Stencilled Snowmen

The current challenge at Jingle Belles is a colour challenge, whereby we must use at least 3 of the colours provided in this graphic.

And the current technique challenge at 52 Card Throwdown is Stencilling. 

 I am also entering this in the Addicted to Stamps & More! Christmas Challenge.           

 

Here's the card!

This vibrant and stencilled snowman card fits the bill! I used the Waffle Flower postal collage dies and snowman stencils and stamps to create this fun card. I used Distress Inks to create a northern lights background for the snowmen and set them on a dry embossed panel.

UPDATE - thank you to both Jingle Belles and 52 Card Throwdown challenge sites for highlighting my card in their round ups!

That was a different way for me to use the stencils and dies. Normally I leave the framed elements all together in a postal panel. The variations are in the framing, and the little embellishments added here and there. Those are generally dictated by where I have smudged something nd need to cover it up! Here is a sampling of those types of cards. It's like a fun Where's Waldo search to try and spot the differences in them. Thanks for visiting!

Sketch Challenge - Modern

As promised in my last post, here is a more modern take on the sketch challenge at the Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers Facebook Group. The sketch was:

My card this time features skinny strips of patterned Lawn Fawn papers that I cut and glued to get the background.

Rather than a circle, I used an ANCIENT Cuttlebug die, possibly one of the first I bought, with a matching embossing folder for an ornament made from one of the Lawn Fawn papers. I heat embossed the corner sentiment in super fine white, which is a Waltzingmouse Stamp (retired).

Same sketch, two very different cards!

Vintage Santa

I have made a vintage Santa card for the month-long sketch challenge at the private Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers Facebook group. They have a blog for inspiration, but the gallery of cards submitted for this sketch is over on Facebook. I always struggle to remember that's where we need to go to enter a card! Here is the sketch.

When I saw this I immediately thought of the cover image for a Pink Paislee 8X8 inch pad of printed cardstock that I have loved to use over the past decade. It was called City Sidewalks and I am down to my last three sheets, and the cover, which featured snippets of all the paper styles in the pad. So this card is a bit of a cheat because all the "brickwork layout" in the background was done for me!

The Santa and girl is a paper coaster I re-purposed here in a nod to the Peace on Earth Day challenge at Jingle Belles to create a holiday card that features re-cycled, re-used or up-cycled elements. A red ribbon and tiny ruby gems were accents. The sentiment seemed best stamped in red.

I have a modern version of this sketch card coming in a second post. Very different vibe!

All White - 52 Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge

 

The current challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is:

I think the secret to a good all-white card is to go one of two extremes - either super smooth, clean and simple - or lots of layers and texture. Guess what I went for? I ended up making two cards. I will show you the one I entered in the challenge first, but it is was not my first attempt.

This is a combo of a snowflake frame embossing folder and a die cut "JOY" all in white cardstock. I blinged it up with pearls but i did not have any that were loose. I had to cut these apart from a long embellishment border, peel them off the adhesive backing and glue them down. It was tedious, so I won't be doing that again.

My first effort - while technically all-white - proved that not all white items are the same shade of white! 

The background was white vellum that I ran through a Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder. The white cardstock I used for the JOY had a slight shimmer to it that reads pale grey in the photo, and the letters were in white glitter cardstock but the glitter looks a little green in real life and pink in the photo. I added extra layers of glittered holly, flowers and berries. Once I saw the photo, I knew I needed to make a second one that was truer all-white.

I am also entering this in the Anything Goes Challenge at Love to Craft Challenge Blog.

Westie Christmas Cards

Isn't he a handsome fellow? I had a friend bring this die set back from the UK in the summer and decided Christmas was a good time to use it. I chose to isolate the profile and cut to fit the circle of red foil here. The full size is below. Can be purchased from JJD Cards.

I made two cards. Gave the first away and decided I wanted one for us, so hubby got the second one!

