Birthday Flowers, a Hollyhock Garden, and Green and Gold Christmas

I've got three cards for today.  I've really been in the mood to make cards lately!

First up a birthday card (a belated one as I know the post won't get it there in time!).  It's for Cut It Up's "Happy Birthday" challenge.

I inked up a Penny Black background stamp with Distress Oxide Shabby Shutters and Speckled Egg and patted off some of the ink with a rag.  I inked on hammered cs which added to the faded texture of the stamping.  I die cut the flowers and smooshed them into the same two inks.  I  used a separate "belated" sentiment stamp over the "birthday wishes" stamp.

Addicted to CAS's code word is Garden.  One of my favourite flowers is hollyhock and I always have a section of my garden devoted to them.

I stamped and heat embossed the hollyhocks in gold on watercolour paper, then painted them and splattered a bit of gold paint. I created a frame by cutting out the centre of a piece of gold cs with a double stitched rectangle die.

Last one is a very quick CAS card for Color Hues "Green and Gold".  It's also for the Neglected Stuff challenge - I haven't used this stamp set since 2017!

I stamped the base tree in green, then heat embossed the overlap in gold.  I wanted a border that matched the gold on the tree and sentiment so I cut a rectangle one size larger, went around the edge of it with Versamark and heat embossed with the same gold embossing powder all around the edge.

 
     

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black background stamp, SU birthday wishes, Impression Obsession belated
Ink - Distress Oxide Shabby Shutters and Speckled Egg, Archival Potting Soil
Paper - white hammered cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Poppy Stamps flower die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - The Stampin' Place hollyhocks
Ink - ColorBox Gold
Paper - watercolour paper, gold and off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold embossing powder, watercolour paints, Memory Box double stitched rectangle die cut, Spellbinders rectangle die

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - SU Solemn Stillness tree, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment
Ink - ColorBox green and gold
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold embossing powder, Spellbinders rectangle dies

More Pink for Jingle Belles and a Hanukkah Card

I really admire Stef and Lauren of Jingle Belles for running their Pink Christmas challenge every year to raise money for breast cancer research.  It's a challenge for me for sure as I struggle with using non-traditional colours on my Christmas cards.  But I persevered and this year I made two pink Christmas cards (the other was posted in my previous post).  Here's the second:

This one has a real old rose shade of pink.  I used a piece of patterned paper for the background and then chose the closest shade of pink from amongst the several different shades of pink glitter cardstock that I have.  I die cut the poinsettia out of it once, and then cut it twice more out of scrap cs, then glued them together and added them to the patterned paper.  I used a very pale pink/grey shade of cs for the base and for the sentiment square.

My second card today is for Inkspirational - it wants to see a seasonal card (a card for one of the occasions in one of the seasons).  I chose Hanukkah for a change from Christmas cards.

There is a SCS tutorial for making the paper star here.  I used a lovely double-sided decorative paper I've had in my stash for ages.  I topped it with a silver glitter die cut Star of David and added it to a plain white card base with a heat embossed sentiment.

One more thing - few weeks ago, I posted this card:

In my post (see here), I mentioned not being that happy with the card.  A couple of people offered suggestions in the comments so I looked at it again and decided to add a green frame around the stencilling.  I cut a square out of the same green shimmer cs as the border layer and then used the original inverted scallop die to cut out the centre of the green square.  I glued it over the white layer.  Here's the result:

I was pretty happy with the results so I'll put the card in my fundraiser sale and see if it sells!

    

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - small noel
Ink - Distress dark pink
Paper - dp, pink glitter cs, light pink/grey cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Penny Black poinsettia die, small square die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU sentiment
Ink - ColorBox silver
Paper - white cs, patterned paper, silver glitter cs
Size - A2
Accessories - silver embossing powder, SSS Star of David die

Bits and Pieces 2 - the Tree Edition

Those of you who were kind enough to take a look at my post from a few days ago called Bits and Pieces - the Reindeer Edition, would have noticed there were quite a few die cut trees combined with the reindeer.  Well, I had even more leftover die cut trees hanging about on my desk.  So today those trees are the focus of the cards.  Again, these were put together to use up bits and pieces, rather than with any particular design in mind or to fulfill a challenge.

Thanks for taking a look, and if you desperately want to know what anything is on one of these cards, leave me a comment and I'll look for it in my supplies and get back to you.

I might be back with one more collection of odds and ends!

 

A Framed Cat and a Pulled String Flower

A card for the Inkspirational Challenge "Word Prompt: Frame":

The image is watercoloured and the pierced frame is die cut three times and stacked together to give dimension.

It's a Penny Black stamp so I'm also adding it to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge.

For the Color Hues Challenge "Blue and Yellow", I made a card with the pulled string technique:

I followed the method in this video.  In the video she used watercolour paints. For mine, I used acrylic paints.

I dipped the top end of my piece of string in blue acrylic paint and the bottom end in yellow. I really liked the resulting mixture of colour. The shape makes me think of a calla lily.

I masked it and then stamped randomly inked text around it with Distress Shabby Shutters. And then stamped and heat embossed my sentiment. So my mixed mediums are acrylic paint and ink.

