A Pop of Red and Frosted Windowpanes

The Paper Players have a colour challenge - "Black, White, and a Pop of Colour".  I chose red for my pop of colour.

A very CAS card - stamped the image, coloured the heart with a red marker, trimmed with a wonky stitched die, bordered with red cs, and popped up on fun foam.

 

Then for The Sisterhood of Crafters "Icy Cold", I created a windowpane like the ones from my childhood in eastern Canada - we only had single glazed windows and they'd get covered in frosty ice during the frigid cold winter days.

 

I sprinkled very pale blue Magicals on coated cs and spritzed with water and let the colour run.  When dry, I went over some of the "veins" in the colour with Wink of Stella to increase the icy look.  I set it behind a window die, cut twice and glued together for more dimension, added that to a background of cs (embossed with vertical lines), added the sentiment (stamped and then die cut with an oval), and finished with a few small snowflakes die cut out of the leftover "frosty" panel.

It was hard to photograph so here's another view with different lighting that brought out more of the pale blue Magicals:

Remembering those cold eastern winters makes me appreciative of living in the more moderate climate of Vancouver, though we've just had a cold snap of days below freezing followed by quite a big dump of snow!

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black image, PTI sentimen
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - white and red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - red marker, MFT Wonky stitched rectangle die, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Impression Obsession sentiment
Ink - Distress Speckled Egg
Paper - white cs, coated cs, pre-embossed white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - small snowflake dies, pale blue Magicals, Wink of Stella, Memory Box window die, Spellbinders oval die

A New Stamp and a Blue Thank You

For Penny Black Saturday Challenge "Something New", Sweet Stampin' "What's New?", and Cardz 4 Guyz "Use Something New from Your Stash":

A new Penny Black stamp that will be perfect for my brother-in-law for next Christmas's card as he is an avid cyclist, and he and my sister have a yellow lab.  The image is coloured with coloured pencils and bordered with green cs.  

While I had the stamp out, I did a second colour variation as I have a good friend who cycles everywhere so might as well get her Christmas card made now too!!  I bordered this one with a piece of smooshed oxide background I had in my UFO box.

On a totally different theme, a thank you card for the Color Hues challenge "Light Blue and Navy":

I started with a gelli plate print done in light blues, did some pale grey stencilling over it, stamped a pale sentiment and navy blue flowers over all that, and added a dark grey die cut sentiment and border.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white and green cs, white and smooshed background
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Tim Holtz flowers
Ink - various blue and grey Distress inks
Paper - white and dark grey cs
Size - 4.5" square
Accessories - gelli plate, stencils, small thank you die cut

Christmas Decorations, a Tiny Snowman, and Sympathy

Christmas Craft Creations wants to see Christmas Decorations on our cards.  Here's mine:

To create the background for the ornament, I followed the instructions for the first technique in this video - it's basically a smooshing technique with alcohol inks.  Once dry, I die cut the inner part of this bauble and the sentiment. I die cut the snowflake border out of white shimmer cs, put the ornament together, and added it to a mint blue card base with a bit of gold cord to hang it from the top of the card.

Next up, for the Inspired By "Snowman" challenge, I went with a very tiny snowman and the lovely shade of blue of the snowman's coat in the image.

I trimmed a leftover scrap from a gelli print with a deckle rectangle die, added it to my card base, stamped a sentiment, and topped it with a die cut that includes a very tiny snowman.

For a totally different theme, My Time to Craft wants to see sympathy cards.

I masked an oval on my focal panel and shaded with a lighter grey (Memento London Fog) and a darker grey (Vivid Cobblestone). I stamped the image and sentiment in the darker grey, bordered with grey cs, and popped up with fun foam on the card base.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Paper - coated cs, white shimmer cs, mint blue cs
Size - A2
Accessories - green and turquoise alchol inks, gold mixative, Memory Box snowflake ornament die, TH joy die, gold cord

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - various Distress blues for the gelli print, Distress Broken China
Paper - scrap from a gelli print
Size - A2
Accessories - Spellbinders deckle rectangle die, unknown tiny snow scene die   

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - SU World of Dreams, unknown sentiment
Ink - Memento London Fog, Vivid Cobblestone
Paper - white and grey cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Spellbinders oval die, masking paper, fun foam

Ornaments for Peace on Earth

The new Peace on Earth challenge has a beautiful mood board.  I was inspired by the image in the top right corner (see mood board at the end of this post).

I stencilled the pine branches with two shades of green Distress ink.  The ornament bases are die cut from white shimmer cs and the overlays and the sentiment from gold glitter cs.  I drew the ornament hooks with a gold gel pen.

Please come and join us at Peace on Earth for our first challenge of 2024.  There's lots of inspiration from the rest of the Design Team.  You can be inspired by the mood board or create an "anything Christmas" card.

Darlene and Diane (the owners of Peace on Earth challenge and many other wonderful challenges) are starting up a new one called Word Power - a challenge using sentiments as the focus.  You can check out the first challenge here.

Supplies:
Ink - Distress Evergreen Bough and Pine Needles
Paper - white cs, white shimmer cs, gold glitter cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - TCW stencil, Memory Box ornament dies, gold gel pen, Spellbinders joy die

CAS Christmas and a Winter Scene

For the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Clean and Simple" challenge and Simply Clean and Simple "Winter":

I used a leftover bit of a smooshed background, a small die, and a vertical sentiment.  There's lots of white space to keep it very CAS!

My second card is for Can You Handle the Pressure? with a theme of "Winter":

The embossing for the challenge is just from a narrow snowflake embossing folder.  The winter farm scene is stamped and coloured with coloured pencils.  It's bordered with black and popped up on fun foam on the red card base.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Rosie's Road Show
Ink - various Distress Oxide blue inks
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - unknown die, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Serendipity farm, PB sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white, red, and black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Cuttlebug narrow snowflake embossing folder, fun foam

Decorating the Tree / Happy New Year

I'm a big fan of the original Penny Black Christmas stamps with the adorable animals in them.  So chose one of them for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge "Christmas".  I'm also adding it to ABC Christmas Challenge "Y is for Your Choice" and Sweet Stampin' "Christmas".

Stamped, watercoloured, trimmed with a stitched square die, bordered with gold cs, and added to an off-white card base.

My Time to Craft Christmas wants a Happy New Year card.  Here's mine:

I started with my top layer.  I die cut the large star and stamped and heat embossed the sentiment, then trimmed with a stitched square die, and then dry embossed with a little narrow star embossing folder.  I taped a small square of starry holographic paper on the card base and then popped up the top panel on foam tape over top of it.

It's also going to the NBUS challenge as I've never used the narrow star embossing folder or the holographic star dp before. 

    

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black, unknown "joy"
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - off white cs, watercolour paper, gold cs
Size - 5.75" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, Glossy Accents, Lil Inker stitched square die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU sentiment
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - white cs, Hot off the Press holographic star paper
Size - 5" square
Accessories - gold embossing powder, MFT star die, Kokorosa narrow star embossing folder