A Butterfly and a Quartet of Ornaments

The Penny Black Saturday Challenge wants "Things with Wings" so I got out one of my favourite Penny Black butterfly stamps.  It's also going to the Triple B challenge - I chose butterflies out of birds, butterflies, and / or blooms.

I made a background by inking up a tiny squares stencil with various Distress inks, spritzing it with water, and pressing it onto mixed media cs. When dry, I stamped some bits of text and postmarks on it in grey ink. I stamped and heat embossed the butterfly. Then watercoloured it and fussy cut it. I glued its body to the background and popped its wings up with dimensionals. Then stamped and heat embossed the sentiment.

My second card is for the ABC Christmas Challenge "Q is for Quartet" (four of something).  I have four ornaments in my image.  Christmas Cards All Year Round wants anything starting with "Q" so my quartet of ornaments works for them as well.   I'm also adding it to the Rudolph Days Challenge.

The ornaments are stamped in black (though it came out kind of light as the ink pad is old) and then coloured with two green and one red Tombow markers. I coloured the tops of the ornaments with a silver gelli pen. A small vertical sentiment fit well in the space. I used a green/grey cs to border it as black looked too harsh with the pale stamping.

   

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black butterfly, unknown sentiment, various script and postmark stamps
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black and Morning Mist, various blue and mauve Distess inks
Paper - watercolour paper, mixed media cs, off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - clear embossing powder, watercolour paints, stencil with little squares, dimensionals

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Great Impressions ornaments, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - white and green/grey cs
Size - 6x3.25"
Accessories - Tombow markers, silver gelli pen

Christmas Baubles and Wildflower Thoughts

52 Christmas Card Throwdown wants to see "Baubles".

The ornaments are stamped in black (though it came out kind of light as the ink pad is old) and then coloured with two green and one red Tombow markers. I coloured the tops of the ornaments with a silver gelli pen. I trimmed it, leaving a white border, and popped it up on fun foam on a red card base.  And a non-Christmas card for CAS on Friday "Use Dies and Only Word Stamps": On the focal panel, I used a die to create three square openings and put a piece of dp behind them.  I stamped the vertical sentiment to one side of it.  And die cut the flower and added it to the top.

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Northwoods
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - white and red cs
Size - 6x3.25"
Accessories - Tombow markers, silver gelli pen, fun foam

Supplies:
Stamps - unknown vertical sentiment
Ink - Memento Nautical Blue
Paper - white cs, dp
Size - A2
Accessories - Poppy Stamps flower die, 3 square openings die

Fun with 3-2-1 and Jingle Bells

Try It on Tuesday has a fun challenge called 3-2-1.  I searched for a stamp that would have 3 of something, 2 of something else, etc.  and found this one - I've got 3 ornaments, 2 birds, and 1 tree.

Stamped and watercoloured, trimmed, bordered with green, a sentiment on a stitched sentiment banner, and glossy accents on the ornaments.

ABC Christmas Challenge is "D is for Ding Dong Bells" and Jingle Belles Challenge wants music (I went with the title of a Christmas song).

The bells are die cut out of watercolour paper sprinkled with copper-coloured Magicals and spritzed with water.  They are mounted on a starry embossed panel with copper cord "hanging" them on the panel.  The sentiment is heat embossed with copper and die cut with the same stitched banner die as the first card.

    

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black tree and birds, Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - Distress Lucky Clover, Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, off white and green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Glossy Accents

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - ColorBox copper
Paper - white cs, watercolour paper
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Lil Inker bell dies, star embossing folder, stitched banner die, copper Magicals, copper cord, copper embossing powder

Embossed Ornaments and Red and Green Postal

Shopping Our Stash challenge is "My Sweet Embossable You".  I've heat embossed some ornaments.  It's also being linked up with The Twelve Months of Christmas "Anything Christmas Goes" and Christmas Kickstart "If It's Christmassy, Link It Up"

I stamped the image with Versamark and then very carefully with a very tiny spoon, I sprinkled gold embossing powder over the left hand ornament, tapped the excess off, then sprinkled copper ep on the next ornament, etc. and then repeated with silver and bronze. Trimmed the panel, added it to a copper shimmer cardstock base, and added a sentiment.

In real life, the image is more metallic and shiny than it looks in the photo.

Simply Clean and Simple and We Love Stamping both want "Red and Green".  Colorful Options wants "Red, Green, and White".  I went with a vintage postcard-style image.

 

 

I love vintage style and don't do it nearly often enough.  I had the Tim Holtz Festive Collage stamps on my desk from a card I made a few days ago, and thought they have quite a vintage look to them. I chose the smallest of the four images in the set as it would be easiest to keep it CAS.

I created a bit of a smooshed background with Distress Old Paper and Pumice Stone to give my focal image piece an aged vintage look. Then put it and the stamp in my MISTI and stamped with a light grey ink (Archival Hickory Smoke). I then coloured the branch and berries with watercolour pencils. I lost too much detail with my colouring so overstamped with black ink.

Then bordered with red, added it to an off-white card base, and put Glossy Accents on the berries. 

