Snow Day

Well, Vancouver got one of its rare heavy snowfalls and everything I planned to do today is cancelled.  So a good time to get a blog post done before some of the challenges I like end.

First up, for the ABC Christmas Challenge "B is for Buildings" and My Time to Craft "Make It Male" (I figure buildings and dark colours make for quite a masculine card):

I started with the background - used a circle die to cut a round mask for the moon and a hilly slopes die for the snowy ground (both cut out of masking paper). Then splattered masking fluid on the sky for snow. Then sponged with two shades of blue Distress ink, leaving it lighter around the moon. Once the ink was dry, I removed the paper masks and rubbed off the masking fluid. I die cut the buildings and trees out of black cs and added them to the background. Finished off by using white gouache on a fine paint brush to add snow to the roofs.

Shopping our Stash wants "crafty remnants" - things out on our desks leftover from previous projects.  

For some reason, I'd die cut a lot of deer before Christmas and they were all still sitting there unused.  I also had an odd-sized background made with emboss-resist trees and some blue sponging.  So I thought the deer could prance across in front of the trees.  And I added a sentiment in a similar shade of blue as the sponged sky.

 

 





Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Make an Impression sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Chipped Sapphire and Dusty Concord
Paper - white and black cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - masking fluid, masking paper, SSS Winter Village dies, circle die, hilly slope die, Dr Phil Martin's bleed-proof white gouache

Supplies:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - various blue Distress inks, Versamark
Paper - white and brown cs
Size - A2
Accessories - deer die cuts, clear embossing powder

Watercoloured Winter, Peaceful Ornament, and Grungy Birthday

Two more Christmas cards and one birthday card today!  

First, for ABC Christmas Challenge "W is for Watercolouring", Stamping Sensations "Winter", and Four Seasons "Winter" (the top left image on their mood board inspired me to pull out an old stamp that has a rustic wooden cabin as part of it).

The image is stamped, watercoloured, and added to a kraft cardbase.  Then I went over the snow lines, the snow on the fences, trees, and roof with a quickie glue pen and added glitter.  I put the sentiment inside as I didn't want to cover up any of the lovely image.

Next up for Addicted to CAS "Ornament":

A friend and I regularly go for tea at a little French bakery / coffee shop and the pastries are served on gold cardboard holders that I carefully clean and recycle to make large ornaments for cards. In this case, I dripped a couple of shades of red alcohol inks on the round part of the pastry holder and spritzed with rubbing alcohol to get it to run and cover the round part. When dry, I added a dove die cut from white glitter cs and a branch cut from green shimmer cs. I embellished with three little stick-on gold glitter circles and some matching gold glitter strips for the ornament's hanger. I let it all take centre stage on a plain white card base with just an added stamped and heat embossed sentiment. 

A male friend has a birthday coming up so I had my usual struggle to make a masculine card.  I'm linking it up with Sweet Stampin' "It's our Birthday" - they are celebrating the 15th year of their challenge.  And also Seize the Birthday "Masculine".

I found the stencilled piece in my unused background box - it was very intensely orange and I didn't like it, so I watered down some gesso and painted over it to lighten it up.  I stamped the Tim Holtz image in black and edged around it with Tea Dye Distress ink.  Then cut a rectangle out of the stencilled piece and layered it over the stamped image as a frame.  Added a birthday sentiment to the top of the frame.

   

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Northwoods
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, kraft cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, quickie glue pen, glitter

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - A Muse sentiment
Ink - ColorBox Gold, red alcohol inks
Paper - white cs, white glitter cs, green shimmer cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Impression Obsession dove die, recycled pastry holder, gold embossing powder, Anita's Glitterations gold strips and dots

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Tim Holtz man, unknown sentiment
Ink - various orange Distress inks, Distress Tea Dye, Versfine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Spellbinders rectangle die, clock stencil, gesso

Frosty Friends

Peace on Earth's new mood board (see at end of post) has the sweetest image of a young deer and a rabbit.  It immediately made me think of my Anita Jeram stamp.  And I had the perfect sentiment for it too.

Stamped and watercoloured, trimmed with a rectangle die, and bordered with some blue/grey cs.  The white spots on the deer were added with a Posca paint pen.

Here's the Peace on Earth mood board.  We'd love to see if it inspires you!

Supplies:
Stamps - Colorado Craft Co. Anita Jeram image, PB sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, blue/grey and off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, white Posca paint pen

Two Colour Challenges

Two recent colour challenges inspired my most recent Christmas cards.

First for 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Kraft, Black, and White" and also for Cardz 4 Guyz "A Winter Scene":

I die cut the birch trees out of white cs and layered them over black shimmer cs.  I added a few snowflakes cut from white glitter cs.  The deer are cut twice from kraft cs, glued together, and sponged a little bit with Distress Brushed Corduroy.  Their legs are glued to the white ground and their upper bodies popped up on the black background.  

