Easter Bunny with Chicks, and a Snowman with Pressure

For Stamping Sensations (Birds, Animals), ATCAS (Bunny), Festive Friday (Easter - I picked yellow, bunny, and Easter sentiment from the list of options), Shopping Our Stash (rabbit or chick), and Double D (Easter):

Stamped, watercoloured, trimmed with a stitched rectangle. I thought of doing the chicks' little sweaters and the ball of yarn in various colours but I'm going to send it to my sister and her favourite colour (like mine) is blue, and keeping it to blue reflects the colours in the Double D mood board (see below).

I've been away visiting family so didn't get any Christmas cards made for two weeks, so now I'm back, I'm getting some quick ones made to keep up with my goal of 8-10 a month.  Did this one for Can You Handle the Pressure "Dry Embossing and Your Favourite Colour" (and as I said above, blue is my favourite colour).

I used a narrow snowflakes embossing folder on the top and bottom of a mini slimline card base.  I stamped the image in blue, trimmed the panel, ran the ink pad around the edges, and popped it up on fun foam.

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - House Mouse "Will Knit for Friends", SU sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, off white and blue cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Local King
Ink - Distress Faded Jeans
Paper - white cs
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - narrow snowflakes embossing folder, fun foam

Reindeer with Blue Background

I'm honoured to be invited to be a Guest Designer at Rudolph Days.  It's an "anything Christmas goes" challenge that runs from the 25th to the end of each month.  Here's my card:

I created the background by lightly smooshing a piece of mixed media cardstock with Distress Weathered Wood and Stormy Sky.  Then with Stormy Sky, I stencilled the snowflake band from the Tim Holtz Holiday Knit stencil across the top.  I put the panel in my MISTI and stamped the reindeer, trees, and sentiments in black, and then sponged a bit of ground / shadowing under the deer and trees.  For the snow, I sprinkled Frantage Chunky White embossing powder over the panel and heated it from underneath so that it wouldn't blow off.

I'd love to see what you create for Rudolph Days!

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Tim Holtz
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Weathered Wood and Stormy Sky
Paper - mixed media cs, off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tim Holtz Holiday Knit stencil, Stampendous Frantage Chunky White embossing powder

Happy Easter and a CAS Sympathy

Easter is coming up and I had to get this card ready for the hostess of the brunch I'm going to.  And Sweet Stampin' and Shopping our Stash both want Easter cards.

Stamped, watercoloured, trimmed with a stitched rectangle. I thought of doing the chicks' little sweaters in various colours but my friend's favourite colour (like mine) is blue. 

While I was away recently, another friend of mine's husband passed away.  So this is for her.  It will work well for Addicted to CAS "Bloom" as I've got a single bloom and for Word Power as the sentiment is the more predominant part of the card.

I put the flower in my MISTI and coloured it with Tombow markers. I used a grey ink for the sentiment as I thought black would look too strong.  I die cut the panel with a stitched square and popped it up on fun foam. I added a drop of liquid pearls to the centre of the flower.

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - House Mouse "Will Knit for Friends", SU sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, off white and blue cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU Love and Sympathy
Ink - Versafine Clair grey
Paper - white cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Tombow markers, liquid pearls, Lil Inkers stitched square die, fun foam

London, Knitting, and a Valentine

Having fun with challenges on a dreary winter day!  First up for the Inspired By.... challenge "Inspired by London".  I had to enter this one as I was born in London (we moved to Canada when I was 10).

I created a background by smooshing with blue Distress Oxide inks, stamped the image of Tower Bridge and the London text stamp on it, bordered with black cs, and popped it up on fun foam.

Next up for My Time to Craft's "Hobbies" challenge, I went with a great image of a raccoon knitting.  Knitting is one of my other main hobbies.

Stamped, watercoloured, and popped up on fun foam.

And last, for Color Hues "Red and Pink", a Valentine card:

I used dies only - square dies for the white and pink panels, a heart die, and a sentiment die. The heart and sentiment were each cut twice and glued together for more dimension. The pink square is popped up on fun foam. The white square has score lines for a bit more interest and tiny red heart gemstones are placed in each corner where the score lines intersect.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - unknown
Ink - various blue Distress Oxide inks, Archival Jet Black
Paper - white and black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Katzelkraft raccoon knitting, Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - watercolour paper, cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, fun foam

Supplies for card 3:
Paper - pink and white cs, red glitter cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - TH love die, heart die, Spellbinders square dies, ScorPal, red heart gemstones, fun foam

A Sweet Bunny and Chicks, and Some Snowflakes

Just Us Girls challenge has an adorable photo challenge this week.  Here's my card for it:

Here's the challenge photo:

Inspired by the bunny ears, I used a bunny instead of a pup and then I used the pinks and purples of the flowers from the photo for the knitting on my image.  I'm a knitter so I really love this image.

