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

Snowed In

Time for a new Peace on Earth Challenge with a great mood board to inspire you.  It inspired me to make this card:

I embossed a piece of white cs with the TH brick wall embossing folder and then rubbed Distress Fired Brick ink over the raised areas.  I die cut the door twice and glued it together for more substance; likewise die cut the sled twice out of brown cs.  Glued both to the brick wall background and added copper nailhead embellishment as a door handle.

I didn't like the bottom of the card so tore a strip of white cs, stamped the sentiment on it, and added it on top - makes it look as if the people are snowed in with the snow coming up against the door!

To make it look more Christmas-like, I punched a few little pine sprigs from decorative paper, glued them together to make a swag for the door, and added a red bow.

Here's the Peace on Earth inspiration board (you can see that I was inspired by the photo on the upper right):

We'd love to have you join us with either an "anything Christmas goes" card or something inspired by the mood board!

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Distress Fired Brick
Paper - white and brown cs, patterned green dp
Size - A2
Accessories - Sizzix Tim Holtz brick wall embossing folder, Memory Box door die, Penny Black sled die, Martha Stewart pine branch punch, red metallic cord, nailhead embellishment

A Wreath with Ribbon

Merry Monday wants us to "add a ribbon" this week.

One of the things I love making for my cards are little Christmas wreaths, and ribbon goes well with wreaths so here's my card:

I made the wreath with scraps of various green dps and the Martha Stewart punch, added gold gemstones, mounted it on a red front door and a white wood background.  I used gold ribbon to "hang" the wreath over the door and to add a bow to the top of the wreath.

Another ready to go into my stash!

Supplies:

Paper - white and red cs, scraps of various green dps

Size - A2

Accessories - Memory Box door die, Spellbinders circle dies, Martha Stewart pine branch punch, black gemstone, gold ribbon

Wreaths

The current Christmas Card Throwdown challenge is a sketch:

I changed the oval to a circle as I wanted to make a Christmas wreath.

I love making these little wreaths and the cards always sell well at my fundraiser.  I use the good old Martha Stewart pine branch punch and punch many branches out of various dp that have grass on them (made for scrapbooking themes on various sports) - there is really nice colour variation in them that makes the wreath more pleasing to my eye than just plain green.

I die cut a thin circle using two Spellbinders circle dies, then start gluing the branches down, overlapping each one, pointing some to the inside and some to the outside.

I attached it to an embossed background with a ribbon "holder" looped over the top and a matching bow.


While I had all my supplies and paper out, I went on and made two smaller wreaths (for these, I cut the pine branches in half) and created these two cards:

For both of them, I used the Sizzix brick embossing folder and the Memory Box door die.  The first one has gold gemstones on the wreath and my feeble attempt at representing front steps.  The second has red gemstones, a bow, and a swag over the lintel.

A few more weeks and I'll be making my own real Christmas wreath for my front door!

Supplies common to all cards:

various green dp, Martha Stewart pine branch punch, Spellbinders circle dies

Supplies for card 1:
Old Island Stamp Co. sentiment, red linen cs, white cs, Martha Stewart wreath punch, red ribbon, SU embossing folder, ColorBox Chianti ink, clear embossing powder,

Supplies for card 2:
white, red, and mottled ivory cs; Memory Box door die, gold gemstones, copper nailhead embellishment 

Supplies for card 3:

white and mottled dark cream cs, Memory Box door die, red gemstones, red ribbon, copper nailhead embellishment 

My Front Door at Christmas

Merry Monday has a great challenge this week:

My house has white wooden siding with a blue front door.  I always put a wreath on the door - lots of greenery and lots of holly berries.  So I made a card to represent that:

I did a background using a striped embossing folder, then die cut a blue front door. 

The wreath is made with bits of various green dps using the Martha Stewart pine branch die, with each punched piece cut in half as I needed to make a very small wreath.  I used a circle die cut with two Nesties as the base to glue the punched pieces to. 

I used some whole punched pieces for the swag above the door.  Lots of red gemstones were added to represent holly berries, and a larger pale gold gemstone is the door handle.

A banner die cut with a red vertical sentiment finishes it off.

Thanks, Bonnie, for a great Merry Monday challenge that was a lot of fun to do!

Supplies:

Stamps - Rosie's Roadshow sentiment

Ink - SU Real Red

Paper - white and blue cs, scraps of various green dps

Size - A2

Accessories - Sizzix striped embossing folder, Martha Stewart pine branch punch, Memory Box door die and Banners die, Nesties small circle dies, red and pale gemstones 

Inspired by L.L. Bean

This week's Inspiration Challenge over at SCS is to be inspired by something on the L.L. Bean website.  I chose a Christmas wreath image and made this card:

I made the wreath with scraps of various green dps and the Martha Stewart punch, added red glitter gemstones, mounted it on a red front door and a white brick background.

I love making these little paper wreaths and may have to do a few more before Christmas!

Supplies:

Stamps: A Muse sentiment

Paper: white and red cs, scraps of green dps

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Memento Cottage Ivy

Accessories: Martha Stewart pine branch punch, Memory Box door die, SU sentiment label dies, Tim Holtz embossing folder, red glitter gemestones, gold metal circle embellishment