Stenciled Bister Hearts

The CAS Stencil challenge for February is:

I needed to make some Valentine cards for a friend so thought I'd use a heart stencil and red Bister powder.

Using mixed media cs, I sprinkled the Bister through the hearts and then spritzed with water.  After it dried, I framed it with dark red cs with a large heart die cut in the centre.  I trimmed the red cs with a stitched rectangle die and added it to a cream card base.  I die cut the sentiment out of the same cream card base.


So as not to waste all that lovely Bister colour left behind on the stencil, I flipped it over onto another piece of mixed media cs and got the negative print (or a "stencil monoprint").  I then created this card with the result:

I'd cut out the entwined hearts for an earlier project and was left with this piece with the negative heart so I used it to frame a section of my negative heart print.  I added a few red glitter die cut hearts (left over from yet a different project), stamped my sentiment, and popped the panel up on fun foam.

I felt quite virtuous making two cards out of one stencil / Bister session, and also using up lots of leftover bits on the second card.  I'm taking the second card over to Pixies' Craft Workshop "Snippets" challenge.

Supplies for the 1st card:

Ink - red Bister powdered ink

Paper - cream, red, mixed media cs

Size - A2

Accessories - TCW hearts stencil, Poppy Stamps sentiment die, large heart die, MFT Wonky Stitched rectangle die
 

Supplies for the 2nd card:

Stamps - PTI sentiment

Ink - Memento Lady Bug, red Bister powdered ink

Paper - red glitter, cream, mixed media cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - TCW hearts stencil, SU heart die, mini hearts die, fun foam

Birds with Hearts

Valentine's Day is coming up so time for a change from my many Christmas cards!  A friend always asks me to make her a few Valentine cards and specified she wanted birds on the one for her son-in-law.

It needed to be reasonably masculine so thought my NBUS bird die from Concord and 9th was suitably non-feminine!  And no pink or frills or lace!

I die cut the birds out of the card front and then backed it with red cs.  Out of the same red, I die cut a few tiny hearts to place between the birds.  And stamped the sentiment in red with another tiny heart beside it.

It was made with these challenges in mind:

The Male Room - a masculine Valentine

Double D Challenge - "hearts of any colour" 

The Paper Players - "Love is in the Air"

Addicted to CAS - "Birds"

Thanks for coming by today!

Supplies:

Stamps - Impress Cards & Craft sentiment

Ink - SU Real Red

Paper - red and white cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - Concord & 9th "By Your Side" birds, Impress Cards & Craft tiny hearts die

Nature for The Male Room

I really struggle with masculine cards no matter what the occasion so I keep my eye on The Male Room challenge to see if any of their challenges can inspire me.  The latest one did:

It seemed perfect for my Penny Black woodland stamp and some deer.

I used Jill Foster's technique seen in this video.

I put the image in the MISTI and coloured the different parts of the image with various small Distress inks (in the video, Jill Foster uses Distress markers - either are fine). When all was stamped, I restamped it all with Versamark and heat embossed in clear. That way I had a resist for sponging the sky and the snow.  But I realized I also needed to have something on the snowflakes so that they would resist the sponging, so went over all of them with a Molotow fine tip masking fluid marker.  After I did my sponging and heat set it, I rubbed off the masking fluid.

I die cut two reindeer, once out of copper cs and once out of heavy white cs, glued them together to give them more substance and dimension, and added them to the foreground.  I added some glitter to the snowline in front of the trees and around the legs of each reindeer.

Trimmed the panel, bordered it with the copper cs, and popped it up on a cream card base.

The Penny Black tree stamp is really large - this only used half of it so I made a very similar second card out of the rest of it.  It felt very productive ending up with two!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black trees, A Muse sentiment

Ink - Delicata Celestial Copper for the sentiment, various Distress inks for the sky

Paper - mixed media and PTI Vintage cream cs, copper cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Impression Obsession reindeer dies, glitter, fun foam

Blue Dove

Time for February's CAS Christmas Challenge!

I always make several different cards each year using the theme of peace and doves, so this is one of my favourite challenges for the year.

I used blue alcohol inks on coated cs to create the piece from which I die cut the dove.  I stamped the sentiment in navy and bordered the panel with navy cs, then popped it up on fun foam.  It would be a wonderfully easy card to mass produce if you needed to.

Please head over to CAS Christmas and check out the other inspiration from our Design Team and our wonderful Guest Designer, Linda (Scrappin', Stampin', & Singin').  You have until February 24th to link up your card.  Please be sure it is clean and simple, and includes the theme of "peace".

Supplies:

Stamps - Paper Smooches sentiment

Ink - Vivid Inky Blue, various blue alcohol inks

Paper - white, navy, and coated cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - Penny Black dove die, fun foam