Recycled Dog, Grateful Horse, and Die Cut Swag

The Paper Players challenge is to recycle something on our cards.  As a dog lover, I often receive store-bought cards with dogs on them.  I received one on my last birthday with a beautiful black lab on it.  Good friends of mine have a black lab so I decided to recycle the lab to make a Christmas card for them.  

I have some old double-sided stick-on flourishes.  I arranged them in the corners of the card and added multi-coloured glitter to them.  Finished off with a die cut sentiment "joyful" - exactly how I would describe my friends' lab!

Cardz 4 Guyz wants to see a masculine card in blue.

I sponged a background with various blue Distress inks and layered my die cut over it, popping the body of the horse up a bit with foam tape. The whole panel is popped up on the card base with fun foam.

And a "threefer" today.  52 Christmas Card Throwdown wants us to use dies or punches.  I made a card with lots of greenery die cuts that I cut out of small scraps of various green cs - therefore I'm also entering it at the Snippets challenge.  And linking up with Cut It Up - anything goes with die cuts.

I die cut several different pieces of greenery out of various scraps of green cs.  I splattered them with white acrylic paint and arranged them on white cs dry embossed with a pine sprig embossing folder.  I wrapped bakers twine around my focal panel and made a bow from it.  The sentiment is stamped and die cut with a narrow banner die.

    

  

Supplies for card 1:
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - dog off of a store bought card, double-sided stick-on flourishes, multi-coloured glitter

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Memory Box sentiment
Ink - various Distress blue inks
Paper - white cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - StarLit Studio Horse Country die, fun foam, foam tape

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - white cs, scraps of different green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Sizzix embossing folder, TH greenery dies, sentiment label die, red/white baker's twine, white acrylic paint

Watercoloured Winter, Peaceful Ornament, and Grungy Birthday

Two more Christmas cards and one birthday card today!  

First, for ABC Christmas Challenge "W is for Watercolouring", Stamping Sensations "Winter", and Four Seasons "Winter" (the top left image on their mood board inspired me to pull out an old stamp that has a rustic wooden cabin as part of it).

The image is stamped, watercoloured, and added to a kraft cardbase.  Then I went over the snow lines, the snow on the fences, trees, and roof with a quickie glue pen and added glitter.  I put the sentiment inside as I didn't want to cover up any of the lovely image.

Next up for Addicted to CAS "Ornament":

A friend and I regularly go for tea at a little French bakery / coffee shop and the pastries are served on gold cardboard holders that I carefully clean and recycle to make large ornaments for cards. In this case, I dripped a couple of shades of red alcohol inks on the round part of the pastry holder and spritzed with rubbing alcohol to get it to run and cover the round part. When dry, I added a dove die cut from white glitter cs and a branch cut from green shimmer cs. I embellished with three little stick-on gold glitter circles and some matching gold glitter strips for the ornament's hanger. I let it all take centre stage on a plain white card base with just an added stamped and heat embossed sentiment. 

A male friend has a birthday coming up so I had my usual struggle to make a masculine card.  I'm linking it up with Sweet Stampin' "It's our Birthday" - they are celebrating the 15th year of their challenge.  And also Seize the Birthday "Masculine".

I found the stencilled piece in my unused background box - it was very intensely orange and I didn't like it, so I watered down some gesso and painted over it to lighten it up.  I stamped the Tim Holtz image in black and edged around it with Tea Dye Distress ink.  Then cut a rectangle out of the stencilled piece and layered it over the stamped image as a frame.  Added a birthday sentiment to the top of the frame.

   

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Northwoods
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, kraft cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, quickie glue pen, glitter

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - A Muse sentiment
Ink - ColorBox Gold, red alcohol inks
Paper - white cs, white glitter cs, green shimmer cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Impression Obsession dove die, recycled pastry holder, gold embossing powder, Anita's Glitterations gold strips and dots

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Tim Holtz man, unknown sentiment
Ink - various orange Distress inks, Distress Tea Dye, Versfine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Spellbinders rectangle die, clock stencil, gesso

For an Important Woman and a Recycled Santa

Shopping our Stash is asking for a card for either Mothers' Day or for an important woman in our lives.  My Mum passed away several years ago so I made this for my sister.

