Recycled Dog, Grateful Horse, and Die Cut Swag

The Paper Players challenge is to recycle something on our cards.  As a dog lover, I often receive store-bought cards with dogs on them.  I received one on my last birthday with a beautiful black lab on it.  Good friends of mine have a black lab so I decided to recycle the lab to make a Christmas card for them.  

I have some old double-sided stick-on flourishes.  I arranged them in the corners of the card and added multi-coloured glitter to them.  Finished off with a die cut sentiment "joyful" - exactly how I would describe my friends' lab!

Cardz 4 Guyz wants to see a masculine card in blue.

I sponged a background with various blue Distress inks and layered my die cut over it, popping the body of the horse up a bit with foam tape. The whole panel is popped up on the card base with fun foam.

And a "threefer" today.  52 Christmas Card Throwdown wants us to use dies or punches.  I made a card with lots of greenery die cuts that I cut out of small scraps of various green cs - therefore I'm also entering it at the Snippets challenge.  And linking up with Cut It Up - anything goes with die cuts.

I die cut several different pieces of greenery out of various scraps of green cs.  I splattered them with white acrylic paint and arranged them on white cs dry embossed with a pine sprig embossing folder.  I wrapped bakers twine around my focal panel and made a bow from it.  The sentiment is stamped and die cut with a narrow banner die.

    

  

Supplies for card 1:
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - dog off of a store bought card, double-sided stick-on flourishes, multi-coloured glitter

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Memory Box sentiment
Ink - various Distress blue inks
Paper - white cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - StarLit Studio Horse Country die, fun foam, foam tape

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - white cs, scraps of different green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Sizzix embossing folder, TH greenery dies, sentiment label die, red/white baker's twine, white acrylic paint

A Gilded Bird and Green with No Grinch

A gilded bird for Seize the Birthday "Anything that Flies" and for Double D "Birds".

I tore a strip of cardboard from a box, and roughly peeled one layer of the paper off. Then randomly brushed gesso over it.

I put double sided tape on a small scrap of cs and added gilding flakes to it. I die cut the bird, getting his breast area onto the reddest section. I also die cut it twice out of scrap cs and glued them together for more dimension. The branch is cut from brown cs twice and glued together. Then glued both onto the corrugated cardboard.

I stamped and heat embossed a vertical sentiment in gold on a piece of chalk coloured cs and trimmed it with a stitched rectangle die. Added it to the card base and added the corrugated cardboard piece to it.

My second card is for Jingle Belles "Get Your Grinch On" (use green).

 

 

The base of the focal panel is dry embossed, then a variety of greenery die cuts arranged as a swag over it.  I wrapped baker's twine around my focal panel and made a bow at the top of the swag.  I splattered the swag with diluted white acrylic paint and an old paint brush. 

I cut the greenery die cuts out of different scraps of green cs so I'm also taking it over to Snippets.

 

      

 

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - unknown vertical sentiment
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - scrap of corrugated cardboard, chalk and brown cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tim Holtz bird die, gilding flakes, unknown branch die, gesso, gold embossing powder, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - white cs, scraps of different green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Sizzix embossing folder, TH greenery dies, sentiment label die, red/white baker's twine, white acrylic paint

A Swag with Pine Cones and Christmas Cups

For Sparkles Christmas Challenge "Christmas Flowers or Foliage" and for My Time to Craft Christmas "Pine Cones":

The image is coloured with coloured pencils, it's trimmed with quite a bit of white border around it, then thinly matted with green, and added to a red card base.  I put the sentiment strip on a diagonal so that it stayed within the green mat.

My second card is for 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Christmas Cup" and Sweet Stampin' "Tartan or Plaid".

When I was tidying my craft room recently, I came across some stamped, heat embossed, and die cut Christmas cups from an old SU set.  So when I saw the 52CCT challenge, I had the perfect opportunity to use them.  To fulfill the tartan or plaid challenge for Sweet Stampin', I pulled out some tartan ribbon and ran it across my focal panel to represent a Christmas table cloth for my cups to sit on.

  

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Serendipity Pine Swag, Mama Elephant sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white, red, and green cs
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - coloured pencils

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Paper Smooches sentiment, SU cups and steam
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne, red and green pigment inks
Paper - white cs
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - tartan ribbon, clear embossing powder, Lil Inkers stitched square die, foam dots

Two Colour Challenges

Colour challenges are an iffy thing for me.  I only do them if a) I like the particular colour combination and b) something comes to mind right away.  I don't like agonizing over how to use certain colours.  So for me to do two colour challenges in the same week is very rare!!

 First up The Color Throwdown "Red, Green, and Brown".  That definitely inspires me as I immediately thought of a Christmas swag with berries.

I had the die cut star sitting on my desk but it was just white so I smooshed it into a puddle of various brown Distress inks. I was really happy with the rustic look it ended up with.  

I also had a scrap of green smooshed cs sitting on my desk that was perfect for die cutting the greenery pieces.  The berry branch is cut from a scrap of dark brown cs.

Glued it all onto a white card base and added a sentiment, stick-on pearls for the berries, and a tiny bow.

The second card is for Colorful Options "Basic Black".  I went with Christmas again, thinking it would be good for a masculine card. 

