Old is New Heart

This week's SCS CAS challenge is called "Old is New Again".  We were to find a love or heart card in our own SCS gallery from a few years back and use the same image to create a card in the style we work in today.

I found a card I made in 2013:

It is typical of my style in 2013 - stamped, heat embossed, bordered and layered, with some decorative paper on the cardbase.

I used the same stamp to create today's card:

Today's version shows my new preference for interesting techniques and a more CAS style.

I used Heather T's technique (seen on her blog here) of painting on the stamp with a paintbrush and water, stamping it, and then sprinkling brushos on the wet impression of the image.

I painted my stamp carefully with water (not too much and not too little water - it is a Goldilocks technique!), stamped it onto watercolour paper and sprinkled two shades of red brushos on the wet areas. I left it to dry, then brushed off any stray bits of brushos.

I got a nice watery look - none of the text that is the background to the heart is legible and in some areas barely shows. There was a perfect blank section in the bottom right that was just the right size for me to stamp my sentiment in black - I kept it on the same angle as the lines of text in the stamp.

I bordered with black and popped it up on fun foam on a white cardbase.

I like it so much more than the card made with the same stamp back in 2013!

Because it uses watercolouring, it's also perfect for CAS Watercolouring's February theme of "love" so I'm linking it up there.

There's no deadline for doing the SCS challenge, but the CAS Watercolouring one ends on February 24th.

Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies:

Stamps - Clearly Perfect "Dream of Love", SU sentiment

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, white and black cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - brilliant red and scarlet brushos, fun foam

Snowy Challenges

Vancouver is having the most abnormal winter - way more snow than normal and way colder temperatures.  Normally we have neither - just mild temperatures and a fair bit of rain.  But the snow is making it easy to keep on top of making Christmas cards, and two snowy challenges popped up recently, inspiring this card:

It's a very CAS card with a dry embossed background, three shimmery snowflake die cuts, and a simple sentiment.

It's heading off to the Jingle Belles challenge ("Let the Flakes Fall Where They May"), to
the Sparkle Creations Christmas Card challenge (word prompt - "snow"), and to Merry Monday ("make a clean and simple card").

Now I need to head outside and shovel the steps, path, and sidewalk for the second time today!

Supplies:

Stamps - Old Island Stamp Co. sentiment

Ink - Distress Faded Jeans

Paper - white cs, SU shimmer cs

Size - A2

Accessories - SU embossing folder, Tim Holtz snowflake dies

Bubble Wrap and NBUS

It's the last day for Darnell's NBUS 10 challenge.

There is an optional challenge to use bubble wrap in some way.  Here's what I came up with:

I dropped two colours of alcohol inks and the gold mixative from my NBUS Pinata set onto bubble wrap and spritzed with blending solution.  Then I laid mixed media cs on top and pressed down lightly with an acrylic block.

I got a really nice section of bubbles that just fit nicely inside my new Peek-a-Boo window die (another NBUS).  There was a blank space at the bottom of the bubble wrap section, just right for me to stamp "thanks" in gold.

I popped the piece up on fun foam and added three co-ordinating sequins.

Thanks, Darnell, for the great idea - I'll definitely play with bubble wrap some more.

Supplies:

Stamps - SU thanks

Ink - Delicata Golden Glitz ink pad; Pinata alcohol inks (Fuschia, Baja Blue, and Gold)

Paper - white and mixed media cs

Size - A2

Accessories - MFT rectangle peek-a-boo window die, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die, fun foam, sequins, bubble wrap

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