Gnome with Stars

The new mood board at Peace on Earth is full of gnomes.  Since I don't own any gnome stamps, I broke down and bought a digi stamp!  Not really my cup of tea as I love real stamps but it's a cute image!

He's coloured with coloured pencils (including a metallic gold one for the stars), popped up on fun foam on the layer of dp, and embellished with Fun Flock on the brim of the hat, cuff of the glove, and beard.  I thought the "deck the halls" sentiment was perfect as he looks like he's dashing off to decorate with his string of stars.

Here's the mood board that inspired it:

There's lots more inspiration from the rest of our Design Team featuring gnomes over at Peace on Earth!  We'd love to have you join us!

Supplies:
Stamps - digi stamp from Etsy, PB sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs, plaid dp
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Fun Flock, fun foam

A Feminine Shoe and an Encircled Poinsettia

My youngest sister loves shoes and she is a voracious reader.  I made this card for her and for Try It on Tuesday ("For a Lady"), Inkspirational ("CAS with a twist of stickers or ephemera" - I think the shoe counts as ephemera as I took it off a commercial card), and Word Power (the sentiment is the main focus).

I stamped the sentiment and trimmed with a pierced dot rectangle die, and popped the shoe up next to it - all on a matching pink card base.

And of course, getting on with Christmas cards.  This one uses up a lot of snippets of leftover cs so I'm linking up to the Snippets Challenge.  And to the Flower Challenge ("Add Circles") and Beautiful Blossoms (anything flowers). 

I die cut the poinsettia in red cs, sponged a bit of Distress Aged Mahogany around the edges, then layered them together. I embellished with dark red gemstones.

The sentiment and poinsettia are placed on white shimmer cs. I bordered the poinsettia's circle with a red cs inverted scallops circle. The card base is green shimmer cs.

   

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Crafters Companion sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white and pink cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Spellbinders pierced dot rectangle die, shoe from a commercial card

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - Staz-on black, Distress Aged Mahogan
Paper - white shimmer and green shimmer cs, red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Memory Box Blooming Poinsettia die, Spellbinders circle and inverted scallop circle dies, dark red gemstones, stitched banner die

No Stamping Birthday and Green with Butterflies

Seize the Birthday wants to see a "no stamping" card and the AAA Birthday Card Challenge wants something masculine.  I combined the two for my nephew's upcoming birthday.

I started by spraying some mixed media cs with gold and a little bit of silver metallic sprays. When dry, I die cut the gears border and the sentiment.

I glued them to a background on which I'd lightly stencilled some gold ink, and then popped the panel up on fun foam for some dimension. 

Triple B wants to see birds, blooms, or butterflies in green, and the Double D challenge wants to see mostly green on the card.

I created a debossed inky resist with my butterflies embossing folder by rubbing the raised pattern with Versamark, putting mixed media cs into the folder, and running it through my Cuttlebug, and then adding clear embossing powder and heating it.  See this video for instructions.

I then smooshed the panel with a bunch of green Distress inks and a little touch of blue.  I added the panel to the card base and die cut a solid butterfly out of white shimmer cs and the top layer of the butterfly out of blue shimmer cs (I tried doing it with green shimmer cs but there wasn't enough contrast and also I wanted to bring out the touch of blue in the background a bit).

Supplies for card 1:
Ink - Martha Stewart gold ink
Paper - white and mixed media cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - various gold and silver sprays, TCW screen print stencil, gears die

Supplies for card 2:
Ink - Versamark, various green and blue Distress inks
Paper - mixed media cs, white cs, white and blue shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Darice embossing folder, memory Box butterfly dies

Nordic Winter and Blinged Holly

For the ABC Christmas Challenge, I'm going with "D for Die Cuts".

I got out my Tim Holtz Nordic Winter die - it's so much fun to use.  I die cut it three times, once each out of white, green, and bronze shimmer cs, then made a blue shimmer card base, glued the negative piece from the white die cut over it, and then inlaid the green trees and bronze reindeer.  I added a sentiment on a narrow strip banner.

 

The problem with using this die (which I love) is that you always end up with many leftover little bits, and how many cards do I want to make to use them all up?!!   But it is fun doing the inlaying and coming up with colour combinations for it. 

I've also got a card today for the Jingle Belles challenge "Bring on the Bling".  Lots of gemstones on this card:

 

I laid a holly stencil over watercolour paper, spritzed generously with water, lifted off the stencil, and sprinkled with a few shades of green Brushos. After it was dry, I trimmed it down to the best section, stamped the sentiment, die cut a frame (twice so I could layer them together for more substance), added it all to a red card base, and added red gemstones to the berries in the image.

 

 

 

  

Supplies for card 1:
Paper - white, green, blue, and bronze shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - TH Nordic Winter die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Memento Cottage Ivy
Paper - watercolour paper, dark red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tim Holtz holly stencil, green Brushos, red gemstones, MFT pierced rectangle frame die

Two Birds with a Fence, and a Dove Framed with Snowflakes

My Time to Craft has a fun challenge.  It's called "1-2-3".  You have to use 1 of something, 2 of something else, and 3 of something else.  I have one fence, two birds, and three words.

I created a background with some blue watercolour paint to make a sky and some Distress Snowfall Grit Paste to make the snowy ground.  Added the die cut fence.  Then die cut two of the Time Holtz birds and did a bit of sponging on them with Distress Aged Mahogany.  Added them to the fence and ground, and finished with a three word sentiment on a banner die cut and some white splattering.

Try It on Tuesday wants to see embossing of some sort.  I went with both dry and heat embossing.  And I used a stamp I haven't used since I started my blog in 2015.  The last time I used it was in 2013 on a card I posted on SCS.  So I'm adding it to The Neglected Stuff Challenge.

I stamped my image / sentiment in dark blue in the centre of a layer of cs and then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.  I coloured in the bird and the stars with a bit of lighter blue watercolour paint.  Then placed it in the snowflake embossing folder and ran it through my Cuttlebug.  

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - Archival Cobalt ink, Distress Aged Mahogany
Paper - white and red cs
Size - 6x3.25"
Accessories - TH bird dies, unknown fence die, sentiment banner die, blue watercolour paint, Distress Snowfall Grit Paste, bleed proof white ink

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Stampendous Classic Peace
Ink - ColorBox royal blue
Paper - chalk cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Ultimate Crafts snowflake frame embossing folder, clear embossing powder, blue watercolour paint

Sled Against a Brick Wall

The new Peace on Earth challenge's mood board has an image of a sled leaning against a brick wall.  It inspired this card.

Using the Tim Holtz brick wall stencil, I sponged with Hickory Smoke and Pumice Stone Distress inks, then went over it with translucent embossing paste.  I trimmed the panel and tore a piece of white cs to create snowy ground.  I stamped the sentiment on it in dark green (and chose a sentiment with the word "believe" in it to go with the word on the sled in the inspiration photo).  I die cut a couple of pieces of greenery (inspired by the greenery on the sled in the photo) and put them on the top of the wall.  I used a white pearl pen to put the white berries on one of them.  The sled is die cut twice from scrap cs and once from a leftover bit of brown smooshed cs, all glued together to give it more dimension.

There's lots more inspiration from the rest of our Design Team over at Peace on Earth!  We'd love to have you join us!

Supplies:
Stamps - Make an Impression sentiment
Ink - Distress Hickory Smoke and Pumice Stone, Memento Northern Pine
Paper - white and green cs, scrap of brown smooshed cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tim Holtz brick wall stencil, Dreamweaver translucent embossing paste, Penny Black sled die, Tim Holtz greenery dies, Viva white pearl pen