Mistletoe Kisses

I've been so busy with gardening lately that I haven't played along with one of my favourite Christmas card challenges - Merry Monday.  I finally had time to get a card made for this week's challenge.

I had my stencils and embossing paste out so decided to use my small Dreamweaver mistletoe stencil - haven't used it for years!

On mixed media cs, I went over the stencil with white embossing paste and then while the paste was still wet, carefully added glitter just to the mistletoe berries.  My trick for adding loose glitter to small areas is to cut a sharp diagonal point on a drinking straw and use that as a tiny scoop for the glitter.

When the rest of the paste was dry, I put the stencil back on and went over the paste with Distress markers.  With a damp paint brush, I pulled out a bit of the Wild Honey I used on the border part of the image to add some shading in the centre area.

I had some decorative paper that went perfectly so created a border with it.  And I had the perfect sentiment for the challenge too!

Now back to gardening!!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black sentiment

Ink - Ranger Library Green

Paper - cream cs, mixed media cs, SEI dp

Size - A2

Accessories - Dreamweaver mistletoe stencil, Dreamweaver white embossing paste, glitter, Distress markers, fun foam

Christmas Scene for Merry Monday

The Merry Monday challenge is asking for a Christmas scene this week.

It was a good opportunity to ink up a NBU stamp of a Christmas village.

A pretty straightforward card - stamped, watercoloured, bordered with black, and popped up on fun foam.  

Thanks, Merry Monday, for inspiring me to use this stamp!

Supplies:

Stamps - Crafter's Companion Nordic Christmas, A Muse sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black

Paper - white and black cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - watercolour paints, fun foam

Red, Green, and White for Merry Monday

Merry Monday is keeping it traditional this week.

Since I love the traditional Christmas colours, I had to enter!

I took my TH holly stencil and sponged over it with red, brown, and a couple of shades of green Distress inks.

Out of the darker shade of green (IRL the green of the frame matches perfectly but doesn't look that way in the photograph), I cut the Merry Christmas frame and trimmed down the holly panel to fit behind it.

I added red pearls to the red sponging to make it look more like clusters of berries.

Another for the Christmas stash!

Supplies:

Ink - various Distress inks

Paper - white and green cs

Size - A2

Accessories - SSS Holiday Frame, TH holly stencil, red pearls

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

Merry Monday Snowman

This week's Merry Monday challenge is "Winter Fun".

We are having an abnormal amount of snow in Vancouver right now and there are plenty of kids out in the neighbourhood making snowmen.  Even the university students who rent the house next door have made one.  So that's my theme!

I was tidying up my stamps and came across a set I'd bought in a sale ages ago and never used.  So inked up the snowman in the set, and added some Zig watercolour markers to his body and scarf.  I made a big red smudge below the scarf so decided to trim it down into a circle and border with some old dp from my stash.  Added a very old "let it snow" sentiment.  And felt good about using some older supplies.

But then moved on to newer things and did an embossed background with the new SU/Sizzix ef of falling snow - love the fact that it is a wider embossing folder as it works for square cards!  And tried my Nuvo Crystal Drops (Robin's Egg blue) for the first time.  They are great and I'll probably get some more colours.

For those of you with snowy conditions, enjoy the beauty and fun of it, but stay safe when you're driving!

Supplies:

Stamps - Inkadinkado snowman, Rubber Soul sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black

Paper - white cs, watercolour paper, Kaiser dp

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - Spellbinder circle dies, SU embossing folder, Nuvo Crystal Drops, Zig watercolour markers

Inspired Masculine Card

Last week's SCS Inspiration Challenge inspired me to do another masculine Christmas card for Merry Monday.

Audrie on SCS sent us to the Art of Journalling Pinterest site for inspiration. I chose this image:

It seemed perfect for a masculine Christmas card.  Here's what I made:

I started by stamping the sentiment and heat embossing in white on watercolour paper. Then I stamped the trees in black pigment ink (both first and second generation) and heat embossed in clear. Lastly I took my versamarker and made the moon and the dots for stars and heat embossed them with black embossing powder.

I then flooded the whole piece with water and dropped in various shades of brown watercolour paint, keeping it dark around the sentiment and light around the moon.

It ended up quite warped so I stuck it down to self-adhesive fun foam - a great way to flatten out watercolour panels. I bordered with black cs.




Thanks for taking a look!

