Holly over Alcohol Inks

52 Christmas Card Countdown has a Sketch Challenge right now, not usually a kind of challenge I enjoy, but I saw the sketch and immediately had an idea.

I thought of one of my new-ish dies and decided it would work perfectly with an interesting staggering of the three top panels.

I dropped several different colours of green alcohol inks along with a bit of dark yellow and gold mixative onto Yupo until I had a background I was happy with.  I layered my holly die cut over it and put fun foam on the back.

I stamped the sentiment on an A2 card base and added a strip of gold Starform Outline sticker between it and the panel.  I then looked at it and decided the proportions were all off - I'd set everything too high on the card base and it looked top heavy in a bad way.  So I chopped the bottom off and ended up with a strange-sized card - 4.25" across and 4.6" high.  I like it so much better!  I'll hopefully be able to make an envelope using my envelope punch board (and use it as a card that I'll hand deliver).

Thanks for taking a look!

Supplies:

Stamps - Paper Smooches sentiment

Ink - ColorBox Evergreen, various alcohol inks

Paper - white cs, Yupo

Size - 5.6x4.25"

Accessories - Simon Says Stamp Holly Triptych die, clear embossing powder, gold mixative, gold Starform Outline sticker, fun foam

Two Very Different Cards

A couple of cards from challenges over at SCS.  First up the Mix-Ability Challenge - "Masterboard Triptych".

I started out with a "paper towel background" in various pinks and oranges. This is a neat technique I learned from Loll Thompson where you save the paper towels you use to mop up various inks and paints from other projects and then transfer those colours (along with the dots from the texture of the paper towel) to a new project. See Loll's post here for details.

Over top of that, I laid a TCW stencil and used various colours of 3D glitter paint through the stencil.

I did a vertical triptych with the panel and added a die cut sentiment. I used a green glitter cs for the sentiment, but in hindsight, I'm wondering if black would have been better to give more contrast.


Then for the SCS Inspiration Challenge,  Audrie chose an Etsy site called "The Altered Diaries". I chose this diary as my inspiration:

The minute I saw it, I thought of a very old iris stamp I've had for years. It couldn't be more perfect as it has lines around the image as well as a similar looking iris.  So I created this card:

First I created the background by spritzing watercolour paper with water, then going over it with Antique Linen and Tea Dye Distress stains.

Using my MISTI, I inked it the stamp with yellow and green Distress markers, and stamped over the Distress stain background. I pulled some of the colour out with a brush and water, and when dry, I reinked the stamp with the markers and stamped over it again to put the outline back in.

I trimmed the stamped panel and added it to rustic cream cs, with a green sentiment stamped below. I popped the whole piece up on fun foam and added to a green card base.


I love the way challenges can encourage me to create radically different styles of cards!

Supplies for the first card:

Paper - green glitter, white, and mixed media cs

Size - A2

Accessories - TCW stencil, Tim Holtz happy birthday die, 3D glitter paints, paper towel, various inks and paints

Supplies for the second card:

Stamps - Lasting Impressions iris, Savvy Stamps sentiment

Ink - Memento Bamboo Leaves

Paper - green linen cs, watercolour paper, PTI rustic cream cs

Size - A2

Accessories - green and yellow Distress markers, Antique Linen and Tea Dye Distress stains, fun foam