inks, Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white shimmer cs, black cs, Yupo
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - clear embossing powder, fun foam

Upcycled Angels

Merry Monday is asking for angels on a Christmas card this week.

I keep some of the most beautiful commercial Christmas cards people send me as I can't bear to throw them in the recycling bin.  And every so often, I go back to what started me making cards - recycling or upcycling the cards I've received.  This challenge was perfect for one card I've been hoarding in my stash of favourite commercial cards.  I should have taken a photo of it before I cut it up - it was a tall narrow card with three angel images on it, each image being in its own square.  I turned it into two cards:

For the one on the left, I fussy cut one of the squares containing an angel, layered it over a bit of the commercial card's background, then added it to a shimmery white layer, and popped that up on a shimmery dull gold card base.

For the one on the left, I fussy cut the other two squares.  I stamped my sentiment on a piece of patterned tissue paper, glued that on a gold border and then onto a white card base.  The two angel squares are popped up on fun foam.

I'm going to send one of them to the person who originally sent me the commercial card and see if she recognizes it.

Supplies:

Stamps - Hero Arts sentiment

Ink - ColorBox gold

Paper - white, white shimmer, dull gold shimmer, and gold cs; patterned tissue paper

Size -  4.25" square and A2

Accessories - clear embossing powder, commercial Christmas card, fun foam

An Angel for Merry Monday

A new year of Christmas challenges has begun at Merry Monday.  First up is "angels":

I have a couple of angel stamps but my favourite is the one I chose to use here:

I made a background by sprinklng blue brushos on coated cs and spritzing with water.  When dry, I stamped and heat embossed both angel and sentiment.  I popped the panel up on fun foam.

Because the angel is playing an instrument, I used a song title as my sentiment and a musical score embossing folder for my background.

Love getting my Christmas cards made throughout the year, thanks to challenges like Merry Monday!

Supplies:

Stamps - Deep Red angel, PTI sentiment

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - white cs, coated cs

Size - A2

Accessories - blue brushos, Darice embossing folder, clear embossing powder, fun foam

Three Different Angels

Because I hold a fundraiser sale of my Christmas cards every November, I have to make lots of Christmas cards and try to do it throughout the year.  The SCS Christmas Card Challenge helps me as you get to set a monthly quota, and they post optional monthly themes if you need ideas.

All well and good in theory, but lots of participants fall off the rails and fail to get their monthly quotas made.  Every other year that I've done it, I've managed to do my 10 a month.  This year I am so far behind (I'm blaming it on my new puppy!).  I needed 3 more for July so used the optional July theme of angels.

I dug some smooshed blue and silver Inka Gold backgrounds out of my UFO box and used 3 different angel stamps.  The first card is also for the current Sparkle Creations Christmas Card Challenge to be inspired by this photo:

Here are my three cards:

To learn how to smoosh with Inka Gold, I highly recommend Loll Thompson's video tutorial here.  You can get quite a lot of backgrounds out of one session - they do get paler and less intense as you go along, but that is fine as the paler ones are often better for backgrounds while the early pulls that are more intense can be used for die cuts.

All the images are stamped in Versafine with clear embossing powder to give maximum definition on the Inka Gold background.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps - 1st and 3rd cards - Deep Red; 2nd card - Inkadinkado

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - all cards - mixed media cs for the Inka Gold backgrounds;  1st card - shimmery white cs;  2nd card - black and white cs;  3rd card - blue and white shimmery cs

Accessories - clear embossing powder;  1st card - MFT pierced frame die;  3rd card - SU punches for the sentiment

A Favourite Christmas Carol

This week's Merry Monday challenge is Christmas Carols.  Lori wants to see what our favourite carols are.  Impossible to name just one as I love so many, but one that always makes my top list is "Joy to the World".

I'm trying to use up at least one piece from my UFO box each week.  For those who don't know what "UFO" means for cardmakers, it is an "un-finished object".  I first heard Bonnie Klass of Merry Monday use the term so very appropriate that I'm using a UFO for a Merry Monday card!

Back in December, I decided to make some smooshed Inka Gold backgrounds, not realizing how little Inka Gold you needed to use - I used so much that I ended up with many pieces, several of which ended up in UFO box as they are too lovely to toss.

I stamped my angel and sentiment in black and heat embossed with a sparkly embossing powder.  I bordered it with black and added some silver sequins and sequin stars.

Thanks for dropping by.

Supplies:

Stamps: Inkadinkado angel, PTI sentiment

Paper: mixed media, white, and black cs

Paper Size: 5.25" square

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black

Accessories: blue and silver Inka Gold, silver sequins and sequin stars, sparkly black embossing powder, Lil Inkers stitched square die

Silver and Gold

I'm back to Christmas cards today.  First up is one for Merry Monday's "Black, White, and Grey/Silver" challenge.

I stamped and heat embossed my image in black, then went over the bells with a quickie glue pen and added silver glitter.  I stencilled stars around the dog and used a silver texture paste topped with the same silver glitter.  Bordered with black and added to a white card base.

To help me get all of my Christmas cards before autumn arrives, I take part in the SCS Christmas Card Challenge.  You set yourself a monthly quota and try to stick to it.  Mine is 10 per month so this will be one of my March cards.

I fell behind a bit in February so needed one more for my quota of 10.  Various members suggest optional themes for each month - February's was white and gold so today's card is for that:

A quick card that (with my MISTI) would be easy to mass produce (if I were so inclined). Angel and sentiment are heat embossed in gold, the panel is popped up on fun foam, and some gold sequins scattered about.

Thanks for visiting!

Supplies for the first card:

Stamps: Creative Images

Paper: white and black cs

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black

Accessories: clear embossing powder, Memory Box star stencil, Heidi Swapp silver texture paste, silver glitter, quickie glue pen

Supplies for the second card:

Stamps: Inkadinkado angel, PTI sentiment

Paper: white cs

Paper Size: A2

Ink: ColorBox gold

Accessories: gold embossing powder, gold sequins, fun foam

"Jump Start" Backgrounds

Today over at Splitcoasstampers, Dini posted an interesting Mix-Ability challenge to start out a crafting session by making a bunch of backgrounds.  Then, if you like them, turn them into something shareable.  The challenge is called "Jump Start, Share Art".

I put some blue and silver Inka Gold on my craft sheet and spritzed it with some water and some homemade silver spray.   I smooshed pieces of watercolour paper and mixed media cs into it, spritzing in between each piece as needed.  I used way too much Inka Gold as I had enough on my craft sheet to make many background pieces.

 

But since I sold all of my Christmas cards at my fundraiser sale last weekend, I need to make a bunch more Christmas cards to send out myself!  So I decided these backgrounds would be perfect with simple black images stamped on them - a quick way to make lots of cards.  

Because the backgrounds were quite warped from the wet smooshing process and also a bit textured with lumpy bits of Inka Gold, I used the MISTI to stamp the images in Versafine Onyx Black - it's wonderful to have to option of restamping for a better image. I heat embossed with detail black powder.

 

Then I trimmed and mounted the images in various ways.  Here are some finished cards:

And a close-up of the owl one:

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps - Inkadinkado, Deep Red

Ink - Versfine Onyx Black

Accessories - silver and blue Inka Gold, homemade silver spray, Ranger detail black embossing powder, Bo Bunny silver glitter paste, Tim Holtz stencil, foam tape,  silver star sequins, MFT pierced frame die, SU sentiment punch