Supplies:

Stamps - SU Lovely as a Tree, SU Bright and Beautiful sentiment

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - watercolour paper, black and white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, versmarker, embossing powder (white, clear, and black), fun foam

Masculine Christmas for Merry Monday

This week's Merry Monday challenge is to create a masculine card, something I always struggle with.

I have a male friend who is an architect and I thought of the Tim Holtz Christmas tree stamp that is done like an architectural drawing.

I created the background first. I spritzed a large piece of mixed media cs and swiped various Distress stains across it, blending them a bit where the touched. I cut a background piece from the part with lots of blue for sky and added falling snow with embossing paste and a stencil. Then I stamped the Tim Holtz Christmas tree on it. I stamped it again and die cut the tree part and layered it over the one stamped on the background.

The star and ornaments were stamped, coloured, and die cut separately and added over the stamped image.

It's bordered in black and mounted on a cream card base.  Here's hoping he'll like it!


I think this card I made the other day for one of the Christmas card challenges on SCS ("relaxation - a cozy cabin, a fireplace, etc.") would work as a masculine card too:

It's stamped on watercolour paper, painted with Peerless watercolours, bordered in black, and mounted on fun foam. I added glitter wherever there was snow. I'm hoping the man I send it too won't mind a bit of sparkle!  The sentiment is on the inside - I couldn't figure out a good spot for it on the front of the card.

Hoping to see some ideas for masculine Christmas cards from the rest of you!

Supplies:

Stamps - Tim Holtz (tree card), Old Island Stamp Co. (cabin card)

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black

Paper - mixed media, black, and cream cs (tree card); black and white cs, watercolour paper (cabin card)

Size - A2

Accessories - various Distress stains, Tim Holtz dies, Dreamweaver embossing paste, Simon Says Stamp Falling Snow stencil (tree card);  Peerless watercolours, Quickie glue pen, glitter, fun foam (cabin card)

Merry Snowman

Merry Monday Christmas Challenge asked us for a winter activity this week.

What better than making a snowman?  Hard work for the little bird on my card:

A simple stamped and watercoloured image, with a bit of Frantage Shabby Blue embossing powder sprinkled around and heated from underneath.

The sentiment is die cut and placed right near the musical notes as if the birds were singing "Let It Snow".

Great challenge to build up the Christmas card stash!

Supplies:

Stamps - SU

Ink - Ranger Archival Black

Paper - white cs, watercolour paper, black cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Zig markers, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die, fun foam, Frantage Shabby Blue embossing powder, Tattered Lace sentiment die

A Better Bird for Merry Monday

Two days ago I made this card for the Merry Monday challenge:

I was not that happy with the card as it is in my old style of card making.  I'm no longer enjoying using my stash of dp - much prefer to make my own backgrounds.  So I decided to do another bird card using a piece of Inka Gold background that was sitting on my desk.

To make the background, I put some blue and silver Inka Gold on my craft sheet and spritzed it with some water and some homemade silver spray.   I smooshed a piece of mixed media cs into it (watercolour paper can also be used for this technique). 

I like to use a simple black heat embossed silhouette image on this kind of background, and then border with black cs.

Because the Inka Gold leaves a bit of texture on the background, it's best to stamp with the MISTI to be sure to get a good impression.

Thanks, Merry Monday people, for a challenge using one of my favourite themes for Christmas cards!

Supplies:

Stamps - Inkadinkado bird

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - cream and black cs, mixed media cs

Size - 4.25" square

Accessories - blue and silver Inka gold, homemade silver spray, embossing powder

A Bird for Merry Monday

I'm trying to get back into doing my favourite challenges.  Merry Monday is one of them.  This week they want a bird on a Christmas card:

I had set myself a goal in January of making one card a week that uses some dp on it as I'd love to get rid of some of my stash.  I've failed miserably in this goal!!  But I made myself go through my dp for this card and found something I liked with the bird stamp I wanted to use.

I inked up the bird with little red and green ink spots I've had for ages so that I could get the two different colours.  Die cut the image and a piece of green cs with inverted scallop dies that make me think of holly, and mounted on the dp and a green card base.  The gemstones on the bird really are red, but for some reason look black in the photo.

I feel like this card is a throwback to my old style of cardmaking - not sure it's really me any more.  So maybe I need to bite the bullet and get rid of a lot of my dp!!!

