A Christmas Card - at last

Welcome

A special welcome to Jawad, my newest follower. 

As intended yesterday, here is my Christmas card for this year... 

I kept to a traditional colour scheme of red green and gold,

and featured the wonderful tree stamp from the Sweet 'n' Sassy O Holy Night set. stamped onto some white snippets, and die cut, then layered over a green snippet, trimmer to give just a small border.

The background was created by mixing iridescent paste with Brutus Monroe Phonebook ink spray, and using the ARTplorations Confetti Circles stencil

A wee piece of red bakers twine featured across the top - in some cases I used a piece of gold lame ribbon when the stencilling had not quite gone right ...

Just a simple greeting on the iside, from the same set of stamps

I am linking this to:

Digi Chooseday Challenge Week #51 - Anything Goes

Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge # 418 - Use Snippets Christmas/New year

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #532 + 524 - Anything Goes

Lemon Shortbread Challenge #161 - Anything Goes

Crafting Happiness December Challenge #118 - Anything Goes

Dream Valley Challenge #260 - Christmas

Jan's Digital December Challenge - Anything Goes

Stamps + Fun = Creativity Challenge #401 - Christmas Colours

STAMPlorations December Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes

STAMPlorations Never Ending Anything Goes Challenge

Times three

Welcome

This was going to be the post that I shared my Christmas card on, only I discovered I had not taken a photo of it - oops, thankfully I still have a 'spare' that I can take a photo of.

This card was made as a swap for a wee New Zealand group I am in, and the theme set for December was "three"  Very flexible, the idea being that we use groups of three on the card

The layered peony had three layers to the stamping, and was coated with Wink of Stella,

and three leaves.

The card had three techniques - embossing, die cutting,  and paint splattering

and three mediums - paint, card and cheesecloth

The sentiment had three words

There were six rhinestones (2x3) and there were three panels in the design

There were also three colours - red, gold and black.

This inside was finished with a simple stamp of the outline layer of the flower.

I am linking this to:

Polka Doodles Challenge Week #52 - Anything Goes

Arty Diva's December Challenge - Anything Goes

Dare 2B Artzy December Challenge - Clean and Simple

Dragonfly Dreams December Challenge - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge weeks #523 +524 - Anything Goes

International Art and Soul Challenge - Dies or Punches

the flower was die cut

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge #172 - Anything Goes

The Corrosive Challenge #12 - Anything Goes

We Love Stamping December Challenge - Anything Goes Opt CAS

We Love 2 Create Challenge #1 - Anything Mixed Media Goes

A Stencil, String and Shimmer

Welcome

I thought life was going to slow down a bit - well, thought thought wrong!!  Maybe next week.

Once again it is time for a new Word Art Wednesday challenge, and our sponsor for this challenge is Sunny Studio Stamps, with a generous $25 voucher to their store.

This weeks card came together very quickly

I started with this monoprint from an ARTploration Confetti Circles stencil that I had used brown ink on, and then moistened it with a spray of red Perfect Pearls 

The verse was beautifully crafted by the talented Karen M, and is available free on the Word Art Wednesday blog.  I cut it out with a stitched rectangle die, and lightly brushed  the edges with some Memento Lady Bug ink before removing the die

I tied some twine around the focal panel before mounting it on some deep red/brown card

The inside was finished with a strip of the card I used for the front.

I am linking this to:

A Gem of a Challenge #26 - Anything Goes

Digi Chooseday Craft Challenge Week #51 - Anything Goes

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge #172 - Anything Goes

We Love Stamping Dec Challenge - Anything Goes with CAS option

Crafty Sentiments Design Challenge - Anything Goes

Lemon Shortbread Challenge #161 - Anything Goes

Through The Craft Room Door Challenge - Anything Goes

Tuesday Morning Sketches Annual Anything Goes Challenge

STAMPlorations December Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes

STAMPlorations Never Ending Challenge - Anything Goes

A Stencil, Bird and Beads...

Welcome

Life seems to be going at double speed at the moment!! Not only do we have all the Christmas preparations, but there are also end-of-year functions too.  

Here in New Zealand the country all but 'stops' from Christmas Eve until the end of January as folk take their summer breaks....

I was also asked to make a set of five cards, which I cannot share until next year.

Add in an adverse reaction to medications and babysitting, and life has been full!

I made this a wee while ago, but had not blogged it

The background is made using the Bold Florals ARTplorations stencil from STAMPlorations, 

I used the Memento ink, Tangelo, darkening the towards the centres.  The leaves were coloured in Bamboo Leaves, again shading as I went

The branch was a die cut from kraft card, with an unmarked die.  The bird was coloured with Espresso ink, which was also used to stamp the greetings

This main panel was layered over orange then green card.

I had this sitting for several days, not really satisfied, until I thought of adding the micro beads to the flower centres.

The inside was decorated with strips of the base card

I am linking this to:

The Paper Shelter Challenge - Anything Goes

Digi Chooseday Challenge Week $50 - Anything Goes

Ally's Angels Challenge #53 - Anything Goes

Creative Fingers Challenge #221 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #521 +522 - Anything Goes

Addicted To Stamps Challenge #420 - Dies and or Stencils

Crafty Creations December Challenge #428 - Anything Goes

The Paper Funday December Challenge #36 - Anything Goes

STAMPlorstions December Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes

STAMPlorations never Ending Anything Goes Challenge

Christmas with Sparkle

Welcome

Today starts another challenge over at Word Art Wednesday, with another beautiful scripture available free over there.  

Our sponsor for this challenge is Crafty Individuals with a 25 pound voucher to their store.

