Favourite Pet

I recently discovered a new challenge called As You Like It.  Their current challenge is Favourite Pet (and why).  Dogs are absolutely my favourite.  I've had them my whole life.  They are wonderful companions, they get me out walking every day (great for exercise and for meeting neighbours), they give unconditional love and loyalty, and they lower stress.  I currently have two dogs - a 10 year old English Cocker Spaniel, Tessa, and an 11 month old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Pippin.  Here's a recent photo of them sitting by the baskets where their leashes and harnesses are kept waiting to go out for a walk.

Here's my card, featuring a dog very similar to Tessa:

It's a really old stamp that I've had for years. It's coloured with coloured pencils blended with Gamsol to get nice shading on the dog (the bells are coloured with a silver metallic pencil). I trimmed it with a fancy label die and then sponged around the edges with Antique Linen - except it came out grey as the sponge I used was dirty! I popped it up on fun foam. I'm also linking it up with Inkspirational "Christmas in July", Rudolph Days (anything Christmas), and Neglected Stuff (I used a very old stamp).

Supplies:
Stamps - Creative Images
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Antique Linen
Paper - off white paper
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, silver metallic pencil, Gamsol, Sizzix label die, fun foam

Fun with 3-2-1 and Jingle Bells

Try It on Tuesday has a fun challenge called 3-2-1.  I searched for a stamp that would have 3 of something, 2 of something else, etc.  and found this one - I've got 3 ornaments, 2 birds, and 1 tree.

Stamped and watercoloured, trimmed, bordered with green, a sentiment on a stitched sentiment banner, and glossy accents on the ornaments.

ABC Christmas Challenge is "D is for Ding Dong Bells" and Jingle Belles Challenge wants music (I went with the title of a Christmas song).

The bells are die cut out of watercolour paper sprinkled with copper-coloured Magicals and spritzed with water.  They are mounted on a starry embossed panel with copper cord "hanging" them on the panel.  The sentiment is heat embossed with copper and die cut with the same stitched banner die as the first card.

    

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black tree and birds, Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - Distress Lucky Clover, Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, off white and green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Glossy Accents

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - ColorBox copper
Paper - white cs, watercolour paper
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Lil Inker bell dies, star embossing folder, stitched banner die, copper Magicals, copper cord, copper embossing powder

Christmas Bells

Peace on Earth has a heart-themed Christmas mood board in honour of Valentine's Day.  I chose the bottom right image of the bells but added a heart frame to reflect the rest of the mood board.

I stamped the image of the bells and coloured it with a mix of regular coloured pencils and metallic pencils.  I die cut a stitched heart opening out of a piece of red shimmer cs and layered it over the image.  My only sentiment stamps that relate to bells just say things like "jingle bells" or "jingle all the way" and I wanted something that said a bit more so I created the sentiment on the computer, using the first line of a Christmas carol.  I trimmed it with a stitched sentiment die.

Please join us at Peace on Earth.  Here's the mood board that inspired our Design Team's cards.  Will it inspire you?

Supplies:
Stamps - Stampin' Up Bells and Boughs
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - off white cs, red shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, metallic coloured pencils, Memory Box stitched heart die, stitched sentiment die

Glittered Ornament and Jingle Bells

First up, a very CAS card.  My Time to Craft Christmas wants to see glitter.  I used a technique I saw on SCS for using up glitter.  It's also for the Try It On Tuesday Challenge to keep it simple.

I covered a piece of packing tape with a Christmas glitter blend I have (but had never used!). Added a top layer of tape and die cut the ornament. I "hung" it on my centre panel and popped that panel up on fun foam on the card base, and added a sentiment.

I used some of my hammered cs - it adds some nice texture to a very CAS card.  Since I've had it for a couple of years but haven't used any of it yet (and had never used the Christmas glitter mix that I've had for at least 10 years!!!), I'm linking it up at the NBUS Challenge and the Neglected Stuff Challenge.

Now on to my second card for today.  The Jingle Belles Challenge is asking for jingle bells, the ABC Christmas Challenge is "j for jingle bells", and the Double D Challenge wants us to use designer paper.

I die cut the bells twice and glued them together for more dimension.  Added them to some starry designer paper.  Stamped and fussy cut the sentiment and added it.  

   

 
 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment
Ink - ColorBox Gold
Paper - white hammered cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Spellbinders ornament die and long rectangle die, Christmas glitter mix, packing tape, gold thread, gold embossing powder, sentiment strip die, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Dylusions sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx black
Paper - white and gold cs, decorative paper
Size - A2
Accessories - Lil Inker bell dies

Blue Bells for Christmas

My goodness, the weeks roll around quickly!  Time for a new Peace on Earth challenge - anything goes as long as it's Christmas but you can choose to be inspired by the mood board.  I chose the bottom right image (see the mood board below) and made this card:

No stamping on this card - just lots of die cutting.  The branch and sentiment are cut from green shimmer cs, the stitched die cut panel and card base are white shimmer cs, and the bells are blue glitter cs.  I also cut the bells from a scrap of white cs and glued them together to give the bells more substance.  They are hung from the branch with gold cord and popped up a bit with dimensional tape.

Here's the Peace on Earth mood board:

I'm also entering it in the Snippets challenge as I used scraps of shimmer and glitter cs for the die cutting.

Supplies:
Paper - white and green shimmer cs, blue glitter cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Lil Inker bells and stitched rectangle dies, Impression Obsession pine branch die, Essentials by Ellen sentiment dies, foam tape, gold cord

Two More Colour Challenge Cards

Lots of the January challenges have really appealed to me.  I've got two cards today for colour challenges.