Supplies:

Stamps - Inkadinkado

Ink - red and green ink spots (unknown brand)

Paper - green and cream cs, Heidi Swapp dp

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - red gemstones, foam tape, Nesties inverted scallop dies

Gold, Black, and White for Merry Monday

One of my favourite challenges is the Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge.  After a break for the summer, they are back with a new challenge.

I recently picked up a couple of older Penny Black stamps in a sale and this was a good opportunity to use one of them.  It seemed to suit being stamped and heat embossed in gold:

I added a heat embossed sentiment in black, die cut it and a black border with stitched square dies, and added 3 black gemstones to the bottom corner for balance.

Thanks, Merry Monday, for all of your great challenges!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black image, Wordsworth sentiment

Ink - ColorBox gold, Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - white and black cs

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - gold and clear embossing powders, Lil Inkers stitched square dies, black gemstones

Blue, Gold, White, and Silver

Merry Monday posted its last challenge before taking a break over the summer.

I pulled out a bunch of scraps of blue backgrounds I'd made in the past and used some of them up to make this card:

The background on the right is just a spray, the centre is the salt technique, and the left is faux mother of pearl - great chance to use up some leftovers!

The tops of the ornaments were die cut using Tim Holtz's deco adhesive glitter paper.  The one on the right has some punched snowflakes on the centre part as the die cut tore and I was running out of time to enter the challenge so went for a quick solution.

The sentiment was done by sticking a few scraps of both the gold and silver adhesive glitter paper on cs, then die cutting "noel".  The left side of the card needed something to balance it so I added a scrap of gold scroll from die cutting the ornaments.

Looking forward to Merry Monday returning in September as it's one of my favourite Christmas card challenges!

Supplies:

Paper - white cs, Tim Holtz gold and silver deco adhesive glitter paper, leftover background pieces

Size - A2

Accessories - Memory Box ornament dies, McGill tiny snowflake punch, Tim Holtz noel die

Peace in Three Variations

This week's Merry Monday challenge is:

A great challenge for me as I love "peace" as a theme for Christmas cards.  I got out one of my favourite dove stamps and did three variations on it, using three different embossing powders.  The one I'm taking over to Merry Monday is up first:

Then I did versions with very pale embossing powder and smaller sequins, and with rich sparkly embossing powder and no sequins.

It's hard to fully capture the richness embossing powder adds to the image so I thought I'd give you close-ups of the heat embossing in the same order as the cards above:

 

I love getting lots of my Christmas cards made well ahead of time and I'm grateful to the challenges out there that give me inspiration and incentive!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black dove, A Muse sentiment

Ink - Versamark

Paper - white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - top card: Cosmic Shimmer Steel Blue Aurora ep, large blue sequins;  middle card: Cosmic Shimmer Arctic Lake Lustre ep, small clear sequins;  bottom card: Recollections Blue Blaze ep;  all cards: fun foam to pop up focal panel

Vintage Santa with a Sack

This week's Merry Monday Christmas card challenge is "It's in the Bag" .

The only image I have that fits is a vintage-looking Santa carrying a sack.

I stamped him in brown and decided to only adding red - somehow just colouring with one colour makes it seem more vintage to me.  Likewise sponging the edges in brown.

I pulled a stamped text background out of my UFO box - made ages ago at a friend's house.  I added the same brown sponging to the edges of it.

Thanks for dropping by!

Stamps: Tim Holtz Santa, unknown text stamp

Paper: PTI Vintage Cream, scrap of red cs

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Ranger Potting Soil, Distress Brushed Corduroy, SU Real Red

Accessories: Nesties label dies, coloured pencils

Snowy Scene for Merry Monday

This week's Merry Monday challenge is "Let It Snow".




I created a background using the embossing folder stamping technique and various blue Distress inks.  I used the same Distress colours but the stains rather than the inks to paint the sky in my focal image.  I added some watercolour paints to the trees and cabin, then went over the snowy parts of the image with white Wink of Stella, and finished off by heat embossing with a sprinkling of white Frantage embossing powder.  It's popped up on fun foam to give it some dimension from the background.

Thanks for dropping by!

Those of you are interested in my coming puppy, drop by tomorrow for some photos and a doggy card!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black Christmas Cottage, Rubber Soul Let It Snow

Ink - Archival Jet Black, various blue Distress inks

Paper - cream and black cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - various blue Distress stains, watercolour paints, white Wink of Stella, fun foam, Stampendous white Frantage embossing powder, snowflake embossing folder