Santa Flying over Woods and Snowy Monoprint

Our hot weather has ended and I actually have socks and a sweater on today so posting Christmas cards seems quite appropriate!

First up for My Time to Craft Christmas "Woods" (a grove of trees, a forest, etc.), I have Santa flying over a grove of evergreens.  It's also for Rudolph Days (anything Christmas) and Stamping Sensations "Christmas in July".

I brayered the background on coated cs, using a mask for the moon and two shades of blue Distress ink. I stamped the trees and sentiment while the background was in my MISTI to make sure I got a good impression and to avoid smudging. Then added a die cut Santa and sleigh, and a black border.

Next up, Jingle Belles want to see snow.

For my snowy background, I used a technique I learned from this Jennifer Maguire video.  I blended a couple of shades of blue Distress inks on a piece of white cs, then stamped the snowflake background in Versamark and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  I spritzed it generously with a clear shimmer spray and then placed a second piece of plain white cs on top of it and ran it through my Big Shot.  The clear embossing creates a resist and only the surrounding ink transfers to the second piece of cs as the Big Shot applies pressure.  It's that second piece that I've used as my background for this card.

I allowed the lovely soft background to take centre stage on the card.  I bordered it with a blue glitter cs and die cut the sentiment out of the same glitter cs (and also out of white cs that I slightly offset to give a bit of white showing behind the blue glitter).

 

 

   

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Impression Obsession tree line, Make an Impression sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne, Distress Speckled Egg and Faded Jeans
Paper - coated cs, white and black c
Size - A2
Accessories - Frantic Stamper Santa's Sleigh die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown snowflake background stamp
Ink - various blue Distress inks, Versamark
Paper - white cs, blue glitter cs
Size - A2
Accessories - SSS Snowy Greetings die, clear embossing powder, clear shimmer spray

Wildflower Monoprint with Birds

CAS Mix Up is featuring a technique that I really enjoy but am not always successful with - stencil monoprints.  After a couple of false starts, I came up with a piece I was happy to use and I made this card:

I used this video from SCS for my technique.  I used three colours of Distress mini inks, randomly pressing them onto my TH wildflower stencil.  Then I spritzed with water and flipped the stencil over onto a piece of watercolour paper.  I pressed and blotted with a rag to soak up extra water and press down on the stencil to get the ink to absorb into the watercolour paper.  After removing the stencil, I let it air dry.  Once dry, I put the stencil back in place and randomly inked up a text stamp and pressed it through the stencil.

I had a piece of black cs that I'd sprinkled and spritzed with Magicals.  I die cut two birds from it and again twice more from plain black cs, stacking them up for some substance and dimension.  I added them to the stenciled image, along with a white heat embossed sentiment on a black cs banner.  I popped the panel up on fun foam.

Here's a close-up of the birds showing some of the colour and shimmer from the Magicals:

For CAS Mix Up, I have the required stencil monoprint technique, stamping of both the sentiment and some text, the use of Magicals, die cutting, and heat embossing.

Supplies:

Stamps - Memory Box sentiment, unknown small script stamp

Ink - Distress Bundled Sage, Dusty Concord, and Faded Jeans for the monoprint; Distress Weathered Wood for the text; ColorBox white for the sentiment

Paper - watercolour paper, black and cream cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Tim Holtz wildflowers stencil, Magicals, Papermania Sea Foam White embossing powder

Flowers for Challenges

I love cards with flowers on them so was happy to see another flower-themed challenge at SCS - this time the CAS challenge "May Flowers".  And the new Addicted to CAS challenge is "Petals".  I made this card for them:

I have lovely orange and yellow poppies (both Welsh poppies and California poppies) and some of the larger oriental poppies blooming in my garden right now, so I'm inspired to use poppies on my cards!

Stamped, heat embossed, and watercoloured, die cut with a stitched square to add interest, and bordered with black - it feels like a real back to basics card with no embellishments, no dp, nothing fancy!

And the SCS Technique Lovers' Challenge is "Stencil Monoprint" so I used a flower stencil for it:

The Stencil Monoprint technique really takes some practice! I finally got one I'm happy with.

I used two colours of Distress inks and a flower stencil as I'm also doing it for the "May Flowers" CAS challenge.

I added a die cut sentiment (cut twice and glued together to give more body to it) and several sequins. The focal panel is popped up on a piece of fun foam.

Poppy supplies:

Stamps: Sparkle n Sprinkle poppies, unknown sentiment

Paper: watercolour paper, cream and black cs

Paper Size: 4.25" square

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black

Accessories: Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, clear embossing powder, Lil Inkers stictched square die

Stencil Monoprint supplies:

Paper: watercolour paper, dark blue shimmer cs, white cs

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Distress Faded Jeans and Dusty Concord

Accessories: stencil, Sissix celebrate die, sequins, fun foam

Techniques: stencil monoprint