Stamped, colour, trimmed with a pierced dot rectangle, bordered with pink (love the way it shows through the pierced dots), and embellished with sequins.

Jingle Belles want to see Santa.  I'd meant to enter this in their last challenge (Earth Day - use recycled items) but I didn't get it finished in time.  Seems appropriate that it still gets posted at Jingle Belles!

I used a Santa off a commercial card I received last Christmas.  I added him to a gelli plate background from my box of many backgrounds, and stamped and die cut the sentiment, rubbing a bit of gold ink around the edge of the die.

 
 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - ?
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white and pink cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Spellbinders pierced dot rectangle die, sequins

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - PTI sentiment
Ink - ColorBox Fresh Green, gold ink
Paper - gelli print background, white cs
Size - 6.25x4.75"
Accessories - Sizzix label die

Recycled Bottle, Layered Flowers, and Monochrome Doves

Today is Earth Day so it seems an appropriate day to post this card for both Jingle Belles and Sweet Stampin' challenges to include a recycled element.

The little bottle came off a commercial card I received and the ribbon off a Christmas gift.

I stamped the sentiment on white cs and cut the sections out and layered everything on some festive dp.

I feel that the sentiment is such a major part of the card so I'm also linking it up at Word Power.

Next up is a card for The Flower Challenge "Add Layers".  I've got a watercoloured focal image layer, a pink bordering layering, and a dp layer on the card base.  It's also for Colorful Options "Pastels".

And last for today, Addicted to CAS wants a monochrome card.

 I used a little scrap of cling wrap background made with a couple of different blue Brushos (sprinkled, spritzed with water, then cling wrap scrunched up on it, and left to dry).  I framed it, added the two die cut doves, and added a blue heat embossed sentiment.

                  

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Dylusions sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs, dp
Size - A2
Accessories - recycled little bottle, recycled ribbon

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU Echoes of Kindness flower
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white and pink cs, dp, watercolour paper
Size - 6.25x3.25"
Accessories - watercolour paints

Supplies for card :
Stamps - Stampendous sentiment
Ink - ColorBox Royal Blue
Paper - watercolour paper, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - clear embossing powder, Memory Box dove dies, Impression Obsession frame die

Alice the Dog and a Cake-inspired Christmas Tree

ABC Christmas Challenge has "D is for Dogs" this month.  I found a stamp that looks a lot like a friend's dog, Alice.

The dog is stamped and watercoloured, and a bit of green ink sponged around her. Then I created the Polaroid frame with a square die cut out of a rectangle of white cs. Added some fun flock to the dog's hat and a sentiment, and put it all on a red card base. 

Christmas Craft Creations wants stencils or embossing folders.  I went with a stencil.

The background was made on a gelli plate with green acrylic paint and a Christmas tree stencil.  The large tree on top is actually a gold cardboard holder for a slice of cake (from one of my favourite French bakeries - all their pastries sit on lovely gold cardboard shapes).  I decorated it with lots of clear and green gems and added a rub-on sentiment as I was worried about smudging if I tried to stamp on it.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Technique Junkies dog, Mama Elephant sentiment
Ink - Archival Potting Soil, Distress Bundled Sage
Paper - white and red cs, watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Mama Elephant die for the sentiment, Spellbinders square die, fun flock

Supplies for card 2:
Paper - white cs, gold cardboard cake slice holder
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - green acrylic paint, Stamplorations Christmas tree stencil, gelli plate, Tim Holtz rub on, green and clear gems

Red and Green for One, Recycled for the Other

52 Christmas Card Throwdown wants Green and Red this time.  Here's my card:

Stamped and watercoloured, and then die cut it with a hemstitch rectangle die and layered over a red card base. I find that the hemstitch die adds a great deal of interest to a simple image while still keeping it CAS.

