A Tag with Poinsettias and a Green, Brown, and Blue Christmas Card

My first card is for three challenges - AAA Card Challenges "Add a Tag", ABC Christmas Challenge "T is for Three of a Kind", and the Snippets Playground Challenge (to use up little scraps).

I used the Tim Holtz tag die that has raised ridges that you can rub over with ink (red, in my case) and then when you die cut it, the colour transfers to the cs and makes the coloured border on the tag.

I die cut three poinsettias from snippets of white and red shimmer cs, and some holly sprigs from a leftover bit of cs that I'd smooshed with various green Distress inks.  Put it all together on the tag, added gold pearls to the centres of the poinsettias, and tied a bit of red and green twine through the hold.  I left the card base completely plain as the AAA Card Challenge is a clean and simple challenge.

My second card today is for the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Green, Brown, and Blue".  Perfect colours for an outdoor winter scene.

The background is blue Magicals sprinkled on a stencil, spritzed with water, and monoprinted on mixed media cs.  I die cut the evergreen tree from green cs, the deciduous tree from dark brown cs, and the two deer from lighter brown cs.  I also die cut two snow banks with a slopes die.  Then assembled my scene.  I stamped the sentiment in blue but smudged it so restamped it on a scrap and die cut it to layer over the smudged one.

    

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment
Ink - various green Distress inks, Distress Fired Brick
Paper - white cs, red shimmer and white shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tim Holtz tag die, Dee's Distinctively poinsettia dies, red and green twine, gold adhesive pearls

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Make an Impression sentiment
Ink - Encore Metallic Blue
Paper - white, green, dark brown, medium brown cs; mixed media cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Memory Box Twiggy Tree die, Impression Obsession evergreen tree die, Memory Box deer dies, SSS slopes dies, Spellbinders tag die, snowflake stencil, blue Magicals

Gemstone Ornaments and Elegant Writer Poppy

A Twofer today.  First for My Time to Craft Christmas "Ornaments", I did something a bit different and used a deciduous tree die cut with gemstones for ornaments.

I die cut the tree three times and glued them together for dimension.  I sprayed my focal panel with enough blue spray to provide contrast to the white tree.  Stamped a sentiment on it and popped it up on fun foam on the card base.

And then had lots of fun finding various shades and sizes of blue and silver stick-on gems for the ornaments on the tree.

My second card is for Cardz4Guyz "Poppies or Remembrance".  I did a muted colour scheme (seems more guy-like to me) by using my Elegant Writer pen to colour the poppy.

 

I haven't done this technique for a long time so my Elegant Writer pen was a bit dry and I didn't get as much colour variation as I've gotten in the past, but I still like the effect.

I stamped the image in Vintage Photo, added small lines with the Elegant Writer on the poppy, seed heads, and butterfly, and then with water and a paint brush, pulled out some of the Elegant Writer and Vintage Photo ink.

For the leaves, I scribbled a bit of Elegant Writer on a palette, spritzed with water, and then picked up some colour for the leaves.

I pulled out a bit of Vintage Photo to ground the image and sponged Antique Linen around the edges.

The panel is popped up on fun foam on a cream card base.

Here's a close-up to show the colour variation from the Elegant Writer pen:

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Stampendous sentiment
Ink - Archival Hickory Smoke
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Penny Black ornament tree die, blue spray, blue and silver gemstones

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Carabelle
Ink - Distress Vintage Photo and Antique Linen
Paper - mixed media cs, cream cs
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - Elegant Writer pen, fun foam

Celebrating Gratitude

Festive Friday is celebrating World Gratitude Day for their current challenge.  We have to include at least three things from their list of elements.  I chose teal, yellow, thank you, and embossing folder.

For the top panel, I put texture paste through a stencil, let it dry, then painted randomly with watered down Distress inks. I used teal, yellow, and a bit of orange as they are my friend's 3 favourite colours and the card is going to her.  The ink was absorbed by the paste, colouring the raised sections as well as the background.

I popped that panel up on the embossing folder background and added a thank you sentiment banner.

A CAS Robin and a Reindeer in a Winter Scene

Another Christmas twofer!  For the ABC Christmas Challenge "Q for Quick and R for Robin" and for Christmas Card Creations "CAS":

Definitely a quick CAS card - stamped and watercoloured, trimmed with a stitched square die, bordered with red, and added to the card base.  I finished off by adding Glossy Accents to the berries.

My second card is for The Sisterhood of Crafters "Make a Scene" and Shopping Our Stash "Any Wild Animal".  My wild animal is a reindeer and I've created a winter scene.

I tore several strips of scrap paper to use as masks.  Then starting at the bottom of my cs, I laid one of the strips down and did the first sponging of ink, and then moving up the card, did each successive layer, changing to blue once I got to the sky. Once my background was dry, I stamped the reindeer, trees, and sentiment. Then once they were dry, I sprinkled chunky white Frantage and heated it from the underneath so it wouldn't blow away - a great way to create snowfall.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Inkadinkado bird, Impression Obsession sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, red and cream cs
Size - 4.25" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, Lil Inker stitched square die, Glossy Accents

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Tim Holtz
Ink - various blue Distress inks, Versafine Clair black
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Frantage Chunky White Embossing Enamel

Frosty Winter, Frosty Friends

Working away on Christmas cards!  First up for My Time to Craft "Using Die Cuts", a card with nothing but die cuts:

Very quick to make (except for poking out all the little bits of the die!).  I cut the Frostyville Frame and the sentiment out of of a blue/grey shimmer cs, and the Frostyville Frame background out of pale blue glitter cs, glued them all together and added them to a white card base.

The second card is for The Paper Players "Four Legged Friends".  The stamp I used has two dogs and a cat who all definitely look like friends, and a sentiment saying "frosty friends":

 

 

The image is coloured with coloured pencils, trimmed with a pierced dot rectangle, bordered with green shimmer cs and some dp.

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Paper - blue/grey shimmer cs, pale blue glitter cs, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Memory Box Frostyville Frame die, Penny Black sentiment die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SSS animals, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs, green shimmer cs, unknown dp
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Sizzix pierced dot rectangle die

Red Poinsettia on White

Peace on Earth has a wonderful mood board this month.  The top left image inspired me to use poinsettias and to keep the colour scheme to red and white.

I started by die cutting the poinsettia from red cs.  While it was still in the dies, I sponged a darker red over the veins that show through the gaps in the dies.  After I took it out of the dies, I sponged around the edges.  I used a stylus to add some shaping to the layers and glued them together.

The background uses my "never before used" Tim Holtz negative corner die and the Tim Holtz negative sentiment die to cut through the white background layer.  I layered it over the red card base and added the poinsettia to it.   A few gold gemstones finished it off.

Here's the Peace on Earth mood board that inspired me:

 

Head on over to see what the rest of the Design Team created and then link up your card, either inspired by the mood board or "anything Christmas".

I'm also linking up with NBUS because I used the corner die for the first time.

Supplies:
Ink - Memento Rhubarb Stalk
Paper - red and white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tim Holtz poinsettia corner die and sentiment die, Spellbinders layered poinsettia dies, gold gemstones