Favourite Pet

I recently discovered a new challenge called As You Like It.  Their current challenge is Favourite Pet (and why).  Dogs are absolutely my favourite.  I've had them my whole life.  They are wonderful companions, they get me out walking every day (great for exercise and for meeting neighbours), they give unconditional love and loyalty, and they lower stress.  I currently have two dogs - a 10 year old English Cocker Spaniel, Tessa, and an 11 month old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Pippin.  Here's a recent photo of them sitting by the baskets where their leashes and harnesses are kept waiting to go out for a walk.

Here's my card, featuring a dog very similar to Tessa:

It's a really old stamp that I've had for years. It's coloured with coloured pencils blended with Gamsol to get nice shading on the dog (the bells are coloured with a silver metallic pencil). I trimmed it with a fancy label die and then sponged around the edges with Antique Linen - except it came out grey as the sponge I used was dirty! I popped it up on fun foam. I'm also linking it up with Inkspirational "Christmas in July", Rudolph Days (anything Christmas), and Neglected Stuff (I used a very old stamp).

Supplies:
Stamps - Creative Images
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Antique Linen
Paper - off white paper
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, silver metallic pencil, Gamsol, Sizzix label die, fun foam

Santa on the Roof and Snowman with Dog

Two mini slimline cards today, both on coloured cardbases.  I enjoy making Christmas cards between Christmas and New Year as I'm still feeling in the Christmas mood and I always have lots of free time.  

So here's one for Christmas Cards All Year Round "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and Double D "Santa and / or Snowman".  And for the NBUS Challenge (I've never inked up this stamp before and I've had it for quite a while).  I'm also entering it in : Sweet Stampin' "Christmas", The Twelve Months of Christmas "Anything Goes Christmas", and The Christmas Kickstart Challenge "If It's Christmassy, Link It Up".

I used a Tim Holtz stamp I've had for ages and never inked up. Simply stamped and watercoloured and mounted on a blue shimmer card base.

For the Penny Black Saturday Challenge "Snow or Snowmen", I got out a Penny Black stamp I haven't used for ages.  It's also for Cardz4Guyz "Christmas Critters".

Stamped, coloured with coloured pencils, trimmed and added to a tan card base, and embellished with a Gelly Roll Stardust pen on the snowflakes.

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Tim Holtz
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, blue shimmer cs
Size - 6x3.25"
Accessories - watercolour paints

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - off white and tan cs
Size - 6x3.25"
Accessories - coloured pencils, Gelly Roll Stardust pen

Embossing with Dies

The Group of Seven Cardmakers has changed its name to the Group of Cardmakers.  We're still doing the same thing - trying different techniques and products.  This month we're embossing with dies.  

My first two cards use the embossed die cut as a background pattern or almost a shadow for the actual die cut.

For this one I smooshed the actual die cut in green ink and then slightly offset it over the embossed die, making the embossed one appear to be a shadow.  I used red liquid pearls to create the berries and added a matching green sentiment.  The shape of the die made it ideal for a mini slimline card.

 

 

I went with a white-on-white look for this second one.  I trimmed the embossed die panel with a deckle die and added a sentiment in grey.  I die cut the mistletoe twice and glued them together for more dimension.  Then glued it over the background with it very much offset from the embossed pattern.  I finished off with using white liquid pearls for the berries.

 

This third card uses an embossed die to frame the image.  This is a great use for dies - I must remember to do it more often.

 

I stamped and coloured (with coloured pencils) the dog, then fussy cut it.  On my focal panel, I embossed with a postage stamp die and glued the dog's feet onto it and popped up his body and head with dimensionals.   I sketched a few lines under him to ground him.

 

Head over to Group of Cardmakers for some more ideas on embossing with dies and get more out of your supplies!

 

I'm linking up the third card with Sweet Stampin' "Animals" and Simply Clean and Simple "Cute Animals"

   
 

 

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Make an Impression sentiment
Ink - Distress Bundled Sage
Paper - white cs
Size - 6x3.25"
Accessories - unknown berry die, red liquid pearls

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versafine Smokey Grey
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - unknown mistletoe die, Spellbinders deckle edge die, white liquid pearls

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Colorado Craft Co. (Anita Jeram)
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, PB postage stamp die, dimensionals, tiny sentiment label die

Spring Bluebells and Two Christmas Cards

Since it's spring, I'll start with a spring card.  Shopping our Stash Challenge is asking for Spring or Easter, and the Four Seasons Challenge wants Spring.  And since the bluebells are a Penny Black stamp, I'm linking it up to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge.

The Scilla are starting to bloom in my garden so this seemed the perfect stamp.  I stamped  and heat embossed in gold, then coloured with coloured pencils.  With Tea Dye ink to give a vintage feel, I stamped the definition of spring in a couple of places, sponged  around the edges, and stencilled some splatters.  Then stamped the flower name and cut it with a narrow label die and added it to the top.  The panel is popped up on fun foam for some dimension.

Moving on to working on my Christmas card stash.  Double D wants to see Cute Little Animals and Jingle Belles want us to be inspired by one of the cookies in this image:

I saw the cookie on the left near the bottom with the tangle of lights and thought of the stamp I have with a cute little dog all tangle up in Christmas lights.

