#908 – A Merry and Bright Snowfall Scenery

PE: Winner at CrafTangles challenge!!!

Rocker at the Watercooler Wednesday challenge!!

Hello and welcome! Just a month till Christmas,

and I am finally posting a Christmas card! Its for the new challenge we have up a the Tic Tac Toe challenge. Following the November theme of ‘Seasonal/Holiday’ elements, we have a new board, created by Betty Keefe, for you to work with –

I chose the last row of Stars-Metallic-Snow. And here’s what I made –

I started with handmade watercolor paper from CrafTangles. This is the first time I am using this particular paper, so I had no idea how it would behave. Its particularly thick too.

So, anyway, without going too much into the performance of the paper… I first stamped all the images on the paper. The images are actually only two thought – the snowman from Purple Onion Designs called ‘Snow – Snowman with Broom’ and the fence + trees in the background, from Purple Onion Designs too, called Farm Horizon. I drew the stones and the frozen lake beside the snowman myself.

I then watercolored the piece using Gansai Tambi watercolors. Once the watercoloring had dried, I splattered the ‘snow’ using white pigment ink. I also wanted a few stars on the scene. I stamped them from the stamp set Rustic Christmas from Lil Inker Designs, watercolored and cut them out, and adhered them on the scene.

Next came the sentiment. I die cut a couple of pieces using Winnie & Walter In a Word: Merry die. I then adhered red foil on a scrap piece of cardstock and die cut that also using the same die. I then stacked the pieces together.

I also heat embossed the words ‘& Bright’ from Paper Trey Ink Grand Ampersand stamp set in silver embossing powder on a strip of vellum. This, I cut out, and adhered it along with the die cut piece on the card.

At this point, I felt that the rest of the stamping was lacking depth, so went over the whole thing again with my Uniball fine liner pen.

And that’s how the card came about! I’m joining the following challenges with this card –

Virginia’s Show and Shave November challenge (“Christmas” and/or “Hand-stitching”)

CrafTangles November challenge: Festive Projects

Watercooler Wednesday challenge #299: All About Occasions

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes

Bastel Traum challenge #95: Winter

Checkout the Tic Tac Toe challenge blog for more wonderful inspiration from the rest of the Design Team!

And thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#905 – You Melt My Heart!

Hello and welcome! We have a new challenge up at the Tic-Tac-Toe challenge, and the board this time is from yours truly!

I chose the first column – Plaid, Snow and Critter. And here’s what I made –

This one’s on you, Rahmat, for inspiring me to pick up my pencils again! 😀

I started with the critter and the tree. The cute little foxie is from My Favorite Things Friendly Foxes. I modified the image a bit to make it look like the fox has a scarf wrapped around it’s neck instead of the tie that it originally had. For the tree.. yeah, I don’t have any stamps which matched the tree I had in mind, so I put my drawing skills into practice and drew one instead. I used Uniball Fineliner pens to outline it. I then used color pencils from Faber Castell Polychromos to color both the images.

Somehow, my lighting direction altered when I was coloring the fox. And there’s no direction at all on the tree…sigh.. my pencil coloring skills need some polish!! But, I am definitely gonna work on it! 🙂

For the background, I blended in some distress inks, sprinkled some water on it for the snow and trimmed the piece to size. I also die cut two pieces of snowy ground using the My Favorite Things Stitched Snowdrift dies. For the background, I used kraft cardstock, on which I stamped some dark brown ink using the Impression Obsession Gingham background stamp.

While arranging the pieces, I found it to be a bit empty. So I drew two presents, colored them using the same pencils, fussy cut them and added them to the card. Finally I stamped the sentiment, from Paper Smooches Winter Sampler, on the card, choosing a red ink for the heart and black for the rest of the sentiment.

Hope you enjoyed this card! For more inspiration checkout the Tic-Tac-Toe challenge blog, where you’ll find some awesome cards made by the DT!

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#903 – Colorful Fall Leaves Wreath

Hello and welcome! Time for a new challenge at the Tic-Tac-Toe challenge blog, and we are continuing with the Thank You/Fall theme. This time, the board was created by Felicita –

I chose the mid column – Wreath, Any Color, Any Shape Die. And here’s what I made –

I made a wreath using leaves colored in fall colors, embedding a few die cut, uncolored leaves in between. The stamped leaves are all from two stamp sets from Winnie & Walter – In Bloom: Addie’s Garden and In Bloom: Anna’s Flora. I stamped them in VersaFine Onyx black ink, then water colored them loosely using distress inks. Some of the images hadn’t been stamped well, so I went over them with my Uniball fineliner pens. I then fussy cut them all and set them aside. I also die cut some leaves from Marianne Designs Anja’s Leaves dies, but I didn’t color these.

