Slimline with Pine Cone, a Tobogganing Bunny, and a Wreath

Three more cards for challenges about to close - all Christmas this time.  First up for 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Slimline":

I put the stamp in my MISTI and inked it up with Inktense watercolour pencils, spritzed lightly with water, and stamped on watercolour paper.  I stamped the sentiment in red and sponged a bit of Distress Pumice Stone along the bottom edge.  Trimmed the panel and bordered it with red cs.

The Penny Black Saturday Challenge wants to see Four-legged Friends.

Stamped and coloured with coloured pencils, trimmed, added to a red card base, and embellished with small die cut snowflakes.

And lastly for the ABC Christmas Challenge "F is for Foliage" and "G is for Gems":

I made a thin circle out of scrap green cs using two circle dies, then punched many little pine branches out of scraps of dp (mostly pieces that had images of grass or leaves on them). I glued them onto the die cut circle, added it to the background square of dp, and bordered with a square of red cs. Finished with a small die cut sentiment in the middle like the inspiration image has and red gemstones for berries. It's not the quickest card to make but I really like the final results.  

    

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black image, Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - Distress Candied Apple and Pumice Stone
Paper - watercolour paper, off white and red cs
Size - 6.25x3.25"
Accessories - Inktense watercolour pencils

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white and red cs
Size - 5.5x4"
Accessories - coloured pencils, small snowflake dies

Supplies for card 3:
Paper - off white and red cs, dps, scraps of green dp
Size - 5" square
Accessories - Martha Stewart pine branch punch, Spellbinders circle and square dies, Spellbinders joy die, red gemstones

 

A Swag with Pine Cones and Christmas Cups

For Sparkles Christmas Challenge "Christmas Flowers or Foliage" and for My Time to Craft Christmas "Pine Cones":

The image is coloured with coloured pencils, it's trimmed with quite a bit of white border around it, then thinly matted with green, and added to a red card base.  I put the sentiment strip on a diagonal so that it stayed within the green mat.

My second card is for 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Christmas Cup" and Sweet Stampin' "Tartan or Plaid".

When I was tidying my craft room recently, I came across some stamped, heat embossed, and die cut Christmas cups from an old SU set.  So when I saw the 52CCT challenge, I had the perfect opportunity to use them.  To fulfill the tartan or plaid challenge for Sweet Stampin', I pulled out some tartan ribbon and ran it across my focal panel to represent a Christmas table cloth for my cups to sit on.

  

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Serendipity Pine Swag, Mama Elephant sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white, red, and green cs
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - coloured pencils

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Paper Smooches sentiment, SU cups and steam
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne, red and green pigment inks
Paper - white cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - tartan ribbon, clear embossing powder, Lil Inkers stitched square die, foam dots

Stamped and Dry Embossed Pine and Pinecones

52 Christmas Card Throwdown wants an embossing folder on our Christmas cards this time.  I used one as a background that totally ties in with my stamped image.

I love the way the embossing folder has the pine branches and pine cones that are in the stamped image.  The image is coloured with coloured pencils and die cut with a circle die.  The sentiment is die cut once out of dark green and once out of white and glued together to give it more dimension.

Supplies:
Stamps - Serendipity chickadees
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white and dark green cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - coloured pencils, Sizzix embossing folder, MFT sentiment die, Spellbinders circle die

Slimline Branches and Shiny Trees

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge wants a mini slimline card.  And it's Rudolph Days - anything Christmas goes.  I pulled out a Penny Black stamp I haven't used for a couple of years.

I put the stamp in my MISTI and inked it up with Tombow markers, spritzing lightly, and re-inking as needed.  I pressed some Distress Iced Spruce onto my kraft mat and diluted it with water and carefully painted it around the bottom of the image.  I stamped the image in brown, trimmed the panel, and ran a brown marker around the edge of the panel to give it some definition on the card base.  I added a bit of glue and glitter to the white parts of the pine cone and branches, very lightly splattered some watered down white acrylic paint, and added glossy accents to the berries.

And a second card for today, this one is for Christmas Crafts All Year Round "Tree and / or Gifts", Christmas Craft Creations "Two Colours" (I used blue and green), and Day of the Month Card Club "Love a Tree Day".

I created by trees by covering some scrap cs with double sided tape and green foil and then die cut the two trees from it.  Then I grabbed a piece of leftover smooshed background from my UFO box, tore some scraps of white cs for the snowy hills, stamped the sentiment on the bottom one, assembled everything and popped it up on fun foam.

