Red, Green, and Brown with a Bird

I have a card today inspired by a couple of the Christmas challenges that I like to do.

Stamped the robin image as if he was standing on the holly, watercoloured, splattered, bordered with black, and popped up on fun foam - one of my favourite types of cards to make!

It's being linked up at:

52 Christmas Card Throwdown's July Color Challenge.

And Christmas Kickstart's "Festive Things with Wings".

Thank you, challenge people, for inspiring me to get my Christmas cards done early!

Supplies:

Stamps - Sheena Douglass Bird and Holly, Wordsworth sentiment

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, cream and black cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, fun foam

Snowflake Triptych

Reminder time for CAS Christmas!

Having stepped out of my snowflake card comfort zone with my first card (I went with white and cream), I am back to what I think snowflake cards should be (white and blue).

I stamped and heat embossed the three snowflake stamps on a scrap of cs and did the same with the sentiment on my top layer of cs, out of which I cut the PTI Take Three die.  I set the snowflakes behind the top layer and added to a white card base.

The embossing powder is SU's Dazzling Diamonds - one of the best for sparkle.  Here's a close-up photo with the light at a different angle to catch some of the sparkle:

Please come and join us at CAS Christmas and show us your snowflake cards.  You have until July 24th to link up.  There's lots of inspiration from the Design Team and this month's fabulous Guest Designer, Jane (Onions and Paper).

Supplies:

Stamps - PTI Take Three Winter, Impression Obsession sentiment

Ink - Encore Metallic Blue

Paper - white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - SU Dazzling Diamonds embossing powder, PTI Take Three die

Bonnie's Bouquet

My reminder card for CAS Watercolour is also a birthday card for my dear friend, Bonnie Klass - the co-founder of the CAS challenges (and one of our DT members), as well as being someone I've known on line for several years and finally got to meet this May at the Eat, Sleep, Craft, Repeat Retreat (see the photos on the retreat button at the top of my post).

July's theme for CAS Watercolour is "Bouquet".

I realized when planning my cards for this challenge that I have a lot of stamps of bouquets of flowers!  So hard to choose the ones to use (though the fact that it needs to be a CAS card with white space limited it a bit).  Peonies are one of my favourite flowers so went with a bouquet of them for this one:

I stamped the image and sentiment on watercolour paper, painted it with my Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, trimmed it with a stitched rectangle, popped it up on a dark pink shimmer card base, and embellished with a few shimmery flower sequins.

We'd love you to join us at CAS Watercolour before July 24th.  Please be sure your card is clean and simple, and depicts a bouquet of flowers - we don't want just a stem of flowers, nor a line of flowers - it needs to be a bouquet.  There's lots of inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and July's Guest Designer, Leslie (Running with Scissors).

Here's wishing you a very Happy Birthday, Bonnie, and many more to come!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black bouquet, Savvy Stamps sentiment

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - watercolour paper, dark pink shimmer cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, tiny flower sequins, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die, fun foam

Bright Summer Flowers

This month's Penny Black challenge is "Summer Colours" - they want bright and cheerful pretty summer colours.  What better than a bouquet of beautiful summer flowers?

I coloured the image with watercolour pencils by using a wet paintbrush to pull the colour off the tips of the pencils.  It's a technique that Darnell had us do at the May retreat I was on with her and several other stampers.

I trimmed the panel and wrapped a strip of vellum on which I heat embossed the sentiment around it.  I then popped the panel up on fun foam.  I added yellow and black pearls to the centres of the flowers.

It's going off to a dear friend who is a very keen flower gardener and whose birthday is this month.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black bouquet, SU sentiment

Ink - Archival Jet Black, Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - watercolour paper, cream cs, vellum

Size - A2

Accessories - watercolour pencils, clear embossing powder, fun foam, yellow and black pearls