Monochrome Christmas and Birthday

This month the Group of Seven Cardmakers chose Monochrome as the technique for our cards.  I opted to do Christmas cards to build up my stash.  The first card I made followed the method in this video.

I stamped and heat embossed the poinsettia in white on red cs, then added colour to the poinsettia with red coloured pencils.  I trimmed the panel, added a red glitter border, added it to a red card base, popped on a white heat embossed sentiment, and embellished with clear gemstones in the centre.

Next up, shades of green:

For this card, I put the stamp in my MISTI and coloured it directly on the stamp with Memento Dew Drop ink pads, stamping and reinking until I was happy with the results.  Trimmed it, mounted it on a dark green card base, and added sparkly embellishments on the berries and a green bow on top of the stems.

And I had to get some blue in here so my third card is all shades of blue, and will go off to my sister in Ontario for her birthday.

I sprayed the background with various blue sprays, then die cut the hexagon out of it in three places.  I stamped various script and postmark stamps on the hexagon pieces I'd cut, and sponged around their edges.  I then cut hexagons again from scrap cs - put the scrap ones in first and then the sprayed and stamped ones on top for some dimension.  I created a piece of smooshed blue and die cut the wildflowers, sentiment, and tiny butterflies from that.    

There are lots of ways to make monochromatic cards - head on over to the Group of Seven blog and see all of the cards our Design Team has made.  We'd love to have you link up a card using your favourite method for monochromatic cards.

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black poinsettia, unknown sentiment
Ink - ColorBox white
Paper - red cs, red glitter cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - white embossing powder, coloured pencils, Spellbinders square dies, clear gemstones

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black greenery, Purple Onion sentiment
Ink - Memento Dew Drops Northern Pine, Bamboo Leaves, Cottage Ivy
Paper - light green and dark green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - sparkly stick-ons, green ribbon

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - various postage and script stamps
Ink - Distress Faded Jeans
Paper - mixed media and off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tattered Angels, Perfect Pearls, and Mr. Huey's blue sprays; Gummiapan sentiment die, Poppy Stamps butterfly dies, Tim Holtz wildflowers dies, Spellbinders hexagon die

Cardinals on Greenery and Monochromatic Blues

Can You Handle the Pressure? challenge has a perfect twist to lend itself to a Christmas card - "a twist of greenery". 

I used a snowflake embossing folder on the card base and then chose the beautiful cardinals sitting on snowy greenery to tie it all together.  The image is coloured with coloured pencils, then trimmed with a circle die, and mounted on green glitter cs cut with an inverted scallop circle die.  I went over the snow on the branches with a quickie glue pen and added glitter, and used a small die to cut "merry" out of red cs.

And for Christmas Card Creations "Monochromatic", Tic Tac Toe Challenge (I chose the right vertical line "ribbon, free, blue"), and Snippets (I used a snippet of leftover alcohol ink background, some snippets of white cs for the tree die and the sentiment tag, and a snippet of blue ribbon to attach the sentiment tag):

The focal image is die cut trees layered over alcohol inks on glossy cs.  The background is embossed with a simple texture embossing folder.

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Serendipity
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white and red cs, green glitter cs
Size - 4.5" square
Accessories - coloured pencils, Paper Smooches merry die, glitter, Spellbinders circle and inverted scallops circle dies

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - Distress Broken China
Paper - glossy cs, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Memory Box tree die, blue alcohol inks, Spellbinders tag die, SU texture embossing folder, blue ribbon

Blue Monochrome

Today's card is my reminder to you to join us at CAS Watercolour!

My card for the original challenge post was in red, so thought for this one, I'd go to my favourite colour, blue.

I took a stencil and used a few shades of mini Distress inks on the stencil, spritzed with water, and created a stencil monoprint.  Love the blend of the shades of blue!

I did a sentiment strip in a matching blue on vellum and attached it under a pierced frame die cut (cut twice and stacked for dimension).  I added a few blue sequins for a bit of bling, still in the monochromatic colour scheme.

In real life, the sentiment shows up more but somehow it doesn't in my photo.  Here's a close-up to show it better and to also show the lovely blend of blues:

 
You have until November 24th to link up over at CAS Watercolour.  There's lovely inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and this month's fabulous Guest Designer, Birgit (Rapport fran ett skrivbord).  

Please note that there will not be a CAS Watercolour challenge in December as the Design Team is taking a break over the holidays.  We'll be back January 3rd with the first of next year's challenges.

I'm also linking the card up with our sister challenge, CAS Stencil as they are asking for a stencil monoprint.

 

 

Supplies:
Stamps - The Artful Stamper sentiment
Ink - mini Distress inks (Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, Broken China), Memento Bahama Blue
Paper - white and mixed media cs, vellum
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Memory Box Texture Flourish stencil, blue sequins, MFT pierced square frame dies, fun foam

Monochrome Poinsettia

Karen (Snippets) is hosting this month's CAS Watercolour Challenge and she has chosen "Monochromatic" as the challenge - something Karen is very good at, but something I don't do very often.

I need more Christmas cards so went with red as my colour:

I stamped the poinsettia in Versafine Onyx Black and heat embossed with silver pearl embossing powder - it is slightly translucent so the black comes through but it's not as dark as a regular black embossed image.

I watercoloured the poinsettia using the wet on wet technique where I wet a couple of petals at a time and then dropped the paint into them, letting it run as it wanted to.

When dry, I did a bit of watercolour stenciling using a flat brush and the same paint as the poinsettia over random sections of the stencil.  And when that was dry, I stamped the sentiment, trimmed the panel, bordered with red, popped it up on fun foam on a cream card base, and added red gemstones to the centre of the poinsettia.

Now I'm feeling keen to create more monochromatic cards!  Thanks for the great challenge, Karen!

Head on over to CAS Watercolour to see what else the Design Team made and also the gorgeous card by our Guest Designer, Birgit (Rapport fran ett skrivbord).  Remember to follow the challenge and keep your card clean and simple.

This will be our last challenge of the year.  The Designers are taking the month of December off to relax and rejuvenate before all the amazing challenges coming up in 2020.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Memento Lady Bug

Paper - watercolour paper, red and cream cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, silver pearl embossing powder, TCW Tile Texture stencil, red gemstones, fun foam