Retro Rubber 74 - DT card

This week's sketch challenge at Retro Rubber got me thinking of Christmas. I wonder where it will lead you?

I did indulge in some sketch flipping but those flags just keep looking like trees to me!

The stars of this card are those lovely gold-embossed trees from Totally Trees, released in  Stampin' Up's 2016 Holiday catalogue. The sentiment is from SU's Endless Wishes, from 2015.

We'd love to see how you interpret this sketch. If you'd like to join us, there are only a couple of rules. The most important is that you must use at least one stamp older than a year - after all, we're a challenge site devoted to letting you love your old stamps! So, tell us roughly how old they are and don't join up to more than ten challenges in total. 

I'm also going to join up this card to a new challenge site I've just discovered that looks really exciting. It's called Inspire. Create. Challenge and this Festive theme is only their third outing.

Update: Delighted to win this challenge at Inspire.Create.

There's still plenty of time to join both Retro Rubber and Inspire.Create. and certainly at Retro Rubber we'd love to see you give your old stamps some love.

If you live anywhere in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up demonstrator, I'd love to help you with ideas and Stampin' Up products. Please message me through my Facebook page, linked in the sidebar of this blog or leave a comment below.

Ingredients

Card: Basic Black, Gold foil, Very Vanilla

Stamps: Totally Trees, Endless Wishes

Ink: Versamark, Cherry Cobbler

Other: Metallic shapes, gold mini-sequin trim, dimensionals

All products Stampin' Up.

FMS 271 and SIP 82

Before Christmas I bought myself a MISTI. I wanted one but I had to order it from overseas, so kept putting it off. When I saw one in an actual real shop, I bought it without thinking, so stunned was I to see one. So, I thought it was about time I made it start paying its way and today's card is an experiment in MISTI stamping.

Inspiration comes from two places. Firstly, the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

Secondly, the theme challenge at Stamp, Ink, Paper, to incorporate natural elements.

The natural elements occur in a number of ways: the subject matter - trees, the use of greens and browns, the linen twine and the embossing folder which is reminiscent of wood grain or bark. The background is very lightly sponged in Crumb Cake to help bring out the texture.

Ingredients

Card: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Garden Green

Stamps: Totally Trees, Thoughtful Banners

Inks: Elegant Eggplant, Island Indigo, Garden Green, Crushed Curry, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake

Other: Linen twine, MISTI, Seaside embossing folder, sponge.

Paper Player 323 Inkspire Me 278

I've had my eye on the appealing sketch at The Paper Players all week. During the day, I had an idea for the sketch, so with work over and the weekend just beginning, I got into my craft room to see if I could make it happen.

To make the sky, I put some peel-off stars on before I sponged the sky. Then I stamped the stars from Holly Jolly Greetings in silver before removing the stickers. I was tempted to leave the little silver stars on but they detracted too much from the star on the tree. The Lucky Stars embossing folder, used on the card front, continues the starry night theme.

The 'Merry Christmas' is cut down from Simon Says Stamp Holiday Frames die. I backed the Christmas so that I could put back in the bits of the R and A to make them whole rather than outlines only.

I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out.

I'm also entering this card into the Alpine Christmas Challenge at Inkspire Me because I saw it this morning before work and it got me thinking about snowy scenes.

Ingredients

Card: Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Silver glimmer paper

Stamps: Totally Trees

Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Night of Navy, Island Indigo

Other: Simon Says Stamp Holiday Frames die, Peel-off stars, sponges, Lucky Stars embossing folder, Silver metallic star shape.

PPA 321 and CCMC 427

Despite spring being all around me, there's still something very appealing about the rich colours of autumn and these colours are the challenge at Pals Paper Arts this week.

I've also taken inspiration from the sketch at Create With Connie and Mary this week.

I'm very pleased with the 'DSP' I created using some of the stamps from Totally Trees, stamped in Elegant Eggplant onto the same coloured card. This will be an idea I will play with some more, I think.

Getting the right mix of Elegant Eggplant and Crushed Curry leaves took a bit of experimentation: too close together and the colours blended into an unrecognisable mush, take off too much ink and the yellow was lost altogether, don't take off enough and you get a row of yellow leaves that look like they belong to some other tree... but it worked out in the end.

Ingredients

Card: Elegant Eggplant, Cajun Craze, Whisper White

Stamps: Totally Trees, One Big Meaning

Inks: Cajun Craze, Elegant Eggplant, Crushed Curry

Other: Elegant Eggplant solid baker's twine, dimensionals

Paper Players 314

I loved the sketch at The Paper Players this morning and set to work on it straight away. Although the card looks good in real life, I've struggled to get a decent photograph of it.

Metallic embossing is notoriously difficult to capture, so I hope that viewers use a little imagination...

What I am particularly happy with is the Christmas tree. I stamped it first in Early Espresso, then added in the leaf block with Pear Pizzazz. Finally, I restamped the branch area only in Versamark and embossed it in copper and added a little embossed star to match. I like the contrast between the copper blinginess and the humble linen twine. 

Ingredients

Card: Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Copper foil, Pear Pizzazz

Stamps: Merry Medley background stamp, Totally Trees, Holly Berry Happiness (sentiment)

Inks: Versamark, Early Espresso, Pear Pizzazz

Other: Linen twine, Copper embossing powder, dimensionals, Pinecone embellishment.

All products Stampin' Up.