A Snarky Cat and a Winter Wonderland

More Christmas cards!  One for Christmas Crafts All Year Round "Dogs and / or Cats" and Christmas Kickstart "Gift":

Stamped, watercoloured, trimmed with a wonky stitched rectangle, bordered in black, put on a kraft card base, and a bit of Fun Flock added to the brim and pom pom of the hat.

Next up for My Time to Craft "Winter" and 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Winter Wonderland":

I have lots of unused backgrounds in a box and found this one - blue and mauve inks brayered on glossy cs.  I stamped the trees and sentiment with Versamark and heat embossed with white.  Trimmed it and bordered with a glittery cs that blended in well with the colours.

    

   

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Tim Holtz
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, black and kraft cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, MFT wonky rectangle die, Fun Flock

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Paper Rose winter trees, Serendipity sentiment
Ink - Versamark, blue and mauve inks
Paper - glossy coated cs, blue/mauve glitter cs, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - white embossing powder

For an Important Woman and a Recycled Santa

Shopping our Stash is asking for a card for either Mothers' Day or for an important woman in our lives.  My Mum passed away several years ago so I made this for my sister.

Stamped, colour, trimmed with a pierced dot rectangle, bordered with pink (love the way it shows through the pierced dots), and embellished with sequins.

Jingle Belles want to see Santa.  I'd meant to enter this in their last challenge (Earth Day - use recycled items) but I didn't get it finished in time.  Seems appropriate that it still gets posted at Jingle Belles!

I used a Santa off a commercial card I received last Christmas.  I added him to a gelli plate background from my box of many backgrounds, and stamped and die cut the sentiment, rubbing a bit of gold ink around the edge of the die.

 
 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - ?
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white and pink cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Spellbinders pierced dot rectangle die, sequins

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - PTI sentiment
Ink - ColorBox Fresh Green, gold ink
Paper - gelli print background, white cs
Size - 6.25x4.75"
Accessories - Sizzix label die

Stars and a Tree, and a Dog and a Present

A couple of simple Christmas cards today.

I inked up the tree stamp with green Distress mini inkpads, spritzed lightly with water, and stamped on watercolour paper. When dry, I stamped the stars and sentiment. I popped that panel up on fun foam on gold shimmer cs and added that to a red shimmer card base.

Stamped and watercoloured, matted with red cs, and popped up on fun foam on the card base.

Challenge for card 1:

Christmas Kickstart "Trees, Trees, Trees"

Challenges for card 2:

Addicted to CAS "Present"

Do-All Kreatives "Animals and Christmas"

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Art Impressions tree, PTI sentiment, SU star cluster
Ink - Distress Iced Spruce and Evergreen Bough, Delicata Golden Glitz, Memento Rhubarb Stalk
Paper - watercolour paper, gold and red shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SSS sentiment, ? dog
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, red and cream cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, fun foam

A Cardinal and a Puppy

A Christmas card Twofer today.  First up for the Christmas Cards All Year Round "Red and White" challenge:

I pulled out a really old stamp that I've had for years and stamped and heat embossed it in red. I die cut the panel with a square hemstitch die and backed it with red shimmer cs. I die cut the sentiment "joy" with the same cs. The whole panel is popped up on fun foam for dimension.

And the second card is for the Christmas Kickstart "Pawfectly Pawsome Christmas" challenge.

I thought this stamp with the puppy's paws hanging over the box fit the "pawfectly pawsome" idea so well!

Stamped and watercoloured, framed with a green pierced rectangle frame, and mounted on a red card base.  The sentiment ended up crooked so I restamped it on a little strip of cs and glued it over the crooked one.

Christmas Cards All Year Round "Candy Cane and / or Red AND White"

Christmas Kickstart

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Inkadinkado cardinal
Ink - ColorBox Chianti
Paper - red shimmer and white cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Ranger Rich Red embossing powder, Spellbinders square hemstitch die, Tattered Lace joy die, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Hobby Art "A Christmas Tail"
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - watercolour paper, red and green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, MFT Pierced Rectangle Frame die

Pink Valentine and Blue Birthday

A Twofer today.  For the Tic Tac Challenge, I have this Valentine card:

The background is created using the Alcohol Marker Marbling technique (tutorial here on SCS).  I used three different pink alcohol markers and followed the steps in the tutorial.

I added a die cut heart and sentiment to it, trimmed the panel, and popped it up on fun foam.

I now have a ton of tiny white hearts - wondering what to do with those....

I will need a birthday card for a nephew in March so The Male Room challenge ("For a Teenager") got me to get it made in plenty of time.  And I'll add it to Seize the Birthday ("Embossing" - I used embossing paste).

Love this crazy owl with his one large eye and one small eye! Stamped, coloured, and fussy cut the owl, the hat, and the gift. Popped them up on the background (I used embossing paste through a stencil and, when dry, I sprayed it blue), and added a sentiment on a banner.

 

Tic Tac Toe Challenge (I used the left hand vertical row)

 

The Male Room

 

Seize the Birthday

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Paper - coated cs, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - pink Copic markers, rubbing alcohol, Tim Holtz love die, heart die, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Tim Holtz bird and accessories
Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black
Paper - white and black cs, mixed media cs
Size - A2
Accessories - markers, blue spray, stencil, embossing paste

F is for Frosty Friends

Another Christmas card today:

I used one of my never-before-used Penny Black stamps. The image is watercoloured and then I added fun flock to the pompom and brim of the hat.  This one is popped up straight onto fun foam onto a kraft card base.  I kept all the colouring in kraft tones and red for the CAS Christmas challenge.

I made a second version while all the supplies were out, added in a wee bit of green, and bordered it with red cs before popping it up on fun foam:

Does the image look better with or without the red border?

