Mum and Baby Polar Bears

One of the images on the new Peace on Earth mood board is the sweetest picture of a mother and baby polar bears.  It reminded me of a stamp I have of a sweet baby polar bear riding on its mother's back.

I stamped and watercoloured image, trimmed with a square die, bordered with gold shimmer paper to match the gold paint I used for the stars, and then dotted on a few snowflakes with a white Posca paint pen (not sure they show up in the photo). Here's the mood board:   Head over to Peace on Earth to see the rest of the Design Team's interpretations.

Supplies:
Stamps - Crafters Companion
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs, gold shimmer paper
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, gold paint, white Posca paint pen, Spellbinders square dies

Summer Cottage Garden and Dove Flying High

A card for Shopping Our Stash's "Summertime" challenge and Allsorts "Garden" challenge:

Stamped, coloured with coloured pencils, trimmed with a pierced dot rectangle die and layered over a pink rectangle so that the pink shows through the pierced dots.  Then bordered with some floral dp, and added to a yellow card base.

I used the same floral dp to line an envelope:

 

 

It's going to a friend who just bought a new house.

 

Try It On Tuesday's challenge is "Flying High" - something that flies high in the sky.  I made a peace-themed Christmas card with a dove flying high among the stars.

 

I sponged silver ink through a star die, leaving space on the bottom right corner for a stamped heat embossed sentiment.  I covered a piece of scrap cs with double sided tape and added blue / silver gilding flakes.  Then die cut the dove out of it.
 

     

 

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps -
Ink -
Paper -
Size -
Accessories -

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - silver
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Sizzix Delicate Wings dove die, Cosmic Shimmer Blue Ice gilding flakes, star stencil, silver embossing powder

Gifts with Vertical Sentiment and a Starry Tag

The ABC Christmas Challenge is U for Uncluttered (i.e. CAS) and / or V for Vertical.  I've made a CAS card that has a vertical sentiment..  

Stamped, coloured with coloured pencils (including a silver, red, and green metallic pencils for the ribbon and bow, with a small vertical sentiment, and framed with a pierced dot frame die, cut twice and glued together for more dimension.

Another Christmas card for Inkspirational "Seeing Stars":

I sponged a tag with three Distress inks, then flicked some water droplets on it. When dry, I stamped "joy" and "peace" in gold and I took my Memory Box Stardust stencil and sponged over it with Golden Glitz ink. I stamped the "star light, star bright" sentiment with dark blue ink on gold shimmer cs and heat embossed with clear ep. I cut it out with a star die and popped it up with dimensionals.

I added baker's twine to the top of the tag and attached the tag to a white card base.

It's hard to read in the photo, but the sentiment says "Star light, star bright, a wish for peace on earth tonight".

  

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Power Poppy Cozy Cupfuls, Rosie's Roadshow sentimen
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, metallic pencils, MFT pierced rectangle frame die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Hero Arts Joy and Noel, Great Impressions "Star light..."
Ink - Delicata Golden Glitz; Distress Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans, and Dusty Concord; Versafine Majestic Blue
Paper - white cs, gold shimmer cs, manila tag
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - Spellbinders star die, baker's twine, dimensionals, Stampendous Detail Gold embossing powder, Memory Box Stardust stencil

Pink Snowy Village and Starry Song

Every year the Jingle Belles challenge hosts "Pink Christmas" and they donate $2 to breast cancer research for every card linked up.  It's also going to Sparkles "Non-Traditional Christmas Colours" challenge.  Here's my pink Christmas card:

I went through my unused background pieces and found three different pink pieces (one sponged, one sprayed, and one stencilled).  I die cut a house and a couple of snowflakes out of each, and then the sentiment out of two of them.  I used a narrow embossing folder of snowflakes on my focal panel and then glued all my die cuts on to it.  I added it to the card base with some thin dimensional tape.

For a second card today, I used lines from a song to make a card for Sweet Stampin' "Inspired by a Book, Song, or Film".  It's also for the Word Power challenge where the sentiment is the focus of the card.

