Cut Up Christmas and a CAS Chickadee

The latest Cut It Up Challenge is "Christmas in July".  Here's my Christmas card featuring lots of die cuts.  It's also for Inkspirational "Three of the Same" - I have three doves and three fir trees.  Christmas Cards All Year Round wants "Blue Christmas"

I die cut the house / trees die and the small doves out of white shimmer cs and layered them over a background created by smooshing with blue Inka Gold and then trimming with a square die.  I cut a square out of plain white cs and out of a dp that matched the smooshed background perfectly and layered everything on a square card base.

And a twofer for Sweet Stampin' "Christmas in July" and Addicted to CAS "Code Word Christmas":

A simple stamped and coloured (with markers) image, then trimmed with a rectangle die, and to add more interest, a thin frame was cut out of the rectangle and then cut again out of red cs and the red one was inlaid into the rectangle. 

         

 

       

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Art Impressions sentiment
Ink - Distress Faded Jeans
Paper - white and white shimmer cs, Paper Pizazz dp
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Memory Box house / trees die, Memory Box small doves dies, Spellbinders square dies

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Impression Obsession bird/holly, Hero Arts sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, SU Real Red
Paper - white and red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - markers, SSS thin frames die, Spellbinders rectangle die ms

CAS Square with a Bird and a Rectangular Variation

The Paper Players want a clean and simple card with things that fly.  My Time to Craft wants a square card.  And Try It on Tuesday wants to keep it simple - my card is both CAS in design and simple to make.

This is definitely simple to make as the image requires very little colouring after stamping it.  I used alcohol markers to add the colour.  I trimmed the panel with a hemstitch square die and layered it over red cs.

While I had the stamp and the red cs out, I made a regular A2 version of it. 

I coloured this one with Tombow markers to see how they compared to the alcohol markers in the first one, trimmed it with a pierced dot rectangle die, and added to a red A2 card base.
 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Impression Obsession bird, Hero Arts sentiment
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - white and red cs
Size - 4.5" square
Accessories - alcohol markers, Spellbinders hemstitch square die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Impression Obsession bird, Hero Arts sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white and red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tombow markers, Sizzix pierced dot rectangle die

One of Many Birds and Monochrome Sympathy

Shopping our Stash is asking to see our birds - and boy, do I have a lot of bird stamps!!  For this card, I used one of my older ones that is still a favourite.  I'm also adding it to the Inkspirational challenge "Seasonal".

A very CAS card and quick to make - stamped, watercoloured the berries dark red, trimmed with a stitched rectangle, bordered with dark red, popped up on fun foam, and Glossy Accents added to the berries.

And for My Time to Craft "Monochrome":

I masked off a rectangle on my focal panel and sponged from three corners first with the lighter ink, then the darker. I stamped the leaves and text with second generation stamping, and then stamped the sentiment with full strength ink.  It's popped up on fun foam on an embossed background.

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Magenta chickadee, Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne, Memento Rhubarb Stalk
Paper - white and red cs, watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - red watercolour paint, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, Glossy Accents, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU Very Versailles, unknown sentimen
Ink - various aqua / turquoise Distress inks
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - textured embossing folder, fun foam

One New Stamp, One Very Old Stamp

More Christmas of course!  Today I'm using a new stamp on my first card and a very old stamp on my second one!

First for the Double D challenge "Oh Deer".  They have a lovely mood board (see below) and I chose the upper left image of the spotted fawns to inspire me to choose the stamp I used:

I just love the Anita Jeram stamps from Colorado Craft Co. so am buying a lot of her Christmas designs.  Since it's a new stamp that I hadn't yet inked up, I'm linking it at NBUS as well.  

Watercoloured, trimmed with a pierced dot die, layered over copper shimmer cs, with glitter added to the snow lines and on the tree branches.

My second card is for Shopping Our Stash "Embossing Wet or Dry".  I went with an embossed background and one of the stamps I bought in my early years of card making.

I created an embossed script background with cream shimmer cs for my focal panel of a stamped and watercoloured image of a chickadee and greenery.   I die cut the image with an oval die cut and also die cut a red oval border. 

    

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Colorado Craft Co., SSS sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, copper shimmer and off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Spellbinders pierced dot rectangle die, glitter

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU Beautiful Season, Impression Obsession sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - cream cs, red shimmer and cream shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Twinkling H2Os, script embossing folder, Spellbinders oval dies

Two Holiday Cards - One Christmas, One Easter

Can You Handle the Pressure is an "anything goes as long as you use an embossing folder" challenge so I did a Christmas card as I'm behind on my quota I try to get made each month ready for my sale in November.

I love text in the background of a card.  Usually I stamp the text but the challenge inspired me to use a text embossing folder instead.  The image is stamped and watercoloured, trimmed with an oval die, and bordered with red cut with the next larger oval die.

And for Easter, I made this card for My Time to Craft Challenge "Easter Flowers".

I put the wildflower stamp in my MISTI and inked it up with various Tombow markers, one colour at a time and spritzing each time. I pulled a bit of the colour out to fill in the flowers that just had outlines.

