Frosty Winter, Frosty Friends

Working away on Christmas cards!  First up for My Time to Craft "Using Die Cuts", a card with nothing but die cuts:

Very quick to make (except for poking out all the little bits of the die!).  I cut the Frostyville Frame and the sentiment out of of a blue/grey shimmer cs, and the Frostyville Frame background out of pale blue glitter cs, glued them all together and added them to a white card base.

The second card is for The Paper Players "Four Legged Friends".  The stamp I used has two dogs and a cat who all definitely look like friends, and a sentiment saying "frosty friends":

 

 

The image is coloured with coloured pencils, trimmed with a pierced dot rectangle, bordered with green shimmer cs and some dp.

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Paper - blue/grey shimmer cs, pale blue glitter cs, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Memory Box Frostyville Frame die, Penny Black sentiment die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SSS animals, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs, green shimmer cs, unknown dp
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Sizzix pierced dot rectangle die

Garden Flowers, Christmas Animals

A twofer today.  For the Sisterhood of Crafters "In the Garden", I used a flower stamp and a dp that talks about gardens, seeds, and growing.

The image is watercoloured, with a bit of splattering around it. The sentiment is heat embossed.  I used a scrap of the dp and a strip of black cs down the side.

The second card is for 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Pets" and My Time to Craft Christmas "Christmas Animals":

I used coloured pencils for the image, trimmed it with an oval die, put it on fun foam on a nice warm red patterned paper background.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Altenew Charmed, unknown sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, black and white cs, Graphic 45 dp
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, clear embossing powder

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SSS Furry Friends, unknown sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white cs, patterned paper
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Spellbinders oval die, fun foam

A Window and Some Dogs in a Boat

Addicted to CAS wants to see a window.

 

 

I found a bit of leftover background (probably smooshed with various Distress inks) in my UFO box. I stamped the Magenta stamp onto it (the sentiment is part of the stamp) in brown, trimmed it down to fit behind a die cut window (cut twice and glued together for more dimension), and popped it up on fun foam.

 

And Penny Black Saturday Challenge wants to see something funny.  I created my own humorous sentiment for it.

I made this card for my niece who has a wonderful English bulldog called Norman. Norman's favourite thing to do is sleep so this image is totally perfect as the bulldog is asleep while all his friends enjoy their boat ride.

I typed and printed a sentiment to fit the scene. Watercoloured the image, bordered with navy cs that I trimmed with my deckle trimmer.

 

    

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Magenta
Ink - Archival Acorn
Paper - white cs, scrap of a background
Size - A2
Accessories - Memory Box window die, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - watercolour paper, white and navy cs
Size - A2
Accessories - computer generated sentiment, watercolour paints, TH deckle edge trimmer

A Rainbow of Spaniels and Santa Hats

It's time to remind you about April's CAS Christmas challenge, "Rainbow".  I've done a rainbow of spaniels wearing Santa hats.

English Cocker spaniels come in a huge range of colours - 23 different colours or colour mixes in fact!!  I've had three different ones - a blue roan, a liver roan, and my present sweet Tessa who is orange roan.  So I coloured the dogs on my card in a variety of colours.

And for the rainbow challenge, I did their hats and little gifts in the traditional rainbow of colours.  And then added those colours below them to ground them.

A simple sentiment and a black border, a bit of fun foam to add dimension, and the card was done.

Please come and join us with your Christmas card using "rainbow" as the theme - you have until April 24th to link up.  There is more inspiration from the Design Team over at CAS Christmas.

I'm also linking up with:

Day of the Month Card Club's challenge "Find a Rainbow Day".

Penny Black Saturday Challenge "Cute".

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white and black cs
Size - 6.25x3.25" mini slimline
Accessories - coloured pencils, fun foam

Framed Spaniels

Just Us Girls is asking us to add a frame to our cards.

 

 

I needed to make a thank you card for my dog breeder so decided to frame the two dogs.

 

 

I stamped and fussy cut the two spaniels - one looks like Tessa and is in her colouring, and the other looks like dear old Will who passed away two years ago.  I die cut the pierced frame die three times and glued them together to give substance to the frame.

Here's a photo of the two of them together - Tessa still a puppy, Will a tired old fellow - but they loved to snuggle together.

I sure do miss sweet Will.

Supplies:
Stamps - Grey Wolf Graphics dog stamp, Raintree dog stamp, Memory Box sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black, Distress Vintage Photo
Paper - white cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - MFT pierced square frame die

Dogs Running on Ribbon

The Jingle Belles Christmas card challenge wants to see cards that incorporate ribbon.

I had a great scrap of paw-printed ribbon that I decided to pair with one of my favourite Christmas stamps.