I watercoloured the image and went over the lights with Glossy Accents. I trimmed with an old Spellbinders label tag, and bordered with green and added to a red card base. And I found the perfect sentiment that refers to lights! 

And finally Christmas Craft Creations wants to see Designer Paper on our cards.  I love colour coordinating DP with the colours I use in my focal image. 

The image is stamped and coloured with coloured pencils and popped up on fun foam for some dimension.

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black Scilla, Purple Onion spring definition
Ink - ColorBox gold, Distress Oxide Tea Dye
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold embossing powder, coloured pencils, splatter stencil

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black dog, SSS sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, red and green cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, Glossy Accents, Spellbinders label dies

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment, unknown owl stamp
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white cs, dp
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - coloured pencils, fun foam

A Pop of Red and Frosted Windowpanes

The Paper Players have a colour challenge - "Black, White, and a Pop of Colour".  I chose red for my pop of colour.

A very CAS card - stamped the image, coloured the heart with a red marker, trimmed with a wonky stitched die, bordered with red cs, and popped up on fun foam.

 

Then for The Sisterhood of Crafters "Icy Cold", I created a windowpane like the ones from my childhood in eastern Canada - we only had single glazed windows and they'd get covered in frosty ice during the frigid cold winter days.

 

I sprinkled very pale blue Magicals on coated cs and spritzed with water and let the colour run.  When dry, I went over some of the "veins" in the colour with Wink of Stella to increase the icy look.  I set it behind a window die, cut twice and glued together for more dimension, added that to a background of cs (embossed with vertical lines), added the sentiment (stamped and then die cut with an oval), and finished with a few small snowflakes die cut out of the leftover "frosty" panel.

It was hard to photograph so here's another view with different lighting that brought out more of the pale blue Magicals:

Remembering those cold eastern winters makes me appreciative of living in the more moderate climate of Vancouver, though we've just had a cold snap of days below freezing followed by quite a big dump of snow!

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black image, PTI sentimen
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - white and red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - red marker, MFT Wonky stitched rectangle die, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Impression Obsession sentiment
Ink - Distress Speckled Egg
Paper - white cs, coated cs, pre-embossed white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - small snowflake dies, pale blue Magicals, Wink of Stella, Memory Box window die, Spellbinders oval die

A Dog in a Santa Hat and a Starry Wreath

Christmas Craft Creations want us to "Add a Hat", Double D want "Christmas Animals", and Cardz 4 Guyz want "Festive Creatures".  I used a never-before-used stamp for the card so it's going off to NBUS as well.

I was inspired by the right hand images in the Double D mood board to use a new Colorado Craft Co.  I watercoloured the dog in the colours of my English cocker as the image made me think of her!  Then trimmed it with dotted pierced rectangle die, layered it over copper cs, and popped it up on fun foam on a red card base.  I added fun flock to the brim and pompom of the hat.

The ABC Christmas Challenge is "W for Wreath".  Instead of a traditional greenery wreath, I used a star wreath.  I used up several snippets of papers so I'm adding it to the Snippets Challenge.

On the left side of my card base, I added a strip of dp bordered by thin strips of gold shimmer cs and stamped a gold heat embossed sentiment to the right side.

I die cut the star wreath three times - twice out of of white cs and once out of Tim Holtz gold glitter peel-off paper. I stacked the three together and added it over the dp / card base / sentiment

  

 

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Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Colorado Craft Co. dog, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, copper and red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Sizzix dotted rectangle die, watercolour paints, fun flock, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - ColorBox Gold
Paper - gold shimmer and white cs, SEI dp, TH gold glitter peel-off paper
Size - A2
Accessories - gold embossing powder, unknown star wreath

A Cute Dog Instead of a Cute Gnome

The new Peace on Earth challenge has an inspiration board full of cute Christmas gnomes.  I don't have a single gnome stamp so I went with a cute dog stamp.  Peace on Earth is an "anything Christmas goes" challenge (I usually find inspiration in the board - I kept the overall colours I saw in the board, even though I have no gnomes!).

It's a very CAS card (my preferred style) - stamped and watercoloured image, trimmed with a stitched rectangle die cut, bordered in green, and popped up on fun foam on a red card base.

Please come and join us at Peace On Earth.  There's lots more inspiration from the rest of the Design Team.  And should you like Christmas gnomes, here's our inspiration board:

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black dog, Colorado Craft Co. sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, red and green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, fun foam

Pup with Red and White Stocking

Inspired by the red and white in the mood board at Peace on Earth:

I stamped and coloured the pup, colouring his stocking in the red and white of the candy canes and other stripes of the mood board.  I added some orangey patches to the dog to make her resemble my dog (an orange roan English Cocker Spaniel).  In keeping with the red and white, I chose a piece of dp to border the image.

There's lots more inspiration from the other members of the Peace on Earth Design Team.  Here's the mood board should it inspire you.  If not, "anything Christmas goes".

And here's a photo of me and my sweet Tessa.  We occasionally go out to visit seniors' homes and this was taken on one of those visits.

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white cs, dp
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils