Black Trees, Blue Sky

Peace on Earth has a lovely mood board of winter tree scenes.  I chose the top right image to inspire this card:

Rather than do a splattering of many tiny snowflakes, I did a few large snowflakes by using snowflakes masks on a gelli plate with a couple of shades of blue acrylic paint.  I die cut a line of evergreen trees twice out of black cs and glued them together for more dimension.  The sentiment is heat embossed in white on a banner die cut.

Here's the Peace on Earth mood board:

Please come and join us.  We'd love to see how you're inspired by the mood board (but if you're not, you can post an "anything Christmas" card.

 





Supplies:
Stamps - Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - ColorBox white
Paper - mixed media cs, black and white cs
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - snowflake masks made on a cricut, evergreen tree die, white and various blue acrylic paints, stitched banner die, white embossing powder

Dogs and Flowers - Two of My Favourite Things

As most of you know, I love dogs.  And I'm a very keen gardener.  So today has a post featuring each.

For the My Time to Craft Challenge, the theme is dogs and / or cats.  I did a very CAS card that I will use as a Christmas card for a dog-loving friend.

The dog and sentiment are heat embossed with a champagne coloured embossing powder.  It's bordered with red and green glitter cs.

For the Flower Challenge "Use a Die", I went more mixed media.

I created a gelli plate background with acrylic paints, die cut a flower twice and glued them together for dimension, and also die cut a sentiment.  I added gold Stickles to the centres of the flowers.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Technique Junkies Cold Noses
Ink - Versafine Clair Fallen Leaves
Paper - white cs, red and green glitter cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Recollections Champagne embossing powder

Supplies for card 2:
Paper - mixed media cs, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - acrylic paints, gelli plate, Memory Box Honeysuckle Blossom die, gold Stickles

Two Blue Cards

First up, Christmas Craft Creations "Blue & Silver" challenge.

I created a tissue paper background, using a little piece of blue tissue paper that has silver dots in it - I glued it to a scrap of cs, slightly wrinkling it as I laid it down so that it would have some texture.  I then die cut a thin frame out of it.  I die cut the same thin frame out of silver glitter cs and inlaid it into the blue tissue paper piece.  Out of another scrap of silver glitter cs, I die cut the star, and from a scrap of white cs, I cut the trees.  Added a sentiment and put it all together.

Because of all the scraps I used, I'm also adding it to the new Snippets challenge.

The second blue card is for the Christmas Kickstart Challenge "Snowflakes are Winter's Butterflies" and for the Jingle Belles Challenge "Oh Christmas Stencil".

I pulled a scrap of background out of my box that had been painted with a blue shimmer acrylic paint, and stencilled snowflakes over it with a sparkle paste.  I used a white shimmer cs for the die cut frame and card base, and added a sentiment heat embossed on black cs and die cut with an old label die.

Challenges:

Snippets Playground

Christmas Craft Creations

 

Christmas Kickstart Challenge

 

Jingle Belles "Oh Christmas Stencil"

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - SSS sentiment
Ink - Distress Oxide Salty Ocean
Paper - white cs, silver glitter cs, blue with silver dots tissue paper
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - SSS thin frame die, Memory Box star of wonder die, unknown tree die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - ColorBox white
Paper - white shimmer cs, black cs, mixed media cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - white embossing powder, MFT pierced square frame die, Spellbinders label die, Paper Roses snowflake stencil, blue shimmer acrylic paint, Cosmic Shimmer sparkle paste

Dear You

The CASology challenge has a cue card that just says "dear".  I thought of the sentiment I used on this card:

I used a scrap of background from my box of backgrounds. It was done on a gelli plate with pale blue acrylic paint. I put it and the wildflower stamp in the MISTI and inked the wildflower in Distress Seedless Preserves, spritzed very lightly and stamped, then moved the cs over and stamped off very gently for a very pale second impression. Added the sentiment and some sequins and popped it up on fun foam.

 

CASology Challenge

Supplies:
Stamps - Red Lead Paperworks sentiment, Inkadinado Meadow wildflower
Ink - Distress Seedless Preserves, Archival Jet Black
Paper - mixed media and white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - pale blue acrylic paint, sequins, fun foam

Acrylic Paint and a Leaping Horse

CAS Mix Up is asking for "acrylic paint" this month.

I used a stamp that my dear friend and creator of this challenge gave to me as she knows I love horses.

I created a gelli plate background with pale blue acrylic paint and some streaks of copper Magicals.

I put it in my MISTI as I knew it would take a few reinkings to get the horse well-inked on all the solid parts of the image. Then I heat embossed it, added the sentiment, bordered with black, and popped up on fun foam.

