Muted Blues and Greys

I've got three cards today, all in muted blues and greys.

For Double D "Butterfly", Triple B "Birds, Bees, or Butterflies", and Stamping Sensations "Birds, Bees, or Butterflies", I messed around with some mixed media:

I stuck random bits of Tim Holtz rice paper on a piece of white cs, added a bit of gesso, went over some sections of a harlequin stencil with molding paste, stamped with music, text, and splat stamps in grey on a few random places.  Then trimmed the panel and edged it with a black marker.  I stamped teh butterflies in grey, fussy cut them, and edged them with the black marker and popped them up on the card.

Still in the grey colour scheme, I did a variation on a card I made a while back.  This time it's for the Christmas Kickstart Challenge "Let's Wreath It Up" and the Cut It Up Challenge "Anything Goes with a Die Cut".

Using a brick wall stencil, I went over it with a rough mixture of black, copper, and white embossing paste. It came out way too dark and too shiny so I then sponged white gesso over it to lighten it and dull it down a bit. I also splattered a bit of the white gesso on it and then trimmed it with a square die. Trimmed it with a square die and popped it up on the card base with fun foam.  I die cut the wreath twice out of scrap cs and once out of off white shimmer cs, glued them together and added it to the brick wall.  I added a sentiment (die cut with a narrow banner die) over the centre of the wreath.

The new Sparkles Christmas Challenge is "Include a Tree".  

I went with my old Penny Black stamp of snow blowing off trees.  I laid down a circle mask for the moon and then stippled around it with pale blue ink.  Stamped the trees and sentiment and heat embossed with sparkly embossing powder.  Trimmed the panel and popped it up on fun foam.

 
     

     

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - The Stampin' Place butterflies, various music, text, and splat stamps
Ink - Versafine Morning Mist
Paper - white cs, TH rice paper
Size - A2
Accessories - molding paste, harlequin stencil, gesso, black marker

Supplies for card 2: 
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - Distress Pumice Stone and Hickory Smoke, Versafine Smokey Gray
Paper - mixed media cs, chalk cs, off white shimmer cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - MFT brick wall stencil, Dreamweaver black, copper, and white embossing paste, Sizzix wreath die, fun foam, white gesso, narrow strip die

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Penny Black Snow Dust tree, unknown sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne. Memento light blue
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - clear sparkling embossing powder, circle die to create moon mask

Double Stencilled Butterfly and a CAS Dove

Inkspirational wants us to use stencils.  I used both a butterfly stencil and a text stencil.  Try It On Tuesday wants us to add some text.  And Seize the Birthday wants to see silhouettes.

I sponged through the butterfly stencil with various blues and mauves, then laid the script stencil over it, and went over the script with embossing paste. Because the butterfly stencil was still in place, I only got text embossing within the butterfly.

I then stamped the two small butterflies on my main panel and trimmed it with a square die. Then stamped the larger butterfly and sentiment in purple on scraps of cs and heat embossed them, then die cut them with oval dies. I rubbed the edge of the ink pad around the ovals to give a bit of definition to them and then assembled the card.

I was going to add it to the Paper Players tic-tac-toe challenge (the top horizontal row - CAS, something that flies, square card) but realized it wasn't actually CAS once it was done.  So I made a quick Christmas card for the same tic-tac-toe row (and I really do need to plough on with Christmas cards).  I'm also adding it to Christmas All Year (blue Christmas).

A very easy card with a stamped and heat embossed peace dove, die cut with an oval, and mounted on white glitter cs cut with a fancy die, and on a blue shimmer card base.

   

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Visible Image butterflies, A Muse sentiment
Ink - Distress Faded Jeans and Dusty Concord
Paper - white and mixed media cs
Size - 5.75" square
Accessories - Visible Image butterfly stencil, Stamperia text stencil, Dreamweaver embossing paste, clear embossing powder, Spellbinders oval and square dies

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown small dove stamp
Ink - ColorBox True Blue
Paper - white cs, blue shimmer cs, white glitter cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Spellbinders Fleur de Lis square die and small oval die, clear embossing powder

Designer Paper Christmas and Wildflower Birthday

I'm trying to make sure I make at least two cards a month using up some of my stash of designer paper.  The latest Double D challenge is "Designer Paper" so it prompted me to get this one made.  It's also for the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Red and Green".

I used some old Graphic 45 dp that has images for the 12 Days of Christmas. The 12 drummers drumming panel is mostly red and green so I added it to a card base and then to make it more interesting, I die cut the snowflake / music die in dark red (and twice more in scrap cs, so that glued together they have some substance and dimension) and also the Joy sentiment die.

Seize the Birthday wants to see "Flowers", AAA Birthday is anything birthday, and Triple B is always any combination of Birds, Blooms, Butterflies" - I've got blooms and butterflies today.

