Aqua Snowflakes and Tiny Wise Men

Sparkles Christmas Challenge wants to see snowflakes.  Double D's theme is winter and it has a lovely wintery mood board that inspired this card:

Here's the Double D mood board - you can see the colours and snowflakes in the top left and bottom right images.

I placed my snowflake stencil over white cs and sprayed with a Mr. Huey's spray. Trimmed the panel, bordered it with blue glitter cs, die cut three snowflakes from the same glitter cs, and added a sentiment on a stitched banner die.

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge wants "wise men three".  The only stamp I could find in my collection has three very small wise men!

Stamped and heat embossed in gold, bordered with gold cs, and a simple sentiment die cut added on top.

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Distress Broken China
Paper - white cs, blue glitter cs
Size - A2
Accessories - PaperArtsy snowflake stencil, various snowflake dies, Mr. Huey's spray, stitched banner die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment, unknown wise men / Bethlehem stamp
Ink - ColorBox Gold
Paper - white and gold cs
Size - 6x3.25"
Accessories - gold embossing powder, small rectangle die

Christmas Twofer - Royal Blue Ornaments and Copper Nativity

We've had a lot of rain lately so a good chance to get busy on my Christmas stash!

I couldn't pass up the Colorful Options "Royal Blue" challenge!

I stamped the ornament image in ColorBox Royal Blue and then embossed with a sparkly royal blue embossing powder.  Trimmed it, added it to royal blue shimmer cs, and stamped and die cut the sentiment.

52 Christmas Card Throwdown has a tic tac toe challenge.  I chose the right hand vertical row - nativity, holiday sentiment, die cut.  ABC Christmas Challenge wants J for Jesus.  A good chance to use a never before used die (so I'm also entering it at the NBUS challenge).

I die cut the nativity scene out of copper shimmer cs and again out of scrap cs and glued them together for more dimension.  I cut a rectangle out of cream cs using a dotted pierced die.  I glued the die cut nativity to it and added a copper heat embossed sentiment.  I layered that over more copper shimmer cs and added it all to a cream card base.

 

  

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Impression Obsession ornaments, Mama Elephant sentiment
Ink - ColorBox Royal Blue
Paper - royal blue shimmer cs, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Stampendous Blue Magic embossing powder, Mama Elephant sentiment die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SSS sentiment
Ink - ColorBox copper
Paper - copper shimmer and cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - copper embossing powder, Penny Black nativity die, Sizzix dotted rectangle die

Shades of Green and a Nativity Card

Quite a contrast between my two cards today - lovely fresh green leaves making me think of spring and a Nativity scene!

The Sisterhood of Crafters want to see "green". 

I die cut the leaf stem die out of light, medium, and dark green scraps of shimmer cs, embossed the background, stamped the sentiment in green and die cut it with a tag die that I attached with light and dark green twine.

My Twofer for today is for My Time to Craft Christmas and their nativity theme.

The image and sentiment are stamped and heat embossed, trimmed with a circle die cut, bordered with green and red circles, and popped up on the card base with fun foam.  I had some leftover die cut stars that I glued randomly on the card base.

Challenges:

Sisterhood of Crafters  "Green"

 

My Time to Craft Christmas "Nativity"

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - Memento Cottage Ivy
Paper - white cs, three shades of green shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Cuttlebug embossing folder, Memory Box leaf stem die, Spellbinders tag die, green twine

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SSS sentiment, Lavinia nativity stamp
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white, red, and green cs
Size - 5" square
Accessories - Spellbinders circle die cuts, star die cuts, clear embossing powder, fun foam

Monochrome Brown and a CAS Nativity

The Double D challenge is "Monochromatic (any colour)" and the ABC Christmas Challenge is "K for Kraft" so I've combined the two for this card:

This uses a wonderful technique that my friend Loll taught me.  Here are the steps:

-       Stamp image in brown permanent ink

-       Using torn masks, create snow hills, sponging white over most of the area, leaving just a little at the top of each hill

-       Continue to add sponged snow hills down your card front…you can add in some trees, or whatever you want along the way to add depth to the scene. Sponge sky as well (leave halo around images).

-       Use white pigment ink, white acrylic ink, or white acrylic pen to add snow on buildings, trees, etc.

-       Splatter diluted white acrylic paint to add falling snow

-       Stamp sentiment in same brown ink as image

I then trimmed the panel, cut a dark brown panel and angled it behind the main panel, and added it to a kraft card base. 

While that card took a fair bit of time to make, my second card was quite a quick card.  It's for the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown theme challenge "Nativity".

The image and sentiment are heat embossed in gold and then trimmed with a hemstitch die.  I created a matching gold panel to go behind it by rubbing gold ink around the edges of the piece and heat embossing in the same gold.  Popped it up on fun foam and it was done.

Double D Challenge "Monochromatic (any colour)"

ABC Christmas Challenge "K is for kraft"

52 Christmas Card Throwdown

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Art-Kure St. Mellion Church
Ink - Distress Walnut Stain, ColorBox white
Paper - kraft and dark brown cs
Size - A2
Accessories - white acrylic paint

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown nativity stamp, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - Gina K ivory cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold embossing powder, Spellbinders hemstitch rectangle die, fun foam

Wise Men for the Nativity Challenge

A reminder about the CAS Christmas challenge "Nativity" ending on July 24th.

Like the card I posted for the opening of the challenge, I'm using another stamp I picked up at a second hand sale so I have no idea who made it.

I stamped it in Archival ink on watercolour paper, painted it, trying to create a glow around the Christmas star.  Trimmed it, popped it up on fun foam, and went over the stars with a gold gel pen.  Very quick and easy.

Please check out the reminder cards by some of the other Design Team members at CAS Christmas.  We'd love to have you join us!

