Holly and Crocuses on Square Cards

Christmas and Spring on the same day!

For the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Holly and  / or Ivy" challenge:

I started by sponging my background with different shades of green Distress inks. I then stamped the text over it.

I inked the holly leaves with Peeled Paint and did the berries and stem with red and green markers, and then heat embossed with the Peeled Paint Embossing Glaze - it adds some colour and shine but allows the text stamping to show through.  (For more detail on the technique I used, see this video.)

I used red raindrop embellishments for the berries and added the sentiment on a die cut strip at the top to cover up a very blobby bit of background sponging.

Moving on to crocuses.  For The Paper Players' "Clean and Simple Blooms" challenge, The Four Seasons "Anything Goes Spring" challenge, and the We Love Stamping "Anything (stamped) Spring challenge:

 
I watercoloured the image, trimmed it with a square die, and bordered it with green cs before adding to a cream coloured card base.

52 Christmas Card Throwdown
 

The Paper Players

 

We Love Stamping "Anything (stamped) Spring"

 

The Four Seasons Challenge "Anything Goes Spring"  (I was inspired by the crocuses on the top left and the yellow of the forsythia on the bottom left for my card.)

Wishing you all a happy spring!

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black holly, Make an Impression sentiment, unknown text stamp
Ink - Distress Scattered Straw, Old Paper, Bundled Sage, and Peeled Paint
Paper - white cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - red and brown markers, Tim Holtz Peeled Paint embossing glaze, red raindrop embellishments

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Serendipity crocuses, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, green and cream cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, Spellbinders square dies

A Mini Spring Card and a Purple Christmas Card

Popping in under the wire for a couple of challenges!

First up, Just Us Girls "Mini" challenge:

I made a small card (4.5x3.5"), with a small image of small flowers.

I got out an old PSX stamp of crocuses, stamped and watercoloured the image and painted some earth around the flowers to ground them. I added a bit of splatter in yellow and purple. I didn't want the sentiment to be as bold as the image so stamped it in brown instead of black. Then trimmed it and popped it up on fun foam.


Then off to 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Non-Traditional Colours" challenge:



I'm not a huge fan on non-traditional Christmas colours but made myself go with a purple background!

I used various purple and violet Oxide inks and created a smooshed background. I used it to back my reindeer / trees / snowflake die, and also die cut the sentiment out of a scrap of it. Popped the panel up on fun foam for more dimension.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - PSX crocuses, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black, Memento Rich Cocoa
Paper - mixed media and cream cs
Size - 4.5x3.5"
Accessories - watercolour paints, Spellbinders rectangle die, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Ink - various Distress oxide inks
Paper - mixed media and white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tattered Lace winter die, reindeer / snowflakes frame die, fun foam

ATCAS Robin

After having this card chosen as CAS Perfectionist in the ATCAS challenge "Berries", I'm thrilled to have been asked to be the Guest Designer for the next ATCAS challenge:

One of my favourite bird images is a Penny Black robin sitting on an old flower pot.  I've used it to make a note card to send out around Christmas time to friends who've suffered a recent bereavement - somehow a "Merry Christmas" card just won't seem appropriate this year.

I stamped the image on hot press watercolour paper and used my Gansai Tambi paints to colour it.

I die cut a pierced frame twice and glued them together for extra dimension.  I finished off with a Quickie glue pen and glitter on the snowy bits.

I'm also taking it over to the Penny Black "Creative Christmas Challenge" - the challenge is to have a Penny Black product as the main focus.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black robin, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, MFT Pierced Rectangle Frame die

April Showers on Crocuses

It's been raining a lot in Vancouver lately so I was inspired by a couple of very appropriate challenges to create today's card.

I put the crocus stamp in my MISTI and inked it up with Tombow markers, one colour at a time, misting lightly with water after each colour.  I left the stamp in the MISTI while I pulled some colour from the outlines of the leaves and flowers, and then re-inked with the markers and stamped again (without misting).

I then taped a raindrops stencil (made for me by my kind friend, Loll Thompson, on her Silhouette) over it.  And experimented - I squeezed out some Nuvo drops onto my palette and with a palette knife, dragged them over the stencil.  It was hard to get even coverage but I'm fine with that.  What I wasn't fine with was how hard it was to get them off my stencil even though I washed it right away - so probably won't do that again!

They look very different depending on the angle and the lighting:

I die cut with an octagonal die and glued it to an octagonal card base.

It's for the following challenges:

SCS's CAS Challenge  "A Rainy April Day" (celebrate the rains that bring beautiful flowers).

The Flower Challenge  "Shaped Cards"

Addicted to CAS Challenge  "Code Word - Rain"

4 Crafty Chicks Challenge  "Flowers"

Time Out Challenge - Photo Inspiration (I went with yellow flowers):

Now if only the rain would stop long enough for my garden to dry out so that I can get outside and do some spring clean-up and enjoy the flowers!

Supplies:

Stamps - Serendipity crocuses

Ink - Tombow markers

Paper - mixed media cs, white cs

Size - 3.75" octagon

Accessories - Spellbinders octagonal die, grey Nuvo drops, raindrops die made on a Silhouette

Spring Crocuses

It's time for a reminder card for CAS Watercolour.  March's challenge is "Spring".

And what more appropriate image for spring than crocuses?  They are starting to bloom in my garden, and like in my stamped image, they often poke their way through the leftover dead leaves from autumn.

There are so many different ways to watercolour.  I decided to use my Tombow markers, a mister, and paintbrush with water for this card.

I put my stamp in the MISTI and went over the crocus leaves only with a green marker, then spritzed with water, and stamped onto hot press w/c paper.  Before it could dry, I took a paint brush and a bit more water and moved the colour around, filling in inside the image outline.

I then repeated the process with two shades of purple markers for the flowers.  I realized I should have let the leaves dry first as some of the purple bled into them.  By the time I repeated the process a third time with two shades of brown markers for the leaves on the ground, the crocus leaves were dry so I didn't have any bleeding.

I inked up the spring stamp with one of the brown markers, and also scribbled a bit of that marker on my craft mat, watered it down, and did some light splattering with it.

I got it all assembled with the image die cut, popped up on fun foam, etc. and then looked at it and realized that I totally forgot about the orange stamens crocuses have, but too late now!!  I also thought I should have stamped "spring" in the upper left corner instead as it looked unbalanced and too crowded where I put it.  So I balanced it a bit with two light brown adhesive pearls.  We're our own worst critics, aren't we!?

You have until March 24th to link up your spring watercolour card here.  Please be sure to keep your card CAS (clean and simple) and follow the theme.

Supplies:

Stamps - Serendipity crocuses, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment

Ink - markers only

Paper - hot press watercolour paper, cream cs

Size - 4.5" square

Accessories -Tombow markers, Lil Inkers stitched square, light brown adhesive pearls, fun foam