Stencilled Brick with Houses and a New Baby Card

One Christmas and one non-Christmas today!

For Inkspirational "Use Stencils", I used a stencil to create a brick wall background for some festive buildings.  It's for a friend of mine who has little white porcelain houses that light up and she stands them on her mantel against the brick wall of her fireplace.

I created the brick wall with a stencil and embossing paste. Then die cut the houses once from white and once from light gold so that I could create the light inside the houses. I cut a narrow strip of kraft cs for the fireplace mantel the houses are standing on.

My second card is for the Allsorts "New" challenge.  A friend of mine's daughter is having a baby in a few weeks.  

I don't know if the baby will be a boy or girl so I went with colours that could be for either. As a retired librarian, I always buy books for new babies, so this very old stamp I have is perfect. It's coloured with coloured pencils and trimmed with a stitched oval die. The sentiment is also trimmed with a stitched die.

The background is made out of a paper gift bag that contained a gift the expectant mother received from her brother who lives in Sweden. I scooped it up thinking it would be fun to use it for the background for her baby's card. With green cs, I cut out an SSS thin frame die cut, and cut the same out of the background paper, then inset the green one into the background.

  

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Make an Impression sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white, gold, and kraft cs
Size - 4.5" square
Accessories - MFT brick wall stencil, Dreamweaver embossing paste, Charlie and Paulchen dies

Supplies for card:
Stamps - Kids Stamps mouse, SU sentiment
Ink -  Versafine Smokey Grey
Paper - Gina K Pure Ivory cs, green cs, printed paper bag
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Lil Inker stitched oval die, stitched sentiment banner die, SSS thin frame rectangle die

Muted Blues and Greys

I've got three cards today, all in muted blues and greys.

For Double D "Butterfly", Triple B "Birds, Bees, or Butterflies", and Stamping Sensations "Birds, Bees, or Butterflies", I messed around with some mixed media:

I stuck random bits of Tim Holtz rice paper on a piece of white cs, added a bit of gesso, went over some sections of a harlequin stencil with molding paste, stamped with music, text, and splat stamps in grey on a few random places.  Then trimmed the panel and edged it with a black marker.  I stamped teh butterflies in grey, fussy cut them, and edged them with the black marker and popped them up on the card.

Still in the grey colour scheme, I did a variation on a card I made a while back.  This time it's for the Christmas Kickstart Challenge "Let's Wreath It Up" and the Cut It Up Challenge "Anything Goes with a Die Cut".

Using a brick wall stencil, I went over it with a rough mixture of black, copper, and white embossing paste. It came out way too dark and too shiny so I then sponged white gesso over it to lighten it and dull it down a bit. I also splattered a bit of the white gesso on it and then trimmed it with a square die. Trimmed it with a square die and popped it up on the card base with fun foam.  I die cut the wreath twice out of scrap cs and once out of off white shimmer cs, glued them together and added it to the brick wall.  I added a sentiment (die cut with a narrow banner die) over the centre of the wreath.

The new Sparkles Christmas Challenge is "Include a Tree".  

I went with my old Penny Black stamp of snow blowing off trees.  I laid down a circle mask for the moon and then stippled around it with pale blue ink.  Stamped the trees and sentiment and heat embossed with sparkly embossing powder.  Trimmed the panel and popped it up on fun foam.

 
     

     

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - The Stampin' Place butterflies, various music, text, and splat stamps
Ink - Versafine Morning Mist
Paper - white cs, TH rice paper
Size - A2
Accessories - molding paste, harlequin stencil, gesso, black marker

Supplies for card 2: 
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - Distress Pumice Stone and Hickory Smoke, Versafine Smokey Gray
Paper - mixed media cs, chalk cs, off white shimmer cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - MFT brick wall stencil, Dreamweaver black, copper, and white embossing paste, Sizzix wreath die, fun foam, white gesso, narrow strip die

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Penny Black Snow Dust tree, unknown sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne. Memento light blue
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - clear sparkling embossing powder, circle die to create moon mask

Easter Bunnies and Christmas Snowflakes

Cards for two of the big holidays today!

First up an Easter card for Addicted to CAS ("Bunny"), Shopping our Stash ("Hippity Hop"), and Inspired By ("Bunnies").

I die cut the brick wall and layered it over a piece of cs sponged in various red and brown Distress inks. The bunnies are cut from a leftover piece of light brown smooshed cs, and layered for more substance. I went over their ears with a pink coloured pencil and sponged a bit more brown around the edges. Trimmed the panel with a stitched rectangle die.