Color Hues wants silver and white.

A very quick card with silver heat embossing for the trees and sentiment on the focal panel that is layered on a dry embossed background.

Here's another photo where the dry embossing and the image are sharper but the silver doesn't show up as much (silver is so darn hard to photograph):

My second card is for the Color Throwdown "Red, Cream, and Gold".

Another very quick CAS card.  Stamped and heat embossed in gold on cream cs, with the ribbon coloured with a red marker and the bells coloured with a gold metallic pen.  Trimmed with a stitched rectangle die, bordered in red, and popped up on a cream card base.

Color Hues

 

Color Throwdown

 

Krafty Chicks "Clean and Simple" (for my second card)

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - SU Lovely as a Tree, unknown sentiment
Ink - ColorBox silver
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - silver embossing powder, fun foam, Embossalicious embossing folder

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Creative Images
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - cream cs, red shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold embossing powder, red marker, gold metallic pen, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die, fun foam

Jingle Bells

A quick reminder about the CAS Christmas challenge that is running until June 24th.  This month the theme is Bells.

I stamped the bells on watercolour paper and painted with my Gansai Tambi paints that include metallic gold and copper paints.  I used them on the bells - in real life, there is more shimmer than in the photo.  I fussy cut the bells, popped them up on a cs square with "Jingle" stamped on it, and bordered with gold shimmer cs.

You have until June 24th to enter our "Bells" CAS challenge.  Please check out the other samples from the Design Team if you want more inspiration.

Supplies:
Stamps - SU bells, unknown sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - watercolour paper, gold shimmer and white cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, foam tape

Christmas Bells

The new CAS Christmas challenge is "Bells".

 

It was the perfect opportunity to pull out my bell dies and a scrap of gold glitter cs.

I die cut the bells, carefully saving the little stars that fell out of them.  I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment on white cs and then trimmed it with a wonky stitched rectangle.

I threaded ribbon through the bells and taped it to the back of my sentiment panel, and then popped the bells up in place with pop dots.  I glued on the little stars that fell out of the dies.  I added the panel to the card base with fun foam.

We'd love to have you join us at CAS Christmas.  There is lots of inspiration from our Design Team and this month's Guest Designer, LeAnne (Wee Inklings).  You have until June 24th to enter.

Supplies:
Stamps - Impression Obsession sentiment
Ink - Distress Oxide Candied Apple
Paper - gold glitter and white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Lil Inker bell dies, MFT Wonky Stitched rectangle die, sparkly embossing powder, pop dots, fun foam

A Dog with Bells

The Jingle Belles challenge wants "Bells" on our cards this time.

And The 12 Months of Christmas challenge is "Deck the Paws" - have a dog or a cat as the main focus.

I have a stamp that covers both challenges!

I stamped and heat embossed the dog and sentiment, then masked it and added the stars through a stencil, using silver embossing paste.  I coloured the bells with a silver glitter pen and bordered the panel with silver cs and popped it up on the card base.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope everyone is doing okay.

Supplies:
Stamps - Creative Images
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white and silver cs
Size - A2
Accessories - clear embossing powder, Memory Box star stencil, silver embossing paste, silver glitter pen, fun foam

Musical Notation with Bells

The 52 Christmas Card Throwdown wants us to pick one of the challenges from 2017.  I chose April 2017:

Here's my card:

I die cut the bells out of scraps of white cs, rubbed Versamark over them and added the new Emerald Creek Charred Gold embossing powder, and then repeated both steps again to get a lovely thick coating that really looks like metal. I die cut another set of the bells and glued them to the backs of the heat embossed ones to give more substance.

The sentiment (that is words to a carol so appropriate with the musical notation background) is heat embossed with a detail platinum embossing powder and then trimmed with a deckle edge die.

Bells and sentiment are mounted on a music embossed background, and for the cords on the bells, I twisted pieces of both gold and silver SU metallic cord together - blended together they are closer in colour to the bells.

I hope you're all enjoying the Christmas music.  I don't like it to start too early - round about now is when I always start listening.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black sentiment

Ink - Versamark

Paper - white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Lil Inker Jingle Bells dies, PSX Platinum embossing powder, Emerald Creek Charred Gold embossing powder, Sizzix embossing folder, Spellbinders deckle edge die, SU gold and silver cord

Tessa Plays with the Sleigh Bells!

The latest Addicted to CAS challenge is:

 

I decided to add to my Christmas card stash and base it on my own pets by using a stamp of an English Cocker Spaniel:

I love my old Creative Images stamp of a spaniel tangled up in a ribbon of sleigh bells. It comes with the sentiment as part of it so makes for a quick card.

 

I coloured the ribbon in red copic marker and the bells with a gold glitter pen. Die cut the panel with a stitched rectangle die and popped it up on a dark gold card base.  I die cut some stars out of the same dark gold cs and scattered them around the top of the dog.

 

The image looks a lot like my dogs, especially the younger one, who's still puppy enough to do exactly what the dog in the image is doing!

Those of you who read about and saw puppy photos of Tessa on my blog last summer might be wondering how she's doing - she's 9 months old now, a very happy energetic and playful dog.  Here's a recent photo photo of her happily playing outside and getting tired and grubby:

And my dear old Will turned 13 on January 31st.  Here's a photo of him from last summer, still a handsome boy:

Pets are so enriching in our lives.  I'm looking forward to seeing all the other ATCAS Pet cards!

Supplies:

Stamps - Creative Images

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - white and dark gold cs

Size - A2

Accessories - red copic marker, gold glitter pen, SSS star die, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, fun foam