Greenery

A Christmas card for The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up, with optional theme of "greenery":

I put the stamp in my MISTI and inked up with various Memento Dew Drops, and then watercoloured the image.  When finished, I inked up the stamp with Versamark and stamped over it again, then carefully added regular clear embossing powder to most of it, but a sparkly embossing powder to the ribbon.

I did a very pale blue wash around the image and added a heat embossed sentiment, then mounted it on a brown card base.  I added red gems to the berries.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black greenery, Paper Smooshes sentiment

Ink - various Memento Dew Drop inks, Versamark, Memento Rich Cocoa

Paper - watercolour paper, brown cs

Size - A2

Accessories - clear and sparkly embossing powder, watercolour paints, red gems

Dog and Christmas Tree

How's everyone doing with getting Christmas cards made ahead of the rush?  The CAS Christmas Challenge is one way to inspire you.  This month the theme is Tree. 

There is lots of inspiration from the Design Team and our August Guest Designer, Barb (Barb's Studio Creations).  You have until August 24th to link up your card.

I went with a Penny Black image of a spaniel-like dog smiling up at a Christmas tree.

It's stamped and watercoloured, then trimmed with a wonky-stitched die and popped up on fun foam on a red cardbase.

I chose this stamp in honour of my dear old English Cocker Spaniel, Will, who died at the ripe old age of 14 on July 12th.  I'm missing that quirky loving dog so much after having in my life for all those years.  But he'd been declining and he made it pretty clear that he was ready to go so the vet came to my house and we sent him off easily and peacefully.   I like to think of him somewhere running on a beach with his sister Shea who died 3 years ago.  You can see the two of them in my photo on the sidebar.  And here's a lovely photo of just Will in his younger days:

And one taken just a few months ago by Loll Thompson's very talented son-in-law.  Note Will's very grey face - still a handsome boy though:

So I watercoloured the dog on my card in similar colours to Will.  Those of you who have pets, go and give them a hug - sadly they never live as long as we'd like them to, and they leave big holes in our lives when they go.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black image, Impression Obsession sentiment

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, red cs

Size -  4.75" square

Accessories - MFT Wonky Stitched Square die, Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, fun foam

Sunflower with Splatters

 
It's August already - where has the year gone?  The flowers of high summer are fading and we're starting to see the later blooming flowers, one of which is the sunflower.  So appropriately, that is the theme for the August CAS Watercolour Challenge.

I found a Penny Black stamp in my collection that I've never inked up before so am happy to have the opportunity.  I inked it up in brown on cold press watercolour paper as I thought brown would suit the colours better than black.  And then watercoloured with my Gansai Tambi paints.

I fussy cut the sunflower and popped it up with foam tape on a piece of cs splattered with Distress ink.  I created a frame using deckle edged dies, cutting it twice and layering them to give it a bit more dimension.  I added a brown vertical sentiment to the frame.

Here's a close-up:

Please come and join us at CAS Watercolour.  We're looking forward to seeing all sorts of sunflowers - stamps, dies, stencils, whatever, as long as you use watercolour on the card and you keep it clean and simple.  There is lots of inspiration from the Design Team and our wonderful August Guest Designer, Izzy of Izzy Scrap.  The link up is open until August 24th.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black Blooming Garden sunflower, Technique Junkies sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Potting Soil, Distress Brushed Corduroy

Paper - white cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Spellbinders deckle rectangle die, foam tape

A Simple Christmas Tree

For July's Christmas Cards All Year Round "Tree" challenge:

The tree was die cut from a scrap of leftover mixed media cs coloured with green Brushos. The sentiment is stamped and heat embossed. I cut a second tree out of white cs and slightly offset it to give the idea of a dusting of snow on the branches.

The background is mixed media cardstock painted in white and blue and splattered in white.
 

Supplies:

Stamps - Kaiser sentiment

Ink - ColorBox white

Paper - white and mixed media cs

Size - A2

Accessories - blue and white acrylic paint, Spellbinders Christmas tree die, Cuttlebug embossing folder, white embossing powder, green Brushos

Splats for a Non-Traditional Christmas Card

I think of traditional Christmas cards having themes like Santa, reindeer, snow, stars, trees, doves, etc.  And they are the kinds of themes I like to use. So when I saw the latest 52 Christmas Card Throwdown challenge "Non-Traditional Christmas Card", I was going to skip it, but then I decided on this card:

I kept the colours traditional, but went with the rather strange theme of splats!

You take Distress Stains and prime them by pressing down on your craft mat or scrap paper to get the stain flowing. Then on mixed media cs (you get richer colour than on regular cs), you press down really hard and simply splat the Distress Stain on your mixed media cs with the sponge dauber.

I used red and quite an olive green shade of green. Then between them, I stamped my sentiment with Versamark and heat embossed with gold.

I die cut it with an oval die and popped it up on fun foam on a gold card base. a

Hope this counts as non-traditional!

Supplies:

Stamps - PTI sentiment

Ink - Versamark

Paper - gold cs, mixed media cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Distress Stains (Peeled Paint, Festive Berries), Spellbinders oval die, gold embossing powder, fun foam

Summertime = Beach Time

The new Addicted CAS Challenge is Summertime.

Living in Vancouver, Canada means I get to spend summer days at the beach - usually the off-leash beach at low tide when my dog, Tessa, can run over the sand, chasing balls to her heart's delight.  Here she is on quite a windy (but warm) day:

I'm sure the sentiment on this card is exactly how Tessa feels!

For the shells, I pulled some scraps of coated cs that had various colours of brushos on them - die cut the base of the shells from the more coloured parts and the top outline of the shells from mostly white sections. Some glue squished out while I was gluing the top outlines on the bases so I sprinkled glitter over them to soak up the excess glue.

The blue panel is on Yupo. I smooshed the Yupo into a mixture of blue acrylic paint that had been spritzed with water. I framed it for added interest and clustered the seashells at the bottom corners.

I stamped the sentiment with a Kaleidacolor ink pad.

Now I think Tessa and I need to head to the beach!!

Supplies:

Stamps - Technique Junkie sentiment

Ink - Kaleidacolor Blue Breeze

Paper - white cs, Yupo, coated cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Elizabeth Craft Designs seashell dies, brushos, MFT Pierced Square Frame die, blue acrylic paint, glitter