Season's Greetings

Hi everyone.  Today I'm sharing a CAS (Clean and Simple) Christmas card.

I started by heat embossing the poinsettia in liquid platinum onto vellum.  I used red ink and a water brush to watercolour the flower, fussy-cut, then adhered it to my card front with some glue in the center only, leaving the petals free to add some dimension.   I heat embossed a sentiment in the same embossing powder and then rounded the top corner to finish the card.  Quick and easy CAS card. :)

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Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season.  Thanks to all that take time to visit my blog.  And a special thank you to those that spend time leaving me comments of support ... it means so much.

I'll be back just after Christmas.  See you soon.  Merry Christmas!

Stamps:  Warm Wishes (poinsettia) and Brush Pines (sentiment) both from Penny Black
Paper:  White card base (Neenah); Vellum
Ink:  Real Red (SU!); Versamark
Accessories & Tools:  Liquid Platinum embossing powder (Ranger), heat tool, waterbrush, corner rounder (We R Memory Keepers)

Sponged Snowflakes

I'm sharing a simple Christmas card I made with a smooshed Inka Gold background, with sponging over top of a snowflake stencil in silver ink. Super easy card.  It's hard to capture the shine on the silver snowflake in a photo ... it look more gray here, but it is silver, shiny and very pretty.  I added a simple sentiment banner, stamped in the same silver ink to tie everything together.

I made a "stepped-up" version of the card above.

Used another smooshed Inka Gold background from my stash ... this one has a bit more colour to it.  Sponged over the same snowflake stencil with silver ink, but also added a layer of glass bead gel over top.  The glass beads really sparkle and add lots of texture as well.

Stamps:  Christmas Sampler (Paper Smooches)
Paper:  White (Neenah 110 lb.); Mixed Media (Strathmore 140 lb.)
Ink:  Silver (Delicata)
Accessories & Tools:  Inka Gold in blue, silver and gold, water mister, snowflake stencil (cut with my Silhouette Cameo), and sponge, Glass Bead Gel (Golden)

Watercolouring with Re-inkers

Hi everyone.  We're already over half way through December.  Just a reminder about the CAS Watercolour's December Challenge this month ...

I've had this background stamp for AGES but think it's the first time being inked up. Always good to use a NBUS item (a la Darnell). :)

I actually removed it from the wood base that it came with and added a cling sponge base so I could use it in my Misti.  The thing about intricate background stamps (or large stamps) is that they don't always ink evenly.  I think it helped.  Still a few little bare spots, but looks good.

I stamped this onto mixed media paper with versamark ink and heat embossed with white.  Once cool, I lightly sprayed with water.  Three small random dots each of Ripe Persimmon re-inker and Picked Raspberry re-inker were added over top, then misted with more water until the colours flowed.  I let it air dry and then cut down my panel.  It's a busy pattern, so I opted to leave it plain, just adding a simple die-cut sentiment.

Check out the other Design Team Reminder cards, along with our Guest Designer Deepti by clicking HERE.

I hope you come play along at our challenge.  Create a CAS card using the Watercolour Resist technique and then enter your card in the linky.  Hope to see you in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by.

Stamps:  Swirly Background (Inkadinkado)
Paper:  White card base (Neenah 110 lb. card stock); Main panel:  Mixed media paper (Strathmore 140 lb.); Black (SU!)
Ink:  Ripe Persimmon and Picked Raspberry re-inkers (Tim Holtz); Delicata Silver
Accessories & Tools:  White embossing powder, heat tool

Challenges:
CAS Watercolour December Challenge - Watercolour Resist

Faux Mother-of-Pearl Stenciling

Today's card is a reminder of the CAS Mix Up December Challenge - Sponging.  We are already half way through the month of December and have wonderful entries into the challenge.  Come join us!

I'm sharing a card using sponging with the Faux Mother-of-Pearl technique.  Click here to see my video tutorial on this fun and easy technique.

Most of the time, I use Faux Mother-of-Pearl as a background, and sometimes I use it to die-cut embellishments.  This is my first time using it through a stencil.  I'm so happy with how it turned out.  I used a beautiful flower stencil that was a gift from my dear friend Bonnie.

I placed the stencil over my card front, taping it down to hold everything in place.  A piece of scrunched up cling wrap was pounced it into a small drop of frost pearl paint.  It's important to pounce several times to get the paint worked into your cling wrap.  This makes sure you don't end up with big globs of paint.  I lightly dabbed it randomly over the stencil, removed the stencil, and cleaned off the excess paint right away.  Once dry, placed the stencil back over top of my card front and sponged on three colours of distress inks (Wilted Violet, Shabby Shutters, and Peeled Paint).  I added a simple stamped sentiment and a popped up stitched, die-cut frame.

The Faux Mother-of-Pearl gives such lovely sparkle to the flower.

My CAS Mix Up card has stamping, sponging, Faux Mother-of-Pearl technique, stenciling, and die-cuts.

Click HERE to check out the beautiful reminder cards from our design team.