The image is stamped and watercoloured. The tiny butterflies are die cut from a scrap of smooshed cs.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Paper - cream and red cs, Graphic 45 dp
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - SSS Jingle Snowflakes die, Spellbinders Joy die

Supplies:
Stamps - Indigo Blu wildflowers, SU sentiment
Ink - Versafine Smokey Grey
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, SU sentiment punch, Poppy Stamps Butterfly Sprinkles dies
 

No Stamping Birthday and Green with Butterflies

Seize the Birthday wants to see a "no stamping" card and the AAA Birthday Card Challenge wants something masculine.  I combined the two for my nephew's upcoming birthday.

I started by spraying some mixed media cs with gold and a little bit of silver metallic sprays. When dry, I die cut the gears border and the sentiment.

I glued them to a background on which I'd lightly stencilled some gold ink, and then popped the panel up on fun foam for some dimension. 

Triple B wants to see birds, blooms, or butterflies in green, and the Double D challenge wants to see mostly green on the card.

I created a debossed inky resist with my butterflies embossing folder by rubbing the raised pattern with Versamark, putting mixed media cs into the folder, and running it through my Cuttlebug, and then adding clear embossing powder and heating it.  See this video for instructions.

I then smooshed the panel with a bunch of green Distress inks and a little touch of blue.  I added the panel to the card base and die cut a solid butterfly out of white shimmer cs and the top layer of the butterfly out of blue shimmer cs (I tried doing it with green shimmer cs but there wasn't enough contrast and also I wanted to bring out the touch of blue in the background a bit).

Supplies for card 1:
Ink - Martha Stewart gold ink
Paper - white and mixed media cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - various gold and silver sprays, TCW screen print stencil, gears die

Supplies for card 2:
Ink - Versamark, various green and blue Distress inks
Paper - mixed media cs, white cs, white and blue shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Darice embossing folder, memory Box butterfly dies

Black and Grey Dove / Happy Birthday, Double D / Happy New Year

I've been negligent lately about getting blog posts written up and now I'm getting close to deadlines for challenges I want to enter.  So I've got three cards for you today.

First up for Color Throwdown "Black, White, Grey", I had a great time playing with mixed media (not my usual style but I enjoyed this so much I want to do more of it).

I started by die cutting the dove out of white cs and, with it placed on a piece of scrap copy paper, I sponged grey ink on parts of it (and a touch of green ink on the leaf).  The sponging left interesting patterning on the copy paper (you can see some of the dove's feathers just above the polka dots) so I trimmed it to be my focal panel.  I then tore a bit of black and white TH collage paper (the music in the top left) and a bit of tissue paper (the grey and white polka dots in the bottom right) and glued them onto the copy paper panel.  I added some grey text and diamond stamping.  Then added it to the card base.  I die cut two more doves from scrap cs and glued them together with the sponged one, added it to the card, and also added some small die cut stars sponged with the same grey ink.

Next up, it's Double D's 9th year of challenges so they are asking for birthday cards and Beautiful Blossoms has a lovely mood board full of pink flowers.

I put the flower stamp in my MISTI and inked it up with pink and green markers, misting lightly, stamping and repeating until I was happy with the results.  I added a bit of stamping with a honeycomb stamp and a postage stamp using Distress Antique Linen ink, and also sponged around the edges.  Added a birthday sentiment and a few die cut, watercoloured butterflies.

And my third card for today is for Shopping our Stash "Feature Stars".  Because of the postal strike we had before Christmas, I didn't mail out any Christmas cards so am getting a few Happy New Year cards made for family outside of Vancouver and mailing them now.

I chose a starry embossing folder and inked it up with Distress inks close to gold in colour and spritzed with water before embossing my panel with it. I was pretty happy with the results I got.

I stamped and heat embossed my sentiment on white cs and die cut it with a star die, popped it up on fun foam, and scattered some multi-coloured tiny star sequins around for some bling.  It's going to my youngest sister who loves bling more than the rest of us!

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Tim Holtz small diamonds, Old Island Stamp Co. script background
Ink - Distress Iced Spruce and Hickory Smoke
Paper - TH Christmas collage paper, dotted tissue paper, white cs, copy paper
Size - A2
Accessories - tiny star dies, Penny Black dove die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Magenta flowers, TH postmark, Kaisercraft honeycomb
Ink - Distress Antique Linen
Paper - watercolour paper, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tombow markers, tiny butterfly dies

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Studio G sentiment
Ink - Distress Wild Honey and Mustard Seed
Paper - watercolour paper, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Darice embossing folder, sparkly embossing powder, Spellbinders star die, fun foam, tiny star sequins

 

Monochrome Christmas and Birthday

This month the Group of Seven Cardmakers chose Monochrome as the technique for our cards.  I opted to do Christmas cards to build up my stash.  The first card I made followed the method in this video.

