Recycled Dog, Grateful Horse, and Die Cut Swag

The Paper Players challenge is to recycle something on our cards.  As a dog lover, I often receive store-bought cards with dogs on them.  I received one on my last birthday with a beautiful black lab on it.  Good friends of mine have a black lab so I decided to recycle the lab to make a Christmas card for them.  

I have some old double-sided stick-on flourishes.  I arranged them in the corners of the card and added multi-coloured glitter to them.  Finished off with a die cut sentiment "joyful" - exactly how I would describe my friends' lab!

Cardz 4 Guyz wants to see a masculine card in blue.

I sponged a background with various blue Distress inks and layered my die cut over it, popping the body of the horse up a bit with foam tape. The whole panel is popped up on the card base with fun foam.

And a "threefer" today.  52 Christmas Card Throwdown wants us to use dies or punches.  I made a card with lots of greenery die cuts that I cut out of small scraps of various green cs - therefore I'm also entering it at the Snippets challenge.  And linking up with Cut It Up - anything goes with die cuts.

I die cut several different pieces of greenery out of various scraps of green cs.  I splattered them with white acrylic paint and arranged them on white cs dry embossed with a pine sprig embossing folder.  I wrapped bakers twine around my focal panel and made a bow from it.  The sentiment is stamped and die cut with a narrow banner die.

    

  

Supplies for card 1:
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - dog off of a store bought card, double-sided stick-on flourishes, multi-coloured glitter

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Memory Box sentiment
Ink - various Distress blue inks
Paper - white cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - StarLit Studio Horse Country die, fun foam, foam tape

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - white cs, scraps of different green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Sizzix embossing folder, TH greenery dies, sentiment label die, red/white baker's twine, white acrylic paint

Glittered Ornament and Jingle Bells

First up, a very CAS card.  My Time to Craft Christmas wants to see glitter.  I used a technique I saw on SCS for using up glitter.  It's also for the Try It On Tuesday Challenge to keep it simple.

I covered a piece of packing tape with a Christmas glitter blend I have (but had never used!). Added a top layer of tape and die cut the ornament. I "hung" it on my centre panel and popped that panel up on fun foam on the card base, and added a sentiment.

I used some of my hammered cs - it adds some nice texture to a very CAS card.  Since I've had it for a couple of years but haven't used any of it yet (and had never used the Christmas glitter mix that I've had for at least 10 years!!!), I'm linking it up at the NBUS Challenge and the Neglected Stuff Challenge.

Now on to my second card for today.  The Jingle Belles Challenge is asking for jingle bells, the ABC Christmas Challenge is "j for jingle bells", and the Double D Challenge wants us to use designer paper.

I die cut the bells twice and glued them together for more dimension.  Added them to some starry designer paper.  Stamped and fussy cut the sentiment and added it.  

   

 
 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment
Ink - ColorBox Gold
Paper - white hammered cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Spellbinders ornament die and long rectangle die, Christmas glitter mix, packing tape, gold thread, gold embossing powder, sentiment strip die, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Dylusions sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx black
Paper - white and gold cs, decorative paper
Size - A2
Accessories - Lil Inker bell dies

A Church with Glitter and Snowy Greetings

The Inkspirational Challenge wants us to "Add Glitter".  Perfect for a snowy scene.  I chose a stamp I've never inked up before so am also adding it to NBUS.

The image is stamped and watercoloured, bordered with green cs, and glitter added on all the snowy sections with a Quickie glue pen.  It's quite a chunky glitter so really picked up the light when I photographed the card.

My second card is for Shopping our Stash "Whatever the Weather".  I went with snow.

I used the old Faux Batik technique that's been around for a long time.  I stamped and heat embossed the snowflake background stamp in white and then made several folds in all different directions.  Then unfolded it and sponged over the whole panel with various blue Distress inks.  I used blue glitter cs for a border and for the shadow background of the die cut sentiment.

