Slimline with Pine Cone, a Tobogganing Bunny, and a Wreath

Three more cards for challenges about to close - all Christmas this time.  First up for 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Slimline":

I put the stamp in my MISTI and inked it up with Inktense watercolour pencils, spritzed lightly with water, and stamped on watercolour paper.  I stamped the sentiment in red and sponged a bit of Distress Pumice Stone along the bottom edge.  Trimmed the panel and bordered it with red cs.

The Penny Black Saturday Challenge wants to see Four-legged Friends.

Stamped and coloured with coloured pencils, trimmed, added to a red card base, and embellished with small die cut snowflakes.

And lastly for the ABC Christmas Challenge "F is for Foliage" and "G is for Gems":

I made a thin circle out of scrap green cs using two circle dies, then punched many little pine branches out of scraps of dp (mostly pieces that had images of grass or leaves on them). I glued them onto the die cut circle, added it to the background square of dp, and bordered with a square of red cs. Finished with a small die cut sentiment in the middle like the inspiration image has and red gemstones for berries. It's not the quickest card to make but I really like the final results.  

    

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black image, Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - Distress Candied Apple and Pumice Stone
Paper - watercolour paper, off white and red cs
Size - 6.25x3.25"
Accessories - Inktense watercolour pencils

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white and red cs
Size - 5.5x4"
Accessories - coloured pencils, small snowflake dies

Supplies for card 3:
Paper - off white and red cs, dps, scraps of green dp
Size - 5" square
Accessories - Martha Stewart pine branch punch, Spellbinders circle and square dies, Spellbinders joy die, red gemstones

 

More Pink for Jingle Belles and a Hanukkah Card

I really admire Stef and Lauren of Jingle Belles for running their Pink Christmas challenge every year to raise money for breast cancer research.  It's a challenge for me for sure as I struggle with using non-traditional colours on my Christmas cards.  But I persevered and this year I made two pink Christmas cards (the other was posted in my previous post).  Here's the second:

This one has a real old rose shade of pink.  I used a piece of patterned paper for the background and then chose the closest shade of pink from amongst the several different shades of pink glitter cardstock that I have.  I die cut the poinsettia out of it once, and then cut it twice more out of scrap cs, then glued them together and added them to the patterned paper.  I used a very pale pink/grey shade of cs for the base and for the sentiment square.

My second card today is for Inkspirational - it wants to see a seasonal card (a card for one of the occasions in one of the seasons).  I chose Hanukkah for a change from Christmas cards.

There is a SCS tutorial for making the paper star here.  I used a lovely double-sided decorative paper I've had in my stash for ages.  I topped it with a silver glitter die cut Star of David and added it to a plain white card base with a heat embossed sentiment.

One more thing - few weeks ago, I posted this card:

In my post (see here), I mentioned not being that happy with the card.  A couple of people offered suggestions in the comments so I looked at it again and decided to add a green frame around the stencilling.  I cut a square out of the same green shimmer cs as the border layer and then used the original inverted scallop die to cut out the centre of the green square.  I glued it over the white layer.  Here's the result:

I was pretty happy with the results so I'll put the card in my fundraiser sale and see if it sells!

    

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - small noel
Ink - Distress dark pink
Paper - dp, pink glitter cs, light pink/grey cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Penny Black poinsettia die, small square die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU sentiment
Ink - ColorBox silver
Paper - white cs, patterned paper, silver glitter cs
Size - A2
Accessories - silver embossing powder, SSS Star of David die

Two Non-Christmas Cards

You all know how my main focus is Christmas cards but I've just made a bunch of them for SCS Falliday Fest challenges as I'm hosting one of the challenges coming up Oct 17 and also made samples for some of the other challenges.  So if you're a SCS member, be sure to head over and check out the challenges - four new ones posted each day from Oct 10 - 19.

So I decided to take a break and make two non-Christmas cards.  There are a bunch of great autumn-themed challenges out on blogland so I made this card for these ones: Try It On Tuesday "Autumn Magic", Stamping Sensations "Autumn Colours", My Time to Craft "Autumn Season Colors", The Four Seasons Challenge "Fall", and AAA Card Challenge "Autumn".  I'm also linking up to Addicted to CAS "Masculine".

Stamped and watercoloured, trimmed with a label die, and popped up on fun foam on a kraft card base.  I went over the berries with Glossy Accents.

The Paper Players' challenge is "Love is in the Air" so I'm entering this card:

The heart was done in a hot foiling machine and was not totally successful - it's missing quite a lot of the gold foil.  But I quite like it anyway as it has kind of a distressed look.  I popped it up on fun foam on a square I embossed with the SU Subtle folder.  Added it to a white card base and die cut the word "love" from red glitter paper.

 

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Magenta leaves and berries, unknown sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - kraft cs, watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - Sizzix die, foam tape, watercolour paints, Glossy Accents

Supplies for card 2:
Paper - white cs, red glitter cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Glimmer gold foil, SU Subtle embossing folder, Great Expressions Decorative Heart die, Tim Holtz sentiment die

Valentines, Houses, and Berries

Sneaking in under the wire with a Valentine card for Festive Friday "Valentine's Day" (I chose red, hearts, and a love sentiment out of their required elements list) and the Tic Tac Toe challenge (I chose the left hand vertical row of heart, red, and die cut).  I'm adding it to the AAA CAS Valentine challenge as well. 

