Back to Christmas Cards

After the recent flurry of Valentine cards, I'm now back to Christmas ones.

First of two for today is for the ABC Christmas Challenge "D for Die Cuts" and the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Black, White, and Gold".

I die cut the stars out of a square of black cs and layered it over a gold card base. The Santa and sleigh is die cut twice and glued together for extra dimension. The trees are only die cut once.

Today's other card is for Cardz 4 Guyz "Clean and Simple".

I used the Heated Copper Accents technique shown in this video by my friend Loll to create my copper Christmas tree. I glued it to a piece of blue smooshed background, tore little strips of white cs to layer for snowy ground, stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in copper embossing powder.

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - SSS sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - black, white, and gold cs
Size - 5.75" square
Accessories - Sizzix Dash Away All stars and Santa, Spellbinders square die, evergreen tree die

Supplies for card :
Stamps - Rosie's Roadshow sentiment
Ink - Versamark, various blue Distress inks
Paper - white cs
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - thin copper sheet, tree die, copper embossing powder

Valentines 3

You all know that making Christmas cards is my first love, but I have to say I've really enjoyed making a bunch of Valentine cards for my best friend's special order.

This first one is for Penny Black Saturday Challenge "Hearts".

The image is stamped and watercoloured, trimmed with a square die, bordered with red cs, and on a kraft cardbase.

And here's today's Twofer.  My friend who ordered the cards always wants one or two with birds on them.  This is going off to Stamping Sensations "Valentines", My Time to Craft "Hearts", Cardz 4 Guyz "Clean and Simple", and Simply Clean and Simple "Hearts".

The heart is stamped with Versamark on burgundy cs and then brushed gold Pearl Ex over it (and sealed it with a fixative).  I fussy cut the heart, put foam tape on the back, and added it to a rectangle trimmed with a stitched die.  I added a sentiment die cut from gold shimmer cs.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black image, SU sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, red and kraft cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - watercolour paints

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown stamp
Ink - Versamark
Paper - burgundy and white cs, gold shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold Pearl Ex, Poppy Stamp sentiment die, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die

Valentines 2

More Valentines cards today!  My best friend always orders some from me.

First up for Double D's challenge "Hearts", Sweet Stampin' "Love", Stamping Sensations "Valentines", and My Time to Craft "Hearts". 

Double D has this lovely mood board.  I was inspired by the top right image of the swans making a heart with the spray of flowers above them.

 

I stamped and heat embossed the image in platinum embossing powder, watercoloured, trimmed with a square die, and bordered with pink shimmer cs.

The Tic Tac Toe challenge has lots of options for Valentine cards.  I went with the diagonal line that says love sentiment, red and CAS design.

I layered the white hearts die over red cs and stamped and heat embossed my sentiment in white.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - unknown heart, SU sentiment
Ink - ColorBox silver
Paper - watercolour paper, pink shimmer and white cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - platinum embossing powder, watercolour paints, Spellbinders square dies

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Impression Obsession sentiment
Ink - ColorBox white
Paper - white and red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - white embossing powder, hearts die

Valentines

Just in case you're sick of my endless Christmas cards, here's a totally non-Christmas post.  Today I'm going with Valentine cards.

It seems like all the colour challenges I follow are going with red and pink right now.  Colorful Options has a mood board full of red and pink, including an image of red and pink hearts.  Color Hues and Inkspirational are collaborating and they both want pink and red.  Festive Friday's festivity is Valentines Day and you have to pick at least three things from their list (I picked pink, red, hearts, and a love sentiment).  And the Stencil Fun Challenge also wants pinks and / or reds.  So here's my card for all of these:

I attached the hearts stencil to my white cs and sponged with various Distress pink and red inks.  Then washed off the stencil and replaced it over the inking.  I then went over it with a translucent embossing paste.  When dry, I stamped the two sentiments in red ink. 

My second Valentine is for the Time Out Challenge - pick 2 or more out of their list of words.  I picked heart (even the butterfly has hearts on it), love (Valentine's Day), layer (I have a narrow embossed panel, a red border, hearts, a butterfly, and a sentiment all layered on the card base), warm (for warm colours), and stitch (the small red hearts have faux stitched edges). 

The butterfly was in my box of leftover bits and since it has red hearts on it, I decided it was high time it found a home on a card.  I also found the punched red border in there.  I die cut the hearts and sentiment out of the same red, dry embossed the narrow hearts panel, and put everything together.

   

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - SU cherish, Impression Obsession Happy Valentine's Day
Ink - Distress Candied Apple, Festive Berries, and Picked Raspberries
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Craft Emotions stencil, Dreamweaver translucent paste

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown butterfly stamp
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white and red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Poppy Stamp sentiment die, watercolour paints, SU hearts embossing folder, border punch, small stitched heart die

Snow Day

Well, Vancouver got one of its rare heavy snowfalls and everything I planned to do today is cancelled.  So a good time to get a blog post done before some of the challenges I like end.

First up, for the ABC Christmas Challenge "B is for Buildings" and My Time to Craft "Make It Male" (I figure buildings and dark colours make for quite a masculine card):

I started with the background - used a circle die to cut a round mask for the moon and a hilly slopes die for the snowy ground (both cut out of masking paper). Then splattered masking fluid on the sky for snow. Then sponged with two shades of blue Distress ink, leaving it lighter around the moon. Once the ink was dry, I removed the paper masks and rubbed off the masking fluid. I die cut the buildings and trees out of black cs and added them to the background. Finished off by using white gouache on a fine paint brush to add snow to the roofs.

Shopping our Stash wants "crafty remnants" - things out on our desks leftover from previous projects.  

For some reason, I'd die cut a lot of deer before Christmas and they were all still sitting there unused.  I also had an odd-sized background made with emboss-resist trees and some blue sponging.  So I thought the deer could prance across in front of the trees.  And I added a sentiment in a similar shade of blue as the sponged sky.

 

 





Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Make an Impression sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Chipped Sapphire and Dusty Concord
Paper - white and black cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - masking fluid, masking paper, SSS Winter Village dies, circle die, hilly slope die, Dr Phil Martin's bleed-proof white gouache

Supplies:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - various blue Distress inks, Versamark
Paper - white and brown cs
Size - A2
Accessories - deer die cuts, clear embossing powder

A Reindeer Framed by Hearts

When I saw our new mood board at Peace on Earth, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do.  At first I wanted to do a dove on a red heart but three of my fellow Design Team members had already done that.  So then I thought of a white tree with red ornaments but I wasn't inspired.  Then I had the idea of somehow merging the reindeer in the top left image with the red hearts in the other three images and came up with this card.

I've had this heart frame die for ages but never used it (so am also entering my card at the NBUS challenge).  It fit quite well around my collage-style stamp of the reindeer.  And I have an old SU sentiment that mentions both Christmas and hearts.

I put the reindeer stamp in my MISTI and tapped it with a couple of different brown inks to get a bit of variation in the stamping.  Stamped the sentiment below, trimmed and added to a red card base, and die cut the heart frame out of the same red as the card base.

We'd love to see if our Peace on Earth mood board inspires you.  If not, feel free to link up an "anything Christmas" card.

Supplies:
Stamps - Crafty Individuals reindeer, SU sentiment
Ink - Ranger Archival Potting Soil, Memento Rich Cocoa
Paper - red and white cs
Size - 6x4.75"
Accessories - unknown heart frame die