I stamped and heat embossed the poinsettia in white on red cs, then added colour to the poinsettia with red coloured pencils.  I trimmed the panel, added a red glitter border, added it to a red card base, popped on a white heat embossed sentiment, and embellished with clear gemstones in the centre.

Next up, shades of green:

For this card, I put the stamp in my MISTI and coloured it directly on the stamp with Memento Dew Drop ink pads, stamping and reinking until I was happy with the results.  Trimmed it, mounted it on a dark green card base, and added sparkly embellishments on the berries and a green bow on top of the stems.

And I had to get some blue in here so my third card is all shades of blue, and will go off to my sister in Ontario for her birthday.

I sprayed the background with various blue sprays, then die cut the hexagon out of it in three places.  I stamped various script and postmark stamps on the hexagon pieces I'd cut, and sponged around their edges.  I then cut hexagons again from scrap cs - put the scrap ones in first and then the sprayed and stamped ones on top for some dimension.  I created a piece of smooshed blue and die cut the wildflowers, sentiment, and tiny butterflies from that.    

There are lots of ways to make monochromatic cards - head on over to the Group of Seven blog and see all of the cards our Design Team has made.  We'd love to have you link up a card using your favourite method for monochromatic cards.

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black poinsettia, unknown sentiment
Ink - ColorBox white
Paper - red cs, red glitter cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - white embossing powder, coloured pencils, Spellbinders square dies, clear gemstones

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black greenery, Purple Onion sentiment
Ink - Memento Dew Drops Northern Pine, Bamboo Leaves, Cottage Ivy
Paper - light green and dark green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - sparkly stick-ons, green ribbon

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - various postage and script stamps
Ink - Distress Faded Jeans
Paper - mixed media and off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tattered Angels, Perfect Pearls, and Mr. Huey's blue sprays; Gummiapan sentiment die, Poppy Stamps butterfly dies, Tim Holtz wildflowers dies, Spellbinders hexagon die

Another Black Cat and Some Inkblending

I'm posting cards for the two AAA challenges today as they are linking up and offering prizes as long as you make different cards for each challenge.  For AAA Birthday Challenge "Favourite Colours", I've used blue, grey, and black - most of my clothes are in those colours!  I still had the Lavinia black cat sitting on my desk so decided to make a another birthday card using it as I have a few friends who love cats.  I'm also entering it at the Crazy for Cat Challenge.  It seems quite appropriate to be posting a black cat card on Friday Oct 13!

I masked a outer edges of a square and a moon on white cs and then blended Faded Jeans and Chipped Sapphire over it.  Then I removed the mask and stamped the botanical images in Iced Spruce.  I stamped the cat (with him partly going out of the square) and the sentiment in black.    Trimmed with a stitched square die and popped the panel up on fun foam.

And for AAA Challenge "Ink Blending with 3 or more colours", I made this card:

I used various Distress inks to create an ink blended background.  I trimmed it down and then heat embossed the delphinium in white.  The butterflies are die cut from a piece that I smooshed with Distress Oxide inks. 

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Lavinia "Mooch", unknown botanical stamps and sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne, Distress Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire, and Iced Spruce
Paper - white cs   Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Lil Inker stitched square die, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Magenta delphinium, unknown sentiment (Rubbernecker?)
Ink - various Distress and Distress Oxide inks, ColorBox white, Ranger Archival Cobalt
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - white embossing powder, Gina Marie small butterfly dies

Butterfly Birthday

I don't think people should be allowed to have birthdays in January!!  After all the making of Christmas cards and all the hectic socializing of Christmas and New Years, I hit a real slump for both card-making and socializing.  So I find I keep missing or nearly missing friends' birthdays.

Got this card made today for a girlfriend's birthday.

Steps:
- place the butterfly stencil over coated cs and go over it with embossing paste.
- sprinkle various blue Brushos around the butterflies and spritz with water.
- when dry, trim the panel, and add it to a navy card base.
- add a navy cs die cut butterfly and sentiment. 

Love all the shades of blue (my and my friend's favourite colour).  The navy looks almost black, but in real life, it is definitely navy.

I'm heading over to three challenges with it.

Just Us Girls "Butterfly Photo Inspiration"

 

Krafty Chicks "All Occasions" Challenge - I chose birthday. 

Seize the Birthday "Stencils" 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Paper - navy cs, heavy coated cs
Size - A2
Accessories - various blue Brushos, Spellbinders butterfly die, butterfly stencil, Dee's Distinctively sentiment die, glossy embossing paste