I have some really old red laser-cut star paper that I haven't used for many years and thought it could go with the words from a Christmas carol.  I layered a piece of it over gold glitter cs and put them on a white cardbase. Then stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in gold on white cs, and die cut it with a fancy label die.

  

 

Supplies for card 1:
Ink - pink ink for some of the die cut colouring
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - pink sprays for some of the die cut colouring, harlequin stencil of some of the die cuts, SSS house dies, Cuttlebug narrow snowflake embossing folder, various tiny snowflake dies, dimensional tape

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - white cs, gold glitter cs, KI Memories red lace star cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Papermania Tinsel Gold embossing powder, Sizzix label die

Cats and Christmas

Anyone who has ever lived with a cat knows that they can create havoc at Christmas.  Somehow, Christmas trees, Christmas decorations, etc. seem to bring out the worst in them!  This month one of the images on the Peace on Earth mood board depicts exactly that.  It inspired me to make this card.

I stamped the image, then painted the stars and the Santa hat with Twinkling H2Os, and grounded the cat with a bit of grey watercolour paint.  Trimmed the panel with a square die, bordered it with a starry dp background, and added Fun Flock to the brim and pompom of the hat.

Here's the Peace on Earth mood board:

There's lots more interpretations of it over at Peace on Earth from the rest of our Design Team.  We'd love to have you join us!

Supplies:
Stamps - Technique Junkies
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs, Bo Bunny dp
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - red and gold Twinkling H2Os, grey watercolour paint, Fun Flock

Gnome with Stars

The new mood board at Peace on Earth is full of gnomes.  Since I don't own any gnome stamps, I broke down and bought a digi stamp!  Not really my cup of tea as I love real stamps but it's a cute image!

He's coloured with coloured pencils (including a metallic gold one for the stars), popped up on fun foam on the layer of dp, and embellished with Fun Flock on the brim of the hat, cuff of the glove, and beard.  I thought the "deck the halls" sentiment was perfect as he looks like he's dashing off to decorate with his string of stars.

Here's the mood board that inspired it:

There's lots more inspiration from the rest of our Design Team featuring gnomes over at Peace on Earth!  We'd love to have you join us!

Supplies:
Stamps - digi stamp from Etsy, PB sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs, plaid dp
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Fun Flock, fun foam

Blue with Dove and Starry Sympathy

 Many of you know I love blue so I'm thrilled to see these two challenges - Addicted to CAS "Code Word Blue" and Try It on Tuesday "Feeling Blue".  And AAA Cards wants a CAS card with something that flies in the air.

I roughly painted a paneil with a couple of shades of blue acrylic paint and then stamped and heat embossed my dove in white.  I trimmed the panel with a hemstitch square die and mounted it on a white card base.

My Time to Craft wants to see a sentiment - I went with the sentiment being a major part of the card.  It's also perfect for Word Power where the sentiment has to be the focus of the card.

I stamped my sentiment in black and then lightly stencilled some stars over and around it.  Trimmed the panel and popped it up on fun foam of a dull gold shimmer card base.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - unknown dove stamp
Ink - ColorBox white
Paper - white cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - blue acrylic paints, white embossing powder, Spellbinders square hemstitch die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Verses sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne, Distress Oxide Antique Linen
Paper - white cs, dull gold shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - star stencil, Spellbinders rectangle die, fun foam

Black and Grey Dove / Happy Birthday, Double D / Happy New Year

I've been negligent lately about getting blog posts written up and now I'm getting close to deadlines for challenges I want to enter.  So I've got three cards for you today.

First up for Color Throwdown "Black, White, Grey", I had a great time playing with mixed media (not my usual style but I enjoyed this so much I want to do more of it).