Thanks for the fabulous stamp, Loll!  I'm sure my sister (who also loves horses) will love this birthday card!

Supplies:
Stamps - Visible Image horse, Tim Holtz sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - mixed media cs, black and white cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - blue acrylic paint, copper Magicals, embossing powder, fun foam

A Simple Christmas Tree

For July's Christmas Cards All Year Round "Tree" challenge:

The tree was die cut from a scrap of leftover mixed media cs coloured with green Brushos. The sentiment is stamped and heat embossed. I cut a second tree out of white cs and slightly offset it to give the idea of a dusting of snow on the branches.

The background is mixed media cardstock painted in white and blue and splattered in white.
 

Supplies:

Stamps - Kaiser sentiment

Ink - ColorBox white

Paper - white and mixed media cs

Size - A2

Accessories - blue and white acrylic paint, Spellbinders Christmas tree die, Cuttlebug embossing folder, white embossing powder, green Brushos

Eat Sleep Craft Repeat

One of the things we did at our crafty retreat at Christine's house was a "Dirty Pour" - a mixture of various acrylic paints and silicone oil, layered in a cup and dumped on a canvas.  You then tilt the canvas to get the paints to flow and swirl over the canvas.  You then heat (very carefully, moving the heat constantly) with a small torch (like a creme brulee torch) and you get some areas of bubbling.

Here's one of mine:

And here's a close-up showing the bubbled effect:

It is even prettier in real life as there is a bit of silver metallic and white pearlescent paint in it that the photo does not capture.

If you're interested in doing one, here's a very short video, or you can google "dirty pour" for others.

It was a nice change in the middle of our retreat - the rest of the time we worked on card-making techniques.  Here's a photo of the group of us wearing the fabulous aprons Loll had made for us:

Head on over to the other's blogs for a mini blog hop on our results from the "dirty pour":

Loll Thompson - Stamping with Loll
Christine Alexander - It's a Card Day's Night
Nancy Littrell - scandinancy creates

Every one of them turned out very different, but all are beautiful!

Smooshed Acrylics with a Prim Poppy

Here's a card made with another one of my background pieces I made at Loll's the other day when we smooshed up all the leftover acrylic paint.

I made it for the SCS Color Challenge (Marina Mist, Crushed Curry, Wild Wasabi).  I don't have SU colours but got something very close with the blue, green, and yellow acrylic paints, spritzed with water and smooshed onto coated cs.

I added a die cut flower (cut twice and stuck together for more dimension) and a blue, a green, and a yellow sequin. It's popped up on fun foam. The sentiment is stamped with a Kaleidacolor ink pad.

Since it's smooshed, has some stamping, and one other thing of my choice (the poppy die cut), I'm linking it up at CAS Mix Up's smooshing challenge.

You have just two more days to enter - it closes on March 24th.

Supplies:

Stamps - Peddler's Pack sentiment

Ink - Kaleidacolor Caribbean Sea

Paper - white and coated cs

Size - A2

Accessories - blue, green, and yellow acrylic paints; Memory Box Prim Poppy die; blue, green, and yellow sequins; fun foam

Smooshed Sea

Christine Alexander (It's a Card Day's Night) and I spent yesterday at Loll Thompson's house playing with acrylic paints, small canvases, various techniques.  One of the techniques left a ton of paint on the craft table.  So we took various types of paper (watercolour, Bristol, cardstock, Yupo, etc.) and smooshed them in the leftover paint.  Here's a card made using one of my pieces:

I used a piece of Yupo to mop up a mixture of blue acrylic paint that had been spritzed with water.  I got a lovely background that seemed much like the sea.  So when I saw that the new Addicted to CAS challenge is "seaside", it seemed the perfect piece to incorporate into a seaside-themed card.

I stamped a very old PSX sentiment on it, trimmed it down, and added it to a white card base.  I had a leftover piece of sprayed cs (sprayed very appropriately with the Mr. Huey's spray called "Shell").  I cut the base of the shells out of the lighter spray area, and then the top outlines of the shells out of the more solid-coloured areas.  Glued them together and then attached to the card, and it was done.

I'm linking it up to Addicted to CAS:

and to CAS Mix-Up:

For CAS Mix Up, I have stamping, smooshing, and, for my choice, die cuts.

I hope you like it. 

Supplies:

Stamps - PSX

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black

Paper - white cs, Yupo

Size - A2

Accessories - blue acrylic paints, Elizabeth Craft Designs seashell dies, Mr. Huey's "Shell" spray