I've also got a card for Jingle Belles annual Earth Day challenge to include at least one recycled, reused, or upcycled item.  I have two on my card - a piece of a Christmas coffee cup sleeve and a glittery reindeer that I removed from a commercial card I received.

 

 

I trimmed the coffee cup sleeve but kept its curved edges.  Added it to the card base.  Then added the reindeer by gluing its legs right to the card and popping its body and head up with foam tape.  Finished off by stamping the sentiment.

 

52 Christmas Card Throwdown 

 

 

 

Jingle Belles

 

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - SU Christmas Cardinal
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Spellbinders hemstitch rectangle die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU sentiment
Ink - Memento Rhubarb Stalk
Paper - cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coffee cup sleeve, glitter reindeer off a commercial card, foam tape

One Tree and a Recycled Owl

Christmas Cards All Year Round wants one of something or a tree.  I decided to do one tree.

I inked up the tree stamp with green Distress mini inkpads, spritzed lightly with water, and stamped on watercolour paper. When dry, I stamped the stars and sentiment. I popped that panel up on fun foam on gold shimmer cs and added that to a red shimmer card base.

My second card is one I made to welcome home one of my closest friends who has been away for two months.  She gets back January 31st - can't wait to see her!  It times perfectly with the Inkspirational challenge "Welcome".  My friend loves owls and she is also really adamant about recycling and reusing as much as possible.  I received the most beautiful owl card at Christmas so decided I'd recycle it into this card for her.  The card also has stars on it and my friend runs Southlands Therapeutic Riding Society, more commonly known as STARS, the program where I volunteer a few days a week, so an owl plus stars just couldn't be passed up!

I used a square die to cut out the main image of the owl and to cut out a piece of silver mirror cs that matches the shiny silver leaves and stars in the image. I also die cut some tiny silver stars from the same cs.

I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment on the bottom of the card, attached the mirror cs at an angle, layered the owl image over it, and glued on the silver stars in random places around the edge.

p.s. Cards with mirror cs on them are so hard to photograph - apologies for the reflections in the angled silver sections!

Christmas Cards All Year Round - "A Partridge in a Pear Tree - use one of something or a tree"

Inkspirational Challenge - "New and / or Welcome"

Supplies for Card 1:
Stamps - Art Impressions tree, PTI sentiment, SU star cluster
Ink - Distress Iced Spruce and Evergreen Bough, Delicata Golden Glitz, Memento Rhubarb Stalk
Paper - watercolour paper, gold and red shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - fun foam

Supplies for Card 2:
Stamps - SSS sentiment
Ink - ColorBox silver
Paper - white cs, silver mirror cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - commercial Christmas card, Spellbinders square dies, silver detail embossing powder, tiny star die

Recycled Owl

The 52 Christmas Card Throwdown challenge wants:

I've saved quite a few of the store-bought cards I've received over the years and I do love recycling parts of them.  It's how I got into card-making in the first place!  I had received so many beautiful cards that I couldn't bear to toss in the recycling bin so I made them into new cards and bought one ink pad and one Merry Christmas stamp and it all snowballed from there!

This card is for a friend who loves owls - I make her an owl-themed Christmas card every year so I'd saved the image on this one specially for her (I only have so many festive owl stamps!).

I trimmed the owl image with an inverted scallop die, cut a mat using a blue-silver shimmer cs and the next largest inverted scallop die, layered it on off-white cs that I stamped with the sentiment, and then used a gold shimmer card base.

I need to do more of this as I have lots of lovely store-bought cards I can use.

Supplies:

Stamps - Rosie's Roadshow sentiment

Ink - Vivid Cobblestone

Paper - gold and blue-silver shimmer cs, off-white cs, owl image cut from commercial greeting card

Size - A2

Accessories - Nesties inverted scallop dies