Snowflake Patterns

I live in Vancouver, Canada, where our winters are mild and often completely free of snow, but my sisters live near Toronto - they just had a huge snowfall and it's -30 Celsius today.  So this card was made with them in mind!

And for these two challenges:

Christmas Cards All Year Round where the current challenge is "Let It Snow".

12 Months of Christmas - "Anything but a Rectangle".   I love square cards so it's a great challenge for me.

I used three different snowflake embossing folders. The different patterns are subtle but they are there!

I cut narrow strips of white cs and embossed them. Then cut the bottom edges to make banners. Spaced them out evenly on the card base, and added a silver die cut sentiment.

It's also perfect for two SCS challenges:

CAS518 = Pattern Mash Up - use three different patterns

SCSCCJAN19 = It All Starts Up North - snow, ice, north pole

Supplies:

Paper - silver glitter and white cs

Size - 5.25" square

Accessories - Darice, Cuttlebug, and Sizzix snowflake embossing folders, Penny Black "winter wishes" die

Blue and Silver Reminder Card

January is flying by!  Can't believe I'm already here to remind you about the CAS Christmas Card Challenge:

I've stepped out of my comfort zone with this card:

First of all, I used Pan Pastels on the card - a product I rarely use, and secondly, I tilted the focal panel - something I rarely do as I'm much more comfortable with my layers being level!

To create the snowflake panel, I sponged blue Pan Pastel all over a piece of cs, then stamped the snowflake background stamp on it, and then reapplied the blue Pan Pastel - the Versamark grabs it and makes it more intense.

I trimmed the panel and bordered it with silver glitter cs.  And die cut the sentiment once from the same cs and twice more from scraps of white cs.  I layered the three to give the sentiment more dimension, glued it on the background, and then attached the panel to the card base.

Please come and join us with a blue and silver card.  There's more inspiration over at CAS Christmas from the Design Team and our wonderful Guest Designer, Kaja (Kajcyika Crafts).  The deadline is January 24th, and your card must be clean and simple, and must use the blue and silver colour scheme.

Supplies:

Stamps - snowflake background stamp (brand unknown)

Ink - Versamark

Paper - white cs, silver glitter cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Memory Box sentiment die, blue Pan Pastels

Three Snowflakes for Two Challenges

I've been so busy baking, decorating, etc. for Christmas that I haven't had time to do any blog posts.  But I've got time this morning and I have a card for two challenges.

AAA Cards wants Three of Something.

And the Double D Challenge wants anything snow related.

Here are three snowflakes:

I created a background on mixed media cs with Distress Oxide inks and the smooshing technique - stepped out of my comfort zone and used a colour scheme that is not a traditional Christmas one.

I die cut the sentiment frame and three snowflakes, put the panel together, and popped it up on fun foam on the card base.

Love both these challenges so might have to come back again tomorrow!

Supplies:

Ink - various Distress Oxide inks

Paper - white and mixed media cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Simon Says Stamp Holiday Frame die, Impression Obsession snowflake dies, fun foam

Three Wooden Snowflakes

December's AAA Cards challenge is:

And 52 Christmas Card Throwdown wants us to choose one of the 2017 challenges.  I had such a hard time chosing as there were lots of challenges that appealed to me so I chose two.  I posted the first one yesterday and now here's the second one from October 2017:

I went with three wooden snowflakes.

A very simple card with a rectangle of thin cork stuck to my card base, wooden snowflakes on top of it, and then a stamped vertical sentiment.


Has anyone heard how well these wooden snowflakes go through the mail?  They seem kind of fragile to me!

Supplies:

Stamps - Impression Obsession sentiment

Ink - Distress Oxide Vintage Photo

Paper - rustic white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - wooden snowflakes, thin cork

A Christmas Tag

My dear friend, Loll Thompson, is doing her fabulous Twelve Tags of Christmas with Loll and Friends again.  And I'm honoured to be her first Guest Designer.

When I made this tag, I seemed to be stuck in bird mode as at the time, I was hosting the CAS Christmas "Birds" challenge.  So ended up reaching for a bird for my tag!

