White on White Poinsettia

The Paper Players have one of my favourite challenges going on right now:

I love white on white for Christmas cards so went with a poinsettia:

I stamped and heat embossed the poinsettia in white on vellum twice and fussy cut the whole flower from one of them and just part of the flower from the other.  I taped them together and used a bit of clear dimensional tape to keep parts of the top flower raised.

I taped it to my card base and cut a round frame for it.  The frame is popped up with dimensional tape.

The sentiment is stamped and heat embossed in silver, and the poinsettia embellished with several tiny sparkly stickers.

It's definitely a CAS card so it's also heading over to The Flower Challenge:

Thanks for taking a look!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black poinsettia, Old Island Stamp Co. sentiment

Ink - ColorBox white and silver

Paper - white cs, vellum

Size - 5.25" square

Accessories - white and silver embossing powders, Spellbinders circle die, foam tape, clear dimensional tape, Starform tiny stickers

Watercoloured Sky

We're rapidly heading towards December (and that means Christmas is coming up fast and furious.  So don't forget that you only have until November 24th to link up a holiday card for CAS Watercolour - it always helps to have lots made by the end of November.

I went with a simple Brusho and water background for a die cut - an ideal method for coming up with a CAS card.

I sprinkled blue and mauve Brushos over coated cardstock and spritzed with water, letting the colours flow and blend.

I die cut the stitched tree die out of a piece of white cs and then trimmed it down with a stitched rectangle.  I added the sentiment, then put my layers together, and popped it up on the card base with fun foam.


We'd love to have you join us with a holiday card that is clean and simple and uses some kind of technique or product that produces the look of watercolouring.  For inspiration, check out the other reminder cards over at CAS Mix Up from the Design Team and this month's Guest Designer, Ina (Little Bits of Craft).

Supplies:

Stamps - Paper Smooches sentiment

Ink - Memento Paris Dusk

Paper - coated cs, white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Memory Box Evergreen Window die, Lil Inkers Stitched Rectangle die, Brushos, fun foam

Birds with Glittered Santa Hats

Mid-month already so time to remind you to enter CAS Mix Up before November 24th!

Glitter and Christmas cards go hand-in-hand for me so I've gone with another Christmas card:

I stamped the birds on watercolour paper and painted everything except their hats with Gansai Tambi paints.  Then I fussy cut them.

I took another piece of watercolour paper and used Loll's Splash Watercolour technique (see video here) with two colours of Distress inks.  When dry, I die cut the pine branch and glued it to a piece of linen cs.  I stamped the sentiment and then trimmed it.  I popped it up on fun foam on the matching cardbase.

I put double sided tape on the birds' feet and foam tape on their hats and heads, and stuck them down.  I went over the main part of the hats first with my Quickie glue pen and added red glitter.  Then went over the brims and pompoms with Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

I scribbled a bit of glue randomly on the pine branch and added some more Dazzling Diamonds.

Glitter is so hard to photograph so here's a close-up:

 

CAS Mix Up is so much fun!  Just be sure to keep the card clean and simple, include some stamping, some glitter, and at least one other option from the list on the challenge site.  My other options are watercolouring, fussy cutting, splash watercolour, and die cutting.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black birds, Make an Impression sentiment

Ink - Archival Jet Black, Distress Evergreen Bough, Distress Iced Spruce

Paper - white linen cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - Impression Obsession pine branch die, Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Glitter Ritz red glitter, SU Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Quickie glue pen, foam tape, fun foam

Wreaths

The current Christmas Card Throwdown challenge is a sketch:

I changed the oval to a circle as I wanted to make a Christmas wreath.

I love making these little wreaths and the cards always sell well at my fundraiser.  I use the good old Martha Stewart pine branch punch and punch many branches out of various dp that have grass on them (made for scrapbooking themes on various sports) - there is really nice colour variation in them that makes the wreath more pleasing to my eye than just plain green.

I die cut a thin circle using two Spellbinders circle dies, then start gluing the branches down, overlapping each one, pointing some to the inside and some to the outside.

I attached it to an embossed background with a ribbon "holder" looped over the top and a matching bow.


While I had all my supplies and paper out, I went on and made two smaller wreaths (for these, I cut the pine branches in half) and created these two cards:

For both of them, I used the Sizzix brick embossing folder and the Memory Box door die.  The first one has gold gemstones on the wreath and my feeble attempt at representing front steps.  The second has red gemstones, a bow, and a swag over the lintel.

A few more weeks and I'll be making my own real Christmas wreath for my front door!

Supplies common to all cards:

various green dp, Martha Stewart pine branch punch, Spellbinders circle dies

Supplies for card 1:
Old Island Stamp Co. sentiment, red linen cs, white cs, Martha Stewart wreath punch, red ribbon, SU embossing folder, ColorBox Chianti ink, clear embossing powder,

Supplies for card 2:
white, red, and mottled ivory cs; Memory Box door die, gold gemstones, copper nailhead embellishment 

Supplies for card 3:

white and mottled dark cream cs, Memory Box door die, red gemstones, red ribbon, copper nailhead embellishment 

A Dog, Two Cats, and Presents

Two Christmas cards today for a couple of challenges.

First up, Addicted to CAS:

I thought of doing a card with a real bow made of ribbon, but then remembered this great Penny Black image, perfect for my animal-loving friends:

I stamped and watercoloured the image, using my Gansai Tambi paints that include a couple of metallic colours - I used the gold for the bow, and then went over it with Wink of Stella for a bit more sparkle (hard to capture in the photo).  I bordered it with a similar shade of gold cs, and die cut the sentiment from the same gold cs.

It's also perfect for the Sweet Stampers Christmas Challenge so I'm linking up over there too.


Next up, is Sparkle Creations Christmas Card Challengea "Cats":

I could have used the above card for it, but wanted to ink up a never-before-used Penny Black stamp.  It is perfect for my sister who has two cats and loves to shop and gift wrap!

Pretty self-explanatory - stamped, watercoloured, and given a black border to set it off.

Two more done before the big rush, thanks to the great challenges out there!

Supplies for card 1:

Stamps - Penny Black

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, linen cs, pale gold shimmer cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Wink of Stella, Tattered Lace sentiment die, Spellbinders square layering dies

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black cat, Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - watercolour paper, linen cs, black cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Spellbinders square layering dies

Tiny Images

CASology has a fun challenge this week:

It gave me the perfect opportunity to use a long neglected little stamp I have had for years - an image of a tiny tree and two very tiny birds.

I stamped the image and then coloured with coloured pencils.  I used a silver coloured pencil for the outer ring, but its shimmer doesn't show up in the photo.  I die cut the image with a stitched circle die.

I die cut a stitched rectangle for a background piece to keep the look of the stitching, and stamped my quite tiny sentiment on it.  The image is popped up on fun foam for a bit more dimension.

I used a Quickie glue pen to go over the snow on the tree, the snowflakes in the sky, and the snow lines on the ground.  It's so darn hard to get glitter to photograph well, even when I tried to capture it with this close-up:

I'm also linking up to November's CAS Mix Up challenge "Glitter".

I have stamping, glitter, coloured pencils, and die cutting.  The challenge is open until November 24 if you want to join in.

Supplies:

Stamps - Northwoods image, A Muse sentiment

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - coloured pencils, Lil Inkers stitched circle and rectangle dies, Quickie glue pen, SU Dazzling Diamonds glitter, fun foam