  

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Indigo Blu ornaments, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versamark, Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs, copper shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold, silver, bronze, and copper embossing powders, stitched sentiment banner

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Tim Holtz Festive Collage
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne, Archival Hickory Smoke, Distress Old Paper and Pumice Stone
Paper - watercolour paper, red and off-white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tim Holtz watercolour pencils, Glossy Accents

A Gilded Reindeer, Red Ornaments, and a Horse and Sleigh

I'm working very hard on Christmas cards as my fundraiser (where I sell my Christmas cards and those kindly donated by Loll and Christine) is this Sunday.  Thank goodness for challenges that spark ideas in me!  I've got three cards today.

Fiirst up for the Christmas Kickstart Challenge "Just Add Antlers", I've got a reindeer with some very impressive antlers.

I sponged Cosmic Shimmer glue through a reindeer stencil, removed the stencil (and washed it immediately), and applied copper flakes to the glue.  Trimmed the panel with a hemstitch square die, layered over copper shimmer cs, and added a die cut sentiment out of the same copper cs. 

Colorful Options wants to see mostly red.

I stamped and heat embossed the ornaments in red sparkly embossing powder, and the sentiment in black embossing powder.  To make the border layer match the sentiment, I ran ink around the edges of the border layer of cs and heat embossed in the same black embossing powder.

The 12 Months of Christmas want to see a sleigh.  

The background is from my UFO box (a stencil monoprint created after making another background where I sprinkled Magicals through a stencil and spritzed with water - the leftover wet Magicals powder on the stencil was then used to create this background print - trees don't really come in this colour but it makes a lovely shimmery background!).  I tore a strip of white shimmer cs for the snowy ground, and added a gold die cut sleigh and horse, and a gold sentiment die cut with a banner die. The card base is white shimmer cs.

   

Supplies for card 1:
Paper - off white cs, copper shimmer cs
Size - 5.5" square
Accessories - reindeer stencil, copper foil flakes, Tim Holtz noel die, Spellbinders hemstitch square die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Indigo Blu ornaments, Paper Smooches sentiment
Ink - ColorBox red, Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs
Size - 5.75" square
Accessories - Old Island Red Dragon embossing powder, black embossing powder, Spellbinders square dies

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - gold
Paper - mixed media cs, white shimmer cs, gold shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - TCW birch trees stencil, Magicals, sentiment banner die, Memory Box horse and sleigh dies

 

Ornaments for Peace on Earth

Time for another Peace on Earth challenge.  See the new mood board below.  I was inspired by the bottom left photo.

Quite a CAS card - the pine branch is cut from green shimmer cs, the ornaments from cream and yellow gold shimmer cs.  I used green cord to hang the ornaments from the pine branch, and an old SU punch set for the stamped sentiment.

Here's our mood board if you want to be inspired by it (but if not, we welcome any Christmas cards).  There's lots more inspiration from the rest of the Design Team over at Peace on Earth.

Supplies:
Stamps - Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - Distress Mowed Lawn
Paper - white cs, cream, yellow gold, and green shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Memory Box ornaments and pine branch dies, SU sentiment label punches, green cord

Sparkling Ornaments

Peace on Earth's new mood board (see it at the end of my post) has lovely images of white ornaments.  Here's the card they inspired:

I stamped on a light kraft cs with Versamark and embossed with a white sparkly embossing powder - in real life it's very glittery but so hard to photograph!  Trimmed the panel to leave a kraft border and mounted on a shimmery off white card base.  Stamped the sentiment on the same cs and trimmed with a banner die.

There is lots more fabulous inspiration from our Peace on Earth design team.  We'd love to have you join us - either inspired by our mood board or "anything Christmas".

I'm also linking this card up with Christmas Kickstart "Bring the Baubles".

Supplies:
Stamps - Indigo Blu ornaments, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versamark, Archival Potting Soil
Paper - light kraft cs, off white shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Judikins White Diamond embossing powder, stitched banner die

Holly, a Winter Cabin, and Ornaments

Sparkles Christmas Challenge wants us to feature a Christmas carol or song.  I chose "Deck the Halls".  Rudolph Days and 12 Months of Christmas are both "anything Christmas".

I put the holly stamp in my Misti and inked it up with various Oxide inks and Memento Dew Drop inks, stamping and reinking until I was happy.  I added some lightly stamped text and postmarks to the background.  Then sponged around the edges.  I finished with a Tim Holtz clippings sticker with the line from Deck the Halls, and added Wink of Stella to the berries.

Christmas Crafts All Year Round wants bows, gifts, or decorations.  I went with decorations.

I created a dry embossed background that creates a three-sided border of ornaments, leaving space in the middle for my die cut ornaments to hang.  I did one each out of red, green, and silver mirror card, and hung them with silver thread.

Stamping Sensations wants to see "Winter".

I love this winter scene.  I stamped it in black and heat embossed with Iridescent Ice embossing powder (it's very sparkly in real life).  I bordered it with black shimmer cs.

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black holly, unknown Christmas script stamp
Ink - various Oxide and Memento Dew Drops, Adirondack Lake Mist
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Wink of Stella, Tim Holtz clippings sticker

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SSS sentiment
Ink - Delicata Copper Glitz
Paper - white cs; red, green, and silver mirror cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Crafts Too embossing folder, Spellbinders ornament die, silver thread

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Crafty Individuals winter cabin, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - chalk cs, black shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - SU Iridescent Ice embossing powder