And then of course, keeping on top of my Christmas card making, this one is for Festive Friday's Earth Day challenge.  For my three things from their list, I chose earthy colours, wooden elements (the snowflakes), and recycled elements (the corrugated panel is part of a Tim Horton's coffee cup sleeve).  Jingle Belles is also having a World Earth Day challenge to use some recyling (again,I used part of a coffee cup sleeve).  It's also for 52 Christmas Card Throwdown ("Kraft and White"), My Time to Craft ( "Rectangle Shaped Cards" - I've got a rectangular card base, and two rectangular panels), Neglected Stuff (I've had the tin of wooden snowflakes for years and never use them), and Word Power (my large sentiment is the big focus of the card).

I trimmed down a Tim Hortons corrugated coffee cup holder and randomly brushed a bit of white paint on it.  I stamped the sentiment on a white panel and added the corrugated panel next to it, then added the white panel to a kraft card base.  I glued three wooden snowflakes to it.

 

  

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - SU sentiment
Ink - various brown and red Distress inks
Paper - white linen cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Charlie and Paulchen bunny dies, pink colour pencil, The Greetery brick wall die

Supplies for card:
Stamps - Magenta sentiment
Ink - Distress Gathered Twigs
Paper - kraft and white cs, Tim Hortons corrugated coffee cup holder
Size - A2
Accessories - wooden snowflakes, white acrylic paint

Paste through a Stencil, Paste without a Stencil

Group of Seven Cardmakers are playing with paste this month.  I made one new card using glitter paste that I coloured with green ink.

I tapped some Rustic Wilderness Distress ink onto my craft mat and mixed in some Nuvo glimmer paste - it has lovely sparkle in it.  I then spread it through a holly stencil on off-white cs.  I kept the card very CAS so that the embossed holly takes centre stage, but I added quite a large sentiment on a banner over a section where the paste went under the stencil.  I finished off with red gemstones on all the berries that were part of the stencil. 

I happened to do a couple of cards using paste recently so I thought I'd repeat them here as they used pastes in two other ways.

This one uses a mixture of pastes to get some interesting varied colour - a rough mixture of black, copper, and white embossing paste. It came out way too dark and too shiny so I then sponged white gesso over it to lighten it and dull it down a bit. I also splattered a bit of the white gesso on it.  See this post for list of supplies and more details.

I mostly use paste through a stencil, but I decided to try a card where I just used paste without a stencil - in this case some Distress Snowfall Grit Paste applied directly to the focal panel to make the snowy ground.  See this post for details.

That's lots more examples from the rest of the Group of Seven design team, and if you're inclined to make a card using paste in some way, please link it up to inspire us with your ideas.

A couple of comments about paste:

1. I decided to check all of my various pastes as I hadn't used a lot of them for a while.  I threw out three pots because they had totally dried out.  They were not nearly as old as my Dreamweaver pastes which I've had for at least 10 years and are still lovely and spreadable.  Sadly Dreamweaver no longer exists.

2. I have a magnetic board and it's one way to hold down cs and stencil but I don't find it as effective as taping the stencil down on the cs.  On the magnetic board, the paste is more likely to go under parts of the stencil.  Or for a very detailed stencil, I recommend Pixie Spray to stick it down really well.

 

I'm also linking up to Stencil Fun (anything with a stencil goes). 

 

Supplies for the holly card:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Rustic Wilderness
Paper - off white cs
Size - 5.5" square
Accessories - Memory Box holly stencil, Nuvo Glimmer Paste, red gemstones, stitched banner die

 

Sled Against a Brick Wall

The new Peace on Earth challenge's mood board has an image of a sled leaning against a brick wall.  It inspired this card.

Using the Tim Holtz brick wall stencil, I sponged with Hickory Smoke and Pumice Stone Distress inks, then went over it with translucent embossing paste.  I trimmed the panel and tore a piece of white cs to create snowy ground.  I stamped the sentiment on it in dark green (and chose a sentiment with the word "believe" in it to go with the word on the sled in the inspiration photo).  I die cut a couple of pieces of greenery (inspired by the greenery on the sled in the photo) and put them on the top of the wall.  I used a white pearl pen to put the white berries on one of them.  The sled is die cut twice from scrap cs and once from a leftover bit of brown smooshed cs, all glued together to give it more dimension.

There's lots more inspiration from the rest of our Design Team over at Peace on Earth!  We'd love to have you join us!

