Festive Snippets

Hi everyone.  Today I'm playing along with February Rudolph Days Challenge, which is run by talented scrappimo!  I think I played there once a long time ago, but life has gotten in the way of me getting to play with all the challenges I like. :)

Anyways, I made it this month!  Mo runs the challenges every month with an "Anything Goes Christmas" theme.  The linky is open from the 25th until the end of the month, so you need to post your card or project during that time and link up to enter.

I went with my usual CAS style.  I pulled a small snippet from my stash of Alcohol inks backgrounds I made a while back.  Here's a video how-to if you're interested ... Alcohol Inks on Yupo.  I die-cut two snow hills and a cute little reindeer die that just arrived in the mail.  Isn't he adorable??!! :)

I used a NBUS sentiment as well from a set by Penny Black called Festive Snippets (hence the blog title for today). :)

I hope you'll come play along at Rudolph Days ... if it's too late for February's challenge, there will be another next month.  Again, anything goes as long as it's Christmas.  Post your card or project between the 25th and the end of the month and link up.

Stamps:  Festive Snippets (Penny Black)
Paper:  White card base (Neenah); Yupo
Ink:  Alcohol Inks (Ranger and Pinata)
Accessories & Tools:  Blending solution, Snow Drifts die (My Favorite Things), Retro Deer die (Simon Says Stamp)

Challenges:
February Rudolph Days Challenge - Anything Goes

Guest Designer at Snippets Playground

Hi everyone.  I'm thrilled to be joining Di & Parnsip at the Snippets Playground as Guest Designer!  YAY!!  I have snippets galore in my art studio, and I've used a few on the card above.  The hexagons are from leftovers of THIS card.  This is actually the second card I've made from leftovers from my original smooshed piece. :)  The small butterfly, sentiment banner, die-cut "You", and hexagon mounting foam are also snippets.  The only non-snippet piece is the card base. :)

I die-cut the hexagons and mounted them on die-cut pieces of white foam so there is lots of dimension.  I arranged them randomly on my card front, making sure to leave room for the sentiment.  A small butterfly finishes the design.  To keep the wings of the butterfly raised, I added a small drop of glossy accents on the underside of each wing and let it dry completely.  The I folded the butterfly, adding glue along the center line and a dot on top of each of the glossy accents, which keeps the wings fold upwards, even going through the mail. :)

Here's a close-up ...

I hope you'll come play along at the Snippets Playground.  It's a great challenge to encourage us to use up our snippets (I doubt I will ever use them all up ... but this helps!).  Di & Parsnip make it so fun and you'll get to meet lots of wonderful crafters.  It's a fun place to be!!  Thanks again to Di for having me as Guest Designer!

Come join us!

Stamps:  A Little Sentimental (Clearly Besotted)
Paper:  White card base (Neenah 110 lb.); Watercolour (Arches 140 lb. Cold Press); Black (SU!)
Ink:  Versamark
Accessories & Tools:  Liquid Watercolour Concentrate in Red and Purple (Dick Blick), water mister, Mod Hex Background Die (Poppy Stamps), Thinking of you die (Simon Says Stamp), Embosslits Beautiful Wings (Sizzix for SU!), White embossing powder, heat tool, corner rounder

Challenges:
Snippets Playground - Week 269 and 270

With Love

Hi everyone.  Today I'm back with another "LOVE" card for the CAS Watercolour February challenge.

I'm having a lot of fun with this challenge.  My card today can be used for so many different occasions ... it can be given to my sweetie, my kids, a dear friend, or even sent as a sympathy card.

The background for today is made with leftover ink from THIS CARD.  Mopped up the left over ink with a paper towel, placed the towel over a piece of hot press watercolourpaper, spritzed with water and pressed with my fingers to transfer the ink.  Love it! :)

Simply cut the watercolour piece down to size, framed it with a thin bit of black cardstock in the background, popped it up on the card and added a die-cut flower silhouette.

I hope you'll come join us for this challenge.  There's still a few days left to play along.

I used snippets for everything on this card except the card base, so I'm heading over to play at the Snippets Playground.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Stamps:  Sentiment - Rose Thoughts (Stampendous)
Paper:  Watercolour (Arches 140 lb. Hot Press); Black (SU!)
Ink:  Black (Memento)
Accessories & Tools:  Leftover ink from Liquid Watercolour Concentrate in Red and Purple (Dick Blick), paper towel, Flower Frolic die (Penny Black)

Challenges:
CAS Watercolour February Challenge - Love
Snippets Playground - Week 269 & 270

Experimenting again!

