Adapting Thelwell to Christmas and Out of My Comfort Zone Butterfly

ABC Christmas Challenge is "N for Non-Christmas Stash".  My childhood wish was to get a pony for Christmas (sadly I never did but I've managed to spend lots of time with ponies over my lifetime!). I used some non-Christmas pony stamps (of illustrations by the cartoonist Thelwell) on this Christmas card:

I made it very Christmas-y by using red and green borders and stamping the tree in green and the sentiment in red.  I combined two different Christmas sentiments to reflect the child's desire for a pony.

Playing around in the craft room on a rainy day, I decided to mix some embossing powders on the same image and ended up with this card.  Definitely outside of my comfort zone in terms of colours!  It's for Sweet Stampin' "Use a Stencil", Stencil Fun Challenge "Trees and / or Leaves", and Stamping Sensations "Birds, Bees, and / or Butterflies".

I created the butterfly by stamping it on black cs with Versamark ink and then carefully adding various embossing powders to different sections. Then I fussy cut it.

The background is stamped with a text stamp in light ink on mixed media cs. Then I laid the bay branches stencil over it and sprayed randomly with three different sprays - love the effect I got!

Layered the butterfly on top with foam tape popping up his wings, and used a cream card base.

    

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Isobel Craft Collection Thelwell stamps, Penny Black and Simon Says Stamp sentiments
Ink - Archival Potting Soil, Memento Cottage Ivy and Rhubarb Stalk
Paper - white, red, and green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Spellbinders rectangle dies

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black butterfly, SU French Script
Ink - Versamark, Adirondack Lake Mist
Paper - mixed media, black, cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - various embossing powders, Heidi Swapp gold spray, Mr. Huey's leaf green spray, Lindy's mystic malachite spray, TCW mini bay branches stencil, foam tape

Blues and Bunny with a Stocking

Colorful Options has a colour palette to choose from and, needless to say, I chose the blues.  

I sprayed the background with a few different blues and then die cut three hexagons out of it and stamped postage marks, etc. on them. I die cut the hexagons again out of scrap cs, popped the scrap ones back in the holes and layered the stamped ones on top of them.

I did some ink smooshing with various blue Distress inks and die cut the flowers and the sentiment out of that.

Here's the colour palette I chose from.  I tried to capture the various shades of blue from the left third of the colours..

 
And a Christmas card for Sparkles Christmas Challenge "Christmas Stocking" and Jingle Belles "Animal Antics".

One of the fabulous Anita Jeram stamps, simply watercoloured, bordered with black, and on an off-white card base.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - unknown postage mark and text stamps
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, various blue Distress inks
Paper - mixed media cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Alexandra Renke flowers, Happy Birthday die, hexagon die, various blue sprays

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Colorado Craft Co. Anita Jeram
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, off white and black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints

Glitter Snowflakes and A Dog with Gifts

It's still colder than normal here in Vancouver so I'm inspired to do another snowflake card (though we don't have any snow on the ground).  Snowflakes are perfect for Shopping our Stash "Glitter Me Happy" challenge.  It's also going to the Sisterhood of Crafters challenge "Snowflakes".  And to the Inkspirational Challenge "Word Prompt: Snow".

I made a stencil monoprint for the background by spraying a snowflake stencil and then pressing it down onto my cs.  Then layered it with white cs on which I stamped the sentiment and trimmed with a stitched rectangle.  And topped that with two snowflakes die cut out of glitter cs.

For Stamping Sensations "Hand Coloured Image", Penny Black Saturday Challenge "anything Penny Black", and the NBUS Challenge (I'd never used this stamp before):

A very basic card - the image is coloured with coloured pencils, then it's trimmed and popped up on fun foam on a snowflake embossed panel.

     

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Art Impressions sentiment
Ink - Distress Broken China
Paper - white cs, blue glitter cs
Size - A2
Accessories - PaperArtsy snowflake stencil, Mr. Huey's Sky spray, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die, snowflake dies

Supplies for card:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs
Size - 6x3.25"
Accessories - coloured pencils, snowflake embossing folder, fun foam

Monochrome Christmas and Birthday

This month the Group of Seven Cardmakers chose Monochrome as the technique for our cards.  I opted to do Christmas cards to build up my stash.  The first card I made followed the method in this video.

