Christmas Cocoa

Reminder time for the CAS Christmas "Holiday Treats" challenge!

It's been a lovely warm week of summer weather here in Vancouver, so it's hard to think about drinking cocoa right now, but I do love this image:

Forgive the poor image - I find shimmer card stock very hard to photograph.

I stamped the image in archival ink on mixed media cs.  I started by watercolouring with my Gansai Tambi paints - they include a shimmery gold paint that I used on the background.  I did not get a very deep red on the cup and saucer so went over it with a red Intense watercolour pencil and got a much richer colour.

I decided to make the cup look more festive so I die cut some tiny holly leaves and berries out of shimmer paper and created a patterned band around the middle of the cup.  I went over the berries with Glossy Accents to make them more shiny.

I trimmed the image to have a narrow border of the mixed media cs, then added it to a piece of red shimmer cs, and popped that up on fun foam on a cream (very pale gold) shimmer card base.  It really matches the pale gold watercolour wash on the background of the image.

Looking forward to seeing what holiday treats you come up with between now and September 24th.  There's some more inspiration over at CAS Christmas from the rest of the Design Team and September's Guest Designer, Birgit (Rapport fran ett skrivbord).

I'm also linking my card up at Christmas Cards All Year Round where they want Christmas or winter food or drink.
 

Supplies:

Stamps - Stamplorations

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - mixed media cs, green and red shimmer paper, pale gold cream shimmer and red shimmer cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Intense watercolour pencils, Memory Box tiny holly leaves and berries dies, fun foam

Smooshed Complementary Colours

We're halfway through September so I'm here today to remind you that you only have until the 24th to enter this month's CAS Watercolour Challenge.

My card for the opening of the challenge used the most common of the complementary colours (red and green) so this time I decided to go with a less common combination.  I went with the blue/green turquoise type of blue and the red/orange that is opposite it. 

I used three shades of Distress Oxide inks for the background, pressing them one at a time onto my craft mat, spritzing with water, pressing mixed media cs into it, and drying with my heat tool before moving on to the next shade of blue.

For the wildflowers, I pressed two orange shades onto my craft mat at the same time, ran my finger through it to partially mix the two shades, then spritzing with water and pressing watercolour paper into it.  When it was dry, I die cut the wildflowers.

I framed the background with a stitched die cut, glued the flowers onto the background, die cut the sentiment from a leftover bit of the background, and popped the front panel up on fun foam.

There's lots more inspiration from the rest of the CAS Watercolour Design Team and this month's wonderful Guest Designer, Anita (Stampin with Anita).   We're looking forward to seeing what colours you choose.

Supplies:

Ink - Distress Oxide Broken China, Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers, Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey

Paper - white cs, mixed media cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - Tim Holtz wildflowers dies, Tattered Lace sentiment dies, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, fun foam

Two Christmas Challenges

Two cards today ready for my Christmas stash!

It's for the Jingle Belles Challenge "12 Days of Christmas" - feature one of the elements from the song.

I used a really old stamp - one of the first I ever bought.  I put it in my MISTI, inked it up with Distress markers, lightly spritzed, and stamped onto watercolour paper, repeating as needed.  I trimmed it down and put it on a stitched die cut panel with the relevant verse from The Twelve Days of Christmas (which I typed on the computer).  It's popped up on fun foam.

Next up:

This one is for two challenges - Christmas Kickstart "Get a Head-er Start" (be inspired by something in their header (I chose the snowman)  and 12 Months of Christmas "Use Kraft Paper" (I used a kraft card base).

I stamped and watercoloured the snowman image and  used a kraft cardbase for it.  I had found a wooden snowflakes that had a broken tip - it fit the space perfectly, blended with the kraft cardbase, and by setting it on the edge of the panel, the broken tip isn't so obvious.

In case you're getting tired of my Christmas cards, I promise I'll do some non-Christmas cards for my next post!

Supplies for card 1:

Stamps - Old Island Stamping Co. "Four Calling Birds"

Paper - watercolour paper, white and red cs

Size - A2

Accessories - various Distress markers, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, fun foam, sentiment done on the computer

Supplies for card 2:

Stamps - SU Snow Much Fun, Rubber Soul sentiment

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, kraft cs

Size - A2

Accessories - wooden snowflake, watercolour paints, Lil Inker stichted rectangle die

Christmas Treats

Nance is hosting CAS Christmas this month and she wants to see cards with holiday treats!

It gave me the perfect chance to try out a new stamp given to me by wonderful Bonnie Klass.  She noticed that when we had the CAS Christmas "Elf" challenge, I had to borrow elf stamps as I didn't have any, so she thought she'd fill in the gap in my stamp collection.  And the elf stamp she gave me includes Christmas treats so perfect for this challenge:

I stamped and then coloured the image with coloured pencils, blending with Gamsol.  Then trimmed the panel and popped it up on fun foam on a green card base.

Thank you, Bonnie - it is such a great image!

I'm looking forward to seeing what cards everyone comes up with featuring holiday treats!  Check out the inspiration from the rest of the CAS Christmas Design Team and this month's fabulous Guest Designer, the very talented Birgit (Rapport fran ett skrivbord).

I'm also linking up with Christmas Cards All Year Round where they want Christmas or winter food or drink.

Supplies:

Stamps - Stamping Bella

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - Bristol cs, green cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - coloured pencils, Gamsol, fun foam

Complementary Gifts

CAS Watercolour Challenge gave me the opportunity to get another Christmas card made.  Host, Jenny, wants us to use complementary colours, and the colours that immediately come to mind for me are the Christmas colours.

Stamped, watercoloured with my Gansai Tambi paints, trimmed, and put on a green border - I got out a very old Martha Stewart border punch for the bottom edge - I like the way the dots on it tie to the dots on the bottom gift.  I used a red card base to keep up the use of complementary colours.

Of course, you don't have to use red and green!  I'm looking forward to seeing what you choose!  There's more inspiration over at CAS Watercolour - the Design Team and September's Guest Designer, Anita (Stampin with Anita) have come up with some great colour combinations!

Supplies:

Stamps - Stamping Bella

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - watercolour paper, red and green cs

Size - A2

Accessories - coloured pencils, Gamsol, Martha Stewart border punch                      

Farms and Flowers

I have cards today for a couple of challenges.

First up:

The Paper Players want farm-related critters.

So I had to do this one as it called out for a horse-themed card!

I stamped the image in brown on mixed media cs. On another piece of mixed media cs, I did a bunch of smooshing with various brown Oxide inks and then die cut a circle frame from it.

Using rustic cs for the card base and top layer, I die cut a circle in the top layer and set the stamped image behind it and then added the circle frame on top.


The second challenge is the Penny Black Saturday challenge "Anything Goes and/or Water or Watercolour":

Stamped, heat embossed in white, watercoloured - one of my favourite techniques!  I tried to do a bit of a pale watercolour shadow around it - need to work on that some more!  It's bordered with red glitter cs.

I really need to get going with Christmas cards or I won't have enough for my November sale!!

Supplies for card 1:

Stamps - Impression Obsession horses, unknown sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Potting Soil, various brown Oxide inks

Paper - mixed media cs, PTI rustic cs

Size - A2

Accessories -  Spellbinders circle dies, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:

Stamps - Penny Black Winter Joy, unknown sentiment

Ink - ColorBox white, Recollections Chestnut

Paper - red glitter and white cs, watercolour paper

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - watercolour paints, clear and white embossing powders