Winter Wonderland and a Single Snowflake

I chose a lovely winter village scene for Sparkles Christmas Challenge "Winter Wonderland".

The image is coloured with plain old inexpensive watercolour paints - they aren't as vibrant as a lot of the newer watercolour mediums but I think the softness suits the wintery scene. I added glitter to all the rooftops and trees and along the snow lines. I cut the image out with an oval die and bordered with dark silver cs.

Christmas Cards All Year Round has an image of a Christmas sweater with one large gold snowflake on the front of it.  It inspired me to make this card with a gold snowflake.

I started by using gesso to stencil the snowflake on black cs to create a resist for my stamping, then stamped the Christmas script background stamp over it in white. I replaced the snowflake stencil and sponged gold ink through it quite lightly so that some of the white gesso showed through.  I trimmed the panel and popped it up with fun foam on a platinum shimmer card base.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Art-Kure Castle Combe Village, SU sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, dark silver and natural cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, SU label punches, Nesties oval dies, dimensionals, glitter

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - text background stamp
Ink - gold and white ink
Paper - black cs, platinum shimmer cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - snowflake stencil, white gesso, fun foam

A Sad Card and Two Christmas Cards

First of all today, for Festive Friday "International Animal Rights Day", a dog sympathy card to have on hand. 

For Festive Friday, you have to choose at least 3 things from their list - I chose animal, supportive sentiment, texture (the embossing folder), neutral colours, and animal patterns (the paw prints).

I did a letterpress technique on the embossing folder by running dark grey ink over the raised area of the folder before embossing.  The dog and the sentiment are stamped in black.  The condolences sentiment is inside the card.

Next up, Can You Handle the Pressure? challenge wants dry embossing with a twist of Christmas, and Shopping our Stash "Splish Splash" (use a water medium - I used Magicals, a powder that is activated with water).  My best friend always asks me to make her several Christmas cards with a dove / peace theme.

The background was made with the embossed toilet paper technique.  I layered 5 squares of toilet paper, misting with water in between each one and again on the top layer.  I placed it inside a script embossing folder and ran it through my Cuttlebug.

Then I took a piece of mixed media cs, sprinkled it with Magicals and spritzed with water.  When dry, I stamped and heat embossed the dove on it and then fussy cut.  The sentiment was die cut out of the same piece.  I created a frame with a pierced die, cut twice and layered for more substance.  I find using a frame of some sort over a toilet paper background prevents the edges from coming apart.

The embossed toilet paper has a wonderful feel of homemade paper.  For more ideas for using it, see this video and this tutorial.

For both this card and the first one, I used some cs I bought at a paper outlet.  I don't know what brand it is but the colour is labelled "chalk" - it's a great neutral colour.  I have a big pack of it so I'm sure it will show up often!

A threefer today!  For AAA Cards Challenge "Black, White, and Gold" and My Time to Craft Christmas "Snowflakes":

I started by using gesso to stencil the snowflake on black cs to create a resist for my stamping, then stamped the Christmas script background stamp over it in gold. I replaced the snowflake stencil and sponged gold ink through it.  I splattered with a bit of white acrylic paint and trimmed the panel.  I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in white on vellum and wrapped it around the panel, then popped the panel up with fun foam on a gold shimmer card base.

   

       

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - SU dog, Technique Junkies sentiment
Ink - SSS Intense Black, Versafine Clair Morning Mist
Paper - chalk cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Spellbinders rectangles, unknown embossing folder

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown dove stamp
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - toilet paper, chalk cs, mixed media cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - Sizzix embossing folder, blue Magicals, clear embossing powder, MFT pierced square frame, TH peace die

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - unknown Christmas script stamp, Stampabilities sentiment
Ink - gold and white ink
Paper - gold shimmer cs, black cs, vellum
Size - A2
Accessories - snowflake stencil, gesso, white embossing powder, white acrylic paint, fun foam

A Christmas Tree with Holly Background and a Stencilled Snowflake

Vancouver has watering restrictions as we've had such a dry summer - we are no longer allowed to water our lawns so I have a very brown lawn.  I'm making up for that lack of green with a very green card today.

I went with a green card base, a focal panel background created with a stencil monoprint of holly, and a smooshed green die cut tree.  I also die cut the tree out of white cardstock and glued them together for more dimension and slightly offset to give a bit of a line of snow on the branches.  Embellished with a silver star on top and off it goes to Jingle Belles and My Time to Craft Christmas who both want to see Christmas trees.  

My Time to Craft Christmas has a sister challenge, My Time to Craft, and it wants stencilling on a card.  So I kept going with Christmas cards and stencilled a snowflake on this card:

I started by using gesso to stencil the snowflake on black cs to create a resist for my stamping, then stamped the text background stamp over it.  I replaced the snowflake stencil and sponged Distress Speckled Egg ink over it to add colour to the snowflake.  I die cut the pierced frame die twice and stacked them for more dimension and embellished with stick-on pearls.
 