  

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Power Poppy
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, cream and green cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, glitter

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Hero Arts snowflake background
Ink - ColorBox White
Paper - white cs, blue glitter cs
Size - A2
Accessories - white embossing powder, SSS Snowy Greetings die

Snowy Farm

Peace on Earth challenge has a mood board featuring pick-up trucks.  I don't have any pick-up truck stamps but was inspired by the farms in the backgrounds of the mood board images - especially the red barns.  So I got out a very old Northwoods stamp - one of the first Christmas stamps I ever bought - and created this card:

It's coloured with coloured pencils and then I went over all of the snowy parts with a Quickie glue pen and added glitter - love the sparkle in real life (the photo doesn't do it justice).  A simple sentiment and black border and it was done.

Here's the Peace on Earth mood board:

There's lots more inspiration for you over at Peace on Earth, and we'd love to have you link up a card either inspired by the mood board or an "anything Christmas" card.

Supplies:
Stamps - Northwoods farm scene, PB sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Onyx Black
Paper - white and black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Quickie glue pen, glitter

Pink and Gold, Glitter and Copper

A twofer of Christmas cards today!

For Less is More "Pink and Gold", I stretched my comfort zone of traditional Christmas colours and made a mostly pink ornament:

I used alcohol inks for the solid section of my ornament and the sentiment. I used a few shades of pink and some gold mixative. Then die cut the ornament and sentiment from it. The top layer of the ornament is cut from gold cs. I cut a very thin strip of the same gold cs to use to hang the ornament from the top of the card.

I thought of embellishing with some sequins but I couldn't figure out a placement I liked so left it plain (and I think that is better for the Less is More challenge anyway)!

Then I went on to play with glitter for the ABC Christmas Challenge where one of the options is "G for Glitter":

Years ago I bought some ClearSnap Design Adhesives - they are double sided adhesive patterns. I'd stuck a few on a very odd-sized card base and added gold glitter to them, and then done nothing with it. I also had a heated copper die cut reindeer I'd made years ago that I'd never put on a card. It fit quite well between the glittered adhesive patterns and I found a sentiment that fit space-wise with all of it.

The reindeer was made using this SCS tutorial - this SCS tutorial.

Not sure what I think of it now it's put together but it used up some things from my "UFO" (unfinished objects) box.

 Less is More

 

ABC Christmas Challenge

Supplies for card 1:
Ink - various pink alcohol inks
Paper - coated cs, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold mixative, Memory Box ornament dies, TH joy die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versamark
Paper - white cs
Size - 5.75x4.75"
Accessories - thin copper, Sizzix reindeer die, gold glitter, platinum embossing powder, ClearSnap Design Adhesives

Icy Winter Scene

Here's a reminder card for the CAS Christmas February challenge "Winter Scene":

I stamped the trees / fence image and sentiment in dark brown, added a die cut reindeer (cut from dark bronze shimmer cs), drew some "ground" under the reindeer with a brown coloured pencil, bordered the panel with the dark bronze shimmer cs, and popped it up on fun foam.  To add the icy feeling, I went over the trees, fence boards, and lines on the ground with a Quickie glue pen and added glitter.  It's more glittery in real life - just so hard to photograph.

If you'd like to join us with your "winter scene" Christmas card, you have until February 24th.  Please visit CAS Christmas for more inspiration from the rest of the Design Team.

Supplies:
Stamps - Serendipity trees / fence, SSS sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Fallen Leaves
Paper - white cs, dark bronze shimmer cs
Size - 5" square
Accessories - Impression Obsession reindeer die, brown pencil, fun foam

Blue and Green Sparkle

The Paper Players want to see "Sparkle" and I have a lot of scraps of glitter cs leftover from Christmas card making.  So I made a sparkly winter card.

I die cut all the pieces twice - once out of the glitter cs, once out of scrap cs - glued them together to give them more substance and arranged them on a dry embossed background.  The bird has a bit of foam tape under him to pop him up above the pine branch.

