Merry Christmas Snowman

The theme for Day 4 of Bugaboo's 2nd Annual "Holiday Chaos" challenge series is a recipe challenge. The recipe calls for one image, two of something, and three of something else. I used their "Winter Snowman" image, 2 patterned papers, and 3 buttons for my card.

I began, as I usually do, by choosing a sketch from Operation Write Home:

I had to make the banner slightly taller to accommodate my greeting. Consequently, there was not enough room for it if I matted it, so I inked around the edges with Black Soot Distress ink instead. Otherwise, I followed the sketch.

I printed my image onto a piece of 140 lb. Strathmore watercolor paper. After taping it to my work surface, I colored it with Inktense pencils and a damp paintbrush, using regular watercolor for the sky. Then I set that aside to air dry, while I worked on the rest of the card.

I chose 2 patterned papers from my holiday scrap stash. I cut them to the sizes indicated in the sketch, and matted them with black paper. I adhered the snowflake pattern on top of the plaid. For my greeting, I chose one from this Hero Arts set. I stamped it onto a piece of white cardstock in Versafine Onyx Black ink, and cut the cardstock into a banner shape.

By this time, the image panel was pretty much dry. I matted it with more black paper, adhered it in place, and glued down the greeting strip over the bottom of it. Finally, I picked 3 red buttons from my stash, and sewed them onto the card front with white embroidery floss. I put little drops of Ranger Multi Medium Matte under the buttons, just to keep them from wiggling around. Then I adhered the completed card front to an A2 card base.

I'm also entering this card in a2z Scrapbooking's December "Watercolor" challenge.

Holiday Bells

Day 3's challenge at Bugaboo's 2nd Annual Holiday Chaos series is a color challenge. They provided a photo/color palette, to be used as the inspiration for a holiday card:

For my card design, I chose this sketch from Operation Write Home:

I actually experimented with different sketches using the focal image from Bugaboo Stamps that I'd chosen, and this one seemed to be the best to showcase it.

I printed my image onto a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper, and colored it with Inktense pencils, using a paintbrush & water to blend the colors. I used the inspiration photo to guide most of my color choices.

Once I finished coloring, I let that piece dry. I cut 2 paper strips, using patterned papers from Iron Orchid Design's "Rejoice" 6x6" pad. I also cut a piece of cool grey Core'dinations cardstock to 4.25x5.5" (again following the color palette), and embossed it with a Darice "Argyle" folder. I lightly sanded the embossing with a sanding block. With this particular cardstock, since the core is a slightly lighter color than the surface, sanding can help give it a two-tone look.

To help define the patterned paper pieces, I inked around the edges with Walnut Stain Distress ink. I also inked the edges of the focal panel, just to keep things uniform. I glued the patterned paper strips to the background, and then glued the focal piece in place. Finally, I inked around the outer edges of the card front with Walnut Stain, stamped a sentiment on the inside of the card, and adhered the completed front to my A2-size card base.

Merry Christmas

The second challenge for Catch the Bug's 2nd Annual Holiday Chaos series is a sketch challenge. This is the sketch they provided:

I decided to make the focal image round instead of a square. I used this image from Bugaboo Stamps, printing it on a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper. I die cut it with a Spellbinders "Standard Circles SM" die. For the mat, I die cut & embossed a piece of dark brown cardstock with the largest die from Spellbinders' "Splendid Circles" set. After coloring the ornament on the focal piece with watercolor pencils and a damp brush, and watercoloring the background around the image, I glued the piece onto the brown die cut piece.

I cut 4 pieces of patterned paper from my scrap stash to 2.5" square. After inking the edges with Gathered Twigs Distress ink to give them a little more definition, I glued them in place on a piece of cream cardstock. Because of the fine detail in the die cut mat, I ran the focal panel through my Xyron Creative Station, to apply a layer of adhesive to the back, and adhered it in place over the squares. I punched a 5.5" long strip of white cardstock using the Double Edge Snowflake Trim Punch from Martha Stewart Crafts. I cut another piece of white cardstock to 1.5x5.5", inked it with Gathered Twigs, & adhered it to the card front. I ran the snowflake strip through my Xyron Sticker Maker, and when the Distress ink had dried, adhered the strip on top of the Gathered Twigs panel. Finally, I printed a sentiment on the inside of my card base, and adhered the completed card front to that.

I'm also entering this card in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Christmas/Holidays" challenge.

