Eat Sleep Craft Repeat 2019

My wonderful and talented friend, Loll Thompson, found a perfect house near Vancouver for a bunch of us to get together for a craft retreat.   Loll, Christine, Bonnie, Darnell, Trina, Nancy and myself were there for a week.  We were joined for two nights by Linda, Colleen and Nancy's daughter, Jeani.  And Maureen (Scrappymo/Rudolf days) came for lunch on one of the days.  It was a fabulous social time, a great break from normal routine, and we did a ton of crafting.

 Left to right: Christine, Trina, me, Darnell, Colleen, Loll, Bonnie, Nancy, Linda

Each of us led a couple of techniques.  One that I chose to lead was bleaching out an image after stamping it on backgrounds created with powdered inks or Distress inks.

I sponged three shades of blue Distress inks onto smooth white cs.  Then stamped and heat embossed the blossom image.  Using bleach and a cheap paintbrush, I lifted the background colour from within the image.

Unlike the card in this post where I added some colour to the bleached image, I really liked this one left as it ended up after the bleaching.  I bordered it with black, heat embossed a white sentiment on a strip of black, and popped the panel up on fun foam.

It was a wonderful week.  I'll have more cards from the retreat to show you in the future, but meanwhile why not hop over to all the other participants' blogs:

Loll

Christine

Nancy

Darnell (aka Dolly)

Trina

Bonnie

Colleen
Linda

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black

Ink - Distress Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, and Faded Jeans; Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark

Paper - white and black cs

Size - A2

Accessories - clear and white embossing powder, fun foam, bleach

Cards for Two Christmas Challenges

As busy as ever making Christmas cards!

First up, one for Christmas Cards All Year Round - "Christmas Ornaments".

I stamped and watercoloured, bordered the image with gold cs and used a red card base,
and then went over the ornament with Crystal Glaze and the star and ribbon with a Stardust pen - can't see the shine and sparkle in this photo but I've taken a close-up.

And the second card is for The 12 Months of Christmas - "Creature Feature".

I started by making the tag:

I inked up a white tag with two shades of Distress stains. I then darkened the edges with a matching Distress ink. Then stamped the text stamp after wiping off some of the ink. I added a spritz of homemade gold spray.

I die cut two layers of the "joy" sentiment and three of the reindeer from a copper shimmer cs, glued them together and glued to the tag. I decided the upper left corner needed something so used embossing paste over a small sprig of a holly stencil, then searched all my glitters for a green that would work - none would so I had fun blending green, blue, and graphite glitters together.

I embellished with a bit of ribbon and one gemstone for the dot over the "joy".

To make the card:

I cut two narrow strips of the same copper shimmer cs and ran them down the left hand edge to make the lines for the challenge. And then taped down my tag on the right hand side.

Thanks for stopping by and please come back tomorrow for a special post about the craft retreat I went to last week!

Supplies for card 1:

Stamps - Jofy

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, red and gold cs

Size - A2

Accessories -  Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Crystal Glaze, Sakura Stardut pen

Supplies for card 2:

Stamps - Inkadinkado text stamp

Ink - Distress Brushed Corduroy and Peeled Paint

Paper - premade white cs tag, copper shimmer cs, white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Distress Stains (Peeled Paint, Bundled Sage), Tim Holtz holly bough stencil, embossing paste, glitter, dark green ribbon, copper gemstone, Tim Holtz joy die, Dee's Distinctively deer die, homemade gold spray

A Card for a Child

Two Christmas challenges right now are asking for cards you would give to a child: 

Christmas Kickstart Challenge - "Christmas Kids"

ABC Christmas Card Challenge - "K for Kids"

Here's what I made:

Stamped my image, coloured with coloured pencils, trimmed it with a deckled rectangle die, bordered with candy cane dp and a thin black border. Finished off with fun foam on the Santa hat.

I can't imagine drinking cocoa and wrapping up in a sweater and scarf today - it is so hot and sunny!

Supplies:

Stamps - Simon Says Stamp

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - white and black cs, Paper Studio dp

Size - A2

Accessories - coloured pencils, fun foam, Spellbinders Deckled Rectangle die

Last Minute Plants

Sneaking in right under the wire for the Paper Players "Plants" challenge.

Here's my card:

The background was made out of blue brushos sprinkled and then spritzed with lots of water.

I chose one of the flowers out of the Tim Holtz set of wildflower stamps. I stamped it three times with grey ink and then three more times with black ink on top of the grey ones.

Trimmed the panel, wrapped a sentiment stamped on vellum around it, bordered with black, and popped up on fun foam on a white cs - love the contrast of black, white, and blue!

Supplies:

Stamps - TH wildflower stamp, Savvy Stamp sentiment

Ink - Memento London Fog and Tuxedo Black

Paper - white and black cs, watercolour paper, vellum

Size - A2

Accessories - blue Brushos, fun foam

CAS Challenges

A couple of cards for two of the CAS challenges that close soon.

First up is Less is More - "Beverages".

Here's my card:

The image and sentiment below it are all part of one stamp - I just love the sentiment.  A very easy card to make - stamped it, watercoloured it, trimmed the panel, bordered with black cs, and popped it up on fun foam.

And then the ATCAS Challenge - "Horizon".

I went with another winter / Christmas card as I need to build up my stash for my fundraiser.

Another very quick card - the frame, horse, trees, and clouds are all one die cut. So all I had to do was cut it, layer it over snowy dp, add a sentiment, and pop it up on foam.


Thanks for stopping by!  I promise I'll come back soon with something that's not a Christmas or winter card!

Supplies for card 1:

Stamps - Stamplorations

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, black and white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:

Stamps - Old Island Stamp Co. sentiment

Ink - ColorBox sky blue

Paper - white cs, Me and My Big Ideas dp

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - StarLit Studio Horse Country die, clear embossing powder, fun foam

Old-Fashioned Sleigh Ride

For the Jingle Belles challenge "An Old-Fashioned Christmas":

For the background, I used the snowflakes that came out of a homemade stencil as masks.  I followed the first part of this video.  A quick summary of the technique - lay the snowflake masks down on watercolour paper, spritz with water, remove the stencil, and sprinkle with Brushos.  I didn't get perfect results as some of the water went under the stencil so my snowflakes aren't completely distinct.

When dry, I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment and sleigh, then used my Versamarker to draw in the ground, and heat embossed it with white sparkly embossing powder.

Another one done for my Christmas card sale!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black sentiment, TH sleigh and horses

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Versamarker pen

Paper - watercolour paper, ivory cs

Size - A2

Accessories - blue and turquoise Brushos, snowflake masks that came out of snowflake stencil, white sparkly and clear embossing powder, fun foam