Freshly Made Sketches 217

Already Christmas is starting to seem a memory, especially since we've had two family birthdays since then. Visiting children have returned home, no visitors scheduled and husband has gone to play golf so I got back into my room. For a warm-up and to get back in the swing, I've played with the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.

I wanted to make a cheerful card, so went with Crushed Curry and Cucumber Crush with touches of black. The daisy is die cut using layers of Crushed Curry with one layer of So Saffron. The tips have been sponged in Crushed Curry. I die cut the daisy shape out of the white panel and then offset the flower over it so the black mat would peep through. This gave a nice shadow effect that has added depth to the focal point. 

I did originally try adding a small Crushed Curry button and twine bow to the centre but that just looked too busy and detracted from the flower, rather than adding to it.

The card base is stamped using the leaves from Summer Silhouettes, using Crushed Curry onto Crushed Curry.

I've done some decoration on the inside, to match the envelope, but will stamp in either Happy Birthday, or Thanks, when I want to use it. Or maybe even leave it blank to write a note in.

Ingredients

Card:  Crushed Curry, Whisper White, Cucumber Crush, Basic Black, So Saffron

Stamps: A Whole Lot of Lovely, Summer Silhouettes

Ink: Tuxedo Black, Crushed Curry, Cucumber Crush

Other: MFT Gerbera Daisy die, dimensionals, sponge

Try Stampin' on Tuesday 249

One of the many great things about the Christmas holidays is the time to do craft things. So today, after a bunch of jobs like cleaning the pool and scrubbing down the bbq area, it was time to play.

I liked the look of the sketch over at Try Stampin' on Tuesday, so went with a summery idea for that.

The sketch has the optional twist of 'holiday card' but having posted all my cards, I was feeling a bit over holiday cards. Instead, I've gone for one of those all-purpose types of cards that it's always handy to have around. 'Best wishes' covers a lot of possibilities!

The background was stamped with an acrylic block and then flicked with water before I stamped the garden scene. The butterflies are watercoloured with Watermelon Wonder and highlighted with white gel pen, as are the flower centres.

Update: So delighted to have this card make the Top 3 at Try Stampin' on Tuesday.

Ingredients
Card: Mint Macaron, Watermelon Wonder, watercolour paper
Stamps: SU Summer Silhouette, Papillon Potpourri, Hardwood, W&W Big, Bold and Party, Acrylic block
Inks: Mint Macaron, Watermelon Wonder, Cucumber Crush, Tuxedo Black, Black Stazon.
Other: Watermelon Wonder lacy ribbon, Circle framelits, Elegant Butterfly punch, Itty Bitty Butterfly punch, Pearls, dimensionals, white gel pen, sponges

As You See It 117 - DT

Take some time out for yourselves over the holidays and play with this week's sketch at As You See It Challenge. You've got three whole weeks to indulge yourselves - the challenge is open until the 6th January 2016.

I was a bit over making cards today and so decided to use this sketch as an inspiration for a scrapbooking page instead. I've had this photo since the beginning of the year, so it's well and truly time for it to make it into an album!

Ingredients
Card: AC Stone weave, SU Blushing Bride and Basic Black, MME Glitter dot I Do.
Stamps: SU Flowering Flourishes, Gorgeous Grunge and This and That rotary stamper
Inks: Tuxedo Black, Blushing Bride, Soot Noir (to distress edge)
Other: Beautifully Baroque embossing folder, Silver cord trim, Something Borrowed embellishment, rhinestones.

Paper Players 275

This week's combination at The Paper Players is one of my all-time favourites, so I couldn't resist having a play with it today.

Such a glorious Christmas mix, so naturally - it's another Christmas card. Tomorrow, I'll have to stop making them and start sending them!

The little Santa panel is another of my explorations with sponged backgrounds. I like to think Santa is on his way home to the North Pole, racing the rising sun. I lucked onto finding a Kaisercraft collection full of delicious papers that are predominantly Cherry Cobbler and Mossy Meadow. They are just gorgeous.

Ingredients
Card: Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, papers from Kaisercraft Holy Night 15cm x15cm pad.
Stamps: Holiday Homes, Endless Wishes, Festival of Trees, Holly Jolly Greetings
Inks: Cherry Cobbler, Mossy Meadow, Tuxedo Black, gold
Other: Circle framelits, Lucky Stars embossing folder, Antique brad, Cherry Cobbler and Mossy Meadow markers, dimensionals.

CAS Colours and Sketches 154

I play quite a lot at CAS Colours and Sketches as I enjoy the alternating colour and sketch challenges and the challenges are always just that - a little bit different so you have to think about what you're doing. So thank you team, this year it's been a pleasure to play along with you.

And that's why I wanted catch one of the Christmas challenges. I like the idea of taking a previous challenge and Christmas-ing it up. I missed the colour one last week - too much on.

So after consulting the archive, I went with this one from the start of the year. I must have been on holiday, as I don't remember seeing it before and it's such a beauty.

I don't often use patterned paper when I make cards, but every now and then I come across some paper that is too beautiful for words. I loved this paper from Kaisercraft Holy Night because of the opulent colours and rich designs.  I bought a 15cm pad of it to make some Christmas decorations of course, there are leftovers for the stash.

The paper is so lovely that I think you need a CAS design to let the papers shine and that's what this sketch lets it do.

Update: Delighted to have this card chosen as a Weekly Winner at CAS Colours and Sketches.