I stamped and heat embossed the poinsettia in white on red cs, then added colour to the poinsettia with red coloured pencils.  I trimmed the panel, added a red glitter border, added it to a red card base, popped on a white heat embossed sentiment, and embellished with clear gemstones in the centre.

Next up, shades of green:

For this card, I put the stamp in my MISTI and coloured it directly on the stamp with Memento Dew Drop ink pads, stamping and reinking until I was happy with the results.  Trimmed it, mounted it on a dark green card base, and added sparkly embellishments on the berries and a green bow on top of the stems.

And I had to get some blue in here so my third card is all shades of blue, and will go off to my sister in Ontario for her birthday.

I sprayed the background with various blue sprays, then die cut the hexagon out of it in three places.  I stamped various script and postmark stamps on the hexagon pieces I'd cut, and sponged around their edges.  I then cut hexagons again from scrap cs - put the scrap ones in first and then the sprayed and stamped ones on top for some dimension.  I created a piece of smooshed blue and die cut the wildflowers, sentiment, and tiny butterflies from that.    

There are lots of ways to make monochromatic cards - head on over to the Group of Seven blog and see all of the cards our Design Team has made.  We'd love to have you link up a card using your favourite method for monochromatic cards.

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black poinsettia, unknown sentiment
Ink - ColorBox white
Paper - red cs, red glitter cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - white embossing powder, coloured pencils, Spellbinders square dies, clear gemstones

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black greenery, Purple Onion sentiment
Ink - Memento Dew Drops Northern Pine, Bamboo Leaves, Cottage Ivy
Paper - light green and dark green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - sparkly stick-ons, green ribbon

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - various postage and script stamps
Ink - Distress Faded Jeans
Paper - mixed media and off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tattered Angels, Perfect Pearls, and Mr. Huey's blue sprays; Gummiapan sentiment die, Poppy Stamps butterfly dies, Tim Holtz wildflowers dies, Spellbinders hexagon die

Blue and Aqua

People who follow my blog regularly will know that my favourite colour is blue.  Today I've got two cards with different shades of blue.

First up, for the Triple B Challenge which require birds, butterflies, or blooms and this month has a gorgeous blue mood board. 

A very CAS card - I stamped and heat embossed the flower and sentiment in white on black cs, then painted the flower with Posca paint pens.  Then mounted on a white card base.

Here's the Triple B mood board.  You can see I was inspired by the left and right hand images.

I then went on to the Colorful Options Challenge "Aqua".

I first sprayed the background with 3 different blue Lindy's sprays on mixed media cs. Then stamped the collage image over it. From a leftover sprayed piece, I die cut the solid base of the butterfly. The lacy top of the butterfly is out of blue shimmer cs.

Here's the Colorful Options mood board.  

Loved making these cards but I really need to get back to Christmas cards as I'm behind on the numbers I like to get made by June!

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Visible Image
Ink - ColorBox white
Paper - white and black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - white embossing powder, blue and green Posca paint pens

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - PaperArtsy leaf/script stam
Ink - Versafine Clair Twilight
Paper - blue shimmer, mixed media, and white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - 3 different Lindy's sprays (Baby Blue Eyes, Buccaneer Bay Blue, Mystic Malachi), Sizzix butterfly die

A CAS Butterfly and Christmas Food

A Twofer today to sneak in under the wire for some challenges I wanted to enter.

First for The Paper Players "CAS with an Insect":

For the background, I dripped some Tumbled Glass and Broken China reinkers along one edge of a panel of cs, spritzed with water, and tipped the cs to let them run. The butterfly is die cut from a couple of layers of very thick and absorbent handmade paper, stuck together for substance and then sprayed with various blue, purple, and pink sprays. I didn't quite get the colour variation I wanted so sprays probably weren't the best medium to use. I found a piece of pink shimmer cs that matched perfectly so bordered with that.

Next up, for 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Christmas Food" and for Sparkles Christmas Challenge "Christmas Food":

Many years ago I admired this image on someone's card and I contacted her to ask her to stamp off a few for me. She kindly mailed them to me and I'm ashamed to say I've forgotten both who it was and who made the stamp. If anyone knows, please let me know!!

The image is coloured with coloured pencils, with a tiny bit of glossy accents just on the holly berries. I then bordered it with red and green cs.

