Starry Christmas

The inspiration for this card was Merry Monday Challenge #289. The theme is add a star.

 

For my card I had in mind to use this star from a Hero Arts My Monthly Hero set. Then I thought why don’t I use something other than the traditional colors. I did a search on the internet and decided on a color scheme. I used several of the colors but not all.

Photo credit: http://colorpalettes.net/color-palette-2543

I started out with a few different things and as we all do at times you make several different pieces until they all work together. It is kind of different from my norm but you have to try different things occasionally. I have a white panel with the background pattern stamped in Aged Mahogany Distress ink and that was too busy with the stars over it. I won’t go on about all the different pieces but I will say that if someone took apart the card there is clear embossing on the back side of the burgundy panel. I decided that the Versamark stamping of the background was the best.

The stars I heat embossed on blue paper with gold powder and the same on red paper. I hand cut those and then decided they needed a little border so I used the die to cut the stars out so they are layered which I think adds a nice touch.

For the sentiment I heat embossed using the same gold embossing powder on a white piece of paper. I then cut out the sentiment with dies.

Background – Hero Arts Snowflake Pattern Bold Print (CG723)

Stars – Hero Arts My Monthly Hero November 2017 kit, Queen’s Gold embossing powder by Ranger

Sentiment – Sizzix/Tim Holtz holiday words, Queen’s Gold embossing powder by Ranger

 

 

 

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Kraft Flowers

I got the idea that I wanted to create flowers on kraft paper to go over a kraft background and this is it!

I created the background using a large background stamp and then stamping the flowers with white pigment ink.

Then I stamped 3 of the flowers and stems on kraft paper and heat embossed them in white. I colored them with Prismacolor pencils.

It seems fairly simple when I explain it but I colored several flowers to come up with ones that I really liked including a bigger one from another set.

Flowers and stems – Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz Mini Bouquet (CMS269)

Background text – Heidi Swapp Script (HS01140)

Sentiment – Simon Says Stamp Birthday Messages 3X4 (SSS101391).

 

Watercolor Sympathy

I created another sympathy card for my hub.

For the background I created a watercolor panel using watercolor paper. I likely put some Distress ink down on my craft mat and sprayed with water. I also probably put water on the watercolor paper before laying it down over the watered down ink. I stamped over that with Hero Arts stamp Silhouette Grass (S5316) with a very light brown ink. For the more obvious flowers I used Hero Arts stamp Exotic Bloom (H5424). The sentiment is from that fab Paper Smooches set Sympathy Sampler (NOS298).

Sepia Sympathy Card

It’s kind of interesting how this card came about. I stamped this Hero Arts image Large Blossom (CG271) on some watercolor paper and had some ideas on how I wanted it to look. I was thinking stamp in lighter olive green and have some light pink flowers. I started working on that. This card was for a friend of my husbands whose father passed away. When I showed my husband my original idea he wasn’t really diggin’ it. He says why don’t you make it a sepia look. At first I thought nah. Then I thought why not try it. I really like how it turned out. On the one hand I think it is ok for a sympathy card and a part of me thinks it is a bit dark colored for a sympathy card. If you have a thought on this please comment.

I painted some Tea Dye or maybe another brown Distress ink on some watercolor paper. Then I stamped the image, which is a reverse image, using a darker brown Oxide ink (can’t remember which one). I like how it has a texture look to the background from the watercolor paper. The background piece is stamped with a Rubbernecker stamp Distress Dotted Lines. The sentiment is from Paper Smooches set Sympathy Sampler (NOS298). This is a really good sympathy set with several different sets of words for these type of cards.

Merry Monday #286

I created a card for Merry Monday #286 and got it in before the last minute. Yeah! The theme this week was use your Favorite Christmas Verse. I looked around and only had simple Christmas sentiments. The first thing I thought of for this was the last line from Twas The Night Before Christmas. This always reminds me of my Mom who loved to read it out loud at Christmas more when I went home to visit after moving out.

The background – I created it by applying Distress Oxide ink to a craft mat and spraying it with water. I wet the watercolor paper also before putting it down on the ink. At the end I stamped some snowflakes, from Hero Arts set Snowflakes by Lia (CL901) using Versamark Frost ink, across the sky. They pretty much don’t show in the photo. After I took the photo I brushed some Perfect Pearls pearl powder over the snowflakes and went over it with a heat gun. If you tilt it or in the right light you can kind of see the snowflakes.

The houses and trees – I cut this with my Cameo and it is christmas house border design #52275. I was starting to think I would do a monochromatic color scheme at this point.

The santa and sleigh – I stamped with a Stampabilities stamp called Santa Sleigh Silhouette that I got at Hobby Lobby using Cobalt Archival ink. It didn’t stamp all the way so I colored in with a Copic marker.

