Five Pups, Five Snowflakes

Merry Monday challenged us to use five of something on our card.

I went with five puppies and five snowflakes:

I love those five happy dogs in their Santa hats.  I coloured them with coloured pencils and fussy cut the top edge of them.  I taped the bottom part to the blue dp but put foam tape behind the dogs' heads to give a bit of dimension.

I stamped the sentiment with a lower case alphabet set, not worrying if the letters were lined up - it's the dogs' greeting after all and they wouldn't be very good at stamping!

The snowflakes weren't part of my original plan but I decided I needed something at the top of the card - so had to go with five!

A fun challenge!  Thanks to Merry Monday.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black dogs, unknown old set of alphabet letters

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - white cs, Paper Pizazz dp

Size - A2

Accessories - coloured pencils, foam tape

Happy Holly

The February Christmas challenge over at Happy Little Stampers is "anything goes with an optional twist of holly".

I chose to use the optional twist as I love holly on Christmas cards.

 

I stamped and watercoloured my image.  I added some random pale grey text stamping over it and watered down some of the same grey ink and added some splatters. I framed it with a die cut panel and decided the sentiment would have to go on the inside as there was no logical place for it on the front.

Come and check out the inspiration from the rest of the Design Team at Happy Little Stampers and then post your Christmas card for a chance to win a prize.

And just a bit more inspiration from me - another holly card I made a while ago but never posted:

I stamped, heat embossed, and watercoloured the image, then fussy cut around the edges.  I mounted it on slightly sparkly red cs, die cut with a stitched square.

My first attempt at stamping the sentiment right on the red square ended up crooked so I redid it on a scrap and cut it out with a tag die and layered overtop.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies for the first card:

Stamps - Penny Black Winter Joy, Wendy Vecchi script

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black, Memento London Fog

Paper - watercolour paper, white cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - watercolour paints, Spellbinders label die, fun foam

Supplies for the second card:

Stamps - Serendipity Holly, A Muse sentiment

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - white cs, red with slight shimmer cs, watercolour paper

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - clear embossing powder, watercolour paints, Lil Inkers stitched square die, Spellbinders tag die

Watercoloured Love

February's CAS Watercolour challenge is, very appropriately, "love".

This does not have to be a Valentine - it can be any card with a theme of love.  But I chose to go with a Valentine card.  And I chose to try last month's CAS Watercolour winner's "water stamping technique".  Heather Telford made this beautiful snowflake card by painting on the stamp with a paintbrush and water, stamping it, and then sprinkling brushos on the wet impression of the image.  Here's my heart done the same way:

As Heather pointed out in her blog post, it's tricky to get the right amount of water so I did a couple of practice attempts and then did this one and was pretty happy with the results.

I used two shades of red brushos on watercolour paper.  I left it to dry, then brushed off any stray bits of brushos, and stamped my sentiment.  I backed it with fun foam and then popped it up on a layer of red cs that has very subtle gold shimmer in it.  I added three gold sequins for embellishment.

Please come and visit us at CAS Watercolour to see the rest of the beautiful cards by the Design Team and our Guest Designer, Michelle Lupton.  You have until February 24th to link up your card - please make sure it includes some kind of watercolouring, relates to the theme of "love", and is clean and simple.

I'm also taking my card over to Darnell's playhouse for her NBUS ("never before used stuff") challenge as I'd never used either the heart or the sentiment stamp before.

Supplies:

Stamps - Tim Holtz Heartfelt stamp set

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - white cs, red cs with slight gold shimmer, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - brilliant red and scarlet brushos, gold sequins, fun foam

Corrugated Cardboard for CAS Mx Up

February already!!  And I have the honour of hosting this month's CAS Mix Up challenge.  I love mixed media cards that use some corrugated cardboard on them.  It's a big trickier for CAS Mix Up as we do insist the cards entered truly qualify as clean and simple, with lots of "white space".

Here's my card:

For my corrugated cardboard, I used a couple of Starbucks coffee cup sleeves that I'd saved.  From one of them, I cut the branch die.

I brushed gesso randomly over the other one and, when it was dry, I brushed liquid gold paint randomly over it.  I then die cut the three stars.

I used the splatter stamp from SU Gorgeous Grunge for a background to the branch, stamping it with gold ink.  The sentiment is stamped with brown ink.  I rubbed the brown ink pad over the die cut branch to add a bit more definition.  I hung the stars from the branch with gold cord.

The focal panel is popped up on fun foam.

To meet the criteria of CAS Mix Up, I have stamping, corrugated cardboard, and, for my choice, I have die cuts, gold paint, gesso, and gold cord.

We've got some wonderful inspiration from the Design Team and our Guest Designer, Julie Beech of Handcrafted by Jules.  I'd love to see what you can come up with for the challenge.  You have until February 24th to enter.  Please be sure your entries include stamping, corrugated cardboard, and at least one other choice from the CAS Mix Up list of "your choice options".  And also remember that we are looking for clean and simple cards only.

Supplies:

Stamps - SU Gorgeous Grunge splatter stamp, Verses sentiment

Ink - Delicata Golden Glitz, SU Baked Brown Sugar

Paper - white cs, corrugated coffee cup sleeve

Size - A2

Accessories - gesso, gold paint, small star dies, Tim Holtz branch die, fun foam, gold cord