     

 

Supplies for card 1:
Ink - various green Distress inks
Paper - white and dark green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Sizzix holly embossing folder, unknown tree die, silver star

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown text stamp
Ink - Distress Speckled Egg
Paper - black and cream cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - snowflake stencil, gesso, MFT pierced square frame die, blue pearls

Foiled Alcohol Ink with a French Sentiment

Sneaking in under the wire with a card for Christmas Cards All Year Round "Three French Hens".  One of the options is to use a French sentiment so I went with that.  I have a few French-speaking friends so it's good to get one done for them.

The background is alcohol inks on glossy cs, with gold foil rubbed onto the sticky bits that were slower to dry. I added a snowflake die cut from glitter cs. The sentiment is heat embossed with irridescent embossing powder so it also has some sparkle.

Depending on how the light hits it, you see more or less gold.  Here's one where the gold doesn't show but the snowflake really stands out:

 

Supplies:
Stamps - PTI sentiment
Ink - ColorBox Royal Blue
Paper - white cs, white glitter cs, glossy cs
Size - A2
Accessories - blue alcohol inks, gold foil, snowflake die, irridescent embossing powder

Group of Seven Cardmakers - Creative Heat Embossing

Throughout Covid, I've been meeting monthly with a group of crafty friends on Zoom to try out new techniques, revisit older techniques, as well as to discuss art products we might not have used before, or that we have but don't remember what to do with them.

We decided to share our experiences on a blog and that blog is called:

 Group of Seven Cardmakers.

This is our Group of Seven:

Bonnie (Stamping with Klass)

Brenda (Inkspired to Stamp) 

Christine (It's a Card Day's Night)

Darnell (djkardkreations)

Julia (Create with Me)

Loll (Stamping with Loll)

Susan (Cardmaker's Garrett) (me)

This month we are trying out a technique Loll discovered on another blog: the Creative Heat Embossed Backgrounds technique.  Detailed instructions are over on the Group of Seven post.

 

Here is my card and I have to preface this by saying that I'm not totally happy with it.

 

I applied Versamark ink randomly to navy blue cs and then sprinkled randomly with white glitter and silver glitter embossing powder.  Then heat set it.  I die cut a circle from my results, then layered that on a silver mirror cs circle, and topped it with a snowflake die cut from the same silver mirror cs (and die cut twice more from scrap white cs to glue together to give more dimension to the snowflake).

I will probably try some of the other options our Group of Seven cardmakers used - Bonnie's second technique of splattering with water and heat embossing the powder on top of the water (who knew that would work?) and Loll's second technique of heating the embossing powder on a griddle.  I really like the results they got with those techniques.  As for the technique I used here of random swiping with Versamark, I probably won't chose to use it.

 

Supplies:
Ink - Versamark
Paper - white and navy cs, silver mirror cs
Size - 4.25" square
Accessories - snowflake die, circle dies, Stampendous Silver Tinsel and Judikins White Diamond embossing powders

Inspired Snowflake

Inspired by the Peace on Earth mood board (see below), I created this card:

I started by using gesso to stencil the snowflake on black cs to create a resist for my stamping, then stamped the text background stamp over it.  I replaced the snowflake stencil and sponged Distress Speckled Egg ink over it to add colour to the snowflake.  Popped the panel up on fun foam on an icy blue card base and added a die cut sentiment.

Here's the Peace on Earth mood board.  I wanted to capture the single snowflake and the black and icy blue/grey colours of the top right image.

Please come and join us at Peace on Earth.  You can enter an "anything Christmas" card or you can be inspired by the mood board.  There's lots more inspiration from the rest of the Design Team!

Supplies:
Stamps - unknown text / snowflake background stamp
Ink - Distress Speckled Egg
Paper - black and icy blue cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - snowflake stencil, gesso, fun foam, Spellbinders Noel die

A Sweet Bunny and Chicks, and Some Snowflakes

Just Us Girls challenge has an adorable photo challenge this week.  Here's my card for it:

Here's the challenge photo:

Inspired by the bunny ears, I used a bunny instead of a pup and then I used the pinks and purples of the flowers from the photo for the knitting on my image.  I'm a knitter so I really love this image.

It's watercoloured, trimmed with a stitched rectangle die, and popped up on fun foam.

And one more card for today:

Addicted to CAS challenge and Christmas Kickstart Challenge want to see snowflakes so here's one big snowflake:

The background is very simple - blue Brushos shaken on coated cs and spritzed with water. Once dry, I put it the MISTI and stamped and heat embossed the snowflake in white and the sentiment in navy blue. I bordered the panel with navy cs and used a light cream shimmer card base.

       

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - House Mouse Designs "Will Knit for Friends"
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - watercolour paper, PTI vintage cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Colorado Craft Co. snowflake, unknown sentiment
Ink - ColorBox white, Versafine Clair Twilight
Paper - coated cs, cream shimmer cs, navy cs
Size - A2
Accessories - clear and white embossing powders, blue Brushos

A Snowflake on a Toilet Paper Background

It seems scandalous to be using toilet paper as part of a greeting card, given the shortage of it that we saw when Covid first started!  But I had great fun learning a new technique that involved several sheets of it to create an embossed background.

