Musical Snow and a Simple Robin

Four challenges inspired this card - Time Out "Music" , Jingle Belles "Snow", Allsorts "Monochromatic", and Colorful Options "Black and White".

I made a background of snowflakes with silver glitter paste, a snowflake stencil, and black cs.  Trimmed it and added it to a white cardbase.  Die cut the snowflake / music score twice out of white cs and glued them together for more substance.  Stamped "let it snow" on a scrap of black cs, heat embossed in white, then rubbed ink around the edges and heat embossed the edges in white.

Christmas Kickstart "Seasons Tweetings", Simply CAS "Things that Fly", Sweet Stampin' "Things with Wings", Try It On Tuesday "Keep It Simple", and ABC Christmas Challenge "J is for Just Enough (Clean and Simple) - all inspired this card.

I stamped and watercoloured the image, and trimmed the panel into a square. Then using the SSS thin circle frame, I cut a thin circle out of my square. With the same die, I cut a thin circle frame out of red cs and inserted it into the gap in the square.

   

    

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Art Impressions sentiment
Ink - ColorBox white
Paper - white and black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - SSS Jingle Snowflakes die, white embossing powder, silver glitter paste, Paper Rose snowflake stencil

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Nellie Snellen bird, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, red and off white cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, SSS thin circle frame

Split Florals

The Group of Cardmakers is trying split images this month.  This is where you use a large stamp and get two cards out of one stamping of it.   

I have the Tim Holtz Glorious Bouquet stamp that measures 8"x6" - impossible to use the whole image on an A2 card so it seemed perfect for this technique, and it resulted in two birthday cards ready to go for upcoming birthdays!  

I stamped the image once on watercolour paper and painted it with my Gansai Tambi watercolour paints.  Then chose a logical place to cut the image in two, one to give me an A2 card, the other to give me a mini slimline card.

I added interest to the first one by also splitting the image by die cutting a thin frame out of it, and then die cutting the same thin frame out of my off white cs that I used for the card base.  Then inserting the off white think frame into the gap.

For the second card, I took a black marker and went lightly around the edges of the focal panel to give a tiny bit of definition to the panel.

Check out what the other members of our group have done with this technique over at Group of Cardmakers!

Supplies:
Stamps - Tim Holtz Glorious Bouquet, SU sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs
Size - first card is A2, second card is 6.25x3.25"
Accessories - watercolour paints, SSS thin frame die, black marker

Gold Gilding Flakes and a Hedgehog in a Stocking

The Jingle Belles challenge wants to see gold.  I went with gold gilding flakes.

 

 

I patted the holly stamp with Cosmic Shimmer Flake and Glitter Glue (using a square of foam as an applicator), then stamped onto white cs. Then immediately washed my stamp with warm soapy water. Added the gilding flakes and pressed them into the glue, then used a craft scrubby to rub off the excess.

I used one of the SSS thin frame dies to cut a thin rectangle frame out of the white cs, then cut one out of gold cs with the same die, and inset it into the gap in the white cs. 

 

Next up, for Can You Handle the Pressure where they want to see layers and for We Love Stamping "Make It Cute".  By my usual CAS standards, I've got quite a few layers on this card.  And I think the little hedgehog in the stocking is very cute.

The background is a 3D pine tree embossing folder to create the idea that the hedgehog and his stocking are hanging in a tree.  He's stamped and watercoloured, and then die cut with the matching die.  The main panel and the sentiment oval are both bordered in dark green cs.

  

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black
Paper - white and gold cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Cosmic Shimmer gilding flakes, Cosmic Shimmer Flake and Glitter glue, SSS thin frames die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, white and dark green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Penny Black die, Tim Holtz 3D embossing folder, Spellbinders small oval die

Cut Up Christmas and a CAS Chickadee

The latest Cut It Up Challenge is "Christmas in July".  Here's my Christmas card featuring lots of die cuts.  It's also for Inkspirational "Three of the Same" - I have three doves and three fir trees.  Christmas Cards All Year Round wants "Blue Christmas"

I die cut the house / trees die and the small doves out of white shimmer cs and layered them over a background created by smooshing with blue Inka Gold and then trimming with a square die.  I cut a square out of plain white cs and out of a dp that matched the smooshed background perfectly and layered everything on a square card base.

And a twofer for Sweet Stampin' "Christmas in July" and Addicted to CAS "Code Word Christmas":

A simple stamped and coloured (with markers) image, then trimmed with a rectangle die, and to add more interest, a thin frame was cut out of the rectangle and then cut again out of red cs and the red one was inlaid into the rectangle. 

