Chilly Penguin Love

Happy Valentine's Day 2019! We have been having brutal weather, lots of snow and wind and ice. For our rainforest island, this is rare. So I have been humming Christmas tunes and was reminded of this Christmas stamp set I can't recall having used yet. It's Gina K Designs 'Tis the Sea-sun set.

This pair reminds me of my husband and me. He is always hot and I am always chilly. Good thing opposites attract! Here's the card on a bit of an angle to show off the falling snow I made with glitter pens.

                       

The sentiment was "It's penguin-ing to look a lot like Christmas." It was fun to use a Christmas set for something else. Thanks for visiting today. Stay warm!

Thinking of You

Sympathy cards - always hard! This is an Inkadinkado stamp that I heat embossed on watercolour paper and I watercoloured with Zig markers. The scalloped flourish is a Spellbinders die, as is the frame.

Purple Stippled Flowers

The optional "toppings" challenge at Seize the Birthday this week is Foliage. I hope my few leaves here and there count! For this birthday card I chose to use the Gina K Designs Stippled Flowers set. I embossed the blooms and die cut them, along with lots of leaves. The card design was based on a card Gina made for the launch of this set. She embossed in white but I chose gold.

I used Zig Clean Color Watercolor Markers and a water brush to colour them, then touched up with a purple Copic marker here and there.

Gina layered on a Swiss Dot dry embossed background, but I chose an Anna Griffin Poppy design. I popped a few of the flowers up with foam tape to add some dimension. I added a strip of tape and some purple glitter to the dividing border.

The sentiment is from a separate Gina K Designs stamp set, Bold & Blooming. I added a few pale purple Swarovski Crystals to finish it off. Thanks for visiting today!

Christmas Card Challenge - Bethlehem

For Sylvia's month of March Christmas Challenge, the prompts were Navy Bethlehem and Sparkle Background. I chose to use a navy Canson Mi-teintes heavy paper for my card base.

The stars were made by dotting on Nuvo Silver Moondust Glitter Drops. As I don't have any Bethlehem rubber stamps, I created a cut file from watercolour paper and used Zig Clean Color Markers to shade in the scene. 

I also cut a second scene from watercolour paper to use as a silhouette. The background was made with Distress Oxide Inks and spattered with white gouache. I created the song refrain on my computer to run along the base. Fun challenge for me this time - I really stretched to make it work!

Last Two 2017 Christmas Cards

How has your Christmas season been? We have had a lovely time and I am now back in my craft room tidying up. I have two more cards I made for Sylvia Durocher's monthly Christmas Card Challenge that I can share with you today. In November the shape was Scallop Square and the colour was Navy. Here's my effort:

Stamp City Snowman with Cardinal circa 1999; Penny Black sentiment

I created the background with a slatted stencil and Clarity Stencil Brushes. I need to work on that technique some more. My soft red ended up looking pink! The Scalloped Squares are made with Spellbinder dies. The parts that might look black are actually Navy. I black embossed the Snowman with Versafine ink and coloured with Zig Clean Color brush markers.

In December the shape is Rectangle and the colour is brown. I didn't stamp anything on this card - I used Tim Holtz "Remnant Rubs" in gold foil for the Wonderland title and to add Season's Greetings up the side. The deer paper is from a small Memory Box "Tinsel" paper pad. I added glitter to their scarves.

Thanks for visiting today. I look forward to seeing what Sylvia's challenge will be for 2018!

Lavender Christmas

Sylvia Durocher's monthly Christmas Card Challenge continues with September where we are to feature a Scalloped Oval and the colour lavender. 

This is a one layer card (the oval is the only layer on the white card). I stamped the stocking (Heather's Stamping Haven by the Stamp Barn) directly onto the lavender oval and coloured with Zig Clean Color brush markers. I used a white gel pen to accent the snowflake and the berries, and grey and purple markers to create a bit of shadow. I traced around the stocking with a stylus, then flipped the oval over and "puffed out" the stocking on a mouse pad with a large ball stylus to give it a bit of 3D effect.

I used a sketch for this from the Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge blog. 

I stamped Hero Arts flourishes for borders and a Waltzingmouse Stamps sentiment. A few clear rhinestones here and there finished this off. Another Christmas card done!

Rinse and Repeat!

I did the same Zig Scribble technique as my post from yesterday to make a sympathy card today. I used a pink and purple colour scheme, and white pearl embossing powder. The florals are Altenew's Peony Bouquet.

My uncle passed away recently and he was a gifted pianist. After masking the flowers, I heat embossed sheet music on the card front. On the inside, I stamped piano keys and this calligraphy stamp from Quietfire Design:

Here you can see the heat embossed sheet music a bit better:

I am happy I was able to create a card that reflected a bit of my uncle's gift for music with stamps I had on hand. These cards are always difficult to make, but this watercolour-ish technique makes it more enjoyable. The YouTube video where I learned this technique is here.