Off to these challenges:

CAS Christmas

 

The Paper Players

 

Christmas Cards All Year Round - "Something that Starts with E or F" - mine is "frosty friends" 

NBUS Challenge - I used a never-before-used stamp.

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, kraft and red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, fun flock, fun foam

The Snowbaby's Gift

Reminder time for CAS Christmas!  And the theme this month is "Gifts".

I went with a sweet little snowman - more like a snowbaby, with too big a toque for its little head, sitting in the snow, wondering what the package is!

Stamped, watercoloured, trimmed into a square, bordered with an offset red square to balance with the red gift.  I used gold watercolour paint for the gift's ribbon and went over it with Wink of Stella for more sparkle.  And added Stickles to the snowy ground and Fun Flock to the pompom and brim of the toque.

Please head over to CAS Christmas to check out more cards featuring gifts - by the Design Team and this month's talented Guest designer, Leslie (Running with Scissors).  You have until June 24th to link up.  Please keep your cards clean and simple, and be sure to include the theme of gifts.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, cream and red cs

Size - 5" square

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Wink of Stella, Stickles, Fun Flock

Animal Antics

The Paper Players current challenge is Animal Antics.

The word "antics" in the challenge title made me think it should be animals getting up to something fun so I thought of my stamp with a cat jumping out of a gift-wrapped box opened by a surprised but delighted dog.

The image was stamped and heat embossed and then painted with watercolour paints.  A simple sentiment, a black border, and a white card base and it was done!

I'm also going to add it to CAS Christmas as there is no glitter or sparkle on it and I'd feel fine giving it to a man who loves animals (might save it for my vet!).

Speaking of animal antics, at our recent Eat Sleep Craft Repeat retreat, Christine and I had our dogs there.  They were mostly very well behaved, especially my old fellow Will who is 14 - he slept the days away near the crafting action. 

My young English Cocker, Tessa, got into mischief stealing paper towel from the rubbish and shredding it for us!  This photo could well be Christine telling her off for the latest paper towel theft!

You can see Christine's young Golden, Tika, in the photo with a stuffie in her mouth.  It is a sweet Appaloosa horse stuffie that Darnell brought with her to the retreat to sit on the table with her little Hammie (those of you who follow Darnell's blog will know what I'm talking about) but Tika stole the Appaloosa and made it her own after Darnell graciously said she could keep it:

And that brings me to some other animal antics, involving a live Appaloosa.  Many of you know I volunteer for therapeutic horse riding for kids with disabilities.  We had our summer fundraiser on the weekend and I led our wonderful Appaloosa therapy horse, Sprite, in the 5 km walk/ride/run/bike part of the event.  A delightful little special needs girl rode him and she was thrilled to see that the instructor turned Sprite into a unicorn for the occasion.  Here's a photo (I can't include one with the rider because of our confidentiality policy):

It was a chilly cloudy day but lots of people came out and we raised about $10,000 to fund riders who otherwise couldn't afford it.  That's me in the red raincoat with our instructor and another couple of volunteers.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black image, Impression Obsession sentiment

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - white and black cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, clear embossing powder

Smiling Bear

The latest Addicted to CAS challenge is "smile":

I struggled with this for awhile and then thought of this cute Penny Black bear who has a big smile on his face - perhaps because he succeeded in finding all the gifts he needed!

I stamped him, watercoloured him, bordered with a bit of festive dp, and added to my cardbase!  A fun and quick card that is nice and flat for mailing!

Love getting Christmas cards done well ahead!  And challenges inspire me even if they're not specifically Christmas ones.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black bear, Old Island Stamp Co. sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, white cs, Colorbok dp

Size - A2

Accessories - watercolour paints

A Horse Inspired by Mary Poppins and Other Animals

I'm building up my Christmas stash thanks to various challenges.  Here are three from SCS challenges.

First up:

For SCS Ways to Use It (use stripes in honour of Dr. Seuss Day) and SCS Free for All (be inspired by something in Mary Poppins).

One of my favourite scenes in Mary Poppins is when they ride the carousel and Mary works some magic so that the carousel horses come off the carousel and they go riding about the countryside.

The only carousel stamp I have is this one so it was a good chance to get another Christmas card done for my stash.

I used scraps of a striped dp for the Free for All challenge, bordering both sides of my image with it.

On the fur trim of the horse's blanket, I used a tinsel glitter, and on the snowflakes and flourishes around the pole, I used regular glitter.

Next up:

For SCS Clean and Simple ("Luck of the Irish " - a card that uses green for St Patrick's Day but celebrates any occasion).

The teddy bear looks pretty pleased with himself so he probably had a very successful shopping trip - maybe because he wore his lucky green scarf!

Pretty basic - watercoloured, trimmed down, bordered with a stitched green panel, and popped up on fun foam.

And last up:

For SCS Christmas Card Challenge (a theme of sledding, snowboarding, etc.).

A quick simple card to make - stamped image and sentiment, coloured with coloured pencils and Gamsol, a bit of Stickles added to the snow, bordered in black, and popped up on fun foam.

I just love making Christmas cards and, given all the snow Vancouver keeps getting, it's been easy to be in the mood for it!

Supplies for Card 1:

Stamps - Whimsy Christmas carousel horse, Old Island Stamp Co. sentiment

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - white cs, striped dp

Size - A2

Accessories - markers, Martha Stewart tinsel glitter and regular glitter, Quickie glue pen
Supplies for Card 2:

Stamps - Penny Black

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, green and white cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - watercolour paints, Lil Inkers stitched square, fun foam

Supplies for Card 3:

Stamps - Penny Black

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - white and black cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - coloured pencils, Gamsol, Stickles, Nesties square dies, fun foam