A Christmas Tag

My dear friend, Loll Thompson, is doing her fabulous Twelve Tags of Christmas with Loll and Friends again.  And I'm honoured to be her first Guest Designer.

When I made this tag, I seemed to be stuck in bird mode as at the time, I was hosting the CAS Christmas "Birds" challenge.  So ended up reaching for a bird for my tag!

I started by placing a snowflake mask over mixed media cs and then sprayed with a couple of different blue sprays (sorry, I didn't make a note of which ones).  One gave heavier coverage, the other a lighter more speckled spray.

I then trimmed it down into a tag shape.

I die cut the bird / branch die twice and glued them together, keeping the bits that come out of the bird in place on the back one.  I then painted it with various brown and red Distress inks.

I created a little scrap of smooshed cs in the same browns as I used on the branch and die cut the sentiment.

I glued both on the tag and added red Stickles to the berries.  It was a bit flimsy so I cut a piece of white cs, leaving it slightly wider on the two long sides, and taped the tag to it.

I pressed the same brown Distress inks on my mat, spritzed them, and dragged some TH Crinkle Ribbon through it to use on the top of the tag.

Here's a closer photo:

And here's a close-up of the sweet little bird:

You have until November 23rd to link up your tags - they must have a Christmas theme.  Each day there will be a tag by a different Guest Designer and on by Loll over at Stamping with Loll - so lots of inspiration!  And Loll says this is the final time she'll be running the Twelve Tags of Christmas event so it's now or never to enter!!!

Supplies:

Ink - various brown and red Distress inks

Paper - mixed media, white cs

Size - 3x6"

Accessories - Memory Box Delicate Snowflakes mask, various blue sprays, Penny Black Wonder and Joy (bird on branch) die, Tattered Lace sentiment die, TH crinkle ribbon

Jingle Belles Christmas Flower

The new Jingle Belles challenge is a Christmas card featuring flowers.

I went traditional in that I used a poinsettia, but non-traditional in that I made it pink.

I stamped and heat embossed the poinsettia in gold, and started painting a couple of petals with watcolour paints but didn't like the colour at all, so switched to two shades of pink sprays and got a colour I really like. I fussy cut it, cutting off the two petals I did with watercolour paint. I tucked it around a frame so that it wouldn't look odd with two petals missing!

Added a gold sentiment and an embossed background and was happy I'd saved the poinsettia!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black poinsettia, Rubber Soul sentimen

Ink - ColorBox Gold

Paper - white cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - Sizzix embossing folder, gold embossing powder, Impression Obsession frame, Tattered Angels Rose Glimmer Mist, Mr. Huey's First Kiss spray, foam tape

Starry Santa

We're getting close to the time when we need to have enough Christmas cards made so here's hoping the CAS Christmas Challenge will get you inspired to make one using November's theme:

I went with a very old stamp - Stampin Up's Star Santa.  I love the way he's juggling those stars!

I stamped in Archival on hot press watercolour paper, painted him with my Gansai Tambi paints (they include a metallic gold that I used for the stars),  and added a heat embossed sentiment.

I trimmed the panel with an A2 matting die.  That left me with plenty of space on the right hand side to use an old star border punch I've had forever so that I could add interest to the panel by layering it over a gold shimmer cs piece.

Here's a close-up photo:

Love the punched stars allowing the gold to peek through and echo the stars Santa is juggling!  And love having used two really old things - I think both the Santa stamp and star border punch were bought in the first year or two of my card making!

Head on over to see what the rest of the Design Team, this month's host, Christine, and our great Guest Designer, Pam (Expressions with Heart) have made to inspire you.  You have until November 24th to add your link.  Please keep your card clean and simple, and follow this month's theme of Santa.

Supplies:

Stamps - SU Star Santa, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment

Ink - Archival Jet Black, ColorBox gold

Paper - hot press watercolour paper, gold shimmer and cream cs

Size - A2

Accessories - gold embossing powder, EK Success star border punch, Spellbinders A2 Matting Basics dies, fun foam

Christmas Greenery

I'm hosting the CAS Watercolour challenge for November and, since it's coming up to the time when we need to mail our Christmas cards, I thought I'd challenge you to get some of those cards made!

You can use any kind of watercolour technique you like.  For my card, I chose a new way of using Brushos (or any other powdered ink).  Loll Thompson, Christine Alexander, and I tried this out at our last crafting get together.

With the stamp in my MISTI, I inked it up with Versamark.  Then shook out a bit of my Brushos colours onto a palette, slightly moistened a paintbrush, picked up some colour and painted it over the Versamark.  When I'd painted the whole stamp, I lightly spritzed with water and stamped.

I ended up with some areas that were not very well covered in colour.  I could have moved the colour around with a wet brush but decided to leave them as it looked like snow on the leaves.

Some of the berries were too "blobby" with no definition between them so I added a bit of definition with a red coloured pencil.

I stamped my sentiment and splattered a little bit of black ink, trimmed the panel, bordered it with a very narrow black border, and added it to a cream card base.

With a glue pen, I carefully went over the parts of the leaves and berries that weren't well covered in colour and added white glitter.  Here's a close-up:

We'd love to have you join us between now and November 24th.  Please be sure your card is clean and simple, uses some kind of watercolouring, and has Christmas florals or greenery as its theme.

There is lots more inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and our wonderful Guest Designer, Maura (see her SCS Gallery here), over at CAS Watercolour!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black branches, Serendipity sentiment

Ink - Versamark, Archival Jet Black

Paper - cream and black cs, watercolour paper

Size - 5.75" square

Accessories - green, brown, and red brushos, red coloured pencil, glue pen, glitter

Masking the Focal Image

The 52 Christmas Card Throwdown has a technique challenge this time:

I really like the look of having a text background around the focal image.  So I masked my focal image to achieve this.

I stamped the bird and holly in archival ink and watercoloured it.  I then stamped the bird and holly again on a post-it, roughly fussy cut it and masked the one on my card. 

I then inked up the text stamp in a pale grey ink and stamped over top.  I was pleased with the look when I removed the mask. 

I bordered in red, and popped it up on fun foam.

I meant to put Glossy Accents on the berries but forgot so will go back and do that.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps - SU Beautiful Season, Stampendous Christmas Background

Ink - Archival Jet Black, Memento London Fog

Paper - watercolour paper, PTI Vintage Cream, red cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, fun foam

Red Star with Snowflakes

I seem to be on a roll with using some of my older supplies these days.

I spotted the Just Us Girls photo inspiration challenge:

And immediately knew that I wanted to get out the old Stampin Up Christmas Star stamp.

I stamped it in Versamark and heat embossed in red, then fussy cut it, scored its lines, and folded it to get dimension.

I also smeared a scrap of cs with Versamark and heat embossed in the same red so that I would have a matching piece to use for my die cut sentiment.

I wanted to capture the large white snowflakes in the inspiration photo so dry embossed the background with an embossing folder depicting large snowflakes.

The star is glued down on its points and popped up with double and triple layers of foam tape in the centre, giving it lots of dimension.

It's also perfect for the Less is More challenge:

I really love all the challenges out there that are inspiring my Christmas cards right now!

Supplies:

Stamps - SU Christmas Star

Ink - Versamark

Paper - white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Tim Holtz joy die, Ranger red embossing powder, Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder, foam tape