Birthday Flowers, a Hollyhock Garden, and Green and Gold Christmas

I've got three cards for today.  I've really been in the mood to make cards lately!

First up a birthday card (a belated one as I know the post won't get it there in time!).  It's for Cut It Up's "Happy Birthday" challenge.

I inked up a Penny Black background stamp with Distress Oxide Shabby Shutters and Speckled Egg and patted off some of the ink with a rag.  I inked on hammered cs which added to the faded texture of the stamping.  I die cut the flowers and smooshed them into the same two inks.  I  used a separate "belated" sentiment stamp over the "birthday wishes" stamp.

Addicted to CAS's code word is Garden.  One of my favourite flowers is hollyhock and I always have a section of my garden devoted to them.

I stamped and heat embossed the hollyhocks in gold on watercolour paper, then painted them and splattered a bit of gold paint. I created a frame by cutting out the centre of a piece of gold cs with a double stitched rectangle die.

Last one is a very quick CAS card for Color Hues "Green and Gold".  It's also for the Neglected Stuff challenge - I haven't used this stamp set since 2017!

I stamped the base tree in green, then heat embossed the overlap in gold.  I wanted a border that matched the gold on the tree and sentiment so I cut a rectangle one size larger, went around the edge of it with Versamark and heat embossed with the same gold embossing powder all around the edge.

 
     

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black background stamp, SU birthday wishes, Impression Obsession belated
Ink - Distress Oxide Shabby Shutters and Speckled Egg, Archival Potting Soil
Paper - white hammered cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Poppy Stamps flower die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - The Stampin' Place hollyhocks
Ink - ColorBox Gold
Paper - watercolour paper, gold and off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold embossing powder, watercolour paints, Memory Box double stitched rectangle die cut, Spellbinders rectangle die

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - SU Solemn Stillness tree, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment
Ink - ColorBox green and gold
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold embossing powder, Spellbinders rectangle dies

M is for Music / Hollyhocks

The ABC Christmas Challenge is asking for either L is for Little or M is for Music - I'm going with M is for Music.

I made a very quick Christmas card with both a musical background and a musical instrument.  I heat embossed image and sentiment, and layered over an embossed musical score.

And a second card for today, this time for The Paper Players' "Green Thumb" challenge.  I love a lot of the old fashioned flowers and one of my favourites is hollyhocks.  I finally I have a good patch of them in my garden after letting them self sow each year.

I stamped them and painted them with the muted colours of my Cosmic Shimmer Botanical Stains. Added a sentiment on vellum and bordered it with black.

ABC Christmas Challenge

 

 The Paper Players

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Deep Red angel, unknown sentiment
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - ivory cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold embossing powder, musical score embossing folder

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - The Stampin' Place hollyhocks, Impression Obsession sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, PTI Vintage Cream cs, black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Cosmic Shimmer Botanical Stains, fun foam

Hollyhocks are a Favourite

The Flower Challenge is asking for us to use our favourite flower.  Well that is almost impossible!  I have so many favourites!  But one of them is the hollyhock.  I grow them along my back fence every summer.

I stamped the hollyhocks stamp with Versamark on mixed media cs and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I then sprayed the panel with a couple of different blue sprays. When dry, I rubbed over the embossed hollyhocks to remove any spray clinging to them.

I die cut the hollyhocks die out of mixed media cs and smooshed them into pink and mauve Oxide inks that I'd tapped on my craft sheet and spritzed with water. I layered them on top of the resist panel and added a few of the white centres that fell out when I die cut them.

I wrapped a strip of vellum with the sentiment around it all and popped the panel up on fun foam.

Challenges: 

The Flower Challenge "Use your Favourite Flower"

AAA Birthday Card Challenge

 

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Impression Obsession hollyhocks, SU sentiment
Ink - Versamark, various pink and mauve Oxide inks
Paper - mixed media and white cs, vellum
Size - 5" square
Accessories - Impression Obsession hollyhocks dies, clear and blue embossing powders, blue sprays, fun foam

Die Cuts Only Birthday Card

Seize the Birthday is challenging us to make a birthday card using die cuts only (though we are allowed a stamped sentiment).

I went with an "out of my comfort zone" colour scheme, using a piece of a sprayed background out of my UFO box and some scraps of pink pieces.

If I recall, the background was made with various shades of green and blue sprays on mixed media cs.  While the sprays were still wet, I sprinkled on a bit of Magicals. Then I dug out some leftover pieces of pink background scraps (two were pink and mauve Distress ink smooshed on mixed media cs, and the other was pink Brushos sprinkled and spritzed on mixed media cs) and die cut the hollyhocks from them. Added them to my background, and then stamped the sentiment on a scrap of vellum and wrapped it around the panel, and popped it all up on fun foam on the card base.

Since it uses lots of scraps, I'm taking it over to Pixie's Snippets Playground.  I always love using up the pieces from my UFO box!

Supplies:
Stamps - unknown birthday sentiment
Ink - Archival Acorn, various Distress mauve and pink inks
Paper - pieces from my UFO box that used white cs, mixed media cs, vellum
Size - A2
Accessories - Impression Obsession hollyhock die, green and blue Magicals and sprays, pink Brushos, fun foam