Ingredients

Card: Very Vanilla, Kaisercraft Holy Night papers

Stamps: SU Endless Wishes

Inks: Cherry Cobbler, Versamark

Other: Gold embossing powder, Softly Falling embossing folder, Oval punch, Scalloped Oval punch.

JAI 292 and CCMC385

I seem to be on a bit of a Christmas Tree binge this week. It's great that school holidays have started. I hit the shops yesterday and got a big whack of Christmas shopping done before it got too hot. It was great this morning to get into my craft room while everyone else went off to work...although the jobs can't be ignored forever!

Today, I've used inspiration from two of my favourite challenges. Firstly, Just Add Ink provided a wonderful inspiration board.

Then I found a great sketch at Create with Connie and Mary.

It turns out to be very difficult to get a good photograph of a card that uses silver foil and embossing!

Ingredients

Card: Pool Party, Lost Lagoon, DSP from Winter Wonderland (2014)

Stamps: Festival of Trees, Endless Wishes

Ink: Versamark, Lost Lagoon

Other: silver embossing powder, silver thread, dimensionals, Softly Falling embossing folder, rhinestones.

CASology 176

I seem to be in a Christmas card frame of mind at the moment, so I've made something for this week's challenge at CASology.

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White, Cucumber Crush

Stamps: Festival of Trees, Holly Jolly Greetings

Inks: Cucumber Crush, Real Red, Versamark

Other: Tree punch, gold embossing powder, gold thread, dimensionals, green and red markers.

As You See It 116 DT

This week, at As You See It, Amanda has set a theme challenge. You might expect that at Christmas, a Santa challenge would be quite normal. And it is, yet it threw me into a bit of a tizzy as I simply don't have any Santa stamps! Hard to believe, I know!

I'm not a punch art sort of card-maker and couldn't even find any Santa DSP in my scrapbooking scraps box! However, earlier in the year, I'd entered a starry night challenge and one of the ladies at my card class commented that it would make an excellent Christmas card. That stuck with me, so when my lovely upline came to my rescue and lent me Holiday Homes, from last year's Christmas catalogue, I came up with this...

I am also going to enter this card into the challenge at AAA Cards, where the challenge is Silent Night Christmas Cards.

Update

Since posting this card, a few people have asked how I did the sky. Well, I was playing around at my desk for a starry night challenge earlier in the year and came up with this. Really, it's unbelievably easy...

All you need are sponges and a punched circle of card to act as a moveable mask. I marked the centre of the card to act as a pivot point for my circle. 

Start with one colour and sponge against the edge of the the circle. I come in from the outer edge of the card, starting sponging on the scrap paper and working inwards, to avoid getting blobs of ink.

Move the circle and do the same thing with the second ink colour. It doesn't matter if you go over the previous inking, as long as you keep your touch light. It's always better to sponge lightly and build up more colour if you want it than to go in heavy-handed (or heavy-inked) from the start.

Then, move the circle, line it up with your centre mark and do the same thing again with the first colour.

Keep going around.

When you've finished, cut it out with a framelit.

In my original card, I stamped the house rooves first and masked them before doing any of this, but it didn't look right so I stamped the houses silver on black, cut them out then added them in so they were in silhouette.

In this card, I also stamped over the top of the circle with the grungy stars stamp from Holly Jolly Greetings using silver ink before adding my Santa sleigh. Other times, I've added in trees or masked off a hillside to create an horizon line first. Lots of possibilites...

So - please have a play along with this week's challenge at As You See It.

Further Update: Delighted to have this card win first place at AAA Challenge.

Ingredients
Card: Island Indigo, Whisper White, Silver glimmer
Stamps: Holdiay Homes, Holly Jolly Greetings
Inks: Night of Navy, Island Indigo, Tuxedo Black, Silver
Other: MFT circle dot die, dimensionals, rhinestones, sponges, circle framelit

As You See It 115 - DT card

December already! For me, it's heading to mid-summer and the long school holidays, so I'm looking forward to time off school.

Meanwhile, I was getting a bit over Christmas cards so my card for this week's sketch at As You See It is a digression from my usual with this quirky birthday card.

Ingredients
Card: Basic Grey, Basic Black, Whisper White, Silver glimmer paper.
Stamps: SU Dictionary background stamp, MFT Geek is Chic.
Ink: Basic Grey, Tuxedo Black, Cherry Cobbler
Other: Cherry Cobbler button, Star thinlit from Circle Card thinlit set, Silver Trim cord, circle framelits, dimensional.

Vanilla, Gold and Black

When I saw that the colour challenge this week at Hand Stamped Sentiments was one of my very favourite combinations, I had to have a go.

Tonight is senior prize-giving at school so all the staff are back at 7 for the most formal occasion of the school year. We'll all be decked out in our gowns and hoods, despite the sweltering mid-summer temperatures. But it will be worth it to see all the recognitions that our students will receive for the hard work they've done all year.

I'd been thinking about this card on and off during the day but it had to be made quickly... 11 minutes in fact.

I'm not usually a washi tape kind of girl but these ones, which I got at Warehouse Stationery a while ago, get a turn each Christmas.

Ingredients
Card: Very Vanilla, Black, Gold foil
Stamps: Endless Wishes
Inks: Tuxedo Black, versamark
Other: Gold embossing powder, Gold Cord trim, Delicate ornaments dies, dimensionals, Grace Taylor This and That washi tape.