Then a very traditional colour challenge from The Paper Players - "Red, Green, and Gold":

I put the berry branch stamp in my MISTI and inked it up with red and green markers, spritzed lightly with water, and stamped on watercolour paper.  Repeated until I was happy with the results.  I trimmed the panel with a pierced dot rectangle die, and layered it over a gold shimmer card base.  I die cut the sentiment twice out of the same gold cs, glued them together, and added to the card.

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Simon Says Stamp sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne, Distress Brushed Corduroy
Paper - black shimmer cs, white and kraft cs, white glitter cs
Size - A2
Accessories - deer dies, birch tree die, small snowflake die, pop dots

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black
Paper - watercolour paper, gold shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - red and green markers, Spellbinders pierced dot rectangle die, Penny Black Be Merry die

One New Stamp, One Very Old Stamp

More Christmas of course!  Today I'm using a new stamp on my first card and a very old stamp on my second one!

First for the Double D challenge "Oh Deer".  They have a lovely mood board (see below) and I chose the upper left image of the spotted fawns to inspire me to choose the stamp I used:

I just love the Anita Jeram stamps from Colorado Craft Co. so am buying a lot of her Christmas designs.  Since it's a new stamp that I hadn't yet inked up, I'm linking it at NBUS as well.  

Watercoloured, trimmed with a pierced dot die, layered over copper shimmer cs, with glitter added to the snow lines and on the tree branches.

My second card is for Shopping Our Stash "Embossing Wet or Dry".  I went with an embossed background and one of the stamps I bought in my early years of card making.

I created an embossed script background with cream shimmer cs for my focal panel of a stamped and watercoloured image of a chickadee and greenery.   I die cut the image with an oval die cut and also die cut a red oval border. 

    

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Colorado Craft Co., SSS sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, copper shimmer and off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Spellbinders pierced dot rectangle die, glitter

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU Beautiful Season, Impression Obsession sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - cream cs, red shimmer and cream shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Twinkling H2Os, script embossing folder, Spellbinders oval dies

Deer Eating the Garden

A friend of mine who is a keen gardener moved to an island from the city, and now has to battle the local wild deer who keep coming out of the woods and eating her beloved flowers and shrubs (they can jump over the high fence she built). So I made her a birthday card depicting this!

I stamped the Tim Holtz trees for the woods, then stenciled a tiny bit of a grid stencil to represent the fence and put a leaping die cut deer in front of it.

In the bottom left, I used some small Rubber Stamp Tapestry peg stamps in various colours to create shrubbery and flowers, and put a grazing deer there, trampling the bushes and eating the flowers.

I filled in all the remaining space with quite a large sentiment stamp.

I'm hoping she'll laugh rather than cry when she gets the card!

Linking up with:

Seize the Birthday "Create a Scene"

 

AAA Birthday "A Large Sentiment"

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Rubber Stamp Tapestry flowers, Inkdadinkado sentiment, Tim Holtz trees
Ink - various Memento inks
Paper - white and brown cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Impression Obsession and Memory Box reindeer dies, TCW Sketch Grid stencil, brown coloured pencil, fun foam

Reindeer Gazing on the Star of Wonder

Have you entered a card in the CAS Christmas challenge yet?  I'm hosting this month, and I chose "Deer" as the theme.

I wanted to do something quite different to the card I did for the opening of the challenge.

I started by sponging the deep blue sky, adding a bit of gold sponging in the area where the star would be giving off light.  I die cut two of the star of wonder, gluing them together to give that star more substance than the three small stars that were just single layers.

I tore two strips of white cs for snowy ground.  I stamped my sentiment on the lower one - it's actually just the first line of a longer sentiment.  I die cut the reindeer out of dark bronze shimmer cs (unfortunately it looks black in the photo) and added it to the upper strip of snow in a position where he is looking up at the star of wonder.  I put a bit of foam tape under his neck and head to emphasize him looking up.


It's CAS Christmas's first birthday, so we'd love to have you join us this month!

You have until March 24th to link up your card.  For more inspiration, head over to CAS Christmas and take a look at the cards by the rest of the Design Team and this month's Guest Designer, Chrissie (Simply One of a Kind).

Supplies:

Stamps - Serendipity sentiment

Ink - Delicata Golden Glitz, Distress Chipped Sapphire

Paper - white, gold shimmer, and dark bronze shimmer cs

Size - 6x4.25"

Accessories - Dee's Distinctively deer die, Memory Box Star of Wonder die, small star die, foam tape

Blue and Silver

I love the current Color Throwdown - light blue, dark blue, and silver:

Just love these colours together!  Here's my card:

I made a background with two shades of Oxide blue inks and one darker Distress blue.  I put the ink down on my craft sheet, spritzed with water, and splashed my watercolour paper into it, drying between layers.

I die cut the deer and trees twice - once out of silver glitter cs and once out of scrap white cs, gluing the two together for more dimension. 

I left it without a sentiment as I didn't want to clutter it up.  The sentiment is on the inside.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Ink - Distress Oxide blue inks, Distress Chipped Sapphire

Paper - watercolour paper, white cs, silver glitter cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Ali Express tree and deer die, fun foam