I stamped and fussy cut the nest and eggs, glued the eggs in the nest and set the nest in front of the wild flowers.

Can You Handle the Pressure?

My Time to Craft "Easter Flowers"

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - SU Beautiful Season, Impression Obsession sentimen
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - cream cs, red shimmer and cream shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Twinkling H2Os, script embossing folder, Spellbinders oval die cut

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Indigo Blu wildflowers, SU sentiment, SU Nature Walk eggs, Rubber Monger nest
Ink - Indigo Blu wildflowers, SU sentiment, SU Nature Walk eggs, Rubber Monger nest
Paper - mixed media and off-white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tombow markers

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

Berries and Flowers

A couple of cards for you today.  First up for Christmas Craft Creations "Black & White + One":

A very CAS card and quick to make - stamped, watercoloured the berries bright red, bordered with black, popped up on fun foam, and Glossy Accents added to the berries.

And for The Flower Challenge "Use a Shape":

This uses up some odds and ends so it's also going over to Pixie's Snippets Playground.  The piece behind the flower is from my leftovers box - it had been sprayed with a few different sprays. Behind it is a scrap of dark pink shimmer cs.  And on a scrap of watercolour paper, I stamped and watercoloured the flower, then fussy cut it and popped it up with foam tape.  I finished it off with some tiny flower embellishments that matched the colours in the sprays.

Challenges:
Christmas Craft Creations "Black & White + One
 

The Flower Challenge "Use a Shape"

  

Pixie's Snippets Playground 

  

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Magenta chickadee, Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair black
Paper - white and black cs, watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - red watercolour paint, Glossy Accents, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Tim Holtz peony, unknown sentiment
Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black
Paper - watercolour paper, dark pink shimmer cs, white cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, various sprays, Simon Says Stamp tiny flower embellishments, Spellbinders peony die cuts, foam tape

Silver Berries

I don't often do colour challenges but I really liked this one at The Paper Players:

Here's my card:

I stamped the image in black on watercolour paper and first tried a silver watercolour paint on the berries but it wasn't silvery enough so went over it with a silver metallic pen.  Heat embossed the sentiment in silver and bordered the panel with silver cs that has a nice sheen to it.  Popped it up on fun foam for some dimension.

And here's a photo taken with different lighting to bring out the shine of the silver.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps - Magenta bird, Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, white cs, silver cs
Size - A2
Accessories - metallic silver pen, fun foam, silver embossing powder

New Chickadees

The current Jingle Belles Challenge is "Look What Santa Brought Me" - in other words, use something new that we got for Christmas or in the sales.

I love bird stamps as many of you know! 

I stamped and added some subtle colouring with watercolour paints and then did the berries with a red marker.   This beautiful chickadee stamp is called Stained Glass Birds.  I didn't colour it as if it were stained glass but I layered a piece of acetate over it to make it seem to be a window (that's why there is inconsistent definition in the photo - light was bouncing off the acetate).  I added a red frame over top to hold the acetate in place and to match the berries.

I'm looking forward to colouring it more as a stained glass window next time.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps - Magenta Stained Glass Birds
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - mixed media cs, red and white cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, red marker, Spellbinders square dies

Masking the Focal Image

The 52 Christmas Card Throwdown has a technique challenge this time:

I really like the look of having a text background around the focal image.  So I masked my focal image to achieve this.

I stamped the bird and holly in archival ink and watercoloured it.  I then stamped the bird and holly again on a post-it, roughly fussy cut it and masked the one on my card. 

I then inked up the text stamp in a pale grey ink and stamped over top.  I was pleased with the look when I removed the mask. 

I bordered in red, and popped it up on fun foam.

I meant to put Glossy Accents on the berries but forgot so will go back and do that.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps - SU Beautiful Season, Stampendous Christmas Background

Ink - Archival Jet Black, Memento London Fog

Paper - watercolour paper, PTI Vintage Cream, red cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, fun foam

Chickadee by the Light of the Moon

Audrie (aka girlgeek101) over on SCS chose a beautiful website for her Inspiration Challenge.  It features art by Rachelle Levingston.  I was inspired by this lovely watercolour:

I chose the chickadee stamp from the SU Beautiful Season set and created this card:

I like to keep practicing my watercolour wash backgrounds (still not really happy with them but I'll keep trying).

I stamped and watercoloured the chickadee image, then masked over it for the moon. I did the watercolour wash background, trying to get it like the inspiration. I added some salt to the right hand side but I think my paint was too dry as I didn't get much effect from it.

When the background was dry, I stamped the sentiment and splattered a bit of orange paint like the inspiration image.

I debated between a white cardbase and a red one and went with the red for more contrast. The watercoloured panel is popped up on fun foam. As a final touch, I added a bit of white gel pen to the berries and then coated them with glossy accents.

I'll keep working on my watercolouring - they do say practice makes perfect, though I'm not aiming for perfection!

Supplies:

Stamps - SU Beautiful Season, Rubber Soul sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, red cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, white gel pen, Glossy Accents, fun foam, kosher salt