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

Summer on the Beach

We've been having lovely summer weather in Vancouver (even too hot at times, but lots of sunshine).  So a beach-themed card seemed perfect for the Four Seasons Challenge's last Summer challenge.  

I used a stamp I haven't inked up before and created a simple watercoloured scene, framed in black.

The Four Seasons Challenge has a lovely mood board for inspiration.  I saw the image on the top right (see the mood board below) to inspire my beach scene.  I used the colours of the drink for my umbrella and deck chairs.

I'm also linking up with Darnell's NBUS (never before used stuff) challenge.

Supplies:
Stamps - Inkylicious beach scene, Lawn Fawn sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, black and cream cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, Spellbinders square dies

Birds on the Beach, Birds at their Birdhouse

Addicted to CAS has a challenge called "Code Word: Water".  I got out an old favourite stamp for it and created a watery beach scene.

I created the background using the Floating Alcohol Inks technique (see this video for instructions). I dropped a couple of shades of blue AIs in a pan of water and dragged my mixed media cs through it. 

When dry, I stamped and heat embossed the sandpipers on an area that looked like watery sand at the edge of the ocean and stamped the gulls in the sky. I wanted the sentiment to be slightly more muted so used a different ink and did not heat emboss it.

I die cut the image with a stitched circle die, and then die cut a slightly larger circle out of black cs to border it.

And in my second card, the birds are at their birdhouse - inspired by the image for the Just Us Girls Photo Week Challenge (see below).

I stamped on watercolour paper, painted, bordered in black, and went over the branches with a Quickie glue pen and added some glitter.

Addicted to CAS

 

Just Us Girls 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - SU Wetlands, Inkylicious sea gulls, PTI sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - black, white, and mixed media cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - various blue alcohol inks, clear embossing powder, Lil Inker stitched circle die, Spellbinders circle die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Magenta, Stampendous noel sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, cream and black cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, glitter, Spellbinders square dies

Summertime = Beach Time

The new Addicted CAS Challenge is Summertime.

Living in Vancouver, Canada means I get to spend summer days at the beach - usually the off-leash beach at low tide when my dog, Tessa, can run over the sand, chasing balls to her heart's delight.  Here she is on quite a windy (but warm) day:

I'm sure the sentiment on this card is exactly how Tessa feels!

For the shells, I pulled some scraps of coated cs that had various colours of brushos on them - die cut the base of the shells from the more coloured parts and the top outline of the shells from mostly white sections. Some glue squished out while I was gluing the top outlines on the bases so I sprinkled glitter over them to soak up the excess glue.

The blue panel is on Yupo. I smooshed the Yupo into a mixture of blue acrylic paint that had been spritzed with water. I framed it for added interest and clustered the seashells at the bottom corners.

I stamped the sentiment with a Kaleidacolor ink pad.

Now I think Tessa and I need to head to the beach!!

Supplies:

Stamps - Technique Junkie sentiment

Ink - Kaleidacolor Blue Breeze

Paper - white cs, Yupo, coated cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Elizabeth Craft Designs seashell dies, brushos, MFT Pierced Square Frame die, blue acrylic paint, glitter

Sitting by the Sea

For this month's CAS Watercolour theme of "Summer", I borrowed some stamps of deckchairs from my friend, Christine.  I already posted this card using one of her stamps but wanted to use another one before I give them back.  I was inspired to get it done today because of today's SCS Ways to Use It challenge "That's Sea Worthy".

It's another card inspired by my childhood holidays in England on the south coast with my grandparents. My grandmother always brought her deckchair to the beach and watched us children while we made sandcastles. She always brought a bottle of lemon or orange squash for us to drink.

I stamped and watercoloured, trimmed the panel and popped it up on fun foam, and then added a trio of little starfish to the bottom corner of the cardbase.

Please come and join us at CAS Watercolour before June 24th!

Supplies:

Stamps - Kittie Kits chair, sandcastle, and starfish; Rosie's Roadshow sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, fun foam

Deckchairs in the Sand Dunes

Time to remind you to come and join us at CAS Watercolour for our June challenge!

