Gold Gilding Flakes and a Hedgehog in a Stocking

The Jingle Belles challenge wants to see gold.  I went with gold gilding flakes.

 

 

I patted the holly stamp with Cosmic Shimmer Flake and Glitter Glue (using a square of foam as an applicator), then stamped onto white cs. Then immediately washed my stamp with warm soapy water. Added the gilding flakes and pressed them into the glue, then used a craft scrubby to rub off the excess.

I used one of the SSS thin frame dies to cut a thin rectangle frame out of the white cs, then cut one out of gold cs with the same die, and inset it into the gap in the white cs. 

 

Next up, for Can You Handle the Pressure where they want to see layers and for We Love Stamping "Make It Cute".  By my usual CAS standards, I've got quite a few layers on this card.  And I think the little hedgehog in the stocking is very cute.

The background is a 3D pine tree embossing folder to create the idea that the hedgehog and his stocking are hanging in a tree.  He's stamped and watercoloured, and then die cut with the matching die.  The main panel and the sentiment oval are both bordered in dark green cs.

  

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black
Paper - white and gold cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Cosmic Shimmer gilding flakes, Cosmic Shimmer Flake and Glitter glue, SSS thin frames die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, white and dark green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Penny Black die, Tim Holtz 3D embossing folder, Spellbinders small oval die

Decorating the Tree / Happy New Year

I'm a big fan of the original Penny Black Christmas stamps with the adorable animals in them.  So chose one of them for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge "Christmas".  I'm also adding it to ABC Christmas Challenge "Y is for Your Choice" and Sweet Stampin' "Christmas".

Stamped, watercoloured, trimmed with a stitched square die, bordered with gold cs, and added to an off-white card base.

My Time to Craft Christmas wants a Happy New Year card.  Here's mine:

I started with my top layer.  I die cut the large star and stamped and heat embossed the sentiment, then trimmed with a stitched square die, and then dry embossed with a little narrow star embossing folder.  I taped a small square of starry holographic paper on the card base and then popped up the top panel on foam tape over top of it.

It's also going to the NBUS challenge as I've never used the narrow star embossing folder or the holographic star dp before. 

    

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black, unknown "joy"
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - off white cs, watercolour paper, gold cs
Size - 5.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, Glossy Accents, Lil Inker stitched square die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU sentiment
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - white cs, Hot off the Press holographic star paper
Size - 5" square
Accessories - gold embossing powder, MFT star die, Kokorosa narrow star embossing folder

Three Cards (None are Christmas!!)

Three non-Christmas cards from me today, for challenges I want to enter before the deadlines.

First up, for Penny Black Saturday Challenge "Love is in the Air":

A sweet little PB hedgehog, watercoloured, trimmed with a stitched circle die, popped up on fun foam on a red base, and finished off with Glossy Accents on the hearts.

Next is a birthday card for a very artsy friend (who loves abstract art) for the Seize the Birthday challenge.  It has an option called "Dichromatic" - use just two colours, other than black and white.  I think the pink and grey in my image qualify:

I took a small piece of black mirror cs and used alcohol inks on it. I added a drop of white to the centre and blew it outwards with canned air, then repeated several times, turning the cs each time to get it to go out in each direction. Then I repeated with a few drops of dusty pink alcohol ink on top of the white. I ended up with this beautiful abstract pattern that is somewhat flower-like (maybe a peony?).

I framed it with a narrow border of matching dusty pink cs and then a deckle-edged rectangle on which I stamped the sentiment.

This was definitely out of my comfort zone, but was a lot of fun!

And finally, the We Love Stamping challenge has an option of stencilling.  So I made a birthday card for a dear friend who loves knitting and who always has her hair stylist put outrageous streaks of colour in her white hair.  Right now she has streaks of purple and turquoise in the front!

I stencilled a subtle background with purple and turquoise through a stencil that looks like fair isle knitting.  I stamped the sentiment on top.  The knitter (who has a very similar hairstyle to my friend) is stamped, coloured with pencils, die cut, and layered so that the sentiment acts to ground her a bit.

Let me know in the comments if you prefer I post a few cards in one post less frequently, rather than more frequent posts with just one card!

Challenges:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - "Love is in the Air"

 

Seize the Birthday

We Love Stamping - "Add Stencilling"

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black hedgehod, PTI sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - watercolour paper, red cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, Lil Inker stitched circle die, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU sentiment
Ink - white and dusty pink cs, black mirror cs
Paper - white and dusty pink cs, black mirror cs
Size - A2
Accessories - canned air, Spellbinders square and deckle rectangle dies

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Hero Arts Knitting, unknown "Sweater Weather" sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black, various shades of Distress purple and turquoise
Paper - white and black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tim Holtz knitting stencil, Hero Arts Knitting Frame dies, coloured pencils