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

Candy Canes, Candles, and Reindeer

I have this card for Jingle Belles:

They wanted a card in inspired by their banner:

I saw the image (on the left of the banner) of the candy canes tied up with Christmas greenery and gold ribbon, and immediately thought of a stamp I have.  And I kept lots of red in the card as the banner has a lot of red.

The image is stamped and coloured with coloured pencils, including a metallic gold pencil for the ribbon.  I trimmed it with a label die and went around the edge with a fine black marker to give the edge some definition.  I popped it up on fun foam on a border cut out of candy cane dp, using the next size up of the same label die.  I used a red cs for the base that has a tiny bit of gold shimmer in it (hard to see in the photo).

Next up:

Festive Friday is celebrating a Traditional Christmas - my card has quite a few of the elements from its list - I've got red, green, gold, candles, and a Christmas sentiment.  And the Colorful Options Challenge wants red, green, and gold so I'm linking it up there too.

Stamped and watercoloured, a bit of gold splatter added, a gold shimmer border and a gold sentiment cut out with a banner die. 

 

And one more card today:

Shopping our Stash wants a masculine card and The Paper Players want a deer - the two go together really well.

 

My card was inspired by a video I saw online a while back (that unfortunately I can't find again). The moon and the snowbanks are done with masking and sponging. Then the reindeer and the holly branches are stamped on top. I bordered with black cs, went along the snow lines with clear Stickles, painted the berries with a red Posca paint pen, splattered with a white Posca paint pen, and added a Tim Holtz sentiment sticker.  

I made a second version, adding a bit of text stamping to take the place of the sentiment sticker on the first version:

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - either Serendipity or Creative Images candy canes, tiny joy sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - red shimmer and white cs, candy cane dp
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, metallic gold pencil, Spellbinders label dies, black marker, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - mixed media, off white and gold shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, small banner die

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Lavinia
Ink - various Distress inks, Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - red and white Posca paint pens, clear Stickles, TH sentiment sticker, 

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

Spotting Santa

Another two weeks have flown by and it's time for a beautiful new mood board from Peace on Earth.  I was inspired by the top left image (see the mood board at the bottom of my post).

I arranged the animals and the Santa sleigh / moon stamp in my MISTI and stamped and heat embossed them (that way I could sponge my sky and snow hills over them).

I tore strips of paper to mask the snowy hills and die cut a circle to mask the moon, and sponged very lightly above the strips for the ground, with two darker blue inks above the horizon one, and then removed the moon mask and sponged a bit of yellow around the edges.  Any stray ink was easy to wipe off the black embossing.

For a finishing touch I very sprinkled a little bit of Frantage Chunky White embossing powder and heated from underneath to create a light snowfall.

Here's the mood board:

Please head over to Peace on Earth to see more inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and then join us with a card either inspired by the mood board or "anything Christmas". 

Supplies:
Stamps - Lavinia animals, Technique Junkies Santa with moon
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne, Memento Summer Sky, Distress Stormy Sky and Chipped Sapphire
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - clear embossing powder, Stampendous Frantage Chunky Embossing Powder

Gold Owls and a Silver Moon

A card for the Tic Tac Toe Challenge - I chose the left hand vertical line that says White Cardstock, CAS Design, Gold / Silver Embossing.  And the Inkspirational Challenge wants to see something new - the owl stamp is new.

I stamped the image on white cs with Versamark and carefully added silver embossing powder to the moon and gold to the owls and branch.  I coloured in the berries with a red marker and added a red sentiment and red border.

Tic Tac Toe Challenge

Inkspirational Challenge

Supplies:
Stamps - Crafty Individuals owls, unknown sentiment
Ink - Versamark, Memento Rhubarb Stalk
Paper - white and red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - red marker, gold and silver embossing powder

Bears in the Moonlight

AAA Cards' theme is "Moonlight".

I stamped and watercoloured the image, using my Gansai Tambi paints.  The set includes a metallic gold paint so I used that on the stars.  I decided that since the bears were already looking up at the stars, they might as well be looking at the moon as well so used a small circle die to cut the moon out of pale gold glitter cs.  I used the same glitter cs for the sentiment.  The card base is a similar shade of gold shimmer cs.

I drew extra hill lines with a fine pointed black marker around the bears as the baby bear looked like he was sitting in thin air in the stamp.  I added blue shading to the hills.

Here's a closer photo, hopefully showing more of the gold shine of the stars and the glitter cs of the moon:

I'm also adding it to The Merry Christmas Challenge "Anything Goes" and The Rudolph Days "Anything Goes" challenge.

Supplies:

Stamps -  Penny Black

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Paper - gold shimmer cs, scrap of gold glitter cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, fine black marker, Spellbinders circle die, Tattered Lace sentiment die, fun foam

Christmas Fairy

This week 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is asking for:

I am trying to use up some of my backgrounds from my UFO box so pulled out one that I made when trying out a gelli plate - so long ago I can't quite remember how I did it.

I stamped the Lavinia fairy sitting in the moon and heat embossed in sparkly white.  I went over the inside of the moon with white Wink of Stella and stamped and heat embossed some small snowflakes.  The pale stars, by the way, are part of the gelli plate background.

I tore a rough edge on a scrap of cs and stamped and heat embossed my sentiment.

I ended up with an odd proportioned piece that wouldn't work on an A2 card so found an odd envelope and cut a card base to fit in, then trimmed down my panel to suit it.  I popped it up on fun foam.

Supplies:

Stamps - Lavinia fairy in moon, two small snowflake peg stamps, unknown sentiment

Ink - ColorBox Frost White and Peacock Gold Blue

Paper - white cs, mixed media cs

Size - 4.25x6.25"

Accessories - white Wink of Stella, white sparkly and clear sparkly embossing powder, fun foam

New Moon Through a Window

I like doing the SCS Ways to Use It challenges but was too busy with Christmas baking last week to do the "Windows on the World" challenge so combined it with this week's "A New Moon" challenge.

The trees are stamped and heat embossed, and at the end I put some Rock Candy glitter on the snowy parts.

I made the moon mask by cutting a small Spellbinders circle and then recutting it with the die moved over to get a crescent shape.

Then I sponged the sky, leaving it lighter where the moon would cast some light.

I cut two of the windows and glued them together for substance. And used a dp as "wallpaper".

I've stamped "Happy New Year" inside so will send it to a friend I didn't send a Christmas card to.

Supplies:

Stamps - unknown tree stamps

Ink - Versafine Olympia Green; Distress Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire, and Dusty Concord

Paper - white cs, Recollections dp

Size - A2

Accessories - Memory Box window die, clear embossing powder, Rock Candy glitter