The card (see this blog post) I made for the opening of the challenge was inspired by the part of my childhood spent in Ontario - it depicted a Muskoka (or Adirondack) chair.  Today's card depicts the canvas deckchairs of my English childhood (I was born and raised in England until the age of 10 when we moved to Canada).

My grandparents lived on the south coast of England and I spent many summer days on the beach with them.  They would always carry their deckchairs down to the beach as they didn't like sitting on the sand.  The chairs are quintessentially English - rarely seen in North America, but Ikea was selling them one year and I just had to buy one in memory of my childhood.

My good friend, Christine (of It's a Card Day's Night and fellow CAS Watercolour DT member), has this wonderful stamp and die set so I borrowed it from her to continue my theme of summer memories for the CAS Mix Up challenge.  She grew up in Wales so the deckchairs are no doubt part of her childhood too!

I stamped and watercoloured the row of chairs, and then used the matching die to cut them out.  On another piece of watercolour paper, I thoroughly wet the lower half and dropped in lots of sand coloured paint.  When dry, I randomly wet the upper half and dropped in just a bit of blue paint.  When that was dry, I stamped my sentiment (the card is going to an English friend who has a summer birthday).

The die cut chairs are glued down along the bottom edge but popped up with foam tape along their upper edge to give some dimension.

I did a second version using the same stamp but without die cutting the chairs.

This one will go to my cousin in England who still lives in the small town on the coast where our grandparents lived.

Please come and join us at CAS Watercolour.  There is lots of inspiration from the rest of the Design Team.  You have until June 24th to link up your clean and simple watercolour card on the theme of Summer. 

Supplies:

Stamps - Local King Rubber Stamp deckchairs, SU sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, PTI Vintage Cream cs

Size - 6.25x4.5"

Accessories - Local King die, Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, fun foam, foam tape

Two Beach Cards

It's the beginning of July and that means summer holidays, beaches, sand, and sunshine.  I'm fortunate enough to live in Vancouver, Canada within a 10 minute drive of our local beaches.

Today over at SCS, the Free for All challenge is to create a beach-themed card.  And the Mixability challenge is to use a favourite phrase or sentiment on a mixed media card.  I combined the two challenges and created this card:

I used a piece of fine grit sandpaper for the sand on the beach. I stamped my sentiment (isn't it a great one!?) on top of it and heat embossed it to make it stand out more.

The water is done with a piece of blue wavy dp. I inked up a text stamp with gesso and wiped a bit of it off so that it stamped randomly on the blue dp. I tore the bottom edge of it to create the waves lapping on the sand. To make some whitecaps and the froth of the waves reaching the sand, I used some watered down white acrylic paint.

I die cut a bunch of small shells and sponged them with various Distress inks. I added a sponged die cut seagull to the top edge.


A few weeks ago I made a similar card that I never got around to posting.  It's a great companion to the card above, but uses different shell dies, bister for the water, and the sentiment stamped on the water instead of the sand.  Here it is:

The sea was made by tearing one edge of a piece of coated cs and then sprinkling with blue bister and spritzing. Once dry, I stamped a few bits of text by inking up the text stamp with white gesso (it's hard to see but it is there - upper right and lower left) and stamped the sentiment with archival ink.

Here's wishing everyone a wonderful summer!

Supplies for the first card:

Stamps - Impression Obsession sentiment, Stampers Anonymous text stamp

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, various Distress Inks

Paper - white cs, sandpaper, Paper Studio dp

Size - A2

Accessories - Impression Obsession bird die, Memory Box shell dies, white acrylic paint, white gesso, clear embossing paste 

Supplies for the second card:
Stamps - Impression Obsession sentiment, unknown text stamp 
Ink - Archival Jet Black, various Distress inks 
Paper - white cs, coated cs, sandpaper 
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - blue bister, white gesso, Elizabeth Craft Designs shell dies, fun foam