   

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - Distress Tumbled Glass and Broken China
Paper - white cs, pink shimmer cs, thick handmade paper
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - blue and pink sprays, Lil Inker stitched square dies

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown image, PB sentiment
Ink - black ink
Paper - white, red, and green cs
Size - 5" square
Accessories - coloured pencils, glossy accents, Spellbinders square dies

Trees and Reindeer with No Stamping

A card for a few challenges and for my Christmas stash:

I sprayed a piece of black cs with some shimmery blue spray.  Then created a scene with die cuts to go on top of it - white cs for the trees, white glitter cs for the snowflakes, and pale gold cs for the reindeer and sentiment.

Challenges:

Sparkles Christmas Challenge "Trees"

My Time to Craft Christmas "Deer / Reindeer" 

Christmas Craft Creations "No Stamping" 

Inkspirational Challenges "Seasonal" 

Shopping our Stash "Masculine" 

The Paper Players "Masculine" 

My Time to Craft Challenge "Masculine" 

Cardz 4 Guyz "Masculine with Lots of Layers"

Supplies:
Paper - pale gold, white glitter, white, and black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - TH reindeer die, Paper Roses birch trees die, Cheery Lynn snowflakes die, Tattered Lace sentiment dies

Greenery and Ribbon

Christmas Craft Creations wants to see Ribbon or Twine on a Christmas card.  I used ribbon for a bow for my swag of greenery:

I had some scraps of cs that I'd sprayed with various green sprays leftover from another project, so I die cut some branches out of them.

I die cut the "Merry Christmas" frame from white cs and layered another scrap of the sprayed green cs behind the word Christmas. I layered it over a scrap of snowflake embossed white cs, using foam tape to give it some dimension. Then arranged the branches on top and added a red bow.

Since I used up a bunch of scraps, I'm also linking it up with the Snippets Challenge.

       

 

Supplies:
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - various green sprays, TH greenery dies, SU snow embossing folder, SSS Holiday Frame die, foam tape

Polar Bears, a Cabin, and a Sentiment

The month is flying by and I've got some challenges I want to enter.

First up, did you know there was such a thing as Polar Bear Day?  Well there is, and part of the reason is to draw attention to the world's largest carnivore and the threat of extinction facing it.  The Day of the Month Card Club Challenge chose it for its February challenge.  And polar bears are perfect for the Paper Players wildlife challenge.

Stamped and watercoloured, then trimmed and put on a gold shimmer panel that has "merry" die cut out of it.

Moving on to Christmas Cards All Year Round where they want to see a cabin or cottage.

I kept it simple to let this lovely detailed image take centre stage.  Stamped in navy, trimmed and bordered with navy cs, and glitter added to all the snowy places.  In real life, it's lovely and sparkly.

And finally, a chance to use up a strange piece of background from my UFO box.  The Christmas Kickstart Challenge wants the sentiment to take centre stage.

I don't know what I was thinking when I made this background - I sprayed some gold spray on navy cs, then scrunched up some cling wrap on top and let it dry.  Then added two types of Frantage embossing powder (one with chunky white bits, one with smaller white and gold bits) and heat embossed from underneath.  I was going to toss it and then decided to try using it for this challenge with just a gold die cut sentiment and a few die cut gold stars.  To add a bit more interest (as if there wasn't enough going on already), I die cut the navy panel with a hemstitch rectangle and layered it over a gold card base to co-ordinate with the sentiment and stars.  So what's the verdict - a hot mess (as Jennifer McGuire likes to say) or a passable attempt at mixed media?  Believe me, you won't hurt my feelings as I'm quite ambivalent about this one!

Challenges:

Day of the Month Card Club Challenge - "Polar Bear Day"

 

The Paper Players - "Wild about Wildlife"

 

Christmas Cards All Year Round - "Cabin / Cottage"

Christmas Kickstart Challenge - "The Sentiment Takes Centre Stage"

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - watercolour paper, gold shimmer and cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, TH merry die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Crafty Individuals cabin, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Twilight
Paper - white and navy cs
Size - A2
Accessories - glitter

Supplies for card 3:
Paper - navy and gold cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold spray, cling wrap, Stampendous Frantage embossing powders, Spellbinders hemstitch rectangle die, Memory Box star dies, Penny Black sentiment die