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

Starry Peace and Embossed Flowers

Jingle Belles want us to create cards without a speck of decorative paper - cardstock only.  Inkspirational wants a Seasonal card.   And Cardz 4 Guyz wants stars and / or stripes.

Except for the stamped sentiment, everything is cardstock.  I started off with a piece of gold shimmer cs that I'd cut a large star out of for another card. The star opening was just the right size for my sentiment so I stamped and heat embossed it on cream cs and layered the gold cs over it. I die cut a few tiny gold stars and two cream doves and scattered them about to tie in the themes of stars and peace in the sentiment.

If it's hard to read the sentiment in the photo, it says "Star light, star bright, a wish for peace on earth tonight."

I needed to make a congratulations card for my niece who is getting her PhD.  She always tells me she likes cards I make with dry embossing on them so it was the perfect opportunity to make a card for Can You Handle the Pressure "A Twist of Flowers".

I created the background piece by rubbing the debossed side of the embossing folder with pale pink ink and then ran it through my Cuttlebug.  For the focal panel, I used a brass Dreamweaver stencil.  I rubbed it all over with various mini Distress inks to get darker colours and a variety of colours compared to the background, and then ran it through my Cuttlebug to get the stencil to create embossing.  I bordered the focal panel with silver cs and die cut the sentiment out of the same silver cs.

    

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Great Impressions sentiment
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - gold shimmer and cream cs
Size - 4.25" square
Accessories - Spellbinders star die, SSS tiny stars die, Memory Box tiny doves dies, gold embossing powder, fun foam

Supplies for card :
Ink - various pink and mauve Distress inks
Paper - white and silver cs
Size - A5
Accessories - Dreamweaver flower stencil, unknown embossing folder, TH sentiment die

Recycled Bottle, Layered Flowers, and Monochrome Doves

Today is Earth Day so it seems an appropriate day to post this card for both Jingle Belles and Sweet Stampin' challenges to include a recycled element.

The little bottle came off a commercial card I received and the ribbon off a Christmas gift.

I stamped the sentiment on white cs and cut the sections out and layered everything on some festive dp.

I feel that the sentiment is such a major part of the card so I'm also linking it up at Word Power.

Next up is a card for The Flower Challenge "Add Layers".  I've got a watercoloured focal image layer, a pink bordering layering, and a dp layer on the card base.  It's also for Colorful Options "Pastels".

And last for today, Addicted to CAS wants a monochrome card.

 I used a little scrap of cling wrap background made with a couple of different blue Brushos (sprinkled, spritzed with water, then cling wrap scrunched up on it, and left to dry).  I framed it, added the two die cut doves, and added a blue heat embossed sentiment.

                  

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Dylusions sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs, dp
Size - A2
Accessories - recycled little bottle, recycled ribbon

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU Echoes of Kindness flower
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white and pink cs, dp, watercolour paper
Size - 6.25x3.25"
Accessories - watercolour paints

Supplies for card :
Stamps - Stampendous sentiment
Ink - ColorBox Royal Blue
Paper - watercolour paper, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - clear embossing powder, Memory Box dove dies, Impression Obsession frame die

Water Lifting on Christmas Cards

This month the Group of Seven Cardmakers all tried water lifting from an ink blended background.  I love the results so made three Christmas cards using the technique.

First up a green ink blended background that was ideal for a holly image:

I started by sponging three colours of Distress inks onto card stock, blending well between each colour.  Then dried it with my heat tool and went over it with anti-static powder.  I stamped the image and heat embossed it in white.

Then came the water lifting of the holly leaves and berries - I painted inside the embossed lines with plain water and a brush, blotting with paper towel as I went along (this lifts the ink inside the image).  The image becomes lighter as the cs dries.  I love the ethereal image you get!

I finished off by trimming it into a square and adding it to a shimmery off-white cs base and added a few opaque white sequins in random spots.

I went on to make two more backgrounds, each in different shades of blue.  I stamped dove images on each and again used the water lifting technique on the doves.  I added the first one to a white card base, stamped the sentiment on a scrap of white cs, and embellished with two opaque white sequins in the bottom right corner to balance with the sentiment in the upper left corner.

My second blue background had a really splotchy section on one side so I trimmed it down to make a mini slimline card, stamped with a different dove stamp (it includes the sentiment), popped it up on fun foam on a dark grey-blue glitter border, and added that to a white card base.

This is a great technique that I'll use again for sure.  Head over to the Group of Seven Cardmakers' blog to see what the others made and for more info and links to videos for the techniques.

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Visible Image
Ink - Distress Evergreen Bough, Iced Spruce, and Rustic Wilderness; ColorBox White
Paper - white cs, off-white shimmer cs
Size - 4.25" square
Accessories - white embossing powder, opaque white sequins

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Magenta dove, unknown sentiment
Ink - Distress Broken China, Stormy Sky, and Faded Jeans; ColorBox White
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - white embossing powder, opaque white sequins

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Distress Salty Ocean, Broken China, and Weathered Wood; ColorBox White
Paper - white cs, slate glitter cs
Size - 6x3.25"
Accessories - white embossing powder, fun foam

Trees with Some Doves

Christmas Kickstart Challenge wants "Trees, Trees, Trees".  I pulled out a stamp I've never inked up before.  It has lots of trees!

I pulled out a bit of smooshed background from my UFO box, put it in my Misti and stamped the trees and sentiment on it.  I added some doves die cut from silver glitter cs, used the same silver glitter cs as a border, and popped the panel up on fun foam.

Christmas Kickstart Challenge 

NBUS Challenge - I've never used the trees stamp before.

Supplies:
Stamps - Paper Roses trees, unknown sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - silver glitter cs, white cs, piece of smooshed background
Size - A2
Accessories - Memory Box dove dies, fun foam