I layered 5 squares of toilet paper, misting with water in between each one and again on the top layer.  I placed it inside a snowflake embossing folder and ran it through my Cuttlebug.

Once the toilet paper was dry, I trimmed it to fit behind a silver glitter die cut frame and added a silver glitter die cut snowflake to the centre.

The embossed toilet paper has a wonderful feel of homemade paper.  For more ideas for using it, see this video and this tutorial.

I'm linking it up at these challenges:

Addicted to CAS "Code Word: Snow"

 

Cardz for Guyz "Let It Snow"

The Paper Players "CAS Challenge: Snow.............."

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Paper - silver glitter cs, white cs, toilet paper
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - snowflake embossing folder, square frame die, snowflake die

Purple and White

I'm honoured today to be the Guest Designer over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown after winning their white, blue, and brown colour challenge with this card!  The challenge is:

And it was a challenge for me as I'm not used to using purple on a Christmas card!  Here's what I made:

 

For the background, I sprinkled purple Magicals onto mixed media cs and spritzed with water.  They spread beautifully into slightly sparkly shades of purple.  I let it dry naturally rather than heat drying so that the heat gun didn't blow the colours and make them pool.

I die cut the snowflake and glued over the purple panel (after first trimming it down).  Popped it up on fun foam on a white background piece on which I'd stamped my purple sentiment, and then popped that piece up on fun foam on the card base.

Since purple on Christmas cards is such a challenge for me, I'm looking forward to seeing what cards are entered over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown!

Supplies:
Stamps - Hero Arts sentiment
Ink - Memento Grape Jelly
Paper - white and mixed media cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Spellbinders Snowflake Snippets die, purple Magicals, fun foam

Winter Snowflake

It is quite warm in Vancouver today as I write this post so it seems very strange to be thinking about snowflakes!  But that is the July challenge for CAS Christmas.  Bonnie is hosting it and I think she chose it because it's much hotter where she lives so maybe the thought of snow helps to keep her cool!

I enjoyed making my card but did not enjoy photographing it - I had to try several times to deal with the shimmery cream cs and the pearlescent embossing paste.  Here's the best I could do:

I used a really old Dreamweaver snowflake stencil that I haven't touched in years.  I taped it down on white cs and used the Dreamweaver Pearlescent paste through it.  I had some creamy shimmer cs that matches it really well so die cut the two sentiments and created the card base from it.

When the paste was dry, I trimmed it with a stitched square die, then played around with the placement of the two sentiments for ages - having "winter" on the top and "snow" on the bottom makes more sense linguistically, but just didn't look right stylistically!  I finally glued them on and popped the panel up on fun foam on the card base.

Here's a close-up to show you the lovely sparkle of the Pearlescent paste and the shimmer of the cardstock - so happy I had something that matched so well!

Please come and join us with your clean and simple cards featuring a snowflake or two (or more).  There's lots of inspiration over at CAS Christmas from the rest of the Design Team and July's Guest Designer, Jane (Onions and Paper).

Supplies:

Paper - white cs, cream shimmer cs

Size - 5.25" square

Accessories - Dreamweaver snowflake stencil, Dreamweaver Pearlescent paste, Simon Says Stamp "snow" and "winter" dies, Lil Inker stitched square die, fun foam

Santa Brought Me a Snowflake

The Jingle Belles challenge is "Look What Santa Brought Me".  I got a new snowflake stamp I've been wanting for awhile.

On coated cs, I created a blue background with blue Brushos and a bit of silver Magicals spritzed with water.  When dry, I stamped and heat embossed the snowflake in white.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

I trimmed the panel and popped it up on fun foam.  I added a small heat embossed sentiment banner and embellished with a few sequins.

It's a very quick and easy card that would work well for making multiples.  And I do love that new snowflake stamp!

Supplies:

Stamps - Visible Image "Snow is Falling", A Muse sentiment

Ink - ColorBox white

Paper - coated cs, white and black cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - various blue Brushos, silver Magicals, white embossing powder, sequins, fun foam

Red Snowflake

I'm here with a card for Merry Monday.  This week's challenge is:

 

I made a CAS card:

I was inspired by some dp I had with a rich red background and snowflakes. I cut a square of it for my background.

I die cut a large snowflake out of dark red glitter cs, and glued it onto the focal panel that was cut out with a stitched die cut. I added a stamped and heat embossed sentiment, and popped the square up on fun foam.

Normally I only like snowflakes in white or pale blue or silver, but now that I've done this card, I really like it!

 

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black sentiment

Ink - Versafine Crimson Red

Paper - white cs, Paper Studio dp, dark red glittet cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - snowflake die, Lil Inkers stitched square die, embossing powder, fun foam