Kraft with a Christmas Tree, a Jolly Owl, and Forget-Me-Nots

Sparkles Christmas Challenge wants to see "kraft card". And the Christmas Kickstart Challenge is "Out on a Limb" - something you find on a limb of a tree.  I have created a snowy effect on all the limbs of my tree.

In keeping with the rustic look of kraft, I wrapped a piece of burlap around my top layer of kraft (which I'd trimmed with a wonky stitched rectangle die) and topped it with a Christmas tree die cut once out of green cs and once out of white, layered so that the white shows as if it were snow on the tree branches.  I embellished the tree with a few tiny die cut stars.

Jingle Belles challenge is "Text Me" - I picked the option of having the sentiment be the star. Stamping Sensations wants "Animals, Birds, and Creatures" - I have an owl.

I stamped the owl / sentiment (they are all on one stamp), coloured everything but the crown with coloured pencils, and coloured the crown with a gold glitter gel pen. Trimmed the panel with a square hemstitch die, added it to a red card base, and embellished with three tiny red gemstones on the holly sprig.

Just to balance out the Christmas cards, here's a non-Christmas one.  Festive Friday is celebrating International Women's Day.  I made a birthday card for a close girlfriend who loves blue and flowers.  It uses three things from the challenge list - blue, white, and a bouquet.

Stamped, coloured with coloured pencils, die cut with a stitched rectangle die, and bordered with blue cs. The sentiment is on a vellum strip wrapped around the focal panel.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - TH sentiment
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - kraft, green, and white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Christmas tree die, tiny star die, burlap, wonky stitched rectangle die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Crafty Individuals
Ink - Versafine Onyx black
Paper - bristol and red cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - coloured pencils, gold glitter gel pen, Spellbinders square hemstitch die, small red gemstones

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Memory Box sentiment, Penny Black forget-me-nots collag
Ink - Versafine Onyx black
Paper - white and blue cs, vellum
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die

Holly for 52CCT

This week's 52 Christmas Card Throwdown challenge is to pick a previous theme challenge. 

I picked theme #20 "Holly" and created this card:

And also made a colour variation on it:

I stamped and watercoloured my image, flicked some colour splatters on it, die cut with a square, and bordered with burlap.

It's a nice flat card for mailing and would also be easy to mass produce.

Thanks for visiting!

Supplies:

Stamps - Rubber Stampede holly, Wordsworth noel

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - cream cs, watercolour paper

Accessories - watercolour paints, red and natural burlap

A Fabulous New Challenge!!

For those of you who like to make mostly CAS cards but also want to dabble in mixed media, my good friends Loll Thompson and Bonnie Klass have come up with a great new challenge called CAS Mix Up.  And they've invited me to be their first Featured Designer - I am so honoured!

The March challenge is "stamping + watercolouring + your choice of one other".

On the challenge parameters, there is a great list of the possibilities for the "your choice".  I saw burlap on the list and thought it was a great opportunity to use a piece of cream burlap I bought recently as it keeps the border very CAS.  Here's my card:

My focal image is also very CAS.  I started by doing a watercolour wash for the background.  As it dried, the green bled upwards into the blue, giving a lovely grassy effect.  Perfect for my bird perched on some taller stalks of grass!

I stamped the bird / grass image in green on the watercolour background.  And, because I didn't want the bird to be green, I stamped the image twice in brown on a scrap of watercolour paper.  Working with the two brown images, I cut one of the birds out without colouring it, then watercoloured the other brown bird in shades of brown and cut it out.  And glued the two brown birds on top of the one stamped in green on the background to give it some dimension.

I used my stitched rectangles to die cut the panel.   Watercolour washes often warp the paper so I glued a second rectangle of heavyweight cs to the back of it to flatten it out.  I popped it up with some foam tape.

I'm so excited about this challenge as I think it will help people start to bring in a bit more mixed media to their CAS cards.  The challenge runs until March 24th so there's lots of time to join in!

Supplies:

Stamps - SU Simply Sketched

Ink - Ranger Archival Library Green, Ranger Wendy Vecchi Potting Soil

Paper - PTI Vintage Cream cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, cream burlap, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die, foam tape