Color Throwdown #453

The Color Throwdown 463 challenge was this photo, which features some amazing yummy Mason jar drinks that inspired my color pallette.

I needed a farewell card for one of my staff and over at Splitcoaststampers, the Way To Use It Challenge was to heat things up. So I heat embossed these Altenew Peony Bouquet stamps with Silver Pearl Embossing Powder, masking as needed to add in leaves.

I worked on Bristol Smooth cardstock and used the "Zig Scribble" technique with Zig Clean Colour Brush Markers that I learned from "Cards by Regina."  This was So. Much. Fun! See her You Tube video here.

The Quietfire Design sentiment is stamped in Black Versafine ink and clear embossed. The fancy piecing on the right side of the card was necessitated by my cutting too much off. Decided to make it a design element!

Bold and Blooming in Coral

I recently got the Bold and Blooming Stamp Set from Gina K. Designs. I really like it. Included are three large sentiments, for birthday and friendship, and this Thank You.

I heat embossed in fine detail white embossing powder and then coloured in with Zig Clean Color watercolor markers and moved the ink around with a damp brush. I added a few heat-set Swarovski crystals.

I am looking forward to trying this on kraft cardstock with pencil crayons and embossing in gold on black and painting with Twinkling H2Os. Lots of possibilities!

May Christmas Card

Sylvia Durocher's Christmas Card Challenge for the month of May is to incorporate an oval and the colour black. I recently picked up this JustRite Stamp called "Christmas Holly Background Stamp" at the local stamp store's going out of business sale, so it worked well.

Using my MISTI I stamped it first in Versafine black and heat set, Then I coloured in with Zig Clean Color watercolor markers. I cut out the center as I was originally going to mount on a different coloured background, but then changed my mind and used the same white Bristol.

After finishing the colouring, I placed the panel back in the MISTI and overstamped with clear embossing ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. You can see the raised detail below. The center sentiment is a Quietfire Design stamp. I stamped in Versafine black and clear embossed. Both were mounted on black Recollections 110# cardstock from Michaels. As the card is a little longer than the panel, I added gold peel-off border top and bottom.

I had a Pop-Tone Black Licorice A-6 envelope (4.75 X 6.5 inches) from Paper-Garden.ca that fit well so I stamped a JustRite holly border from the Christmas Trimmings set in white StazOn. I will need to use a white label for mailing. 

Am entering this in the Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge as there are two layers on top of the base card. And that's a wrap!

February's Christmas Card

Sylvia Durocher's Christmas Card Challenge for the month of February is to use a heart shape and the colour red.

This little fellow made it easy! I coloured him with Zig Clean Colour Brushes, which Santa kindly brought me this past Christmas.

I have had this Waltzingmouse Stamp set for quite a while and I don't think I have used it before. Felt good to ink it up. The picot edge die is also a Waltzingmouse Stamp product. I cut once in white and once in blue and pieced them together with tape on the underside.

I embossed a few snowflakes in Ranger Frosted Crystal and blended Broken China Distress Ink over top.

I am also adding this to the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge for their February theme of festive drinks.

CCT01 First Christmas Card of 2017

2016 was a disaster as far as making Christmas cards ahead and being well-prepared for the season. A while ago I had a few good years of doing Christmas cards year round so I wouldn't be stressed come December. Last year was not one of those years! So here I am, determined to change it up in 2017.

The Christmas Card Throwdown sketch seemed a good place to start - although I found it inordinately challenging. Still, I had downloaded Sylvia Durocher's Christmas Card Challenge list for 2017 and in January she's looking for a star and the colour gold. On my trip to Florida in November I snagged this Dina Wakley Script Star stamp and was happy for a chance to use it.

Here's the CCT01 sketch:

Here's my navy, yellow and gold card:

In keeping with the naive art format, I drew around the star with a gold Wink of Stella brush pen. I am still trying to decide if it needs a sentiment on the lower right corner. I feel that may take away from the simplicity of it and compete with the star, so perhaps not. 

Here is the inside, where I used the scrap from the die cut and watercoloured some detail:

Stamps: Dina Wakley Script Star
Inks: Delicata Golden Glitz; StazOn Spiced Chai; Marvy Matchables Yellow

Accessories: Canson Mi-Teintes Drawing Paper (Navy); Watercolour Paper; Zig Clean Colour Brushes; Wink of Stella Gold; Memory Box Die (Country Landscape)

I am entering this in the Love to Craft Challenge Blog, too, as their theme is Anything Goes. (Thanks for the tip, Deborah!) Thanks for stopping by!