Hi everyone.  Sunday I got together with my crafting friends Susan (Cardmaker's Garret) and Christine (It's a Card Day's Night).  We meet up about once a month to play with new products and techniques.  We always have a great time!

Yesterday, we tried out several new techniques and a few new products.  We had some successes and some failures.  Today I'm sharing one of the successes. :)

My dear friend Nancy S. sent me a lovely gift for Christmas that included the beautiful stencil used for today's card.  Not only did she sent me the stencil, but Susan, Christine and I used Nancy's AMAZING TAG as our inspiration.  Thanks Nancy!!

This is definitely a mixed media tag.  Started by adding black gesso to a piece of regular card stock.  Once dry, the stencil was placed over top and crackle paste was added.  Once that was dry, I simply sponged on a few coloured on ink.  Love how it turned out.  Added a die-cut black butterfly to cover up a small mistake where the embossing paste was too thin. :)

Here's a close-up so you can see the crackle embossing paste --- so cool! :)

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Stamps:  A Little Sentimental (Clearly Besotted)
Paper:  Neenah White (110 lb.)
Ink:  Distress Inks:  Wild Honey, Abandoned Coral (Tim Holtz); Black (Memento)
Accessories & Tools:  Black gesso, sponge brush, Swirls & Pearls Stencil by Rebecca Baer (gift from Nancy S.), Crackle paste (Finnabair), palette knife, sponges, Moonlight butterfly die (Memory Box)

Love Always

Hi everyone.  Today is a reminder that there's just over a week left to play in the CAS Watercolour February Challenge - Love.  Create a CAS card that has some sort of watercolouring or watercolour look, and join us.  You can use watercolour paints, distress inks, dye inks, brushos, gelatos, etc.

I recently bought a few dies from a new-to-me company "Gina Marie Designs", including the heart used above.  My sweet friend Marcia has several of their beautiful dies, which she used to send me some die-cuts.  I really like their designs so had to buy some for myself. :)  I found I need to run them through my big shot several times adding paper shims to get a clean cut. It could very well be my Big Shot that is the problem as it's getting really old.  In the end, with a little extra elbow grease, I'm really happy with the designs I bought.

The heart above was die-cut from watercolour paper and smooshed with concentrated liquid watercolours.  I dried the first layer of smooshing and then used a paintbrush to add more of the red and purple watercolours to deepen the colours on the heart.  Once dry, I coated it (twice) with Wink of Stella to give it lots of shine (which doesn't show in the photo).

The card front was die-cut with the same heart and inlayed with the watercoloured heart.  A white heat embossed black banner sentiment was added to finish the card.

I hope you'll check out our reminder post ... lots of inspiration from our talented Design Team and our special Guest Designer Michelle.  Check it out HERE.

I'm also playing along with a few challenges.  Lots of challenges out there with Hearts/Love as the theme. :)

Challenges:
AAA Cards #83 - Shape your Love
CASology #236 - Romance
Inkspirational #128 - Photo Inspiration

Thanks for coming by for a visit!

Stamps:  Fond Expressions 7 (STAMPlorations)
Paper:  White card base (Neenah); Watercolour (Arches 140 lb. cold press); Black (SU!)
Ink:  Versamark
Accessories & Tools:  ?? die (Gina Marie Designs), Red and Purple Liquid Watercolour Concentrate (Dick Blick), Wink of Stella, White embossing powder, heat tool

Challenges:
CAS Watercolour February Challenge - Love
AAA Cards #83 - Shape your Love
CASology #236 - Romance
Inkspirational #128 - Photo Inspiration

Copper and Cardboard

A reminder that we are already over half way through the month of February.  The CAS Mix Up February Challenge - Corrugated Cardboard is open for just over a week.  Lots of amazing entries so far.  If you haven't had a chance to play along, come join the fun! :)

My CAS Mix Up card has Corrugated Cardboard, stamping, die-cuts, and heated copper.  I heated a piece of copper sheeting with a butane torch until it changed to different colours.  Then I die-cut the bird and leaves and glued them to a die-cut branch.  Everything was glued to the corrugated card square.  I heat embossed a simple sentiment in copper to finish.

The challenge is open until the 24th.  Come check out the awesome cards made by the rest of our Design Team, and our wonderful Guest Designer, Jules.  Hope to see you in the gallery! :)

Thanks for coming by for a visit!