I started by placing a snowflake mask over mixed media cs and then sprayed with a couple of different blue sprays (sorry, I didn't make a note of which ones).  One gave heavier coverage, the other a lighter more speckled spray.

I then trimmed it down into a tag shape.

I die cut the bird / branch die twice and glued them together, keeping the bits that come out of the bird in place on the back one.  I then painted it with various brown and red Distress inks.

I created a little scrap of smooshed cs in the same browns as I used on the branch and die cut the sentiment.

I glued both on the tag and added red Stickles to the berries.  It was a bit flimsy so I cut a piece of white cs, leaving it slightly wider on the two long sides, and taped the tag to it.

I pressed the same brown Distress inks on my mat, spritzed them, and dragged some TH Crinkle Ribbon through it to use on the top of the tag.

Here's a closer photo:

And here's a close-up of the sweet little bird:

You have until November 23rd to link up your tags - they must have a Christmas theme.  Each day there will be a tag by a different Guest Designer and on by Loll over at Stamping with Loll - so lots of inspiration!  And Loll says this is the final time she'll be running the Twelve Tags of Christmas event so it's now or never to enter!!!

Supplies:

Ink - various brown and red Distress inks

Paper - mixed media, white cs

Size - 3x6"

Accessories - Memory Box Delicate Snowflakes mask, various blue sprays, Penny Black Wonder and Joy (bird on branch) die, Tattered Lace sentiment die, TH crinkle ribbon

Snowflakes and a Gift Card Holder

Posting for a couple of challenges today:

Jingle Belles "Let It Snow"

ABC Christmas Challenge "S is for Snow"

A friend asked if I could make some small cards for her with gift card holders inside so I came up with this design for one of them.

Here's the outside:

I made a background with a TH snowflake stencil. I took Broken China ink, smooshed it on my craft mat, and mixed in some embossing paste and went over the stencil with it.

I die cut "snow" out of blue glitter cs, and bordered the stenciled panel with the same.

I added a single gemstone to the largest snowflake.

And here's the inside, showing the gift card holder:

For the inside, I made the gift card holder out of a snowflake dp to match the theme of the card, added a little stamped and die cut label to it, and stamped "to" and "from" on the other side.

I have a package of little envelopes that would just hold cards this size so I might make a bunch of them for both my friend and to sell at my fundraiser.
 
I'm also adding it to The Merry Christmas Challenge "Anything Goes".

Supplies:

Stamps - SU "A Gift for You", Rubber Stampede "To / From"

Ink - Distress Tumbled Glass

Paper - PTI Vintage Cream cs, blue glitter cs, American Crafts dp

Size - 3.5" square

Accessories - Simon Says Stamp snow word die, blue gemstone, Tim Holtz snowflake stencil, embossing paste, Simon Says Stamp gift card envelope die, Spellbinders scalloped oval die

Rustic Snowflakes

I am kind of sad today as this will be my last ever card for one of my favourite challenges - the Merry Monday Christmas Card challenge is closing down.  I'll miss them as they always had great challenges that appealed to me.  Their last challenge is this:

I was inspired by the wood wall, the pleated white curtains, and the white Christmas tree.

I used a scrap of corrugated card. I brushed a bit of white gesso randomly over it.

Three die cut Tim Holtz snowflakes, a sentiment stamped in a colour close to the corrugated card, and three pale gold gemstones finish it off.

Thanks for the years of great challenges, Merry Monday - we'll miss you!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black sentiment

Ink - SU Baked Brown Sugar

Paper - white cs, corrugated cardboard

Size - A2

Accessories - TH Snowflake dies, gesso, pale gold gemstones

Masculine Christmas

For June, the CAS Christmas challenge is being hosted by Christine (A Card Day's Night) and she has chosen "Masculine" as our theme.

I am not very good at masculine cards but, during my recent craft retreat, we worked on the embedded brushos technique.   I ended up with a piece that was in quite muted colours and decided it would be a good background for a masculine card.