The wreath is made with Spellbinders hot foiling plate "Christmas Foliage Circle Border." I foiled it in thirds to create the wreath. It was not as difficult to line up as I feared. The green cardstock is Michael's Recollections brand and smooth enough to get a good result with the foil. 

There is a thick circle outline that I foiled on red foil cardstock which also worked well.  I made use of the red foil cardstock to mat the layers. Coloured the bow tie with a burgundy Copic marker.

For my second card I used the red foil cardstock again and an old Spellbinders Imperial Gold Circles One frame die set; die cut the bow tie from the same red foil, and hot foiled (with a laminator) Gina K. Designs / Thermoweb Foil-Mates Ornamental Holiday patterned background with Gina K. Designs Red Velvet Fancy Foils which matched the red foil cardstock layers. A Spellbinders label die and sentiment from Stampin' Up! Christmas Scottie set finished it off.

I am entering in these challenges:

Cut it Up Challenge #346 ~ Anything Goes

12 Months of Christmas Link Up

Of course there is nothing like the real thing. Here is my daughter's Westie, Kit Kat. He spent Christmas Day with us. Always a treat!

Golden Poinsettia

After making over thirty Waffle Flower Postage Stamp Snowmen Collage Cards, I had a lot of die cut frames left over. I decided to use them to frame this panel made with a Lisa Horton Poinsettia and Holly embossing folder.

I ran a sponge over the top of the relief areas with Enchanted Gold Gilding Polish by Creative Expressions. 

Sentiment was gold foiled using the Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil System. 

I am entering this in:

Die Cut Divas Christmas/Winter December Challenge

Cut it Up Challenge #346 ~ Anything Goes

12 Months of Christmas Link Up

Making Tracks

Belated wishes for a Merry Christmas to you and yours! This Christmas card features the Spellbinders Special Delivery dies along with Penny Black Tall Trees and the Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders.

Any photos I have seen of this car show the rear lights as yellow, but brake lights are red, so I made sure to make that teeny, tiny die cut in red cardstock

I am entering this in:

Die Cut Divas Christmas/Winter December Challenge

Inkspirational Challenge #357 - Designer's Choice - COLD

Cut it Up Challenge #346 ~ Anything Goes

12 Months of Christmas Link Up

.

Under the Influence

We recently became grandparents to a sweet little West Highland Terrier puppy named Kit-Kat. He is all kinds of adorable and has influenced some of my crafting this season.

His only dog friend is an older Dachshund named Olive who is not really amused by his puppyness. LOL! So I thought this card was appropriate.

This was around the time I made a Christmas stocking for Kit-Kat from the perfect fabric:

For Christmas his Mommy got a gift card so I had to wrap it right!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Kit-Kat and me!

Dachshund Through The Snow

My daughter's friends have an adorable Dachshund named Olive and we occasionally get to spend time with her. So I knew just the card I wanted to make for them for Christmas.

The SVG file was free (possibly from lovesvg.com). I chose to cut around the silhouette and pop that up on the front of the card. To do this, I traced outside the entire dog in Silhouette Studio software and then erased all the cut lines from the body. 

I finished the bottom of the card with the Memory Box Frostyville Border die cut from glitter paper. I embossed with the same die across the envelope to keep with the theme. All in all, a fun card to make and give. I am entering this in the Cut It Up Challenge for White on White with a Pop of Colour.

I leave you with a photo of sweet Olive with her advent calendar:

12 Days of Christmas Tag Swap 2018

I participated in Tammy Neal's 12 Days of Christmas Tag Swap in 2018 through the Yahoo Group Canadian Stamp Talk. The Yahoo Group site is not letting me post photos of the tags made, so I will share them here so other group members can see them.

Tammy Neal, Judy Preston, Melissa Groenink

Tammy Neal, MaryAnn Lawrence, Sandy Proulx

Tammy Neal, Charmaine Stack, Tammy Neal

Liz Carr, MaryAnn Lawrence, Charmaine Stack

Flap opens to reveal bagpipes.

Melissa Groenink