Supplies:
Stamps - Make an Impression sentiment
Ink - Distress Hickory Smoke and Pumice Stone, Memento Northern Pine
Paper - white and green cs, scrap of brown smooshed cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tim Holtz brick wall stencil, Dreamweaver translucent embossing paste, Penny Black sled die, Tim Holtz greenery dies, Viva white pearl pen

A Masculine CAS Card and a Sympathy Card

A few of the challenges I enjoy are asking for masculine cards:  Sweet Stampin' "Masculine Makes", 52 Christmas Card Countdown "Masculine Christmas", and The Paper Players "Masculine Clean and Simple".

Using a brick wall stencil, I went over it with a rough mixture of black, copper, and white embossing paste. It came out way to dark and too shiny so I then sponged white gesso over it to lighten it and dull it down a bit. I also splattered a bit of the white gesso on it and then trimmed it with a square die. I popped it up on the card base with fun foam.

I stamped the sentiment in grey and trimmed it with a narrow strip die sentiment. I die cut the wreath twice out of scrap cs and once out of off white shimmer cs, glued them together and added it to the brick wall.

For my second card today, I needed to make a sympathy card so used Can You Handle the Pressure's "Something Starting with F".  I went with a floral embossing folder and a flower for my focal image.

I inked up the stamp with Tombow markers, trimmed the panel with a stitched rectangle die, popped it up on fun foam on a background embossed with a floral folder, and added a drop of yellow Liquid Pearls to the centre of the flower.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versafine Smokey Gray
Paper - mixed media cs, chalk cs, off white shimmer cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - MFT brick wall stencil, Dreamweaver black, copper, and white embossing paste, Sizzix wreath die, fun foam, white gesso, narrow strip die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU Love and Sympathy flower, unknown sentiment
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Craft Concepts embossing folder, Tombow markers, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle, fun foam, liquid pearl

Brick House at Christmas

For Peace on Earth this time, I chose the bottom left image of our lovely mood board (see it at the end of the post).

I started by rubbing two shades of Distress ink on the brick side of my embossing folder, spritzed lightly with water, inserted my cs, and ran it through the Cuttlebug.  Then trimmed it down and added it to the card base.  I die cut the door and tree twice each and glued them together.  I sponged the tree with a couple of green Distress inks.  I added them to the brick panel, slightly propping the door open with a couple of dimensionals.

Then I created a tiny wreath.  Using my two smallest circle dies, I cut a tiny wreath base out of green cs.  Then with the old Martha Stewart pine branch punch, I punched out several sprigs from mottled green patterned papers.  I cut each sprig in half as I was going for such a small wreath, then overlaped them on the wreath base, gluing each one over a bit from the previous one.  I glued the wreath to the door, added a little red bow and some tiny clear gemstones, added larger clear gemstones to the tree (more like a small bush in this scene), and a silver nailhead embellishment to the door to be the door handle.

I stamped the sentiment in red and die cut it with a pierced banner die.

Here's the mood board with my inspiration on the bottom left:

Head over to Peace on Earth and see how the rest of the Design Team were inspired by the mood board, and then please join us with your inspired card, or if you prefer, an "anything Christmas goes" card.

Supplies:
Stamps - Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - SU Real Red, Distress Fired Brick, Vintage Photo, Evergreen Bough, and Rustic Wilderness
Paper - chalk coloured cs, scraps of green patterned paper
Size - A2
Accessories - Sizzix brick wall embossing folder, Memory Box door die, Martha Stewart pine branch punch, red ribbon, clear gemstones, silver nailhead embellishment, unknown tree die, unknown pierced banner die

Christmas Animals and Snowflakes

Sneaking in under the wire with a card for Jingle Belles "Christmas Creatures" and Christmas Kickstart "Cat Lovers Challenge".  I love both cats and dogs so have both in this image:

The image is stamped and coloured with coloured pencils, bordered with brick red cs, and layered on a dry embossed brick wall to tie in with the bricks in the image.  I went over all the little snowflakes with a glue pen and added glitter (but it doesn't show up in the photo).

And a card with my interpretation of the Inkspirational Challenge Word Prompt "Cold":

I used an old technique of getting a sort of batik look on the background. First I randomly stamped the snowflakes with Versamark ink to fill the page, then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. The next step is to make several folds in all different directions. The embossing powder cracks a bit when folding, but that is part of the technique. I sponged over the whole piece with various blue Distress inks. The fold lines are highlighted after colour is sponged on top. Once I finished sponging, I wiped down my card panel with a paper towel to remove any ink that would have stuck to the embossed image. This made the snowflakes even brighter. 

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Crafters Companion image, SSS sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white cs, brick red shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Sizzix brick embossing folder, glitter

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Visible Image snowflakes
Ink - various blue Distress inks, ColorBox white
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - clear embossing powder, SSS Snowy Greetings die set