Frosty Winter, Frosty Friends

Working away on Christmas cards!  First up for My Time to Craft "Using Die Cuts", a card with nothing but die cuts:

Very quick to make (except for poking out all the little bits of the die!).  I cut the Frostyville Frame and the sentiment out of of a blue/grey shimmer cs, and the Frostyville Frame background out of pale blue glitter cs, glued them all together and added them to a white card base.

The second card is for The Paper Players "Four Legged Friends".  The stamp I used has two dogs and a cat who all definitely look like friends, and a sentiment saying "frosty friends":

 

 

The image is coloured with coloured pencils, trimmed with a pierced dot rectangle, bordered with green shimmer cs and some dp.

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Paper - blue/grey shimmer cs, pale blue glitter cs, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Memory Box Frostyville Frame die, Penny Black sentiment die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SSS animals, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs, green shimmer cs, unknown dp
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Sizzix pierced dot rectangle die

A Valentine for a Best Friend and a Swirly Heart Valentine

Festive Friday is celebrating Galentine's Day.  The challenge involves picking three things from their list.  I chose friendship sentiment, hearts, and ribbon.

My best friend came over the other day for dinner and brought me a pack of Valentine paper napkins as a hostess gift.  So I decided to use one to make a card for her.  I peeled off the top layer of the napkin and attached it to cs with ModPodge.  The sentiment is heat embossed, die cut and wrapped around the napkin panel with pink ribbon.  I added the panel to the card base and framed it with a pierced rectangle frame die.

This same girlfriend also orders a few Valentine cards from me each year.  This is one of them.  It's going off to Shopping our Stash challenge "Love is in the Air" as I've had these dies for ages and they needed to be used!

A very CAS card! I sprinkled pink and red brushos on mixed media cs and spritzed with water. When dry, I die cut the heart and the sentiment, and added them to a cream card base.

 

Festive Friday "Galentine's Day"

 

Shopping our Stash "Love is the Air"

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Printworks sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - paper napkin, off-white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - ModPodge, clear embossing powder, MFT Pierced Rectangle Frame die, Spellbinders label die, pink ribbon

Supplies for card 2:
Paper - mixed media and cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - red and pink brushos, heart die (?), Poppy Stamps sentiment die

Christmas for a Best Friend

Sneaking in under the wire for the Christmas Kickstart Challenge "Make One for a Loved One".  I made this one for my best friend.

I recently did a crafty Zoom call with friends and we worked on brayering.  This was one of my brayered backgrounds.  I stamped the trees and their attached sentiment in Staz-On, added a Tim Holtz "Merry Christmas" peel-off to the top, and bordered in black.  Final touch was gold peel off stars on all the stars in the trees of the stamped image.

Christmas Kickstart Challenge "Make One for a Loved One"

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Verses "Good Friends are Like Stars" stamp (trees and sentiment all in one)
Ink - Stazon black, various blue and orange Distress inks
Paper - coated cs, white and black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - tiny stick-on gold stars, Tim Holtz Christmas sentiment peel-off

For My Best Friend

The Day of the Month Card Club wants us to celebrate Best Friend Day by making a card for our best friend.

My best friend's favourite colour is blue so I used blue foil.  I put the Transfer Gel through the stencil, let it dry for a bit as per the instructions, laid the bright blue foil on it, and ran it through the laminator.

Peeling it off to reveal what is left on the cs is quite wonderful. And it is so shiny! Hard to capture in a photo.

I added a sentiment (unknown - it's been in my stash for years). Then trimmed the panel and bordered it with black shimmer paper.

Day of the Month Card Club "Best Friend Day"

Supplies:
Stamps - unknown unmounted sentiment
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - white cs, black shimmer paper
Size - 4.25" square
Accessories - branch stencil (unknown brand), bright blue Deco foil, Deco Foil Transfer Gel

Embossing Folder for a Friend

Just Us Girls want us to use an embossing folder on our cards this week.  I haven't done anything innovative or fancy with mine, just used it as a major design element and a frame for the sentiment.