Stamps:  A Little Sentimental (Clearly Besotted)
Paper:  White card base (Neenah 110 lb. card stocl); Early Espresso (SU!)
Ink:  Verssamark
Accessories & Tools:  Corrugated cardboard, Copper sheets, butane torch, Perched Reed Bird die-cut (Memory Box), Grove Branch die-cut (Memory Box), Tender Leaves die-cuts (Memory Box), copper embossing powder, heat tool

Challenges:
CAS Mix Up February Challenge - Corrugated Cardboard

Clarity Brushes

Hi everyone.  Today I'm experimenting with my new Clarity Brushes that I received as a gift from a dear friend.  I'm so spoiled!! :)

I bought this die a while ago, but hadn't used it yet.  First, I die-cut it from acetate to create a stencil, which I taped down over my card front.  Then I added colour over top with my brushes.  I love how these brushes blend the colour so perfectly.  I only used two colours of ink, brushing lightly over each section to building layers of colour.

I added a white heat embossed sentiment banner and die-cut "you" to add a small bit of dimension to my one layer card.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Edited to add:  A few people are wondering what type of acetate I use to make my stencils.  I buy Grafix acetate sheets (.007 thickness) that I buy in packages of 25 (12"x12" sheets) through Amazon.  It works for me with my Big Shot and I also cut a LOT of stencils with my Silhouette Cameo using the same acetate sheets.

Stamps:  A Little Sentimental (Clearly Besotted)
Paper:  White (Neenah 110 lb. card stock); Black card stock (SU!)
Ink:  Distress ink:  Mermaid Lagoon, Mowed Lawn (Tim Holtz)
Accessories & Tools:  Birch Tree Window die (Simon Says Stamp), Thinking of You die (Simon Says Stamp), Clarity Brushes, Acetate sheet to make stencil, white embossing powder, heat tool

... love, hope, & joy ...

Hi everyone.  Today I'm playing along with Merry Monday #234 - Clean and Simple.

I'm all about Clean and Simple cards so had to play along.  My card above uses a NBUS stamp that I've had for a few months.  I got it near the end of last year, but it was too late to use to make Christimas to send, so it's finally gotten it's first work out. :)

I stamped in Versamark ink and heat embossed in Liquid Platinum onto Hot Press watercolour paper.  The images were coloured with Zigs and a water brush.  Then I fussy cut them out.

The sentiment is stamped in Liquid Platinum onto my card base.  The images were popped up for added dimension.

I'm also heading over to add this to the gallery at CAS Watercolour Challenge - February is all about love (see love in my sentiment above).  The entries don't have to be just for Valentine's Day! :)

Stamps:  Winter Flowers (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  White card base (Neenah 110 lb.); Watercolour (Arches 140 lb. Hot Press)
Ink:  Versamark; Zigs
Accessories & Tools:  Water brush, Liquid Platinum embossing powder, heat tool

Challenges:
Merry Monday #234 - CAS
CAS Watercolour February Challenge - Love

Perfect Blend

Hi everyone.  I'm having fun playing with the CAS Mix Up February Challenge - Corrugated Cardboard. :)  There's so many ways to use this product.

I kept the coffee sleeve from a Canadian coffee outlet called Tim Hortons, after recently enjoying a delicious French Vanilla Coffee - yummy! :)  I used it to create the sleeve for the coffee cup on my card. :)  I stamped and paper pieced this fun coffee cup from SU!  I've had this set for YEARS, and I'm embarrassed to say this is the first time inking it up. :)

I added some texture to the background with embossing paste and a stencil, just randomly over the right side of the card front.  A strip of black card stock was added to anchor the cup.  I stamped a simple, little sentiment on the coffee sleeve.  :)

There was still something missing, so masked the bottom and cup, then splattered with just a little black.  Those little splatters made a big difference. :)

I used lots of snippets on this card (corrugated sleeve, coffee cup and lid, and black strip at the bottom), so I'm linking up to the Snippets Playground.

Stamps:  Perfect Blend (Stampin' Up!); Word Salad (Paper Smooches)
Paper:  White card base (Neenah 110 lb.); Black (SU!), Patterned Paper (Ambrosia from Bazzill)
Ink:  Black (Memento); Crumb Cake and Baked Brown Sugar (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  Coffee sleeve from Tim Hortons, Burlap Stencil (Tim Holtz), White Embossing Paste (Dreamweaver), sponges

Challenges:
CAS Mix Up February Challenge - Corrugated Cardboard
Snippets Playground - Week 267 & 268

Lake Loon

Hi everyone.   We are in the middle of a snow storm.  It's been snowing steady the past two days and there's at least 8" accumulated.  I love looking out at the snow falling ... it's so peaceful and beautiful with everything covered in white.  I'm lucky that I don't have to be out in it.  Snow days means more time for me in the studio. :)

Today I made the card above.  Very simple card using a background coloured piece that I had in my stash.  This background was made from leftover ink, sopped up with a paper towel, and then transferred onto watercolour paper.  I love the way the quilted design of the paper towel adds so much interest to the colours. :)  I've used left over paper towels to make another background for a card HERE, if you want to take a look.

