The Great Outdoors

Today I have a card for a few challenges:

The Male Room - "The Great Outdoors"

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - "Colouring"

Penny Black - "Creative Christmas Challenge"

I used Jill Foster's technique seen in this video.

I put the image in the MISTI and coloured the different parts of the image with various small Distress inks (in the video, Jill Foster uses Distress markers - either are fine). When all was stamped, I restamped it all with Versamark and heat embossed in clear. That way I had a resist for sponging the sky, the sunset, and the snow.

I made a small sentiment banner out of kraft cs and mounted the panel on fun foam on a kraft card base.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black image and sentiment

Ink - various small Distress inks, Versamark

Paper -  kraft and white cs

Size - A6

Accessories - clear embossing powder, fun foam

Imagine a Fairy

 I made this card for the latest AAA Cards Challenge:

When I was a child, I loved all things imaginary - fairies, unicorns, animals that talked, etc. 

I used a very old stamp that I've had since I was a children's librarian (that was a long time ago!).  We used to stamp the children's reading records every time they came in to report about their reading during the summer reading club.

I dug out a scrap of a Brushos background (blue Brushos sprinkled on watercolour paper and spritzed with water).  I stamped the fairy on it and then painted over it with pearlescent watercolour paints - the blue of the Brushos blended in with the paint colours, hence the slight blue tinge to the fairy's skin!  In real life it's quite sparkly.  Here's a photo where I tried to capture that:

I added a die cut frame, cut twice and stacked for more dimension, and used a Tim Holtz word sticker for the sentiment.

Once I'd attached the panel to the card base, I decided it needed a little embellishment so took some tiny stars (silver ones and irridescent ones) and dropped some onto the card, letting them fall where they might.  I then glued them on.  This was the first time I used my new Marvy Uchida Jewel Picker - it was indispensable for picking up the tiny stars to put glue under them!

Here's one last photo showing the card in full and the placement of those stars:

Letting the stars fall on to the card at random seemed to work better than my usual agonizing over where to place embellishments one by one!

Supplies:

Stamps - All Night Media fairy

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - watercolour paper, white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Yasutomo pearlescent watercolour paints, Impression Obsession frame die, blue Brushos, star embellisments

Snowflakes and a Gift Card Holder

Posting for a couple of challenges today:

Jingle Belles "Let It Snow"

ABC Christmas Challenge "S is for Snow"

A friend asked if I could make some small cards for her with gift card holders inside so I came up with this design for one of them.

Here's the outside:

I made a background with a TH snowflake stencil. I took Broken China ink, smooshed it on my craft mat, and mixed in some embossing paste and went over the stencil with it.

I die cut "snow" out of blue glitter cs, and bordered the stenciled panel with the same.

I added a single gemstone to the largest snowflake.

And here's the inside, showing the gift card holder:

For the inside, I made the gift card holder out of a snowflake dp to match the theme of the card, added a little stamped and die cut label to it, and stamped "to" and "from" on the other side.

I have a package of little envelopes that would just hold cards this size so I might make a bunch of them for both my friend and to sell at my fundraiser.
 
I'm also adding it to The Merry Christmas Challenge "Anything Goes".

Supplies:

Stamps - SU "A Gift for You", Rubber Stampede "To / From"

Ink - Distress Tumbled Glass

Paper - PTI Vintage Cream cs, blue glitter cs, American Crafts dp

Size - 3.5" square

Accessories - Simon Says Stamp snow word die, blue gemstone, Tim Holtz snowflake stencil, embossing paste, Simon Says Stamp gift card envelope die, Spellbinders scalloped oval die

Red, Glitter, and Green

I love tic tac toe challenges and this one from 4 Crafty Chicks lent itself perfectly to a Christmas card.

I chose the left hand vertical column - red, glitter, green.

I've been having fun making some encrusted jewel pieces.  I die cut the tree from thin chipboard, then placed it on a warm grill on top of a layer of non-stick craft mat then parchment paper.  I sprinkled it with green embossing powder.  Once it had melted, I added multi-coloured chunky glitter pieces on top.  The melted embossing powders holds the glitter in place.  To finish it off, I melted UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) on top.  I then die cut the tree from fun foam and attached it immediately to the encrusted jewel tree to give it a bit more body so that it wouldn't bend and crack.

It was incredibly hard to photograph and get the sparkle to show up in the photo but here are a couple of close-ups to hopefully show the chunky multi-coloured glitter on the tree:

I added the tree to a small panel with a red stamped sentiment and put that on a red card base.

Supplies:

Stamps - Rosie's Roadshow sentiment

Ink - SU Real Red

Paper - white and red cs, light weight chipboard

Size - 4x5.25"

Accessories - Spellbinders tree die, green embossing powder, chunky glitter, UTEE, fun foam

Tea Rose

I have to start by pointing out that the title of this post "Tea Rose" is extremely accurate as not only am I using the image of a rose but I'm also using tea on my card.

I've seen challenges where they ask you to use coffee but I am definitely not a coffee drinker - in fact, I can't even stand the smell of it.  So I decided to play with tea instead!

I started by putting the rose stamp in my MISTI, colouring it up section by section with my Tombow markers, lightly spritzing each time. When dry, I used some coloured pencils to add a bit of extra definition of the petals and leaves.

I brewed a little bit of very strong orange pekoe tea and used it for the background. I "inked up" a small script stamp by carefully dipping the stamp in the tea, shaking off some of the excess liquid, and then stamping around the rose. If you don't shake off the excess liquid, you just get a blob like along the top or a bunch of blobs like the middle bottom section - I'm fine with it as I like the variety.

I stamped the vertical sentiment on a scrap of the same watercolour paper, die cut it with a banner die, and sponged a bit of tea over it.

The panel is popped up on fun foam for some dimension.
 
It's heading over to the Color Throwdown challenge that inspired me not just with the colours but also with the roses in their image.

And to the Flower Challenge:

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black rose, Rosie's Road Show sentiment, unknown script stamp

Ink - Distress Oxide Vintage Photo

Paper - watercolour paper, PTI Vintage Cream cs

Size - A2

Accessories - strong steeped tea, Memory Box banner die, Tombow markers, coloured pencils, fun foam

Is Tobogganing a Sport?

The new Paper Players challenge is "Sports".

Since I need to make lots of Christmas cards, I went with a winter sport - tobogganing.  Got my card made, and then found myself wondering if tobogganing is actually a sport - too late now if it's not, the card is made and here to be posted.

A quick card to make - stamped, watercoloured, trimmed with a stitched rectangle, and bordered with red and green to match the bears' scarves.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black Arctic Antics

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper; red, green, and cream cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die