I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment first so that I could make sure I got the embossing folder nicely centred over it before running it through my Cuttlebug.   Then I trimmed the panel, popped it up on fun foam, and embellished the embossed flowers with royal blue gemstones that matched the ink really well.

Just Us Girls challenge

Supplies:
Stamps - Kay Foley sentiment
Ink - Distress Oxide Blueprint Sketc
Paper - white cs
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - Crafts Too embossing folder, clear embossing powder, royal blue gemstones

Two Very Different Challenge

I have some spare time today so I'm here to post cards for two very different challenges.

First up a Christmas card for AAA Cards:

Using an old hexagon punch and a bunch of scraps of glitter cs, I created a border around the simple heat embossed sentiment "noel" that is also punched out as a hexagon.

Next up, is a card for a good friend.  It's one of my favourite friendship sentiments.  It's for the Less is More challenge.

I sprinkled red brushos over a heart stencil and spritzed with water.

I stamped and heat embossed my sentiment over them in black, bordered with red, and popped up on fun foam.

I'll be back tomorrow with cards for some other challenges.  It's too hot to work in the garden today so a good chance to do indoor crafty things!!

Supplies for card 1:

Stamps - Rubber Soul sentiment

Ink - ColorBox Gold

Paper - white cs, scraps of glitter cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - gold embossing powder, hexagon punch

Supplies for card 2:

Stamps - Kay Foley sentiment

Ink - Versafine Onyx black

Paper - white and red cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Heidi Swapp "confetti" stencil, red brushos, clear embossing powder, fun foam

Straight from the Heart Friend

Time to remind you that you only have until February 24th to link up your CAS Watercolour cards.

Even though it's February, the theme "heart" need not refer to Valentine's Day.  For my reminder card, I made a friendship card for my best friend:

She truly is a wonderful friend who's seen me through my best and worst times, even to the point of taking time off work and flying 3,000 mil es with me when my mother passed away two years ago so that I wouldn't be on my own.  So this Kay Foley sentiment stamp is perfect for a card for her.  I sent it to her for Valentine's Day, with a Happy Valentine's Day sentiment stamped inside it - I firmly believe we should celebrate more than just our spouses or partners on Valentine's Day.

Blue is my friend's favourite colour (one of the many things we have in common) so I did a blue background by sprinkling blue Brushos on Yupo and spritzing with water.  I got some nice puddling, and then sprinkled a bit more to get some grains of Brusho that didn't dissolve.  I then let it air dry.

I stamped a wonderful Kay Foley friendship sentiment that has the word "heart" in it, using black Staz-on as I wasn't sure if it would smudge on the Yupo.  I trimmed it down with a stitched rectangle.

I used a cream shimmer cs for the card base and also to die cut a few tiny hearts and a fleur de lis border.  It's fancier (or maybe just more feminine) than most of the cards I make these days but I think that suits a Valentine.

We'd love to see your heart-themed watercolour cards but please be sure to keep them clean and simple!

Exciting News!!!

Starting March 3rd, 2018

 

 

Loll and Bonnie who run the CAS Mix Up and CAS Watercolour challenges are starting a new challenge - CAS Christmas!  Be sure to check back on March 3rd for the first challenge and participate to get those Christmas cards made throughout the year!

Supplies:

Stamps - Kay Foley

Ink - StazOn Jet Black

Paper - Yupo, cream shimmer cs

Size - A2

Accessories - blue brushos, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, Spellbinders Fleur de Lis rectangle die, little hearts out of another die cut

Reverse of Yesterday's Card

Yesterday I posted this card and explained how it was made (see here):

I had a lot of spritzed red brushos on my stencil after I finished it so before cleaning it up, I flipped it over onto another piece of watercolour paper and used the stencil to do a stencil monoprint background to make this card:

When dry, I added a bit of very pale text stamping and a postmark.  Then stamped and heat embossed the sentiment.

I'll link it up with the CAS Watercolour challenge since it is a watercolour technique and it fits the February theme of "Love":

If you want to join in, you have until February 24th.

Supplies:

Stamps - Tim Holtz sentiment, text, and postage mark

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Adirondack Lake Mist

Paper - watercolour paper, white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - TCW stencil, clear embossing powder, red brushos, fun foam

CAS Watercolour "Love" Reminder

Have you joined us in the February CAS Watercolour challenge yet?

