Valentines

Three Valentine cards today (my best friend always asks me to make some for her each year which gets my fund raiser started well before my Christmas card sale in November!).

We Love Stamping wants hearts and Sweet Stampin' wants love - both require stamped images so this card is for them.  It's also for NBUS as it's a stamp I've had for a while and never used.

I stamped it, coloured the hearts with a red alcohol marker, trimmed the panel, bordered it with black, and added it to my card base.  A great "back to basics" kind of card!     

Color Hues wants red and pink, and Try It On Tuesday wants love.  Time Out wants at least two of sparkle, heart, red, pink, aperture, and twine (I have heart, red, and pink).  It's also going off to Snippets as I used some leftover bits of red cs, a bit of a pink smooshed background, and a couple of strips of white cs for the sentiment and the embossed strip.  

Another quick and easy card but this time using die cuts.  I die cut the three hearts and the sentiment banner, and dry embossed the background strip.

And one more that is less CAS, more mixed media.  It's for Allsorts "Create Your Own Background".

I made a background by first stamping some randomly inked text with Vintage Photo ink. I then laid a heart stencil over the text stamping and used translucent embossing paste through it. It looked kind of bland so I lightly sponged over the panel with the Vintage Photo and that gave more definition to the stencilled hearts.

The large heart is stamped with Versamark on burgundy cs and then gold Pearl Ex was brushed over it (and sealed it with a fixative). I fussy cut the heart, put fun foam on the back, and added it to the background panel.

   
      

  

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Unity heart branch, Impression Obsession sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white and black cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - red alcohol marker, Spellbinders square dies

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Impression Obsession sentiment
Ink - Memento Rosebud
Paper - white and red cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - various heart dies, SU narrow strip heart embossing folder

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - unknown heart stamp, Wendy Vecchi text stamp
Ink - Versamark, Distress Vintage Photo
Paper - white and burgundy cs
Size - A2
Accessories - heart stencil, embossing paste, gold Pearl Ex, fixative, fun foam

Valentine's Day Rabbit and Christmas Horse

Of course I'm always working on Christmas cards, but at this time of year I need to take a little break as my best friend always orders a few Valentine cards from me.  This one is for Paper Players "Love is in the Air", Try It on Tuesday "Love", and Shopping our Stash "Love Me Do".

I die cut the bunny twice out of a bit of leftover beige smooshed background and the stool out of some brown cs that had a faint woodgrain pattern. The sentiment and heart stems are die cut from plain red cs.

Today's Christmas card is for the ABC Christmas Challenge "A is for Anything Christmas and / or B is for Bright".  The red card base could qualify for "bright" and of course it can qualify for "anything Christmas".

I stamped the image and used coloured pencils to colour the horse and wreath. They are the best medium to colour this image as the wreath is full of tiny little details so would be hard to colour with anything other than nice sharp pointed pencils. I used a gold metallic pencil for the bow and some of the details on the bridle.

I had a red pre-made card base with an oval already cut out of it. The image fitted perfectly into it.

    

Supplies for card 1:
Paper - white and red cs, brown woodgrain cs, leftover scrap of beige smooshed background
Size - A2
Accessories - Charlie and Paulchen bunny and stool, Impression Obsession heart stems, Poppy Stamps sentiment die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Serendipity Clyde
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - premade red card base, white cs
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - coloured pencils, metallic gold pencil

Crowned Robin and CAS Congratulations

I've got a Christmas card and a romantic congratulations card today.

For 52 Christmas Card Throwdown's "Red, Green, and Brown" colour challenge, I chose a fun robin stamp.  It's also for Inkspirational which wants a seasonal card.

Very CAS and quick - stamped, coloured with red, green, and brown coloured pencils (with a metallic gold pencil for the crown and stars, and a silver one for the letters and snowflakes), trimmed with a square die, and bordered with gold shimmer cs.

Friends of mine just got engaged so I needed to make a congratulations card.  I was inspired by the Festive Friday Challenge (Global Champagne Day) - I used white, silver foil, CAS design, heat embossing, and a congratulations sentiment from their list of options.

I glued sparkly silver foil to scrap cs and die cut the heart string and the pierced dot frame from it.  I used some silver speckled vellum for the background and stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in silver.

    

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Crafty Individuals Jolly Robin
Ink - Versafine Onyx black
Paper - off white cs, gold shimmer cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - coloured pencils, metallic gold and silver pencils, Spellbinders square dies

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Memory Box sentiment
Ink - ColorBox silver
Paper - white cs, silver holographic foil, silver speckled vellum
Size - A2
Accessories - Poppy Stamp heart string die, MFT pierced rectangle frame, silver embossing powder

Valentines 2

More Valentines cards today!  My best friend always orders some from me.

First up for Double D's challenge "Hearts", Sweet Stampin' "Love", Stamping Sensations "Valentines", and My Time to Craft "Hearts". 

Double D has this lovely mood board.  I was inspired by the top right image of the swans making a heart with the spray of flowers above them.

 

I stamped and heat embossed the image in platinum embossing powder, watercoloured, trimmed with a square die, and bordered with pink shimmer cs.

The Tic Tac Toe challenge has lots of options for Valentine cards.  I went with the diagonal line that says love sentiment, red and CAS design.