Favorite Christmas verse – This was probably the most time consuming thing on the card. Hard to believe but true. My printer doesn’t seem to like thick cardstock. This wasn’t 110 lb. Neenah paper either. I was using the 80 lb. Neenah and every single time the ink smeared all over. I probably printed this at least 8 times trying to make it better by changing settings. I ended up using some thinner cardstock but it still has a few streaks. I had another one that I went over with Distress ink but decided I didn’t like the blue so I printed once again and smudgy once again just a little. I was running out of time so I just went with it. I ended up going over it with ink and then went over it with a Copic pen to get the “perfect” color.

 

 

Gnome Birthday

This is a card I made for a guy.

This background was also created while playing around with the Oxide Layered stamping. However this is not that exactly. It is just stamping with Oxide ink. I stamped with Hickory Smoke Oxide Distress ink using a Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz stamp Mesh (CMS221) on the dark blue paper. The card base gray paper was from my stash and it matches the Hickory Smoke Oxide ink pretty darn close. I tried several grays from light to darker.

The gnome is a stamp from Simon Says Stamp from a set called Secret Garden (SSS101629). Such a cute little gnome. I colored him with Copics. His belt and buttons are colored with a silver Pen Touch pen. I am not sure, now that I look at it, why I didn’t color the belt black and the buckle silver.

For the sentiment I applied Hickory Smoke Oxide ink direct to paper using the ink pad. Then I stamped the frame and sentiment over that possibly with Versafine onyx black ink. They are both from Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz set Saying Stuff (THJ009). I die cut the frame.

Entered in the Simon Says Stamp Challenge 95 in Flickr.

 

Oxide Christmas

I was playing around trying another Jennifer McGuire technique she calls Layered Oxide Stamping. So I made this background just playing around. Then I had a idea for a Merry Monday card for challenge #285 which was to use ribbon. I didn’t have the ribbon idea until the end. I also did not get it submitted but like I have said before “another Christmas card done”.

The background – I did a direct to paper layer of Oxide Distress ink in Fired Brick. I stamped on top of that with Oxide Distress ink Antique Linen using a Hero Arts background stamp Designer Woodgrain (S5208). I like the look a lot.

Then I decided I would have everything be Oxide ink.

So the tree stamp is Sizzix/Tim Holtz Tree Blueprint (649379). I stamped it with a darker green Oxide ink on top of a lighter green Oxide ink that I applied direct to paper using the ink pad. I die cut all three tree layers. Under the second layer I put foam tape and the third layer thick glue. The star is where the ribbon comes in. I was struggling with that part. At first I just tried to glue the ribbon down on the background and the ribbon wasn’t sticking very well to itself and the star shape wasn’t working out. I took the star I cut off the tree and glued the ribbon to that so it had a better shape. I would say it looks ok not great.

That cute little reindeer is from Hero Arts set Christmas Reindeer (CL540). For him I also applied Oxide ink in Antique Linen ink pad direct to paper. I then stamped the reindeer with a darker brown Oxide ink. I colored his nose and sweater with you guessed it Oxide ink using a paint brush and picking up the ink from my craft mat. I used red and two different greens. I hand cut out the reindeer. Instead of trying to cut out the antlers by hand I stamped them on the background.

The sentiment is from the Tim Holtz set mentioned above and stamped with a dark brown Oxide ink.

It was kind of hard to photograph in a way. It looks washed out but that is the look of Oxide ink.

Poppy Birthday

This is a card I recently put together with some of the many pieces I have collected/saved.

For the background I sprayed it with probably Heidi Swapp color shine. It’s been awhile since I did it.

The flowers are Hero Arts set Delicate Blossoms (CL449) which I have always really liked. I colored them with Prismacolor Pencils.

The sentiment is also Hero Arts from the It’s Your Day set (CL661). It’s probably stamped with Versafine onyx black ink. I just love that ink.

Entered in the a2z Scrapbooking April Challenge with a theme of Flower Power.

Entered in the A Blog Named Hero challenge with a theme of Put a Flower On It.

Lotus Hello

I decided to try some Distress Oxide ink layering with a stencil. I was thinking of a particular challenge but that passed by.

For the bristol panel I used a blending tool to cover it with Oxide Distress ink. Then I used a couple other blue colors of Oxide Distress ink to ink over the Hero Arts Large Lotus stencil (SA001). I actually made two panels. This one has water sprayed and dripped and the other does not.

The sentiment is cut out with a Neat & Tangled die called Hello There. I cut out 2 layers and glued them together. I went over the sentiment with a sparkle pen (not sure which one).

Iris Sympathy

I made this for a friend who recently lost her father. I remember many years ago she had a sweatshirt that she would wear often with irises on it and I recall seeing purple on her often so this was just right for her.

The flower I had colored some time ago and it was waiting to find it’s way to a card. The background is some nice paper from a paper pad I got awhile back by. I colored the irises with Copics and cut them out with a Spellbinders die.

Background paper – DCWV Brights 6X6 pad
Floral image – My oldest Hero Arts stamp Two Irises (F213) from 1990
Spellbinder Die – Labels Four (S4-190)
Sentiment – Clearly Besotted Say What (CBSSA421) stamped with Versafine Onyx Black (love this ink)

Entered in the Die Cut Divas challenge for April with a theme of Anything Goes.