Here's  a reminder card to help inspire you:

I started out by laying my stencil over a piece of watercolour paper.  I sprinkled two shades of red brushos over the openings in the stencil, spritzed with water, and quickly removed the stencil.  When it was dry, I stamped and heat embossed my sentiment.  The watercolour panel is popped up on fun foam for some dimension.

For a tutorial on this technique, please see Loll Thompson's video here.

The Design Team has created some more wonderful cards to inspire you so be sure to head over to CAS Watercolour and check them out.

Supplies:

Stamps - Kay Foley sentiment

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - watercolour paper, PTI Vintage Cream cs

Size - A2

Accessories - TCW stencil, clear embossing powder, red brushos, fun foam

Celebrating Older Women

SCS's Ways to Use It challenge is an odd one this week.  Carla (aka Covington Crafter) discovered that February is "Spunky Old Broads" month so challenged us to make a card celebrating older women.  While I don't like the term "spunky old broads", I do like the idea of celebrating older women.

I love this image of two older women sitting and chatting. As I get older, I find my bonds with my women friends deepening all the time. So I like to think of myself in 20 more years still having wonderful intense conversations with my friends - hopefully we won't be senile, but if we are, this sentiment gives hope to still being friends!

I stamped the image and sentiment in black, and added a bit of colouring with coloured pencils. It looked a bit dull so I added three colours of twine between the image and sentiment for added interest and popped it up with foam tape.

So here's to all the older women I know!  Cheers!

Supplies:

Stamps -  Deep Red women and sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black

Paper - white and black cs

Size - A2

Accessories - coloured pencils; blue, green, and beige twine; foam tape

Friendship

This week's CAS challenge over at Splitcoaststampers is "Friendship".  I have some great sentiment stamps for this so ended up making two cards.  The first one uses the sentiment as its focal image.

The background behind the sentiment was made by using a technique with ink-saturated paper towel (saved from clean-up for other projects and dried). Loll Thompson showed me the technique and she has instructions here:

http://www.stampingwithloll.com/2016...e-colours.html

The sentiment is stamped and heat embossed, and allowed to take centre stage inside an embossing folder border. I love what the sentiment says about having a friend, and I love the great font it has.

The second card has an image and another friendship sentiment, this time a quote by Charles Dickens.

I stamped my image inside a section of an embossed piece of cs.  I like the old-fashioned look of it so coloured it lightly with coloured pencils as if it were faded.  It's popped it up on fun foam. The sentiment is cut out with a label die cut.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies for card one:

Stamps - Wordsworth

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, blue and purple Distress inks

Paper - white and mixed media cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Cuttlebug embossing folder, clear embossing powder, fun foam, paper towel

Supplies for card two:

Stamps - Viva Las Vegas and Printworks

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - coloured pencils, Quickutz embossing folder, fun foam, label die

Mixed Media Friends

The latest Mixed Media Card Challenge is "Friendship" - the perfect opportunity to ink up two new stamps I recently bought from Deep Red.

I stamped in black the image of the two elderly women with my MISTI (good thing too as it took two tries to get a good impression).  Stamped the sentiment (that I just love - perfect for my best friend and me as we approach our 65 birthdays!) in navy blue for a bit of contrast to the black.  I lightly coloured the women with coloured pencils - I didn't want strong solid colours so used a very light hand.

I masked off the image and sentiment, and used a brick stencil with texture paste to create an arch around the edge.  It looked kind of blah just in white but I didn't want it to look heavy so sprinkled on some rust Perfect Pearls just to give it a bit of random colour.

Yesterday's SCS Ways to Use It challenge is "Punctuation" - I realized that this sentiment stamp has 4 apostrophes and an ellipsis so it is perfect for that challenge too.

Supplies:

Stamps: Deep Red women and sentiment

Paper: PTI Vintage Cream cs

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Archival Jet Black and Cobalt Blue

Accessories: Tim Holtz Bricked stencil, Ranger Texture Paste, rust Perfect Pearls, foam tape, coloured pencils