I layered the white hearts die over red cs and stamped and heat embossed my sentiment in white.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - unknown heart, SU sentiment
Ink - ColorBox silver
Paper - watercolour paper, pink shimmer and white cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - platinum embossing powder, watercolour paints, Spellbinders square dies

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Impression Obsession sentiment
Ink - ColorBox white
Paper - white and red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - white embossing powder, hearts die

Valentines

Just in case you're sick of my endless Christmas cards, here's a totally non-Christmas post.  Today I'm going with Valentine cards.

It seems like all the colour challenges I follow are going with red and pink right now.  Colorful Options has a mood board full of red and pink, including an image of red and pink hearts.  Color Hues and Inkspirational are collaborating and they both want pink and red.  Festive Friday's festivity is Valentines Day and you have to pick at least three things from their list (I picked pink, red, hearts, and a love sentiment).  And the Stencil Fun Challenge also wants pinks and / or reds.  So here's my card for all of these:

I attached the hearts stencil to my white cs and sponged with various Distress pink and red inks.  Then washed off the stencil and replaced it over the inking.  I then went over it with a translucent embossing paste.  When dry, I stamped the two sentiments in red ink. 

My second Valentine is for the Time Out Challenge - pick 2 or more out of their list of words.  I picked heart (even the butterfly has hearts on it), love (Valentine's Day), layer (I have a narrow embossed panel, a red border, hearts, a butterfly, and a sentiment all layered on the card base), warm (for warm colours), and stitch (the small red hearts have faux stitched edges). 

The butterfly was in my box of leftover bits and since it has red hearts on it, I decided it was high time it found a home on a card.  I also found the punched red border in there.  I die cut the hearts and sentiment out of the same red, dry embossed the narrow hearts panel, and put everything together.

   

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - SU cherish, Impression Obsession Happy Valentine's Day
Ink - Distress Candied Apple, Festive Berries, and Picked Raspberries
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Craft Emotions stencil, Dreamweaver translucent paste

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown butterfly stamp
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white and red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Poppy Stamp sentiment die, watercolour paints, SU hearts embossing folder, border punch, small stitched heart die

A Reindeer Framed by Hearts

When I saw our new mood board at Peace on Earth, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do.  At first I wanted to do a dove on a red heart but three of my fellow Design Team members had already done that.  So then I thought of a white tree with red ornaments but I wasn't inspired.  Then I had the idea of somehow merging the reindeer in the top left image with the red hearts in the other three images and came up with this card.

I've had this heart frame die for ages but never used it (so am also entering my card at the NBUS challenge).  It fit quite well around my collage-style stamp of the reindeer.  And I have an old SU sentiment that mentions both Christmas and hearts.

I put the reindeer stamp in my MISTI and tapped it with a couple of different brown inks to get a bit of variation in the stamping.  Stamped the sentiment below, trimmed and added to a red card base, and die cut the heart frame out of the same red as the card base.

We'd love to see if our Peace on Earth mood board inspires you.  If not, feel free to link up an "anything Christmas" card.

Supplies:
Stamps - Crafty Individuals reindeer, SU sentiment
Ink - Ranger Archival Potting Soil, Memento Rich Cocoa
Paper - red and white cs
Size - 6x4.75"
Accessories - unknown heart frame die

Festive Bear, Red and Kraft Valentine, and Snowy Horses

Three cards again today - I was home all day (that's rare for me) so spent the afternoon making a few cards to enter in challenges before they close.

First up for Festive Friday "National Winnie the Pooh Day".  My card has nothing to do with Winnie the Pooh but it uses five of the elements from Festive Friday's list - brown, yellow, red, bear, and colouring techniques (I used coloured pencils with Gamsol).  It's also for The Twelve Months of Christmas "Polar Bears".

I stamped the image in dark brown then coloured with coloured pencils, using lots of red, yellow, and brown.  I blended the shading on the bear with Gamsol and blending stumps.  I trimmed it with a stitched square, bordered with brown cs, and added it to a square card base.

Next up the first of the Valentines I make every year for my best friend (she orders 10 every year).  She loves seeing text on the background of the cards.  It's for The Color Hues Challenge "Red and Kraft".

The background is a kraft dp printed with old fashioned script.  I topped it with a die cut heart duo and die cut sentiment, and added it to a matching red card base.

And back to Christmas cards, for Jingle Belles "Something Old, Something New" and Simply Clean and Simple "Something New".  I used a new horse stamp I hadn't yet used (so I'm also linking it up with the NBUS Challenge) and a snowflake background stamp I've had for many years.

I stamped snowflake background in pale blue, then stamped the horses below it. Added a sentiment, trimmed the panel with a square die, bordered with black cs, and used a quickie glue pen and glitter along all the snowy lines on the fence.

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - SU Bearing Gifts
Ink - Versafine Clair Fallen Leaves
Paper - white and brown cs
Size - 4.5" square
Accessories - coloured pencils, Gamsol, Lil Inkers stitched square die

Supplies for card 2:
Paper - red cs, kraft script dp
Size - 6.25x3.25"
Accessories - Tim Holtz love die, Poppy Stamps Heart String die

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Cardio horses, Penny Black sentiment, Impression Obsession snowflake background
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Broken China
Paper - white and black cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - square dies, glitter