Polar Bears against a Pearly Winter Sky

The Paper Players want to see Winter Animals on a CAS card.  I went with polar bears.  And there are a bunch of January challenges that want blue (as many of you know, it's my favourite colour).

 

The background was created with the faux mother of pearl technique using various blue Distress inks and a silver pearlescent paint.  I added the die cut bears (cut twice and stacked for more dimension) and a star of wonder die cut.

The Paper Players

AAA Cards Clean and Simple Challenge

Colorful Options - "Winter Blue"

 

The Sisterhood of Crafters - "The Color Blue"

The Four Seasons Challenge - "Anything Goes Winter"

Tic Tac Toe Challenge - I chose the diagonal line "Winter, CAS, Free"

 

 

  

Supplies:
Stamps - Simon Says Stamp sentiment
Ink - various Distress blue inks, Distress Faded Jeans for the sentiment
Paper - white cs
Size - 6x3.25"
Accessories - unknown bear die, Memory Box star, silver metallic paint

Faux Mother-of-Pearl and a Die Cut Flower

It seems I'm of an age when friends' elderly parents are dying so much more frequently.  I needed another sympathy card today.

I made a faux mother-of-pearl background with blue Distress inks and white pearlescent paint.  I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment, trimmed the panel and sponged a bit of dark blue around the edges, and added a white flower die cut to the top.  The panel is popped up on fun foam.

I'm adding it to The Flower Challenge:

Supplies:
Stamps - PTI sentiment
Ink - various blue Distress inks, ColorBox White
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Memory Box flower die, white pearlescent paint, fun foam

Snowy Snippets

Vancouver is forecasting more snow for tomorrow and Tuesday.  Here's a card in readiness:

I've been trying to clean up my craft desk after all the frenzy of Christmas card making in November and December - I meant to do it in early January but I just couldn't summon the inclination to do it!

For this card, I used nothing but bits from my desk - a leftover die cut line of snowy trees, leftover die cut snowflakes, the remains of a piece of faux mother-of-pearl background.

I assembled all those, trimmed the panel, mounted on fun foam, and added a peel off sentiment.

I'm linking it up at:

The Male Room "It's Snowing"
 
 
Snippets Pixie Playground Challenge #370 
 

I might have to see what else I can make from the clutter on my desk!

Supplies:
Paper - scrap of faux mother of pearl background, white glitter cs, white cs
Size - 6x4.5"
Accessories - peel off sentiment, snowflake and tree dies, fun foam

Reindeer in Birch Trees

It's Canadian Thanksgiving weekend and I had a wonderful turkey dinner with a big group of friends yesterday.  Today I cleaned up my vegetable garden and put my garden furniture away - always sad to see summer truly at an end, but I'm looking forward to more crafty indoor time.  After the work in the garden, I hit the craft room and made this card:

The blue background is a piece of faux mother of pearl from my box of backgrounds.  I die cut the reindeer out of brown cs and sponged some light brown on his chest and belly, and some dark brown on his antlers.  It was a great chance to use my new birch trees die to layer over the background.

For two challenges:

Christmas Kickstart "Woodland Creatures"

52 Christmas Card Throwdown:

Supplies:

Stamps - Rubber Soul sentiment

Ink - Memento Rich Cocoa

Paper - white and brown cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Paper Rose birch trees die, Dee's Distinctively reindeer die

Faux Mother of Pearl Flower

It's "Anything Goes" at the Flower Challenge this month.

Here's my card:

I used the faux mother of pearl technique through a stencil. I started by scrunching up some cling wrap, pouncing it into some Frost White paint that I'd put on my craft mat, and then pouncing that randomly through my stencil. I washed and dried the stencil, then replaced it over the Frost White (but didn't quite get it lined up - darn). I sponged over the stencil with two shades of Distress orange inks and one green.

I trimmed the panel, bordered with green, added a brown sentiment, popped it up on fun foam, and embellished with three orange sequins.

Here's a close-up of the faux mother of pearl:

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:

Stamps - A Muse sentiment

Ink - Ranger Potting Soil, Distress Spiced Marmalade, Abandoned Coral, and Peeled Paint

Paper - white and green cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Tsukineko Frost White paint, Artplorations Happy Flowers stencil, orange sequins, fun foam

Joy

It's time for a new Happy Little Stampers' Christmas challenge:

Here's my card to help inspire you to enter:

I made a piece of faux-mother-of-pearl background with a mix of red Distress inks and white shimmer paint. 

To go with the shimmer paint, I used white shimmer cs for the cardbase and the centre of the ornament, green shimmer cs for the border, ornament outline, holly leaves, and the word "joy", and a scrap of red for the holly berries.

Head over to Happy Little Stampers for more inspiration from the Design Team and to link up your card for a chance to win a prize.

And you'll get a head start on your Christmas cards for next December!

Supplies:

Ink - Distress Festive Berries and Barn Door

Paper - shimmer cs in white, green, and red

Size - A2

Accessories - white shimmer paint, Memory Box Cabrini ornament die, Tattered Lace joy die

Faux-Mother-of-Pearl Ornament

Time to remind you to join in the December CAS Mix Up challenge!  You have until December 24th to link up a card.

I did a combination of plain sponging and some faux-mother-of pearl.

I die cut the ornament out of some shimmery white cs and out of a scrap of sponged faux-mother-of-pearl (see this video by Loll Thompson for the technique).  I took the internal bit from the faux-mother-of-pearl one and set it inside the white one.  I'll use the rest of it on another card.