Reindeer Merry Christmas

Bugaboo Stamps' blog, Catch the Bug, is having their 2nd annual Holiday Chaos challenge this week. Given that it started last Saturday, & I'm just now getting cards done for it, the "chaos" theme seems very apropos to me right now! The theme for Day 1 is "Sparkle and Shine." I used Bugaboo's "Snowflake Reindeer Silhouette" image. It comes in black, but I was able to recolor it to a dark brown in Photoshop.

I used this sketch from Operation Write Home for my card's design:

It looks simple enough, but the lack of provided measurements--plus having to figure out the angles--makes it a bit of a bear to work with, at least for me. Thankfully, I was able to work out my design full-size in Photoshop, so then it was just a case of cutting the panels correctly!

After sizing and rotating the reindeer on my Photoshop canvas, I positioned the greeting from this Hero Arts digital set. I recolored the greeting to match the reindeer. Finally, I printed the image, greeting, and guidelines on a piece of cream cardstock.

I cut the main panels from the cream cardstock, and then cut pieces of patterned paper from my scrap stash for the other two small panels. After gluing all the panels to a piece of dark green cardstock cut to 4.25x5.5", I cut and glued down pieces of red ribbon edged with gold. I added some Christmas Red Stickles to the reindeer's nose, and after that dried, mounted the card front to an A2 card base. A simple, but I think, striking card!

I'm also entering this card in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge: "Christmas/Holidays."

Holiday Card Trio

Since I'm in full-holiday-card-making mode, that's probably all you're going to see for the next couple of weeks. Hope you don't mind!

My first card combines 4 different images from two companies. I began by choosing the snow globe base, globe, & topper from Doodle Pantry's "Snow Globe Gala" collection. The inside image is "The Mousie's Gingerbread Housie" from Dearie Dolls Digi Images. (This is a great source of delightful images, all of which are available for free download for personal use!) I used Sketch #79 from Operation Write Home as the basis of my design:

I rotated the sketch 90 degrees counterclockwise, but otherwise made no alterations.

After arranging the digital elements in Photoshop, I printed them on a piece of Strathmore Mixed Media Paper. Because of the detail in the gingerbread house and mice, I used colored pencils to color them in. I did a little blending, but mostly just straight coloring. I also colored the base & topper of the snow globe with pencils, using Gamsol to blend the colors. Finally, I rounded the corners with my 1/4" Corner Chomper.

I cut 3 strips of patterned paper from my scrap stash, and glued them to a piece of brown cardstock, cut to 4.25x5.5". I glued on my focal panel, and then adhered the whole panel to an A2 card base.

My next card uses one of the images from Hero Arts' "Feathered Friends" digital set. I paired it with a greeting stamp (source unknown), which seemed to complement the playful feel of the image.

I used OWH's Sketch #232 for this card:

Since the ribbon I used for the small pieces on the right of the focal panel was rather narrow, I ended up using 5 pieces instead of the 3 indicated in the sketch.

I printed my image on a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper, and colored it with Inktense pencils and a damp paintbrush. The images in this set are very delightful to color, since there is not a lot of fine detail, making it easier to get some nice shading. I'd highly recommend checking them out!

After marking the position of my focal panel on the mat, I stamped the greeting in Versamark, and heat embossed it with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder. I glued the image to the mat, and adhered the 2 patterned papers together. I marked the position of the focal panel on this background, and glued the ribbon pieces in place, using pins stuck through them into a piece of cork board underneath my card front to hold them until the glue dried.

While that dried, I took a white A2 card base, and blended Aged Mahogany Distress ink around the front edges, to create my mat. I felt the color was too cool, though, so I went back over it with Fired Brick Distress ink, which gave me the perfect tone. Finally, I glued my card front to the base.

The inspiration for my final card came from one in this blog post, that I'd found through Pinterest. I liked the idea of the embossed panels, with the opposite corners rounded.

I first cut my green panels, and rounded the corners with my 1/2" Corner Chomper. Then I embossed them with the "A2 Holly" folder from The Paper Studio. I adhered those to red cardstock, which I'd cut slightly larger than the panels. Finally, I adhered them to a piece of ivory cardstock cut to 4.25x5.5".

I stamped the holly leaves from this set by Clearly Besotted, using Hero Arts' Forever Green mid-tone shadow ink. I also stamped the coordinating berries from the same set, in Antique Linen Distress ink. I wanted a light ink, but enough so I could see where I'd stamped. After punching this out with a 1" square punch by EK Success, I added Christmas Red Stickles over the stamped berries.