For details on how to do it the embossed brushos, see the first 6:50 minutes of this video. Basically you sprinkle brushos on some watercolour paper, run it through an embossing folder, and then spritz.  Because the embossing folder presses the brushos into the wc paper, it is more concentrated around the raised parts.

I then brayered lightly over the raised parts with white pigment ink and heat embossed with white embossing powder.

I die cut the row of trees out of brown and white cs.  I used Sizzix's thin double-sided adhesive sheet on the top side of the white layer and then stuck the brown die cut very slightly offset on top to give the look of a sprinkling of snow on the branches.  Because there was a bit of exposed stickiness, I added ultrafine glitter to take care of the stickiness - I figured just that tiny bit of sparkle wouldn't take away from the masculine nature of the card.

We'd love to have you join us at CAS Christmas!  Head on over and see the rest of the inspiration from the Design Team and our talented Guest Designer, Bobby (of bits & pieces).  You have until June 24th to link up your card.  Please make sure it is clean and simple, and is masculine in theme or tone.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black sentiment

Ink - Wendy Vecchi Archival Potting Soil

Paper - white and brown cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - Penny Black In the Winter die, blue Brushos, Cuttlebug embossing folder, glitter, fun foam

Snowflakes on a Sketch

I'm not usually a fan of sketch challenges but the latest Less is More sparked an idea in me so I went with it.

I saw snowflakes when I saw the sketch so used a variety of sizes of snowflake dies with SU Dazzling Diamonds glitter cs.

The background is navy cs sprayed with a white Lindy's Stamp Gang spray.  Most of it got absorbed into the cs but a faint splatter shows.

Here's a close-up:

One more for the Christmas card fundraiser!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Cobalt

Paper - white and navy cs, SU Dazzling Diamonds glitter cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Lindy's Stamp Gang Frozen Jack Frost spray, various snowflake dies, label die, fun foam

Music and Holly Challenges

I got to spend the afternoon in my craft room today.  I had intended to work on organizing my unmounted stamps but instead, made two cards.

First up, for Jingle Belles "Hark the Herald Angels SING" - have a musical element on the card.

One of my goals this year is to use up lots of pieces from my UFO box.  This little piece of background was in there - it's smooshed oxide inks on photographic paper.  I die cut the musical score out of navy cs, added strips of navy cs to the top and bottom, stamped the sentiment in navy, and popped the panel up on fun foam.


I also wanted to make another card for the inaugural CAS Christmas Card Challenge "Holly".

I had a piece of mixed media cs in my UFO box that I'd sprinkled and spritzed with green brushos.  So I started with that.

I used a Tim Holtz stencil with white glitter embossing paste.  I missed a section of the stencil so I die cut the sentiment and placed it over that section to hide the fact that it wasn't evenly covered with the stenciled design.  I trimmed it down and added a narrow red border, and popped the panel up on fun foam.

If you want to join us at CAS Christmas Card Challenge, it's open until March 24th.

Supplies for first card:

Stamps - A Muse sentiment

Ink - Staz-On Midnight Blue

Paper - photo paper, white and navy cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Simon Says Stamp Jingle Snowflake die, fun foam

Supplies for second card:

Paper - mixed media cs, red cs, cream shimmer cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Tim Holtz Festive stencil, Cosmic Shimmer glitter paste, Tattered Lace Merry Christmas die, fun foam

Needlepoint-Inspired Snow

This week, Merry Monday's challenge is Let It Snow:

I was inspired by something I saw when on needlepoint.com:

I love that Nordic look and in fact I have a red winter sweater with white snowflakes in that style.  Here's my card:

I used my Tim Holtz stencil with white embossing paste on red cs. I layered a sentiment tag over a section of embossing that smudged badly.   I used "let it snow" as the sentiment in keeping with the Merry Monday challenge and embellished with a wooden snowflake.

I'm also posting it on SCS for the Inspiration Challenge.

