Teddy Bear's Christmas Ride

I just discovered a new Christmas card challenge that just started up this year - Christmas Kickstart Challenge.  The current challenge is "Have a Very Bear-y Christmas".

Here's my card:

I have a very old SU stamp (no idea what set it is from) that I found in a garage sale. Stamped, watercoloured, trimmed with a stitched square die, and thinly bordered with red and green to keep it traditionally Christmas and to match the saddle and the bear's ribbon. I stamped the sentiment as if it were coming out of the bear's horn / trumpet.

Looking forward to playing along with this challenge again!

And I'm taking the card over to Jingle Belles where the current challenge is to incorporate music notes, sheet music, or instruments - the teddy bear has an instrument.

Supplies:

Stamps - SU rocking horse, Penny Black sentiment

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper; red, green, and cream cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - Lil Inker stitched square die, Gansai Tambi watercolour paints

Spring Daffodils

When I saw this Paper Players challenge, I knew I had to do it, as Vancouver has had a very long snowy spell and I'm really looking forward to spring:

Here's my card:

I stamped the daffodils and painted with watercolours. I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment over the leaves. Trimmed the panel, bordered with a wonky stitched rectangle, and popped it up on fun foam. I added a drop of yellow liquid pearls to the centre of each daffodil.

Is everyone else as eager for spring as I am?

Supplies:

Stamps - Northwoods daffodils, TH sentiment

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - watercolour paper, ivory cs

Size - A2

Accessories - clear embossing powder, Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, liquid yellow pearl drops, fun foam, MFT wonky stitched rectangle die

Three Friends + One Sentiment

AAA Cards has a great challenge this time - "One Plus Three + Friends":

So a sentiment plus three things from the wheel and the optional twist of "friends".  Here's my card:

My three choices are a stamped image, coloured pencils, and one matted layer.

I think it qualifies as friends, don't you, as the two dogs and the cat are sitting together as if they were great friends?

Supplies:

Stamps - SSS Furry Christmas

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - white, bristol, and green shimmer cs

Size - A2

Accessories - coloured pencils, Gamsol, glitter, Spellbinders oval dies, fun foam

Reindeer and a Tree

Spring is coming but we're wanting you to think of Christmas and make a card for the March CAS Christmas Challenge:

Also, it's a special month for CAS Christmas as it's our first birthday - so we're celebrating our first very successful year!

Here's my card for the reindeer challenge:

I love these little Viva Decor stamps - there's a series of them in the set - this reindeer, one with winter birds, and one with a winter tree.

I kept my card incredibly simple, and in black and white as I like to have some cards that would work well as masculine Christmas cards.

I stamped the image, then fussy cut it.  I dry embossed the tree to give texture to the background, offset the fussy cut image, and bordered the panel in black.  It would be a great card to mass produce, if you were so inclined.

Please head on over to CAS Christmas to see the rest of the cards made by our Design Team and this month's Guest Designer, the talented Chrissie (Simply One of a Kind).  And then link up your clean and simple card featuring reindeer.

Supplies:

Stamps - Viva Decor

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - white and black cs

Size - A2

Accessories - TH tree embossing folder

Butterfly on Vellum

Welcome, everyone, to the new CAS Watercolour Challenge!  Jenny is our host and she wants to see you watercolour on vellum.

This is a new technique for me so I wasn't very adventurous.  Here's my card:

As the hints on CAS Watercolour recommend, I used a heavyweight vellum (the heaviest I have is by PTI).  I stamped and heat embossed the butterfly and sentiment in white.  Then I used my Gansai Tambi watercolour paints to paint the butterfly's markings.  When I've coloured on vellum before with markers, I've coloured on the backside, but with the watercolouring, I coloured on the topside.

In hindsight, I wish I'd chosen a more open butterfly with more space for colouring, but I do like the effect of the white heat embossing.

I layered it over a text-printed dp - love the subtle way it shows through (and love the way it uses up a bit of my too-large stash of dp!).  Then I cut two pierced frame dies and glued them together for more substance.

I'd love to see what you come up with for watercolouring on vellum!  Please keep your cards clean and simple, and link up by March 24th.  For more inspiration, head over to CAS Watercolour to see the cards by the rest of the Design Team and our wonderful Guest Designers, Birgit (Rapport fran ett skrivoord) and Ros (Mikey's Mom).

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black butterfly, Hero Arts sentiment

Ink - ColorBox white

Paper - white cs, PTI vellum, Canvas Corp dp

Size - 6.5x5"

Accessories - white embossing powder, Gansai Tambi watercolour paints

One Corner and a Grid Poinsettias

I've got cards for two different challenges today.

First up, the AAA Cards challenge:

This was hard for me as I like my images to be centred and symmetrical but it made me think of a Tim Holtz stamp I have that sort of creates a corner.

I stamped and heat embossed the poinsettias with red glitter embossing powder, and then did the same in gold embossing powder with the sentiment - I debated whether to put it below or in the right angle of the poinsettias but went below to balance the tall side of the card with the shorter top side.

Die cut with a stitched rectangle, popped up on fun foam, and added gold sequins to the centre of each poinsettia.

I covered the optional twist of "music" by using a Christmas carol title for my sentiment!


Next up, the Addicted to CAS challenge:

Another Christmas card for this challenge:

I put the stamp in my MISTI and inked it up with various mini Distress inks and markers, spritzing lightly and stamping between each colour.  When it was dry, I sponged around it with Antique Linen so that there would be contrast on the background for the grid.  Then I stamped over it with grid stamp and heat embossed in white.

Popped it up on fun foam, added brown gemstones to the centre of the poinsettia, and die cut the sentiment out of brown cs.

Two more for the Christmas stash!!  Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black poinsettia, unknown grid stamp

Ink - various Distress inks and markers

Paper - watercolour paper, brown and white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - white embossing powder, brown gemstones, Tattered Lace sentiment die, fun foam