The Paper Players "Sparkle"

The Four Seasons Challenge "Anything Winter"

Supplies:
Paper - blue and green glitter cs, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Memory Box bird die, Penny Black sentiment die, Impression Obsession pine branch die, snowflake embossing folder

Black and Silver Christmas

Two Christmas cards totally out of my Christmas colour comfort zone!

I stamped the snowglobe and the accompanying medieval town in black, bordered with silver mirri cs, and went over the snowflakes and some of the dots with a Stardust gel pen, and added silver ball embellishments to the centres of the snowflakes.

And the second card, inspired by my friend Loll:

On a piece of black cs, I used silver glitter paste through a branch of berries and leaves. I bordered with silver glitter cs and added a die cut sentiment from the same glitter cs.

The first card is going to The Paper Players Tic Tac Toe challenge - I chose the right vertical column - "square card, masculine, neutrals".

 

And to Jingle Belles - I was inspired by their image to use a snowglobe stamp:

The second card is going to 52 Christmas Card Throwdown:

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - IndigoBlu
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white cs, silver mirri cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Stardust gel pen, silver ball embellishments, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Paper - white and black cs, silver glitter cs
Size - A2
Accessories - unknown stencil, TH joy die, silver glitter paste

Reindeer Friends

It's been about a week since I posted anything.  The weather has been glorious so I've been working in my garden and going for long walks with my dog.

But decided to get a few challenges done.  Today I'm looking at Christmas challenges:

Christmas Cards All Year Round - Snow Buddies

Christmas Kickstart - Winter Wonderland Scene

Here's my winter scene with three reindeer buddies:

 

I made the background by covering a piece of cs with double sided tape.  I patted Versamark on the back of a stencil to prevent it sticking to the tape, added clear glitter through the stencil for the snowflakes, burnished it into the tape, then removed the stencil and added blue glitter over the rest of the tape and burnished it.

I die cut the deer out of copper cs and the stitched sloped hills out of white shimmer cs.  I then put the scene together.  I added a small sentiment and added the scene to a white shimmer cardbase. 

In real life it is much more sparkly and shimmery.  Thanks for stopping by today, and please stay home and stay safe.

 

Supplies:
Stamps -
Ink -
Paper -
Size -
Accessories -

Sprayed and Glittered Holly Tag

Christmas is only just over and away we go with a new series of CAS Christmas Card Challenges!  Christine is our host this month and she has challenged us to put a tag on our cards.

Here's my card:

I had more trouble making the tag than I'd expected.  I wanted to use some of my sprays and get a rich shimmery background for the gold embossing.  The first time I sprayed, I left it to dry, and came back to a blobby mess as the cs warped and the colours pooled horribly.  So I tried again and weighted down the cs to keep it flat while it dried.  Once dry I used my Dreamweaver gold embossing paste over the holly stencil and left it to dry.   I came back to discover that the gold embossing paste had dried the colour of the background - it had obviously absorbed the pigment from the sprays!

So I then placed the stencil back over the embossing paste and went over it again with Bo Bunny gold glitter embossing paste, hoping that would dry gold - it's not as gold as it should be but at least it has more contrast to the background than the Dreamweaver gold paste had!  I trimmed the piece down and created the tag top with a SU punch.

I die cut a wonky stitched background panel and sentiment, flicked some of the spray over the background panel, found a piece of gold ribbon that matched quite well, and was glad to call it done!

You have until January 24th to make and post a Christmas card with a tag on it.  If you need more inspiration, head over to CAS Christmas and see what the rest of the Design Team and this month's wonderful Guest Designer, Jane (Onions and Paper) made.

Happy New Year to all who join in with CAS Christmas challenges!

Supplies:
Paper - mixed media and white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - SU tag punch, Tim Holtz holly stencil, Dreamweaver gold embossing paste, Bo Bunny gold glitter embossing paste, gold ribbon