I started by die cutting the dove out of white cs and, with it placed on a piece of scrap copy paper, I sponged grey ink on parts of it (and a touch of green ink on the leaf).  The sponging left interesting patterning on the copy paper (you can see some of the dove's feathers just above the polka dots) so I trimmed it to be my focal panel.  I then tore a bit of black and white TH collage paper (the music in the top left) and a bit of tissue paper (the grey and white polka dots in the bottom right) and glued them onto the copy paper panel.  I added some grey text and diamond stamping.  Then added it to the card base.  I die cut two more doves from scrap cs and glued them together with the sponged one, added it to the card, and also added some small die cut stars sponged with the same grey ink.

Next up, it's Double D's 9th year of challenges so they are asking for birthday cards and Beautiful Blossoms has a lovely mood board full of pink flowers.

I put the flower stamp in my MISTI and inked it up with pink and green markers, misting lightly, stamping and repeating until I was happy with the results.  I added a bit of stamping with a honeycomb stamp and a postage stamp using Distress Antique Linen ink, and also sponged around the edges.  Added a birthday sentiment and a few die cut, watercoloured butterflies.

And my third card for today is for Shopping our Stash "Feature Stars".  Because of the postal strike we had before Christmas, I didn't mail out any Christmas cards so am getting a few Happy New Year cards made for family outside of Vancouver and mailing them now.

I chose a starry embossing folder and inked it up with Distress inks close to gold in colour and spritzed with water before embossing my panel with it. I was pretty happy with the results I got.

I stamped and heat embossed my sentiment on white cs and die cut it with a star die, popped it up on fun foam, and scattered some multi-coloured tiny star sequins around for some bling.  It's going to my youngest sister who loves bling more than the rest of us!

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Tim Holtz small diamonds, Old Island Stamp Co. script background
Ink - Distress Iced Spruce and Hickory Smoke
Paper - TH Christmas collage paper, dotted tissue paper, white cs, copy paper
Size - A2
Accessories - tiny star dies, Penny Black dove die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Magenta flowers, TH postmark, Kaisercraft honeycomb
Ink - Distress Antique Linen
Paper - watercolour paper, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tombow markers, tiny butterfly dies

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Studio G sentiment
Ink - Distress Wild Honey and Mustard Seed
Paper - watercolour paper, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Darice embossing folder, sparkly embossing powder, Spellbinders star die, fun foam, tiny star sequins

 

Ombre Sky, Trees, and Stars

This month the Group of Seven Cardmakers is showcasing Ombre as our Design Element.  For my first example, I used ink blending to create a blue sky.  This is the method I've typically used when I think of creating an ombre effect.

I blended various blue Distress inks from light up to dark on coated cs (easier to get a nice blend than on regular cs).  When dry, I stamped the image in archival ink, then coloured the berries with a white gel pen.  I did a little bit of splattering with a white Posca paint pen to give the effect of a few lazy snowflakes drifting down on a cold winter day.  I added a sentiment die cut with an oval die.

On our Group of Seven website we have a couple of videos showing different ways of doing ombre.  I followed the technique in this video for my next card.

I die cut the trees from three shades of green cs and layered them over a dry embossed background, using bits of foam tape to raise each layer off the previous layer.  Then I added a black die cut Santa and sleigh and a black border.

I made one more using the stacked die cuts ombre method.

For this one I used three shades of copper glitter cs and die cut stars out of it and stacked them on top of each other, and then on top of a star embossed background.  In hindsight, I wish I'd cut each word out of a different shade of the cs - but too late!

I'm adding this third card to My Time to Craft's "New" challenge (one of the options is a New Year's card).

Please check out the cards by the rest of the Group of Seven Design Team.  We'd love to have you link up cards using an ombre technique.  It's not a challenge but we all love seeing your ideas or interpretations.  

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Archival Jet Black, Distress Tattered Glass, Broken China, Stormy Sky, Salty Ocean
Paper - white cs, coated cs
Size - A2
Accessories - white gel pen, white Posca paint pen

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SSS sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - white, black, 3 shades of green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - CuttleBug snowfall embossing folder, Frantic Stamper Santa / sleigh die, unknown trees die, foam tape

Supplies for card 3:
Paper - white cs, 3 shades of copper glitter cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - star embossing folder, Spellbinders star dies, Tattered Lace sentiment die