The challenge is open until Dec. 24th so there's still lots of time to play along.  Hope to see you in the gallery! :)



Stamps:  Sentiment - Where the Heart is (Simon Says)
Paper:  White (Neenah 110 lb. card stock)
Ink:  Distress Inks:  Wilted Violet, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint (Tim Holtz); Black (Memento)
Accessories & Tools:  Lovely Large Flower stencil (Studio 490 - Wendy Vecchi), cling wrap, Frost White Paint (Tsukineko), sponges, Stitched Rectangular Frame dies (Lil' Inkers)

Challenges:
CAS Mix Up December Challenge - Sponging

Smiley Snowman

Hi everyone.  Sharing another Christmas card.  This one uses a digital image of a sweet snowman ... he makes me smile! :)

I printed him onto white card stock and fussy cut.  Zig markers were used to colour in his nose and scarf.  A bit of detailing was added to the scarf with a white gel pen.

For the background, embossing paste was spread over a snowfall stencil, then sprinkled with iridescent embossing powder.  Once everything was dry, the embossing powder was heat set.  I love the sparkle.  Two torn snowbanks were added at the bottom, along with a simple stamped sentiment.

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On a personal note.  Sorry I haven't been around as much lately sharing cards.  I mentioned a while ago that my radiation treatments will be starting in January, but they were moved up and I'm in the middle of them now.  Should hopefully be finished my last treatment on Dec. 23.  It will be a wonderful Christmas present to have all my treatments done. :)

I have more scheduled posts that will be going up on my blog over the next few weeks, so you'll be hearing from me again soon.

Stamps:  Smiley Snowman (Sweet 'N Sassy); Snowman Sayings (Amy R)
Paper:  White (Neenah)
Ink:  Gumball Green, Zigs (Green and two shades of Orange)
Accessories & Tools:  Falling Snow stencil (Simon Says), embossing paste (Dreamweaver), "Ice" iridescent embossing powder (SU!), heat tool, white gel pen

CAS Watercolour December Challenge

Hi everyone.  Today is the start of the CAS Watercolour December Challenge.  This month, the challenge is ...

I used heat embossing as my resist, using a Christmas text background stamp done in white.  I made a large piece (6" x 9").  Then I sprinkled a couple of colours of green Brushos just on part of the background, spritzed with water and let it dry. Then I added in some red Brushos in the spots that didn't have green, spritzed with more water, and blotted here and there with a paper towel.  It turned out pretty well, but very light, so I repeated my steps to add more depth of colour.

I cut the watercoloured sheet into four and made multiples of the same design. Great way to quickly grow your stash of Christmas cards.

The holly and pine sprigs is a die-cut, which was sponged around the edge with the same colour of ink as the paper, just to give it some shading.  The "berries" were made with a paper hole punch, sponged with a little red, and a white dot added with a gel pen.  Then it was all glued together and placed over top of the text background.

We are happy to have Deepti (Dee's Art Utopia) as our Guest Designer this month at CAS Watercolour.  Deepti was the winner of our very first challenge - Autumn with this GORGEOUS CARD! Welcome to the team!!

Please click HERE to check out the Design Team's beautiful cards.

And then come join the fun.  Create a CAS (Clean and Simple) card using Watercolour Resist and then join the challenge.  Hope to see you in the gallery!

Edited:  I'm entering this into the STAMPlorations CAS Challenge for December - Red & Green.  Thanks Harriet!

Stamps:  Christmas Story (Penny Black); Christmas Messages (Hero Arts)
Paper:  White card base (Neenah 110 lb.); Mixed Media (Strathmore 140 lb.)
Ink:  Brushos:  Lime Green, Leaf Green, Scarlet; Versamark; Distress Inks:  Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn (Tim Holtz)
Accessories & Tools:  White embossing powder, heat tool, water mister, Blissful Bundle die-cut (Memory Box), paper hole punch, sponges, white gel pen

Challenges:
CAS Watercolour December Challenge - Watercolour Resist

CAS Mix Up December Challenge

Hi everyone.  Today is the start of the CAS Mix Up December Challenge - Sponging.

For my card, I heat embossed several flowers and leaves from Altenew in white on regular white card stock.  I used sponge daubers to add colour and then fussy-cut all the pieces.  I arranged them over top of my dark gray sentiment banner.  A really easy and fun way to add sponging to your cards.

This CAS Mix Up card has stamping, heat embossing, sponging, and fussy-cutting.

We are excited to welcome Maura as our Guest Designer this month.  Maura won the CAS Mix Up October Challenge - Ghosting with this AMAZING CARD. Welcome to the team!

Check out our December challenge to see the rest of the Design Team's CAS (Clean and Simple) Sponged cards.

Come join us for the challenge!

Thanks for dropping by for a visit!

Stamps:  Bamboo Rose (Altenew);
Paper:  White (Neenah 110 lb.); Basic Gray (SU!)
Ink:  Distress Inks:  Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon, Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn (Tim Holtz)
Accessories & Tools:  White embossing powder, heat tool

Challenges:
CAS Mix Up December Challenge - Sponging