Summer Cottage Garden and Dove Flying High

A card for Shopping Our Stash's "Summertime" challenge and Allsorts "Garden" challenge:

Stamped, coloured with coloured pencils, trimmed with a pierced dot rectangle die and layered over a pink rectangle so that the pink shows through the pierced dots.  Then bordered with some floral dp, and added to a yellow card base.

I used the same floral dp to line an envelope:

 

 

It's going to a friend who just bought a new house.

 

Try It On Tuesday's challenge is "Flying High" - something that flies high in the sky.  I made a peace-themed Christmas card with a dove flying high among the stars.

 

I sponged silver ink through a star die, leaving space on the bottom right corner for a stamped heat embossed sentiment.  I covered a piece of scrap cs with double sided tape and added blue / silver gilding flakes.  Then die cut the dove out of it.
 

     

 

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps -
Ink -
Paper -
Size -
Accessories -

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - silver
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Sizzix Delicate Wings dove die, Cosmic Shimmer Blue Ice gilding flakes, star stencil, silver embossing powder

Cabin in the Woods

The Peace on Earth challenge has a lovely mood board this time with two images of cabins in the woods.  It reminded me of a stamp I've had for many years but haven't used in ages.  So a good time to pull it out.

The image is stamped and coloured with coloured pencils.  Then I sponged the sky in a pearlescent ink and a Distress Oxide ink.  I sprinkled some Frantage Chunky White embossing powder on the sky and heated it from underneath to set it.  I went over the snow on the roof, on the trees, and on the ground with a Quickie glue pen and added fine glitter to it. 

The background is stencilled with a Distress ink through an pine tree stencil.  And then the focal panel is popped up on fun foam.

Here's the Peace on Earth mood board:

There's more inspiration from the rest of the Design Team over at Peace on Earth.  We'd love to have you join us either with your interpretation of the mood board or an "anything Christmas" goes card.

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black Christmas Cottage, Northwoods sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne, Brilliance Pearlescent Ice Blue, Distress Oxide Chipped Sapphire, Distress Evergreen Bough
Paper - Bristol cs, chalk cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Artplorations stencil, Frantage Chunky White embossing powder, fine glitter, fun foam

Winter Scene with Sheep Two Ways

A bunch of challenges inspired this card.  The top left image of the sheep on the Four Seasons challenge started me off as it reminded me that I have this stamp of a lovely winter scene with sheep.  It even comes with the sentiment built in.  And then two challenges wanted sparkle or glitter, and another wanted a snowy day.  See below for the challenges.

I stamped on white cs and coloured the image with coloured pencils.  Then added sparkle with a quickie glue pen and glitter to all the snow lines.  Instead of bordering it with black cs, I took a fine point black marker and a ruler and simply made black lines around the edges.  Keeps it nice and flat for mailing!

 It's also a perfect image for watercolouring so I did a second one using watercolour paper and paints:

To my eye, I don't see much difference between the coloured pencil version and the watercoloured version.  I like using both mediums so can't even say I prefer one over the other!

Challenges:

Four Seasons Challenge "winter"

 

Once Upon a Time "The Snowy Day"

 

Stamping Sensations "add some sparkle" to a stamped focal element  - I added glitter to all the snow lines

Sparkles Christmas Challenge "add glitter accents" - I added glitter to all the snow lines

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Sheena Douglass Country Christmas
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white cs for the first card; watercolour paper and cream cs for the second card
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - coloured pencils for the first card; watercolour paints for the second card; glitter, black fine point pen

Polar Bears, a Cabin, and a Sentiment

The month is flying by and I've got some challenges I want to enter.

First up, did you know there was such a thing as Polar Bear Day?  Well there is, and part of the reason is to draw attention to the world's largest carnivore and the threat of extinction facing it.  The Day of the Month Card Club Challenge chose it for its February challenge.  And polar bears are perfect for the Paper Players wildlife challenge.

Stamped and watercoloured, then trimmed and put on a gold shimmer panel that has "merry" die cut out of it.

Moving on to Christmas Cards All Year Round where they want to see a cabin or cottage.

I kept it simple to let this lovely detailed image take centre stage.  Stamped in navy, trimmed and bordered with navy cs, and glitter added to all the snowy places.  In real life, it's lovely and sparkly.

And finally, a chance to use up a strange piece of background from my UFO box.  The Christmas Kickstart Challenge wants the sentiment to take centre stage.

I don't know what I was thinking when I made this background - I sprayed some gold spray on navy cs, then scrunched up some cling wrap on top and let it dry.  Then added two types of Frantage embossing powder (one with chunky white bits, one with smaller white and gold bits) and heat embossed from underneath.  I was going to toss it and then decided to try using it for this challenge with just a gold die cut sentiment and a few die cut gold stars.  To add a bit more interest (as if there wasn't enough going on already), I die cut the navy panel with a hemstitch rectangle and layered it over a gold card base to co-ordinate with the sentiment and stars.  So what's the verdict - a hot mess (as Jennifer McGuire likes to say) or a passable attempt at mixed media?  Believe me, you won't hurt my feelings as I'm quite ambivalent about this one!

Challenges:

Day of the Month Card Club Challenge - "Polar Bear Day"

 

The Paper Players - "Wild about Wildlife"

 

Christmas Cards All Year Round - "Cabin / Cottage"

Christmas Kickstart Challenge - "The Sentiment Takes Centre Stage"

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - watercolour paper, gold shimmer and cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, TH merry die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Crafty Individuals cabin, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Twilight
Paper - white and navy cs
Size - A2
Accessories - glitter

Supplies for card 3:
Paper - navy and gold cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold spray, cling wrap, Stampendous Frantage embossing powders, Spellbinders hemstitch rectangle die, Memory Box star dies, Penny Black sentiment die

Showing Something New

Over at SCS, the CAS challenge for this week is "Show Me Your New".  A great opportunity to use a new stamp. 

Since it's unusually snowy and cold here, it definitely felt appropriate to make a card with a snowy scene.  And it's never too early to start the Christmas card stash for next year!

I used the MISTI to get a good impression on watercolour paper, and then painted with my wonderful Gansai Tambi paints and added some chunky white Frantage for falling snow.

It's popped up on fun foam that is adhesive on one side - this has the added bonus of smoothing out the slightly warped watercolour paper.

Supplies:

Stamps - Crafters Companion cottage, Wordsworth sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black

Paper - white cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, fun foam, Frantage chunky white embossing powder

Snowy Scene for Merry Monday

This week's Merry Monday challenge is "Let It Snow".




I created a background using the embossing folder stamping technique and various blue Distress inks.  I used the same Distress colours but the stains rather than the inks to paint the sky in my focal image.  I added some watercolour paints to the trees and cabin, then went over the snowy parts of the image with white Wink of Stella, and finished off by heat embossing with a sprinkling of white Frantage embossing powder.  It's popped up on fun foam to give it some dimension from the background.

Thanks for dropping by!

Those of you are interested in my coming puppy, drop by tomorrow for some photos and a doggy card!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black Christmas Cottage, Rubber Soul Let It Snow

Ink - Archival Jet Black, various blue Distress inks

Paper - cream and black cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - various blue Distress stains, watercolour paints, white Wink of Stella, fun foam, Stampendous white Frantage embossing powder, snowflake embossing folder