I simply die-cut the loon for my card front, popped it over the coloured background and stamped a simple sentiment.  The lake loon die is a NBUS item from my stash, so I'm heading over to join in the fun at Darnell's NBUS #10 challenge that closes tomorrow.  I didn't use the optional theme this time. :)

Stamps:  Thinking of You (Happy Little Stampers)
Paper:  White (Neenah 110 lb.); Watercolour (Arches 140 lb. hot press)
Ink:  Smoky Slate (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  Lake Loon die (Gina Marie Designs), inky paper towels, water mister, brayer

Challenges:
Darnell's NBUS #10

CAS Watercolour February Challenge

Hi everyone.  Here's my Design Team card for CAS Watercolour's February Challenge.

Perfect timing as this card is going to my Mom for her 88th birthday with is in six days.  I wanted to make her something bright and fresh and I think this card fits the bill. :)

I got this stamp last year and it's the first time inking it up.  It had the word "Cosmos" in a oval ornate frame at the top of one of the flowers that I didn't like. So I carefully did some stamp surgery with my scissors and cut it out. :)  So happy to just have the flowers, which I stamped twice in Archival Black ink (masking a couple of flowers in the background).

Then I had some fun watercolouring the leaves and flowers with my Zigs.  I layered several colours on each flower to give them lots of shading and dimension.  I finished off by adding a sentiment banner at the bottom of my card front.

We have Michelle (Handmade by Michelle) as our Guest Designer this month. Welcome to the team Michelle! :)

I hope you'll come join us for this fun challenge.  Click HERE to check out the amazing cards by our talented Design Team and our Guest Designer Michelle.  I know you'll be inspired.

I'm entering this into Time Out Challenge #76 - Inspired by Words ... "friends are connected heart to heart, distance and time can't break them apart".

Thanks for dropping by for a visit!

Stamps:  Cosmo Spray (Stampendous); Sentiment - Field Flowers (SU!)
Paper:  White card base (Neenah 110 lb.); Mixed Media paper (Strathmore 140 lb.)
Ink:  Black Archival (Ranger); Zigs
Accessories & Tools:  waterbrush

Challenges:
CAS Watercolour February Challenge - Love
Time Out #76 - Inspired by Words

CAS Mix Up February Challenge

Hi everyone.  Welcome to the launch of the CAS Mix Up February Challenge.  This month's challenge is hosted by Susan (Cardmaker's Garret) from our Design Team.  And she's come up with a great challenge!

Add some corrugated cardboard to your CAS design, include stamping and then pick a third element from the list on the sidebar of the challenge blog.  It's lots of fun!!

My CAS Mix Up card has corrugated cardboard, stamping, smooshing with liquid concentrate watercolours, heat embossing, and watercolouring with distress inks (flower and leaves).

I used a piece of smooshed, watercolour background for my heart.  It was a leftover piece from THIS CARD.  Always great to keep pieces on hand, even small ones (this is 2 1/4" x 2").

We are excited to have Jules (Crafted by Jules) as our Guest Designer this month. Welcome Jules!!  Come check out Jules' corrugated cardboard CAS card, along with the other fantastic cards from our Design Team.  I know you'll be inspired.

I'm entering the following challenges:
CAS on Sunday (#100) - Hearts
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - The Color of Love
The Card Concept - "Love and Romance" - CAS Design

Stamps:  Spring Flowers (Simon Says); Short & Sweet (SU!)
Paper:  White card base (Neenah 110 lb.); Watercolour paper (Arches 140 lb. cold press)
Ink:  Delicata Gold; Distress Inks:  Barn Door, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint (Tim Holtz)
Accessories & Tools:  Corrugated cardboard, Liquid Watercolor Concentrate in Violet, red and gold (Dick Blick), Liquid Platinum embossing powder (Ranger), heat tool, gold thread

Challenges:
CAS Mix Up February Challenge - Corrugated Cardboard
CAS on Sunday #100 - Hearts
SSS Wednesday - The Color of Love
The Card Concept - Love and Romance