I bordered in yellow and popped it up on a blue card base.

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black cat, unknown sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, cream cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, MFT pierced square frame die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Hero Arts sentiment, Wendy Vecchi script stamp
Ink - ColorBox Royal Blue and yellow
Paper - mixed media, blue, and light green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - string, blue and yellow acrylic paint, clear embossing powder, fun foam

Framed Fairy Shaker

A birthday card for a young teenage girl:

I did a bit of stencilling of stars and dots on my background and then stamped the fairy and sentiment. I created a frame with a piece of acrylic on the back of it and added foam tape to the back of the acrylic. I sprinkled sequins, microbeads, and tiny star sprinkles of top of the image and then taped the shaker frame to the top.

Linking up with:

Seize the Birthday "Framed"

Supplies:
Stamps - Lavinia fairy, Memory Box sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne, Distress Scattered Straw and Speckled Egg
Paper - white cs
Size - 5"square
Accessories - Lil Inker stitched square die, Spellbinder square die, Heidi Swapp Confetti stencil, acrylic sheet; foam tape; sequins, tiny stars, and microbeads

Framed Spaniels

Just Us Girls is asking us to add a frame to our cards.

 

 

I needed to make a thank you card for my dog breeder so decided to frame the two dogs.

 

 

I stamped and fussy cut the two spaniels - one looks like Tessa and is in her colouring, and the other looks like dear old Will who passed away two years ago.  I die cut the pierced frame die three times and glued them together to give substance to the frame.

Here's a photo of the two of them together - Tessa still a puppy, Will a tired old fellow - but they loved to snuggle together.

I sure do miss sweet Will.

Supplies:
Stamps - Grey Wolf Graphics dog stamp, Raintree dog stamp, Memory Box sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black, Distress Vintage Photo
Paper - white cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - MFT pierced square frame die

Jingle Belles Christmas Flower

The new Jingle Belles challenge is a Christmas card featuring flowers.

I went traditional in that I used a poinsettia, but non-traditional in that I made it pink.

I stamped and heat embossed the poinsettia in gold, and started painting a couple of petals with watcolour paints but didn't like the colour at all, so switched to two shades of pink sprays and got a colour I really like. I fussy cut it, cutting off the two petals I did with watercolour paint. I tucked it around a frame so that it wouldn't look odd with two petals missing!

Added a gold sentiment and an embossed background and was happy I'd saved the poinsettia!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black poinsettia, Rubber Soul sentimen

Ink - ColorBox Gold

Paper - white cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - Sizzix embossing folder, gold embossing powder, Impression Obsession frame, Tattered Angels Rose Glimmer Mist, Mr. Huey's First Kiss spray, foam tape

An Iris for the Flower Challenge

I love irises and this month's Flower Challenge is "Anything Goes" so I went with an iris.

Here's my card:

I die cut the iris out of watercolour paper and painted it with my Gansai Tambi paints.

I pulled a pale background out of my UFO box (a very late pull of a shaving foam background on coated cs). I glued the bottom of the iris stems down and popped the iris flower and bud up with foam tape.

I die cut the frame and put it on top using foam tape all the way around it. Added lots of sequins for embellishment.

Here's a closer look showing the dimension of the iris and the frame created by the foam tape behind them:

Thanks for dropping by today!

Supplies:

Paper - white cs, coated cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - Penny Black iris die, Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, foam tape, Lil Inker stitched rectangle, Spellbinders deckle edge rectangle, sequins

Framed Poinsettia

It's hard to think of poinsettias when my garden is full of phlox, baby's breath, astrantia, foxgloves, and geraniums, but this month I have to as the CAS Christmas Challenge wants them on our cards.

I went with a simple framed die cut poinsettia on a red card base.

After die cutting the poinsettia layers with watercolour paper, I watercoloured them with my Gansai Tambi paints, keeping it darker in the centre and fading out to the petal tips.  I used my ball stylus to give the petals some dimension and layered them.  I added it to a red card base gluing down the centre and popping up some of the petals with tiny bits of foam tape.  I die cut a stick frame to glue around it.  Finished of with a  simple heat embossed sentiment on the bottom, and a tiny bit of stickles and some gold gemstones in the poinsettia's centre.  Here's a close-up:

Head on over to CAS Christmas for more poinsettia inspiration from the rest of our Design Team and our July Guest Designer, Marina (My Perfect Life).  You have until July 24th to link up clean and simple cards featuring poinsettias.

I'm also taking my card over to AAA Cards where the challenge is to use a frame.

And to CAS Mix Up for the "Colour Your Die Cuts" challenge.

I have my watercoloured die cut, stamping, and heat embossing.

Also taking it over to Winter Wonderland where the challenge is "Square Cards Only".

Supplies:

Stamps - A Muse sentiment

Ink - ColorBox white

Paper - white and red cs, watercolour paper

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - Poppy Stamps Grand Stick Frame die, Poppy Stamps Blooming Poinsettia die, Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, white embossing powder, gold Stickles, gold gemstones, foam tape