         

 

       

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Art Impressions sentiment
Ink - Distress Faded Jeans
Paper - white and white shimmer cs, Paper Pizazz dp
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Memory Box house / trees die, Memory Box small doves dies, Spellbinders square dies

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Impression Obsession bird/holly, Hero Arts sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, SU Real Red
Paper - white and red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - markers, SSS thin frames die, Spellbinders rectangle die ms

Rainy Day Christmas

Vancouver is having a chilly rainy spell so what better time to work on Christmas cards?

Christmas Craft Creations wants Non-Traditional Colours so I went with blue and violet for the background for this card.

I sprinkled the blue and violet Magicals on watercolour paper, spritzed with water and let the colours run.  When dry I trimmed the panel with a deckle edged rectangle die, popped it up on fun foam on a white shimmer card base, and added the die cut ornament and sentiment, cut out of the same white shimmer cs.

52 Christmas Card Throwdown wants "Old Fashioned Christmas".  I used a never inked up Tim Holtz stamp so I'm linking up at the NBUS Challenge.

Stamped with a bit of colouring with coloured pencils, bordered in black, and added to a white mini slimline card base.

Then The 12 Months of Christmas wants Christmas Candy.  And it's time for the Rudolph Days Challenge too - any Christmas card made between the 25th and the end of the month.

Stamped and watercoloured, with metallic gold paint used on the ornaments and ribbon.  It was trimmed with a rectangle die, then I used the SSS thin frame die to cut a thin rectangle out of it.  I painted the thin rectangle frame with the same metallic gold paint I'd used on the image, let it dry, and then inserted it back into the gap.  Put it all on fun foam onto the card base.

     

Supplies for card 1:
Paper - watercolour paper, white shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - blue and violet Magicals, Spellbinders deckled edge rectangle die, Memory Box snowflake ornament die, Spellbinders Joy die, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Tim Holtz
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white and black cs
Size - 6x3.25"
Accessories - coloured pencils

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Stampendous candy canes, unknown joy
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - off white cs, watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, gold metallic paint, SSS thin frames die, Spellbinders rectangle die, fun foam

Rustic Sled

This time the Peace on Earth mood board includes a great image of a rustic sled.  I was at my friend Loll's house recently and spotted a perfect stamp in her collection so stamped it off and brought it home to turn into this card for my DT card for the challenge.

It's coloured with coloured pencils, then I trimmed the panel with a rectangle die and then took a thin frame out of the white panel so that the red of the card base can show through.  I went over the snow at the bottom with a Quickie glue pen and added some glitter but it's not showing up in the photo.

I somehow stamped my sentiment upside down on the white panel so had to restamp it on a scrap and die cut it with an oval to cover the upside down one!

Head on over to Peace on Earth to see what the rest of the Design Team came up with!  Here's the mood board for this challenge if you want to be inspired by it - if not, enter an "anything Christmas" card.

Supplies:
Stamps - Serendipity sled, unknown sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocture
Paper - white and dark red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Simon Says Stamp thin frames die, Spellbinders rectangle and oval dies, glitter

Winter Fun and Spring Flowers

First up a card for the Shopping Our Stash challenge "Winter Fun":

I chose a stamp I've had for ages of old-fashioned winter sports with women having to skate in skirts and a child on an old-fashioned wooden sled. It's coloured with coloured pencils on kraft and bordered with red and mounted on a teal card base - to my eye, they are kind of old-fashioned colours that suit the image.

My second card is for a friend's birthday.  She loves blue and she loves flowers.  It's for AAA Birthday challenge "anything birthday goes":

The image is coloured with coloured pencils. I stamped the text around it in a blue / grey ink but unfortunately there was some leftover red ink on the text stamp that changed the colour in a couple of spot. I then added blue / grey sponging around the edges.

I used the thin frame die to cut into my panel and then cut the thin frame out of blue cs and put it into the gap I'd made.

I stamped and heat embossed a white sentiment on dark grey cs and trimmed it into a banner.

Shopping Our Stash challenge "Winter Fun"

 

AAA Birthday "anything birthday goes"

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Inkadinkado
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - kraft, red, and teal blue cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black bluebells, Wendy Vecchi text, Memory Box sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black, SSS Barely Blue, Hero Arts Soft Sky, ColorBox white
Paper - white, blue, dark grey cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, white embossing powder, SSS thin frame die

Daffodils

Another spring flower card from me today:

Pretty obvious how I made it - stamped, watercoloured, trimmed, mounted on the card base, and bordered in yellow with one of the very thin frames from SSS.  My first time using one of them and they are pretty tricky to get glued down nice and square where you want them - so make sure you use a glue with a bit of wiggle room!  I used the Gina K Connect Glue.

Going to link up with :

The Paper Players "Springtime Flowers"


NBUS Challenge "Never Before Used Schtuff" - my stamps and the thin frame are NBUS

 

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, cream and yellow cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, SSS thin frames rectangles