I started this card with the idea of silver on blue, and then found my Iridescent Silver embossing powder...  which made it hard to photograph... 

I printed the beautifully crafted verse, trimmed it and embossed the edges

The image from Sweet n Sassy stamps  O Holy Night set was perfect, and embossed well

In the above photo you can see some of the glitter. 

I sprinkled the embossing powder on the background and heated from underneath, and it gave the impression of twinkling, sparkly stars in the night sky.

The inside was stamped with another sentiment from the same set,  in Concord & 9th Midnight  dark blue ink, which I had also used on the edges of the insert.

I am linking this to:

613 Avenue Create December Challenge - Anything Goes (Opt Any Holiday)

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Anything Christmas

Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenge #2149 - Anything Goes

Peace On Earth Christmas Challenge #5 - Anything Christmas Goes

Dragonfly Dreams December Challenge - Anything Goes

Inspiration Station challenge #19 - Star Light, Star Bright

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge #171 - Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations December Challenge - Choose a Theme and Stamp it.

The Corrosive (December) Challenge #12 - Anything Goes

Lemon Shortbread Challenge #160 - Anything Goes

Roses for Encouragement

Welcome

I made this card for a friend who has been in hospital for quite some time - far longer than she would like, I am sure, and I know she would be missing her roses, of which she has many!

I started by stamping the image, from Rose Thinking of You set by Stamp Simply,  three times, with London Fog ink and colouring it with  Polychromo pencils before die cutting it

The three rose stems were laid over each other to form a curve, and added to some silver patterned paper, leaving some of the leaves over the edge.

The blank edge of the yellow layer was embossed with an edge EF 

(make unknown, possibly a magazine freebie) 

The sentiment was not the one from the set, but one I have owned for a long time.  

I stamped it on a slightly darker yellow card snippet in Cottage Ivy ink.  

I had first put some Versamark ink on the stamp, then the die ink so it was slightly sticky, then I sprinkled over some Kiwi Perfect Pearls to give a little shimmer to the words. 

I would normally have heat embossed the sentiment, but we had a day long power cut that day, so I had to 'think laterally'. 

 After trimming the panel and rounding the corners, the panel was mounted on foam dots over the background

Some washi tape finished the inside - this was in rose gold, but it shows tan... 

I am linking this to:

Through The Purple Haze December Challenge #187 - Anything Goes

A Bit More Time To Craft Nov/Dec Challenge #15 - Anything Goes

Arty Divas November Challenge - Anything Goes

Crafter's Cafe December Challenge #279 - Anything Goes

Crafts Galore Encore Dec. Challenge #94 - Anything Goes

Colour Crazy Challenge Week #48 - Anything Goes (with a hand coloured image)

Crafty Catz Challenge # 575 - Anything Goes

Polka Doodles Craft Challenge Week #49 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #519 +520 - Anything Goes

Digi Chooseday Challenge Week #48 - Anything Goes

An Easel card, Plus

Welcome

This is a card I made for my local swap group for November.  The challenge was to make an interactive card that had an element that moved, popped or generally was not just 'flat'.

This is how my card would have looked when the recipient took it out of the envelope

Once it was opened and set for viewing, it would have looked like this

I used a plain green card base, with papers from a Recollections Pad named Rainbow Inks.

The flowers were made from white card, coloured with Cosmic Shimmer Summer Sky Opal Polish, and then sprayed with blue mica sprays - the leaves were from the base card with green mica spray added before die cutting.  

All the dies were older S/B dies, including the base of the focal panel

The wee panels on the side  after being assembled were were adhered using foam tape.

The flower centers are coloured brads that I have had for a v-e-r-y long time...

Here the sprays show on the die cuts

This is how the card looks in profile once 'stood up', and you can just see the mechanism used to pop the focal panel.

I am linking this to:

Pixies Snippets Playground Challenge #417 - Anything Goes using snippets

The Corrosive Challenge November #11 - Anything Goes

Lil' patch of Crafty friends Challenge #170 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #519 + 520 - Anything Goes

Polka Doodles Craft Challenge Week #48 - Anything Goes

We Love 2 Create Challenge #12- Anything Mixed Media Goes

Lemon Shortbread Challenge #159 - Anything Goes

Crafter's Castle November Challenge #47 - Anything Goes

A Gem of a Challenge #24 - Anything Goes

Creative Fingers Challenge #220 - Anything Goes

Faded Cogs

Welcome

This is a card that I taught last month using a stencil technique.

To start the sentiment area is masked and then the stencil placed and inked working from the masking out, fading out the further you go from the masked area, but not covering the card front completely.

I chose to 'mirror image' the stencil by flipping it over between the top and bottom of the masked area.

The sentiment was copper embossed, using a magazine freebie stamp

When mounting the stencilled panel, I added a wee snippet of copper paper in the top left and bottom right before adhering to the base - subtle, but a touch more of colour and texture.

I finished the inside with a strip of copper spotted washi tape.

I am linking this to:

Polka Doodles Crafting Challenge Week #48 - Anything Goes

Crafty Catz Challenge #574 - Anything Goes (twist not used)

Creative Fingers Challenge #220 - Anything Goes

Aud Sentiment Challenge #288 - Anything Goes, plus a sentiment

Colour Crazy Challenge Week # - Anything Goes

Krafty Chicks Challenge #587 - All Occasions

Through the Purple Haze November Challenge #186 - Anything Goes

Addicted To Stamps Challenge #419 - All Occasions

Creative Moments Challenge #227 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #519 + 520 - Anything Goes