Stamped, watercoloured, the strip of ribbon to ground the dogs, and a black sentiment border die cut on the top.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, black and white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Penny Black sentiment die, paw print ribbon

Dogs Running on Ribbon

I'm back with a reminder card for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge - I'm thrilled to be their Guest Designer this month.  It's Anything Goes - Optional "Use Ribbon or Twine".  So I opted to use ribbon as a way to ground my parade of Christmas dogs.

A quick CAS card!  Stamped, watercoloured, a strip of paw print ribbon to ground the pups, and a border of black die cut on the top with the sentiment die.

Thank you, Penny Black Saturday Challenge, for inviting me to Guest Design this month!

 
I'm also linking up with the Color Throwdown.  They want red, black, grey, and white.

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, black and white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Penny Black sentiment die, paw print ribbon

Norman, the English Bulldog

My niece has a wonderful English Bulldog called Norman.  Here's a photo of him:

When I saw the Stamping Bella stamp of the English Bulldogs, I just had to have it to make a birthday card for my niece.

I stamped in brown and watercoloured, matching the dog on the left to Norman's colours.  The sentiment is heat embossed in copper and the panel is bordered with copper cs.

Paper Players are asking for "Something New" (my bulldog stamp) and their inspiration board has a photo of a somewhat bulldog-like pup.

And Seize the Birthday has an optional challenge "Layer It" - I have two layers on top of my card base.

And even though this is for my niece, I think it would make an equally good masculine birthday card.  So I'm linking up to The Male Room "Anything Masculine Goes".

Supplies:
Stamps - Stamping Bella Bully Trio, SU sentiment
Ink - Archival Potting Soil, Versamark
Paper - watercolour paper, white and copper cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, copper embossing powder

Three Friends + One Sentiment

AAA Cards has a great challenge this time - "One Plus Three + Friends":

So a sentiment plus three things from the wheel and the optional twist of "friends".  Here's my card:

My three choices are a stamped image, coloured pencils, and one matted layer.

I think it qualifies as friends, don't you, as the two dogs and the cat are sitting together as if they were great friends?

Supplies:

Stamps - SSS Furry Christmas

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - white, bristol, and green shimmer cs

Size - A2

Accessories - coloured pencils, Gamsol, glitter, Spellbinders oval dies, fun foam

A Rainbow of Spaniels

Time to remind you to create a card for CAS Watercolour using this month's theme:

Many of you know that I have two English Cocker Spaniels but I bet few of you know that English Cockers come in a wide spectrum of colours, probably more than any other breed - there are over 20 colours allowed under kennel club breed standards.  Breeders often talk about the rainbow of English Cocker colours.  So a stamp that features them seems appropriate for a rainbow challenge.

I stamped on hot press watercolour paper and watercoloured with Gansai Tambi paints.  There were enough Santa hats, gifts, balloon, etc. that I could get all the colours of the rainbow in there.  Then I decided to repeat the rainbow under them to ground them.

I added a sentiment featuring the word "merry" since the English Cocker has historically been referred to as the "merry cocker" due to their happy playful personality.

I added a very thin black border and popped it up on fun foam on a rustic cream cardbase.  I went over the pompoms and brims of the hats with a Quickie glue pen and added glitter.  Here's a close-up:

Please come on over to CAS Watercolour and check out the rest of the inspiration from the Design Team and our Guest Designer, Hannelie of the Desert Diva blog.  You have until May 24th to link up a clean and simple card that uses a rainbow of some sort.

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black dogs and sentiment

Ink - Ranger Archival Jet Black

Paper - hot press watercolour paper, PTI rustic cream cs, black cs

Size - 6.25x3.25"

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, glitter, fun foam

Merry Monday Gifts

This week's Merry Monday challenge is "Gifts".

I pulled out my stamp of a sweet parade of pups wearing their Santa hats and carrying gifts.

I stamped, coloured with coloured pencils, bordered with red, and a bit of Wink of Stella on the ruff and pompoms of the hats (sorry, the sparkle and shimmer it gives doesn't show in the photo).

The dog in the lead is coloured in black and grey like my old dog Will, and then the goofy young one bringing up the rear is coloured like my young pup Tessa.  It kind of suits them -   Will, the wise steady old fellow, leading all the others, and crazy playful Tessa getting distracted by something and then having to gallop along to catch up!

Here's a recent photo of the two of them:

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black dogs

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - red and white cs

Size - A2

Accessories - SU sentiment tags, coloured pencils, Wink of Stella

Favourite Stamps

Addicted to CAS used a code word for their challenge:

I had a very hard time choosing my favourite, but in the end went with a stamp of an English Cocker Spaniel (the breed of my dogs, and since they are my favourite little furry beings, I thought a stamp of them should be my favourite stamp).

Here's the two of them:

I stamped them in inks representing their colours and fussy cut them.  Then grounded them by stamping the sentiment below and added a bit of faint stenciling behind them for interest.

I'm giving the card to friends who are going to look after them when I'm away.

Supplies:

Stamps -

Ink -

Paper -

Size -

Accessories -