Unfortunately, I had not thought ahead to leave myself room for a greeting. So I stamped one (source unknown) in Versamark on a piece of vellum, and white heat embossed it. I cut that into a strip, and glued it in place with little dots of glue behind the embossing, and folded and glued the ends behind the card front. I finished the card by adhering the front to an A2 card base.

I'm entering these cards in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Monday "Holiday Cards"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Christmas/Holidays"
a2z Scrapbooking's December Challenge: "Watercolor" (bird card only)

A Pair of Christmas Cards

I am frantically trying to create our Christmas cards for this year--preferably to be ready to send before Christmas! I created these two towards that goal.

For my first card, I used the line image and greeting from this set from Doodle Pantry. I first die cut the main panel from watercolor paper with the largest die from My Favorite Things "Blueprints 15" set. This creates a panel slightly smaller than an A2 card, with a nice faux-stitched edge. After sizing & positioning the image & greeting in Photoshop, I printed them onto the watercolor panel.

I masked the image off with masking fluid, and did a gradated watercolor wash for the sky. When the watercolor had dried, I removed the masking fluid, and colored the image with my Inktense pencils and a damp paintbrush. Then I set that aside to dry thoroughly.

For stars, I used Simon Says Stamp's "Falling Stars" stencil and Golden Light Molding Paste. I positioned the stencil over the panel, and carefully applied the paste, being sure not to cover any of the image or words in the greeting. Then I set the panel aside again to let the paste dry.

I die cut a piece of navy cardstock with the A2 size die from Avery Elle's "Custom Panels" set. I adhered the focal panel to that, and finally mounted it on an A2 card base.

My second card features another Doodle Pantry digital image set, "Blessed Christmas." I die cut a piece of Strathmore Mixed Media paper using the smaller of Mama Elephant's "Femme Frames" dies. I printed the Bible verse and image from the set onto that. I taped it down to my cutting board that I use for watercoloring, masking off around the faux-stitched edge. I colored the Baby Jesus with Inktense pencils. I was kind of nervous about this, because I'm not used to doing skin tones with those, especially darker skin tones. I experimented on a scrap of watercolor paper before coloring my image, and I think it ended up looking pretty good. I finished the panel by going over the background with a wash of different yellow watercolors.

For the blue mat, I die cut a piece of cardstock with the scalloped frame die from the "Femme Frames" set. I also die cut a piece of gold cardstock from American Crafts with the A2 die in the "Custom Panels" set. I adhered all three panels together, and mounted the completed card front onto a white A2 card base.

I'm entering both cards in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Anything Goes"
Simon Says Stamp's Monday "Holiday Cards"

The Key to My Heart

Operation Write Home has a "Red Friday" blog hop going on this week that started last Friday. The theme is love cards. There are several designers on the hop with cards to check out, many with videos. You can comment on the participating blogs for a chance to win prizes. You can also create a card inspired by something you see on the hop, with the love theme, and link it up. Prizes are awarded for linked cards, too!

I took my inspiration from the card featured on this post by Sharon Harnist. I loved her white stamping on black, and it made me think of the popular chalkboard effect.

I began by choosing this sketch from Operation Write Home:

I rotated it 90 degrees, and left off the piece in the middle. I also added a banner with my greeting.

I stamped one of the images from the "Cocoa's Heart" clear stamp set (no longer available) from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps onto a piece of black paper with Hero Arts Unicorn White pigment ink, then set it aside to dry. For the background, I randomly stamped two of the hearts from this Hero Arts set onto a piece of dark pink cardstock, using Versamark ink. I heat embossed them with Recollections Detail Clear embossing powder, for a shiny tone-on-tone look. I also stamped a greeting from "Cocoa's Heart" onto a piece of black paper, and heat embossed it with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder.

To create the "chalk dust" look, I lightly blended Ranger Adirondack Snow Cap pigment ink over the black paper pieces. Since this kind of dulled the focal image, I went over that with a white gel pen. I also drew some small hearts and added the "U+ME={heart}" to the panel with my white gel pen.

I matted the focal panel with brown cardstock, to look like a chalkboard frame. I adhered it to the pink background, and matted that with black paper. After wrapping black and white bakers twine from Maya Road around the card front, I punched a hole in the greeting banner, and tied it on with more twine. I added some Ranger Multi Medium Matte to the knot to keep it from coming untied. For the outermost mat, I rubbed more black paper with the Snow Cap ink, and adhered the card front to that with foam tape. Finally, I adhered the completed front to an A2 card base. I will be sending this card to Operation Write Home.

I'm also entering this card in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Anything Goes" challenge.