Christmas Kickstart Challenge "Mini Slimline"

 

Rudolph Days

Christmas Crafts All Year Round "Tree and / or Gifts"

Day of the Month Card Club

 

Christmas Craft Creations

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black branches, Paper Smooches sentiment
Ink - Distress Iced Spruce, Versafine Clair Fallen Leaves
Paper - watercolour paint, cream cs
Size - 7x3.5"
Accessories - Tombow markers, glossy accents, glitter, white acrylic paint

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Rosie's Roadshow sentiment
Ink - Broken China Tumbled Glass
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Impression Obsession tree dies, green foil, fun foam

Pine with Pinecone

Time for the latest challenge from Peace on Earth.  I was inspired by one of the images on their new mood board for this card:

I put the pine branch in my MISTI, randomly dabbed various mini Distress inks over the branches and stem to get some colour variation, spritzed lightly with water, and stamped on watercolour paper.  I did the same with the pinecone stamp.  Added a sentiment, bordered with brown cs, splattered some light ink, and used a Quickie glue pen and glitter on the white areas of the pine cone and in some of the angles of the branch (it's quite subtle and doesn't show up in the photo).

Peace on Earth is an "anything Christmas goes" challenge but if you want to be inspired by our mood board, here it is:

There's lots of other inspiration from the rest of the Design Team over at Peace on Earth.

Supplies:
Stamps - SU Ornamental Pine, unknown sentiment
Ink - Distress minis (Forest Moss, Pine Needles, Evergreen Bough, Gathered Twigs, Frayed Burlap)
Paper - watercolour paper, brown cs, PTI Vintage Cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - glitter

Dry Embossed Pine Branch

I've got a Christmas card today for a couple of challenges.  Just Us Girls wants to see "Embossing Folders" and the ABC Christmas Challenge has "E for Embossing".

I really like Jennifer McGuire's technique with embossing folders.  See this video for details.

I embossed bright green foil cs with the TH pine branch embossing folder, then sanded the raised part, exposing the white cs underneath the green foil layer.

I stamped and heat embossed my sentiment on vellum and wrapped the strip around the foil panel, then mounted on a white card base. I added a little silver bow to the top of the branch.

Just Us Girls

ABC Christmas Challenge  "E for Embossing"

Supplies:
Stamps - SU sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white cs, vellum, green foil cs
Size - A2
Accessories - TH embossing folder, clear embossing powder, silver ribbon

Greenery

A Christmas card for The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up, with optional theme of "greenery":

I put the stamp in my MISTI and inked up with various Memento Dew Drops, and then watercoloured the image.  When finished, I inked up the stamp with Versamark and stamped over it again, then carefully added regular clear embossing powder to most of it, but a sparkly embossing powder to the ribbon.

I did a very pale blue wash around the image and added a heat embossed sentiment, then mounted it on a brown card base.  I added red gems to the berries.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black greenery, Paper Smooshes sentiment

Ink - various Memento Dew Drop inks, Versamark, Memento Rich Cocoa

Paper - watercolour paper, brown cs

Size - A2

Accessories - clear and sparkly embossing powder, watercolour paints, red gems

Watercoloured Branches and Pine Cone

Christmas is coming faster and faster and I still need Christmas cards so my reminder card for December's CAS Watercolour challenge is yet another one!  This month it is "Anything Goes" as long as it is clean and simple, and includes watercolouring.

I recently bought this Penny Black stamp and love the way it lends itself to the techniques I learned from Jill Foster (see this video for the way she lays down colour on the stamp using small ink pads or markers and then adds details by watercolouring, and this one where she colours the stamp while in the MISTI, then going over it with Versamark and clear embossing powder so that it is really easy to do either a watercolour wash or sponged background).

With the stamp in the MISTI, I coloured it with Memento Dewdrops, stamping and repeating till I had the basic image on my mixed media paper.  I then put some ink from Distress inks onto my palette and, using water and a paint brush, I filled in the details and added shading.

When all was dry, I restamped with Versamark and clear embossed.  I could then add the icy blue wash around it to ground the image (without worrying about the brown or red running into it).

I added some glitter to the snowy bits of the branches and the pinecone.

As well as making it easier to add a background wash, I really like the way the heat embossing makes the image have more definition.  I did another version without the heat embossing to show the difference.

I used a very neutral coloured wash and kept it away from the image as best as I could.  I added some sequins as well as the same bits of glitter to this one.

I'd be really interested in knowing which one you like best!

Be sure to check out the other mid-month inspiration from the Design Team at CAS Watercolour, including Guest Designer, Hideko, and link up your card by December 24th!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black, Rubber Soul sentiment

Ink - various Memento Dew Drops and Distress inks, Versamark (on first card only), sentiment on first card - Versafine Crimson Red, sentiment on second card - SU Real Red

Paper - mixed media cs, red and white cs

Size - 6.75x4.75"

Accessories -  glitter, clear embossing powder (on first card only), sequins (on second card only)