I die cut the sentiment out of a panel of black shimmer cs and layered the panel over a white card base.  Then die cut the Memory Box Countryside Circle die out of white cs and then die cut it with a stitched semicircle die.  That gave it a nice straight bottom edge to sit on top of the Let It Snow sentiment.  Added a few die cut snowflakes and it was done.

The Color Throwdown "Red, Green, Brown"

Colorful Options "Basic Black"

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment
Ink - SU Real Red, various Distress browns and greens
Paper - white and brown cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Spellbinders star dies, TH greenery dies, red pearls, red metallic twine

Supplies for card 2:
Paper - black shimmer cs, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Memory Box Countryside Circle die, Memory Box Let It Snow die, various small snowflake dies, cross-stitched semi-circle die

Greenery and Ribbon

Christmas Craft Creations wants to see Ribbon or Twine on a Christmas card.  I used ribbon for a bow for my swag of greenery:

I had some scraps of cs that I'd sprayed with various green sprays leftover from another project, so I die cut some branches out of them.

I die cut the "Merry Christmas" frame from white cs and layered another scrap of the sprayed green cs behind the word Christmas. I layered it over a scrap of snowflake embossed white cs, using foam tape to give it some dimension. Then arranged the branches on top and added a red bow.

Since I used up a bunch of scraps, I'm also linking it up with the Snippets Challenge.

       

 

Supplies:
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - various green sprays, TH greenery dies, SU snow embossing folder, SSS Holiday Frame die, foam tape

Greenery for Peace on Earth Challenge

Time for another Peace on Earth Challenge!  It's a wonderful way to get some of your Christmas cards made well ahead of time. 

Here's the mood board that inspired me:

I used the black and white from the images but had no black and white gingham paper or ribbon, so used the hemstitch die to try and reflect the little squares in gingham.  I also used the idea of green branches and a swag.  I did have a bit of green and white gingham ribbon so added that.  The branches on my swag are die cut from a mix of green glitter and shimmer cs.

Please come and join us.  Peace on Earth is an "anything Christmas goes" challenge so you don't have to reflect the mood board if you don't want to.

I'm also adding the card to the Snippets Playground as I used up some little pieces of white, black, green glitter, and green shimmer cs.

Supplies:
Stamps - SU sentiment
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - white and black cs, green glitter and green shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tim Holtz greenery die cuts, Spellbinders hemstitch rectangle die, green gingham ribbon

Snowed In

Time for a new Peace on Earth Challenge with a great mood board to inspire you.  It inspired me to make this card:

I embossed a piece of white cs with the TH brick wall embossing folder and then rubbed Distress Fired Brick ink over the raised areas.  I die cut the door twice and glued it together for more substance; likewise die cut the sled twice out of brown cs.  Glued both to the brick wall background and added copper nailhead embellishment as a door handle.

I didn't like the bottom of the card so tore a strip of white cs, stamped the sentiment on it, and added it on top - makes it look as if the people are snowed in with the snow coming up against the door!

To make it look more Christmas-like, I punched a few little pine sprigs from decorative paper, glued them together to make a swag for the door, and added a red bow.

Here's the Peace on Earth inspiration board (you can see that I was inspired by the photo on the upper right):

We'd love to have you join us with either an "anything Christmas goes" card or something inspired by the mood board!

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Distress Fired Brick
Paper - white and brown cs, patterned green dp
Size - A2
Accessories - Sizzix Tim Holtz brick wall embossing folder, Memory Box door die, Penny Black sled die, Martha Stewart pine branch punch, red metallic cord, nailhead embellishment

Wreaths

The current Christmas Card Throwdown challenge is a sketch:

I changed the oval to a circle as I wanted to make a Christmas wreath.

I love making these little wreaths and the cards always sell well at my fundraiser.  I use the good old Martha Stewart pine branch punch and punch many branches out of various dp that have grass on them (made for scrapbooking themes on various sports) - there is really nice colour variation in them that makes the wreath more pleasing to my eye than just plain green.

I die cut a thin circle using two Spellbinders circle dies, then start gluing the branches down, overlapping each one, pointing some to the inside and some to the outside.

I attached it to an embossed background with a ribbon "holder" looped over the top and a matching bow.


While I had all my supplies and paper out, I went on and made two smaller wreaths (for these, I cut the pine branches in half) and created these two cards:

For both of them, I used the Sizzix brick embossing folder and the Memory Box door die.  The first one has gold gemstones on the wreath and my feeble attempt at representing front steps.  The second has red gemstones, a bow, and a swag over the lintel.

A few more weeks and I'll be making my own real Christmas wreath for my front door!

Supplies common to all cards:

various green dp, Martha Stewart pine branch punch, Spellbinders circle dies

Supplies for card 1:
Old Island Stamp Co. sentiment, red linen cs, white cs, Martha Stewart wreath punch, red ribbon, SU embossing folder, ColorBox Chianti ink, clear embossing powder,

Supplies for card 2:
white, red, and mottled ivory cs; Memory Box door die, gold gemstones, copper nailhead embellishment 

Supplies for card 3:

white and mottled dark cream cs, Memory Box door die, red gemstones, red ribbon, copper nailhead embellishment