It's watercoloured, trimmed with a stitched rectangle die, and popped up on fun foam.

And one more card for today:

Addicted to CAS challenge and Christmas Kickstart Challenge want to see snowflakes so here's one big snowflake:

The background is very simple - blue Brushos shaken on coated cs and spritzed with water. Once dry, I put it the MISTI and stamped and heat embossed the snowflake in white and the sentiment in navy blue. I bordered the panel with navy cs and used a light cream shimmer card base.

       

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - House Mouse Designs "Will Knit for Friends"
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - watercolour paper, PTI vintage cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Colorado Craft Co. snowflake, unknown sentiment
Ink - ColorBox white, Versafine Clair Twilight
Paper - coated cs, cream shimmer cs, navy cs
Size - A2
Accessories - clear and white embossing powders, blue Brushos

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

Win a Stamps / Dies Set over at Snippets!

Di over at Pixie's Crafty Workshop has invited me to Guest Design and offer up a prize for the new challenge in the Snippets Playground.  I had a hard time deciding what to offer up but decided to go with something representing one of my other crafty passions - knitting.

The prize is a set of matching stamps and dies - Hero Arts "Knitting" and "Knitting Frame Cuts".

Do lots of you have a stash of white and cream snippets?  I sure do.  There is always a pile like this on my craft desk, mostly created by cutting cs down for square cards:

 

I made two cards using some of the stamps and dies and using up some of the snippets of white cs.

 

I used the same stencil for both backgrounds but on the first card I did a stencil monoprint (see the video tutorial here) with a couple of shades of blue Distress inks, and on the second I lightly and somewhat randomly coloured through the stencil with turquoise and purple Distress inks and my blending brushes.

The images are stamped and coloured (with Inktense watercolour pencils for the first card, and regular coloured pencils for the second), then I die cut the coloured image and a second one out of more snippets, glued the two together for more dimension and added to the background.

Please note that the sentiment "Sweater weather" is not part of the prize.

Please come and join us over at Pixie's Crafty Workshop for a chance to win this set of stamps and dies.

Supplies:
Stamps - Hero Arts Knitting, unknown "Sweater Weather" sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black, various shades of Distress blue, purple, and turquoise
Paper - white and black cs, mixed media cs
Size - 4.75" square and A2
Accessories - Hero Arts Knitting Frame dies, Inktense watercolour pencils, regular watercolour pencils, Tim Holtz knitting stencil

A Cat Sleeping on Wool

A card for a friend who has a black cat and is a knitter.

 

 

I stamped and watercoloured the image. I ran a top panel through an embossing folder and cut out the inner rectangle. I layered it over the image with foam tape.

 

For The Paper Players Challenge "Clean and Simple - Feline Fine"

 

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Rubbernecker cat, Simon Says Stamp sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - cream cs, watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Cuttlebug embossing folder, foam tape

No Dogs, No Horses, Just Cats - and Knitting!

Those who know me well know that I am passionate about dogs and horses but very lukewarm about cats.  I wouldn't say I dislike cats themselves, but I do hate the fact that they kill birds, and because I have bird feeders in my garden, I could never justify having a cat that went outside and I don't fancy the thought of trying to keep one indoors all the time.  So no cats for me.

But today I'm blogging two cards featuring cats!  And knitting (which is one of my other main hobbies).

First up for the ABC Christmas Challenge "C = Cat, D = Dog", (I chose "C = Cat") and for the Penny Black and More Challenge "Animals, Birds, or Butterflies", I created this card:

The Penny Black image is stamped and watercoloured with some Glossy Accents on the little light bulbs and a bit of Fun Flock on the cat's hat brim and pompom. It's trimmed with a stitched square die and popped up on fun foam.

Now that I look at the finished card, the cat came out a bit too yellow - she was meant to be more of a ginger/marmalade cat!


And for the Day of the Month Card Club "Send a Card to a Friend Day" challenge, I again went with a cat and knitting: 

Doesn't it look like the cat was about to play with the knitting and is looking up in surprise at being caught in the act?

A very CAS card - stamped, watercoloured, bordered in a matching blue, and popped up on fun foam.

It is for one of my friends who knits a lot and has a ginger cat.  We're in a knitting group together and she's a faithful attendee at the Christmas card fundraising sale I have every November, so I will send it to her to tell her how much I appreciate that support.

Phew, having survived two cards featuring cats, I definitely need to head off to my craft room and get out some dog and horse stamps!!!

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - red cs, watercolour paper
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, Lil Inker stitched square die, fun foam, Glossy Accents, Fun Flock

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Rubbernecker cat, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, blue and white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, fun foam