A Couple of Christmas Cards

Christmas Cards All Year Round is asking for "Snow Buddies".

I went with some animal friends playing in the snow.

Stamped on watercolour paper, watercoloured, trimmed with wonky stitched die, bordered in copper, and a bit of glue and glitter along the snowline.


And then for 12 Months of Christmas "Blooming Botanicals":

I created a background panel by stamping a flourish in grey and then sponging around the edges with the same grey ink.

The poinsettia is watercoloured with Inktense pencils and fussy cut.


Might get more posted tomorrow as it's supposed to rain so it won't be a gardening day.

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps -
Ink -
Paper -
Size -
Accessories -

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU Joyful Christmas, Tim Holtz sentiment, unknown flourish stamps
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Memento London Fog
Paper - white cs, watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - Inktense watercolour pencils, gold gemstones, sparkly embossing powder

CAS Challenges

As part of the Design Team for CAS Christmas and CAS Watercolour, you'd think I'd always manage to take part in our sister challenges, CAS Stencil and CAS Mix Up, but some months time just gets away from me.  With all the extra time we spend at home these days, I decided there was no excuse, so here I am, sneaking in under the wire with cards for them.

First up is CAS Stencil "Gilding Flakes".

I love gilding flakes but do they ever make a mess, floating here there and everywhere.  But I ended up with a card I'm really happy with.

I used a TCW musical notes stencil on white cs.  I sponged some Flitter Glue through the stencil, removed the stencil, and added the gilding flakes, rubbing them into the glue, and then buffing off the excess with a scratchy pad.  I stamped the sentiment in copper (in hindsight, I wish I'd heat embossed it to make it stand out a bit more) and bordered the panel with copper shimmer paper.

The gilding flakes are really beautiful but hard to photograph so here's a close-up taken in different light to show all the wonderful colour variations.



Because it's a Christmas song, I'm also linking it up to CAS Christmas "Christmas Song".

And because it's music, The Male Room "Music" challenge.

 
If any of you can read sheet music (I can't!), let me know if I got the image the right way up - it was hard to tell as the stencil didn't have any treble clef things.


Now on to CAS Mix Up "Bleaching".

 

Here's my card:

 

I took a piece from my box of backgrounds that I'd created by smooshing purple Distress Oxide inks on watercolour paper.  Purple suits pansies so I stamped and heat embossed a pansy stamp, then took and old paintbrush and some bleach, and painted over the flowers and leaves, blotting the colour up with a paper towel.  I left it as is rather than painting in any other colour.  I die cut a circle out of it, then created a small stitched circle frame, popped it up on fun foam on a rustic card base, added a bit of Stickles to the flower centres, and die cut the sentiment out of a bit of leftover purple smooshing.

Thanks for stopping by, and happy creating.

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps -
Ink -
Paper -
Size -
Accessories -

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Holly Berry House pansies
Ink - purple Oxide inks
Paper - watercolour paper, rustic cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Lil Inker stitched circle die, bleach, Tattered Lace sentiment die, fun foam, Stickles

More Fuzzy Flowers and a Sparkling Star

Yesterday I posted this card using one of the two techniques I thought of for creating a card for the Less is More "Out of Focus" challenge. 

It was made by sprinkling brushos through a stencil and spritzing with water.  Today I am using the other technique -inking up a stamp with markers and spritzing with water.  

I put the stamp in my MISTI and inked up with Tombow markers, spritzing lightly, stamping, and repeating until I was happy with it. I trimmed the panel and added fun foam to the back.

I used the same green marker to ink up the sentiment on a background panel and added fun foam to the back of it too.


I'm also posting a Christmas card today as I want to enter the Paper Players CAS "Sparkle" challenge before it closes.

 

I have a sentiment die that says "sparkle" so had to use it!

I stamped and heat embossed the star in white, then spritzed with a gold spray for sparkly speckles and to colour in the design on the star.

I fussy cut the star, scored and folded it, and popped it up with pieces of fun foam (3 pieces layered in the centre, 2 pieces layered in each point of the star so that I could get the centre higher than the points).

With a paint brush, I splattered a tiny bit of the gold spray on the white panel, bordered it with pale gold cs, and added a die cut sentiment cut from the pale gold cs.

It sparkles more in real life but was hard to photograph.

I hope everyone is well and getting through these strange times okay.

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - unknown wildflowers stamp, Rubber Soul sentiment
Paper - watercolour paper, linen cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tombow markers, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU Christmas Star
Ink - ColorBox White
Paper - white and pale gold cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - W Plus 9 "sparkle" die, white embossing powder, Heidi Swapp gold spray, foam tape

Fuzzy Flowers

Less is More is challenging us to create something "Out of Focus".

 

That lends itself perfectly to a couple of techniques I love - sprinkling brushos through a stencil and spritzing with water, or inking up a stamp with markers and spritzing with water.  For this card, I used the first:

For info on how to do the flowers, see this video.  I love the watercoloured, out of focus look!

The panel is then cut diagonally with a small diagonal strip of the image completely removed - just wide enough for the sentiment that is stamped on the card base between the two sections. See this video for details.

The two sections are then popped up on fun foam.

I hope to come back tomorrow with another card for this challenge done with the second technique I mentioned.

Supplies:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - watercolour paper, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - TH wildflowers stencil, purple and green brushos, fun foam

Dogs Running on Ribbon

I'm back with a reminder card for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge - I'm thrilled to be their Guest Designer this month.  It's Anything Goes - Optional "Use Ribbon or Twine".  So I opted to use ribbon as a way to ground my parade of Christmas dogs.

A quick CAS card!  Stamped, watercoloured, a strip of paw print ribbon to ground the pups, and a border of black die cut on the top with the sentiment die.

Thank you, Penny Black Saturday Challenge, for inviting me to Guest Design this month!

 
I'm also linking up with the Color Throwdown.  They want red, black, grey, and white.

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, black and white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Penny Black sentiment die, paw print ribbon

A Square Card

Just Us Girls wants a square card with at least one other square shape.

I love square cards and make quite a lot of them so was happy to see this challenge.

I made it for a friend who loves blue as much as I do.

I simply stamped the flowers and sentiment, die cut with a stitched square, and popped up on fun foam.

Then in my ongoing quest to figure out how to place sequins, I tried a method someone suggested where you just randomly scatter them, remove some, and then glue the rest where they landed.  What do you think?  Well placed?  Too many?

Thanks for coming by today.  I hope everyone is doing okay.

Supplies:
Stamps - SU Elements of Style
Ink - Memento Paris Dusk
Paper - white and natural cs
Size - 5.5" square
Accessories - Lil Inkers stitched square die, clear sequins, fun foam