Supplies:

Stamps - unknown sentiment

Ink - ColorBox Chianti

Paper - red and white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Tim Holtz stencil, Dreamweaver white embossing paste, clear embossing powder, SU wooden snowflake, Nesties sentiment label, seam binding, fun foam

Three Variations on a Snowy Melody

I have a new die that is perfect for the Addicted to CAS challenge:

I ended up doing three variations with the same die.  My favourite is this one:

I made the background by sprinkling a couple of different blue Brushos on coated cs and spritzing with water.  I die cut the music twice and glued them together for more dimension.  I added a simple "let it snow" since it is a song title so fits the music theme.


I made a New Year's resolution to try and make more than one card when I have a stamp, a die, or a stencil out.  So I die cut some more of the music and made two more cards.

I also made resolutions to use one piece of background or one image out of my UFO box (unfinished objects) each week and to use some of my stash of dp on one card a week.  We'll see how well I do with these resolutions!  But at least I've accomplished all three on this post!

Here's the one using up a piece of background from my new UFO box.  It's a piece from a get together with a friend to try out her gelli plate.

And here's the one using a piece of dp:

It feels good to have three cards ready for my November sale!!

Supplies:

Stamps - Old Island Stamp Co. sentiment (first card), Northwoods sentiment (second and third card)

Ink - StazOn Midnight Blue (first card), Distress Blueprint Sketch (second card), SU Brocade Blue (third card)

Paper - white cs, coated cs, Me & My Big Ideas dp

Size - A2

Accessories - Simon Says Stamp Jingle Snowflakes die, Lil Inkers stitched oval die, blue Brushos, fun foam

Cling Wrapped Bird

Time to remind you that you only have until January 24th to link up your card for this month's CAS Mix Up challenge!

For my reminder card, I used Brushos along with cling wrap.

I took a piece of coated cs, sprinkled it with brown and red Brushos, spritzed with water, and then scrunched cling wrap up on top of it.  I left it to dry for a couple of hours.  It came out much paler than I'd intended but there was some nice marbling from the cling wrap.

I cut the bird / snowflake die twice - once from white cs and once from the Brushos piece.  I found a piece of burgundy cs that I liked with the Brushos colours, glued the white bird / snowflake outline to it, and then inlaid the bird's body from the Brushos piece.

The sentiment is stamped and heat embossed, and the panel trimmed and popped up on fun foam for dimension.  I added a gemstone for the bird's eye.

Head over to CAS Mix Up to see the rest of the Design Team's reminder cards, and a fabulous card by our Guest Designer, Christine of It's a Card Day's Night.  Remember to keep your cards clean and simple - they must have some uncluttered, open space (often referred to as "white space" but it can be a colour as is the case in my card!).  And you must include some stamping and a technique that involves cling wrap as well as at least one other technique from our list - I have die cutting with an inlaid die cut, and heat embossing.

Looking forward to seeing more lovely cards!

Supplies:

Stamps - PTI sentiment

Ink - ColorBox Frost White

Paper - white and burgundy cs, coated cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Memory Box Mara Bird die, brown and red Brushos, cling wrap, white embossing powder, gemstone, fun foam

Masculine Christmas Thank You Card

I needed to make a thank you card for my Dad for his Christmas gift and I was inspired by three challenges:

SCS CAS challenge "Chilled Thanks".
SCS Technique Lovers challenge "Everything Old is New Again: Black and White".
Christmas Cards All Year Round challenge "A Holiday Thank You".

Here's my card:

I used black and white shimmer cs. I die cut the sentiment and the sloped house and trees circle die out of my top layer of white, added it to a black cardbase, and die cut some tiny snowflakes out of the scrap of white and glued them on.

Supplies:

Paper - white shimmer and black shimmer cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Memory Box Countryside Circle die, Cheery Lynn small snowflake dies, Dee's Distinctively Thank You die

A Christmas Horse

This week's Merry Christmas Challenge has an optional element of animals so I got another horse-themed card done for my fundraiser next weekend (the money goes to support therapeutic horse riding for children with disabilities).

A very simple Christmas card - sponged blue background, die cut horse scene, and a few small snowflakes.  I might make a few more this week for my sale.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps - Old Island Stamp Co. sentiment

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, various blue Distress inks

Paper - white cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - StarLit Studio Horse Country die, various small snowflake dies