Supplies:
Stamps - Stampendous Nativity Christmas
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - PTI Vintage Cream cs, watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, gold gel pen, fun foam

Gold Nativity

Oh my goodness, it's already time for the new CAS Christmas challenge!  And this month, Marcia is our host and wants to see "Nativity" as our theme.

I went with a very CAS card, especially in the "simple" meaning of CAS.  It would be a great one to mass produce as it was quite quick to make.

I put the stamp in my MISTI and stamped it a couple of times to get a good impression and then heat embossed in gold.  Likewise the sentiment.

I did not have a gold cs that matched the embossing powder well enough so I cut my bordering panel, used an embossing dauber on the four edges, and heat embossed it with the same gold powder as I used for the image.

Popped the panel up on fun foam as I always think that makes the card more interesting and adds quality to it.

Please come and join us at CAS Christmas.  There is lots of inspiration from the Design Team and this month's wonderful Guest Designer, Jane (Purplejet Loves Crafts).  You have until July 24th to enter.

The image is a stamp I picked up at a second hand sale and it had no label on it, so I've no idea who made it - if anyone knows, please let me know.

Supplies:
Stamps - unknown nativity stamp, Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - Gina K ivory cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Ranger Princess Gold embossing powder, embossing dauber, fun foam

Bethlehem or Jerusalem?

A quick card for the current Christmas Kickstart Challenge "The Christmas Story" - something related to the reason for Christmas.

I did a card depicting the City of David:

I was confused as to whether it is Bethlehem or Jerusalem that is known as the City of David, so being a retired librarian, I had to look it up.  Apparently the Bible refers to both those cities as the City of David - Bethlehem because David came from there, and Jerusalem because David conquered it.  David was one of the early Israelite kings.  So there's your history / trivia lesson for the day!!

I stamped and heat embossed the city and sentiment stamp in black.  I die cut a Christmas star and some regular stars out of gold shimmer cs, bordered with the same cs, and added it to a white card base.

This will be for a friend of mine who is far more religious than me and always appreciates a card that depicts a more religious theme.

Supplies:
Stamps - old unmounted stamp - anyone know the make?
Ink - Versfine Onyx black
Paper - gold shimmer and white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Memory Box Star of Wonder die, small star dies, clear embossing powder

Two Variations on Nativity

Christmas Cards All Year Round is asking for Angels or Nativity this time.  I went with nativity as I have a couple of friends who always want that theme at my Christmas card sale.

It's also for the Inspiration Challenge over at SCS where I was inspired by this Christmas ornament:

I used the same stamp for two cards but changed the layout.

In this one, I stamped the image once on white cs and once on gold cs, and fussy cut the star from the gold one and paper pieced it onto the white.  Added the gold circle border and the white die cut sentiment below the image.

In this one I didn't paper piece the star.  Added the same gold circle border.  Flipped the layout to have the sentiment die cut (a different one) at the top.  And added extra interest to the sentiment by cutting once out of white and once out of gold and offsetting one on top of the other.  Finished off with a tiny gold star for the dot above the letter "i".

Which layout do you prefer?  And do you prefer the paper pieced star or the plain one?

Supplies:

Stamps - unknown nativity scene stamp

Ink - Memento Nautical Blue

Paper - white cs, gold and blue shimmer cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Spellbinders circle dies, sentiment dies, fun foam

Metallic Nativity with Red

The 52 Christmas Card Throwdown challenge is asking for:

It can be any metallic, so I chose gold, and my one other colour is red.

The image is one I picked up at a second hand sale and it had no label on it, so I've no idea who made it.

A very CAS card - I stamped and heat embossed in gold, bordered with gold metallic cs, and mounted on fun foam on a red card base.

Supplies:

Stamps - unknown unmounted stamp

Ink - ColorBox gold

Paper - gold metallic, red, and white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - gold embossing powder, fun foam

Gold Nativity

The current Less is More challenge is a colour challenge:

I chose gold as my metallic colour:

A very CAS card - image and sentiment stamped and heat embossed, bordered in matching gold cs, and using an ivory cs for image and base - love ivory and gold together!  Less is definitely more in this case as I love the simplicity of it!

Supplies:

Stamps - Stampendous

Ink - ColorBox gold

Paper - Gina K Pure Ivory cs, gold shimmer cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Ranger gold detail embossing powder

Poinsettia Frame

For Christmas Cards All Year Round, the challenge is to use flowers.  I made this card:

I stamped the poinsettia / frame image with the sentiment in the middle of it. I then coloured the poinsettias and pine cones with Copics, and went over the pine needles with a green metallic gel pen, and filled in the outer narrow frame and the inner narrow oval frame with a silver gel pen. I bordered it with green shimmer cs and mounted it on a white card base.

I have a few friends who ask me to do quite religious Christmas cards for them to buy at my fundraiser so this is a good design for them.

Thanks for dropping by!

Supplies:

Stamps - Gina K Festive Frame image and sentiment

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - green shimmer and white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Copics, silver gel pen, green metallic gel pen, gold and clear gemstones

Blue Nativity

The current Sparkle Creations Christmas Card Challenge is "nativity".  Here's the inspiration photo:

I like the blue tones in the photo so used that to spark my card's colour scheme:

It's back to my old style of card-making - some simple stamping and heat embossing, some dp, a sentiment label attached with ribbon.  I added a bit of Stardust gel pen on the Christmas star.  Because I sell Christmas cards at my fundraiser, it's good to have a variety of styles!

Supplies:

Stamps - unknown nativity, Paper Smooches sentiment

Ink - ColorBox Blue

Paper - white and navy cs, star dp

Size - A2

Accessories - Stardust gel pen, Spellbinders sentiment label, blue grosgrain ribbon, clear embossing powder