Masculine Christmas and Roses with a Heart

The 52 Christmas Card Throwdown wants to see a masculine card.  I had a pile of scraps of coloured cs on my desk so thought I'd do something that I could also enter into the Snippets challenge.

I die cut the trees, reindeer, and tiny snowflakes. I sponged a wintery sky and tore a strip of white cs for the snowy ground. Then glued all the pieces onto the sky panel to create my winter scene.
 

My other card uses a new flower stamp I bought at a second hand craft sale and unfortunately I don't know who makes it.  It's for The Flower Challenge "use your latest flower stamp or die".

It's stamped and watercoloured, with a die cut sentiment laid over it, and matching red strips of cs on the top and bottom.

Challenges:

52 Christmas Card Throwdown

Snippets Challenge

The Flower Challenge

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Archival Hickory Smoke, Distress Oxide Stormy Sky and Faded Jeans
Paper - white, green, grey, brown cs
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - Impression Obsession reindeer dies, Memory Box Twiggy Tree die, evergreen tree dies, tiny snowflake die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown heart / roses stamp
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, off white and red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Creative Expressions sentiment die

A Yellow Rose on Mother's Day

Just Us Girls is looking for cards with flowers.  Since it's Mother's Day and my Mum loved roses (and grew wonderful ones in her garden), I went with a stamp of a rose.

I stamped the collage-style image of the rose and watercoloured it, and then did a light blue/grey wash over the script background. I trimmed it and popped it up on fun foam on a white background embossed with a border of flowers.

Just Us Girls

I'm also adding it to a fairly new challenge called "Can You Handle the Pressure" - cards entered in it always have to include the use of an embossing folder.  This month the optional element is "Pastels" so my card has that as well.

I hope all of you who still have your mothers celebrated with them today.  I miss mine so much.

Supplies:
Stamps - Stamplorations
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - white cs, watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Crafts Too embossing folder, fun foam

Pastel Flowers, Masculine Christmas

A couple of cards from me today to get into challenges before they close.

First up for The Flower Challenge "Pretty Pastels".

I went with a pastel pink rose:

I stamped the collage-style image of the rose and watercoloured it, including a light wash over the script background. I popped it up on fun foam on a white background embossed with a border of flowers.

Next up is The Male Room "Christmas in July".

And The Paper Players are asking for a Clean and Simple Masculine card.

I figured a galaxy background is quite a masculine thing:

I created the galaxy background using Distress Oxide inks and a shimmer spray. When dry, I splattered with watered-down white acrylic paint.

I die cut the house, added the sentiment, and taped it to the galaxy background. I filled in the windows with a gold gel pen. The panel is popped up on fun foam for dimension.


I hope everyone is enjoying July and that it's cooled down for those of you in areas having heat waves!

Supplies for the first card:

Stamps - Stamplorations

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - white cs, watercolour paper

Size - 6x4.25"

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Crafts Too embossing folder, fun foam

Supplies for the second card:

Stamps - Penny Black sentiment

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, various Distress Oxide inks

Paper - white cs, mixed media cs

Size - A2

Accessories - clear shimmer spray, AE house/deer die, white acrylic paint, gold gel pen, fun foam

Tea Rose

I have to start by pointing out that the title of this post "Tea Rose" is extremely accurate as not only am I using the image of a rose but I'm also using tea on my card.

I've seen challenges where they ask you to use coffee but I am definitely not a coffee drinker - in fact, I can't even stand the smell of it.  So I decided to play with tea instead!

I started by putting the rose stamp in my MISTI, colouring it up section by section with my Tombow markers, lightly spritzing each time. When dry, I used some coloured pencils to add a bit of extra definition of the petals and leaves.

I brewed a little bit of very strong orange pekoe tea and used it for the background. I "inked up" a small script stamp by carefully dipping the stamp in the tea, shaking off some of the excess liquid, and then stamping around the rose. If you don't shake off the excess liquid, you just get a blob like along the top or a bunch of blobs like the middle bottom section - I'm fine with it as I like the variety.

I stamped the vertical sentiment on a scrap of the same watercolour paper, die cut it with a banner die, and sponged a bit of tea over it.

The panel is popped up on fun foam for some dimension.
 
It's heading over to the Color Throwdown challenge that inspired me not just with the colours but also with the roses in their image.

And to the Flower Challenge:

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black rose, Rosie's Road Show sentiment, unknown script stamp

Ink - Distress Oxide Vintage Photo

Paper - watercolour paper, PTI Vintage Cream cs

Size - A2

Accessories - strong steeped tea, Memory Box banner die, Tombow markers, coloured pencils, fun foam

Three Variations on a Vintage Rose

I've never used washi tape before (and hardly have any) but I do have some by Tim Holtz so pulled out his rose design tape to use for this week's SCS Ways to Use It challenge "Tape, Tape, and More Tape".

I stamped the image in brown archival ink and then watercoloured it by pressing a bit of various Distress inks on an acrylic block and picking it up with water and a brush. I sponged around the edges of the panel with Distress Frayed Burlap as it is close to the background colour in the washi tape.

Added a sentiment and a few champagne coloured pearls.

As well as using the washi tape, I used a rose stamp I've had for years and never used. And a new sentiment stamp I got recently. So everything on the card (with the exception of the inks and the pearls) are "NBUS" so I'm adding my card to Darnell's NBUS challenge.

And because the rose is watercoloured in pink and green, I'm also adding it to the CAS Watercolour challenge ("pink and green").


The Flower Challenge has a sketch challenge this month.  I don't really like sketch challenges but I had the idea that I could use an earlier stamping and watercolouring of the same rose stamp that had a smudge down at the bottom.  I cut out the flower with a circle die, cut another circle in blue to match the dragonfly, and placed it over some pink dp with a bit of blue in it.  Die cut the sentiment and added a few pearls. 

And one more with the same stamp that I've made for a friend whose birth month flower is the rose and whose favourite colour is yellow.  This time I coloured with copics and sponged the edges with the same archival ink I had stamped with.  I wanted to use my rose embossing folder with it.  It is a British ef so its proportions are different to our North American A2 cards.  I tried to trim it down to fit an A2 card base but it looked wrong so I cut a British size card and it works way better.  The overall card is the same width but taller.  I added a few heart-shaped gemstones to tie the colours in the focal panel to the rest of the card.

Nice to get three cards done for my stash!                                          

Supplies for card 1:

Stamps - Hampton Art rose, Chocolate Baroque sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Potted Soil; Distress Tattered Rose, Worn Lipstick, Peeled Paint, Pine Needles, and Frayed Burlap

Paper - watercolour paper, cream cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Tim Holtz washi tape, pearls, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:

Stamps - Hampton Arts rose

Ink - Ranger Archival Potting Soil; Distress Tattered Rose, Worn Lipstick, Peeled Paint, Pine Needles

Paper - watercolour paper, cream cs, My Mind's Eye dp

Size - A2

Accessories - pearls, blue marker, Spellbinders circle dies, Tattered Lace sentiment die

Supplies for card 3:

Stamps - Hampton Arts rose, Hero Arts sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Potting Soil

Paper - cream and white cs

Size - 6x4.25"

Accessories - Copic markers, heart shaped gems, Crafts Too embossing folder