I cut a panel of the same shimmery cs and sponged a random patch with the same ink colours - I didn't want to sponge the whole panel, but just enough for a contrasting background for the ornament.  It's interesting how different the same sponged ink colours look on the shimmery cs and on the regular cs that was used for the faux-mother-of-pearl piece.

I originally stamped my sentiment directly onto the panel but it smudged (the problem with shimmery cs), so did it on a scrap and punched it out.

Looking forward to seeing what you link up at the CAS Mix Up challenge!  Please remember to keep your card clean and simple.

Supplies:

Stamps - A Muse sentiment

Ink - Staz-on black; Distress Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, Broken China, and Faded Jeans

Paper - scrap from previous faux-mother-of-pearl, shimmery white cs

Size - A2

Accessories -Tsukineko Frost White paint, Memory Box ornament die, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle, SU narrow oval punch, white ribbon

Copper Die Cut for Happy Little Stampers

Happy Little Stampers' April Christmas challenge is "die cut/s".

I was at Loll Thompson's recently and she generously shared her copper sheets with us and had us heating the copper to get beautiful colour tones in it.  It works really well with the Sizzix Bigz dies so I ended up with this lovely die cut reindeer that takes centre stage on my card for the HLS Design Team.

I kept the card very CAS as I didn't want to detract from the reindeer.  I made a faux mother-of-pearl background with various green and brown Distress inks and some pearlescent paint.  I sponged a bit around the edges for definition and added a vertical heat embossed sentiment.

The card base is textured shimmery cream cs with a simple piece of knotted copper cord to balance the focal panel.

Come and join us at HLS and show us some Christmas die cuts!  There are great prizes - a $30 gift certificate to the winner and a $10 gift certificate to each of our Favourites, to spend at the Happy Little Stampers' shop.

Supplies:

Stamps - Northwoods sentiment

Ink - Versafine Vintage Sepia, various green and brown Distress inks

Paper - white cs, shimmery textured cream cs

Size - A2

Accessories - copper sheet, embossing powder, copper twine, pearlescent paint, Sizzix reindeer bigz die

Red Birds and White and Gold Words

Today I made cards for two challenges over at Splitcoaststampers.  First up is the Technique Lovers' Challenge "Watercolor Powders".

I used two colours of bister powders, sprinkled them on coated cs, spritzed with water, and allowed to air dry. When dry, I stamped the Berry Branch on it, added the die cut birds and word in red, bordered in the same red and added to a cream cardbase.

It's also for the October SCS Christmas Card Challenge theme of birds on a Christmas card.

Next up is the CAS Challenge "Use Your Words"- use word stamps only, no image stamps. 

 I love my Kay Foley sentiment stamps so it was a good chance to feature one of them. It is stamped and heat embossed in gold on white cs and bordered with gold cs.

The background is faux mother of pearl using a bit of watered down Inka Gold instead of the usual pearl paint. I sponged over it with Distress inks in various reds and warm browns.

Because the sentiment talks about tiny white lights and things decorated with gold sparkly stuff, I sprinkled on some white Frantage ep and some gold UTEE and heated them from underneath. I wanted to tie the sentiment to the background a bit!

Thanks for visiting!

Supplies for the first card:

Stamps: Penny Black Berry Branch

Paper: PTI cream cs, red cs, coated cs

Paper Size: 4.25" square

Ink: Staz-on Black

Accessories: blue and natural bister, Tim Holtz winter die, Memory Box bird dies

Supplies for the second card:

Stamps: Kay Foley sentiment

Paper: white and gold cs

Paper Size: 6"x4.25"

Ink: ColorBox Gold, various Distress inks

Accessories: Inka Gold, Stampendous Frantage white ep, gold UTEE, gold detail ep

Techniques: faux mother of pearl

Vintage Holly for Happy Little Stampers

I'm on the Design Team for the Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge.  The October challenge is "Holly".  Here's my card:

My good friend, Loll Thompson, of Stamping with Loll, taught me her "faux mother-of-pearl" technique.  I used it for the background of this card.  But it's really hard to photograph!  In real life, there is lovely pearlescent shimmer where you see splotchy sections on the background in the photo! 

Loll did a video tutorial here on the faux mother-of-pearl technique if you're interested.

The style of the holly stamp and the font of the sentiment gave me the slight vintage feel I wanted to go with the faded background colours, and I added a bit of text for good measure.

After dabbing on the pearly paint, I sponged first with Bundled Sage and then with Shabby Shutters.  I stamped the text in Frayed Burlap with some of the ink dabbed off the stamp before stamping, then stamped the sentiment and image in Versafine Olympia Green, and watercoloured the holly with Mowed Lawn and Fired Brick.  I then went around the edges with Frayed Burlap.  The panel is popped up with foam tape and a bow added for embellishment.

Please come and join us at Happy Little Stampers.  The "Holly" challenge runs all through September.

I'm also entering the card in the Merry Monday "Use Holly" challenge.

Supplies:

Stamps: Great Impressions holly and sentiment, Memory Box script
Inks: Distress Bundled Sage, Shabby Shutters, Frayed Burlap, Fired Brick, and Mowed  Lawn; Versafine Olympia Green
Paper: PTI Vintage Cream cs
Size: A2
Accessories: Tsukineko Frost White paint, red/green ribbon, foam tape