I found the die cut heart that had text stamped on it in my UFO box. It's leftover from this card made back in 2022. So I decided to turn it into a Valentine for this year.

I dry embossed a strip of hearts across the card base, layered the heart on it, added a die cut sentiment, and a small matching solid red heart to the centre of the big heart.

And also sneaking under the wire with a Christmas card for the Jingle Belles challenge "Something Old ... Something New".  I have a very old window die and some old little snowflake dies combined with some new house dies.

I die cut the window out of cream cs and glued it to a white cardbase. I die cut the snowflakes and houses out of kraft cs and smooshed them into some brown Distress inks smeared on my craft mat. Added them to the card along with a stamped sentiment.

And today I have a Threefer so that I can sneak in under the wire once more.  This time it's for My Time to Craft Christmas "Berries".  I'm also adding it to the ABC Christmas challenge "B is for Berries".

It seemed a great opportunity to use up some berry-covered dp.  I paired it with an image that also has some berries on it.  I coloured the image with watercolour paints and cut my focal image with a circle die.  I cut a slightly larger circle out of a shimmer cs that's the closest colour I had to the stems in the dp and the leaves in the image for a border. 

   

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Wendy Vecchi script background stamp
Ink - Memento Rhubarb Stalk
Paper - white and dark red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Memory Box heart dies, Poppy Stamps sentiment die, SU hearts embossing folder

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU cardinal, SSS sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Speckled Egg
Paper - watercolour paper, dp, off white and shimmery light green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Spellbinders circle dies

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - PB sentiment
Ink - Distress Frayed Burlap, Walnut Stain, and Gathered Twigs
Paper - kraft, white, and cream cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - Charlie und Paulschen house dies, PB tiny snowflake dies, Memory Box
window die
  

Christmas Birds and Snow Dust

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

I treated myself to a Penny Black stamp I'd been eyeing for a while (even though I have more than enough Christmas bird stamps - but I just can't resist them!).

I bought it not realizing how big it is - hard to use on a regular A2 card so this is quite a bit larger.  I kept it simple - stamped and watercoloured, trimmed with my Tim Holtz deckle edge trimmer, and added to a red card base.  I added Glossy Accents to all the berries.

It's for a few challenges - Penny Black Saturday Challenge "Christmas", NBUS, Christmas Cards All Year Round "Anything Christmas", Shopping Our Stash "Winter Holidays", and Triple B "Birds, Butterflies, and Blooms".

A second card today is for two challenges - Double D "Winter / Snow Scene".  I was inspired by the beautiful blue and white of the snowy scenes in their mood board (see below).  And for Stamping Sensations "Favourite Colours" - my absolute favourite colour is blue, and I love blue and white together.

I stamped the trees with Versamark and heat embossed with a glitter white embossing powder. Then added a mask to create a snow bank and sponged two shades of blue Distress ink over the panel. The sentiment is die cut from white shimmer cs and stacked twice for dimension. The panel is popped up on fun foam on a white shimmer card base.

     

 

       

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black birds, SU sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, dark red cs
Size - 5.5x4.75"
Accessories - watercolour paints, Tim Holtz deckle edge trimmer, Glossy Accents

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black Snow Dust
Ink - Versamark, Distress Stormy Sky and Chipped Sapphire
Paper - white cs, white shimmer cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Penny Black winter die, Judikins White Diamond embossing powder, fun foam

A Squirrel for Autumn and a Winter Landscape

It seems I'm often sneaking in under the wire for challenges!  Here I go again with two cards.

First up, for The Four Seasons Fall challenge, I was totally inspired by the sweet little squirrel in the bottom right image on their mood board (see below).

I stamped the squirrel on watercolour paper and then again on masking paper - fussy cut the mask and laid it over the squirrel on the watercolour paper. I then stamped the berry branches over the squirrel. Watercoloured, trimmed the panel, bordered with black, added to a cream card base, and went over the berries with Glossy Accents.

I'm sending it to my sister - she's moving and said one of the little things she'll miss (hence the sentiment) is the antics of the squirrels at her present house.

Next up, for Cardz 4 Guyz "A Winter Scene" and 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Winter Countryside":

I stamped the image, coloured the buildings and trees with alcohol markers, sponged the sky with pearlescent ice blue ink, sprinkled with chunky white embossing powder and heated it from underneath to create the falling snow, and popped the panel up on fun foam on a dark green card base.

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - ArtSpecially squirrel, Penny Black berries, Chocolate Baroque sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, black and cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Glossy Accents, masking paper

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Serendipity Winter Farm, SSS sentimen
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne, Brilliance Pearlescent Ice Blue,
Paper - mixed media cs, dark green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - alcohol markers, Stampendous Frantage Chunky White embossing powder, fun foam