On a white card base, I used a make up brush to create a ombre or orange-white. I then adhered the base of the leaves in a circular pattern. But since my wreath isn’t centered, a portion of the wreath is missing in the card. 🙂

Once I adhered everything in place, finally came the sentiment. I used two stamp sets – Honey Bee Stamp’s Hand Lettered Alpha to stamp the ‘Fall’ and Ellen Hutson’s Totally Random Sayings Vol 1 to stamp the ‘everything’. I fussy cut them both and adhered them to the card.

And that’s my card. I”m joining the following challenges with this –

Stamplorations October Theme & Photo Prompt challenge: Stamps + Autumn Colors

The Card Concept challenge #142: Autumn Bounty (my design, I think, is CAS Layered? CAS for sure, but I am thinking layered, since I do have layers of leaves on that wreath!)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes

Checkout more inspiration from the rest of the Design Team at the Tic-Tac-Toe challenge blog, and of course, don’t forget to join!

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#898 – So Very Grateful

Hello and welcome! Another week and another new challenge! We have a new Thank You/Fall themed board for you at the Tic-Tac-Toe challenge and this time, the board was created by LeAnne –

And here’s what I made. I chose the first column – Gold Foil/Glitter – Burgandy – Die Cut –

I started with the foil maple leaf. In fact, this one was going to be an experiment, since I had no idea where I was going or whether it was even going to work!

I first embossed a leftover watercolor paper panel with Neat & Tangled Maple Leaf die. I then traced the positive portion of the embossing with my Zig 2 way glue and waited for it to dry. I then cut out a piece of gold foil, then sandwiching this between the paper and the same die, I passed it again though the embossing machine. When I was done, I was left with the embossing + foiled leaf. I then used the solid die from the set to die cut it out.

I then water-colored a long strip of watercolor paper with shades of burgundy. Yes shades – since I couldn’t figure out whether burgundy was wine-red, or purple-red or some other dark shade of red… I just used them all! 😀

Anyway, so once that was dry, I cut out the leaves using Concord & 9th Layering Leaves dies. I then adhered them over some scrap watercolor paper and then fussy cut them.

For the background, I used Hero Arts Scattering Leaves stamps over kraft cardstock. I stamped the leaves with white pigment ink first, and then stamped it again with Memento Rhubarb Stalk ink, a nice dark red, but with a little offset – the Misti saved my life here!! Once it was all dry, I stamped the empty spaces with a brown ink – same leaves, but that gave a sort of shadow effect. I then trimmed this panel and adhered it directly over my white card base. I foam mounted all the leaves over these. Then I tied some jute string together with some gold thread I had, together into a bow, and adhered this on the top, to make it look like the leaves were tied together into a bunch.

Finally, the sentiment for this came from Neat & Tangled Oak Leaf stamp set. I added some gold foil washi tape (I just can’t get enough of these foil washi tapes!!), trimmed it to size and then foam mounted it over the card.

And that’s my card! Do step over to the Tic-Tac-Toe challenge blog for more inspiration from the rest of the team! And don’t forget to join the fun!!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

#893 – Tic Tac Toe Challenge!!

Hello!! I’ve got exciting news to share!! I’ve been generously asked by Felicita to join the Tic-Tac-Toe design team and I’ve humbly accepted!! Today’s my first day being a part of the challenge as a part of the DT!! Looking forward to an exciting journey with this wonderful team!

Well, coming to latest challenge! Here’s the Thank You/ Fall board created by Joanne:

I chose the first row – Plaid, Pumpkin and Thankful. And here’s what I made –

I created the plaid in the background by using CrafTrat 2 Step Plaid stencil. This is really a stencil that I’m super happy with!! Since I also wanted to add a touch of black, I took my black gel pen and added criss-crossing lines over the plaid.

For the pumpkins themselves, I used CrafTangles watercolor paper, stamped the set of pumpkins from Verve’s Bountiful Harvest stamp set in Antique Linen and watercolored it further using Gansai Tambi watercolors.

Once dried, I trimmed the panel, I stamped it with the sentiment from Winnie & Walter The Big, The Bold and You stamp set. I then matted it with black cardstock and foam mounted it on the plaid card base.

I must say, the watercoloring this time turned out better than I expected! So happy with it! 🙂

With this card, I am joining the following challenges –

Retro Rubber Challenge #144: Anything Goes (I’ve used Verve Stamp Bountiful Harvest which was release in 2010)

Watercooler Wednesday challenge #291: Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes

Just Add Ink challenge #525: Thank You

Do step over to the Tic-Tac-Toe challenge blog for more inspiration from the rest of the team! And don’t forget to join!! And thank you so much for stopping by!