#928 – A Poinsettia Christmas

Hello and welcome! Today I have the honor of Guest Designing at the Addicted to Stamps and More challenge! I got this generous offer from Kylie after winning one of their previous challenges.

The theme this time is Christmas! Yes, Christmas in the middle of the year. I guess this challenge might give many of us a headstart at getting ready for the end of the year!

And this is the card I made –

I brought this pretty pretty poinsettia die set from Lawn Fawn recently, and thought it a waste that I wasn’t making Christmas card any time soon. So this challenge was a welcome opportunity! 🙂

Before I started die cutting, I thought making some pattern papers using the gel plate that I have had for so long! My sister uses it for her mixed media stuff, but me not so much. But I was very inspired by the recent videos regarding using gel plated with distress inks by Jennifer McGuire and thought it would be a great idea to try. I was anyway going to make a Christmas card with non-traditional colors, so I started my experiments. I used distress inks and few stencils and stamps and created a few beautiful prints, then used the dies to die cut from them and some white card stock as well. I then adhered the flowers together. Thinking that I might need some black too, I stamped a few images from the Winnie and Walter In Bloom: Elsa’s Flora in black ink and fussy cut them out.

For the background, I stamped an image from Neat & Tangled Landscape Textures with a light grey ink, then trimmed the panel diagonally. This I foam mounted on the white card base, and then adhered all my poinsettias with the leaves and added a white stone in each of the floral centers.

For the sentiment, I went with Neat and Tangles Art Deco, stamped it in black, trimmed the piece and rounded a couple of the corners and adhered that also using foam tape.

And that’s my card. Make sure to stop by the Addicted to Stamps and More challenge blog to get more inspiration from all the design team. And thank you, once again, Kylie, to give me this wonderful chance!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

#909 – Snow-scene with Joy

Hello and welcome to yet another challenge we have up at the Tic Tac Toe challenge! We have a new theme for December, being ‘Winter/Birthday/Thank You’, and this is the board –

I chose the mid row, with the elements of House, Snow and Tree. And this is what I made –

I started with the framed scene. On a suitable size of scrap cardstock, I used the Rustic Christmas stamp from Lil Inker Designs, stamped the images in MFT Hybrid Black ink and then used my Faber Castell Polychromos pencils to color the scene. Then I blended in the colors only in the sky using baby oil, to get a cleaner look.

I then die cut the frame using Paper Smooches Frame 2 die, backed it with another piece of die cut and adhered the scene behind it. I adhered this in almost the center of a white cardstock and then stamped ‘Joy’ using My Favorite Things’ Alphabets & Numbers from Birdie Brown.

And that’s it! That finished my card. And I’m joining the following challenges with it –

Global Design Project #271: Winter/Holday

Inkspirational Challenge #228: Snow

Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge: Ice Cold

Watercooler Wednesday challenge #302: Anything Goes

Step over to the Tic Tac Toe challenge to get more inspirational cards from the rest of the DT and don’t forget to join in your self!

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#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! 🙂

#845 – Merry Christmas Shadow Card

Hello and welcome! This is the last one in the series of Christmas cards I made to send out to friends. This one, I planned to make a shadow card, and I am quite happy with it, for being the very first attempt at it!

I first colored the critters I wanted to use inside this card (see below). The images are Purple Onion Designs Puddles and from My Favorite Things Sending Sweet Celebration Wishes stamp which I modified a bit to make them look Christmas-y. I stamped them on watercolor paper and colored them using Zig Brush pens. I also hand drew the christmas tree, since I didn’t have a stamp for that and colored it too. I then fussy cut them all out and set them aside.

For the card front, I picked a white cardstock panel, then colored it using distress oxide ink. I then splattered it with water and once dry, splattered it again with white paint and Unicorn paint from Prima (its a beautiful golden silver sheen!!). I also added a few more dots of glitter using a glitter pen.

Finally, coming to the inside of the card. I followed the tutorial by Jennifer McGuire here. I colored the inside background using more distress oxide ink and then splattered it with water and then the Unicorn paint. The star banner in the background came from Reverse Confetti Star Garland die. I die cut a couple of pieces, drew the stars on top, then colored them.

Before adhering the pieces on the card, I added glitter on the white parts of the critters’ caps, the present, the baubles and the stars. I also added glossy accents on the baubles and stars and let it dry completely. Finally I adhered all the pieces together.

At this point, I realized I didn’t have any sentiment inside, although I had planned to add something. So I used the sentiment from Neat & Tangled Scandinavian Prints Christmas stamp and stamped it on the bottom of the window.

The sentiment on the front of the card is from Stamplorations, called Merry Christmas. I cut out a few pieces using white cardstock, and the top one using gold mirror cardstock. I adhered the pieces together by stacking them. To finish the top of the card, I adhered the panel I created earlier directly on the white card base and then adhered the sentiment on top.

I am joining the following challenges –

Simon Says Stamp: Christmas Card Day

Happy Little Stampers December Christmas challenge: Anything Goes with optional Candy Cane (I haven’t used the candy cane)

Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge: Party Time

Thank you so much for stopping by!!