Penny Black - Holly Jolly Critters

Hi everyone.  Today I'm sharing a fun, clean and simple design featuring holly jolly critters.

I absolutely adore this stamp.  I smiled the whole time I was making my card. :)

I stamped the critters on mixed media paper with Versafine (permanent) black ink.  I heat set the image and then watercoloured using a mix of SU! and Distress inks.

I placed my finished piece in my grill to warm it and sprinkled chunky white frantage on top to add some falling snow.  The frantage melts quickly on the grill.  I stamped the sentiment in red ink, added crystal glaze to the lantern, and sparkle to the white cuffs and pompoms of the Santa hat, using clear wink of stella.

If you get a chance, pop over to the Simplicity at it's best blog to see some new designs from my Simplicity Sisters.

Penny Black Products:
#40-657 holly jolly critters

Adding this to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge where they are looking for Winter or Christmas cards.

Stamps:  Holly Jolly Critters (Penny Black - stamp set includes sentiment)
Paper:  Mixed Media (Strathmore 140 lb. 400 Series)
Ink:  Versafine Black (permanent); Real Red (SU!); Distress Inks:  Brushed Corduroy, Rusty Hinge, Mowed Lawn, Forest Moss, Salty Ocean, Mustard Seed (Tim Holtz)
Accessories & Tools:  water brush, red chalk (for adding cheeks), Crystal Glaze (Nuvo), Chunky White Frantage (Stampendous), heat tool

Challenges:
Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Winter or Christmas

Three Colourful Star Cards

Hi everyone.  Sharing a few more star cards before December's CAS Christmas challenge closes on the Dec. 15th.

Lots of sparkle and shimmer for this card. :)  I started with the rubber band technique over gold foil card stock.  This is where you wrap a few rubber bands around the barrel of a brayer, load with versamark ink, and lightly roll over card stock.  The ink transfers from the rubber bands to create a lovely design.  Then the design is heated with embossing powder.  I used gold glitter embossing powder for the card above.  I cut the piece into 1 1/4" squares and mounted on my card front.

I used a piece of leftover alcohol ink with gold foil accents to die-cut the large stitched star.  It's popped up on foam to give it some dimension.

To finish, I stamped the sentiment in gold ink and heat embossed with the same gold glitter that was used for the background.

Here's a close-up ...

Since I had all my supplies out, I made two more cards using the same papers, but changing up the designs slightly ...

Stamps:  Merriment (Penny Black)
Paper:  White (Neenah 110 lb. card stock); Gold Foil (SU!); Yupo
Ink:  Alcohol Inks; Versamark; Gold Delicata (Tsukineko)
Accessories & Tools:  blending solution, gold foil, Stitched Star die (AliExpress), rubber bands, brayer, heat tool

Challenges:
CAS Christmas December Challenge - Stars

Special Friend

Hi everyone.  I made today's card for a very dear friend.  We met at work through a mutual friend and have been friends for over 30 years now.  It was her birthday a couple of months ago and I made a special card to mark a milestone birthday.

Frances loves irises.  I knew what image I was going to use.  I wanted to do something special, so this is my first try at this technique - glitter painting (which my friend Susan taught us at the craft retreat in May).  I've been waiting to give Fran this card. :)

The irises are stamped in permanent black into onto a piece of thick acetate.  I let the ink dry thoroughly before moving on to the next step.  On the back of the acetate, I covered the center of the irises with glue and sprinkled with a light purple.  Once dry, I added glue to the rest of the flower petals and used a deep purple glitter to fill it in.  Last, I repeated the same of adding a layer of glue and then coating it with green for the leaves.  I let it dry overnight to make sure it was completely dry.  I'm so happy with how it turned out.  You may be able to see a little of the sparkle from the glitter, but it is very sparkly in real life.  I added a simple white frame and stamped sentiment.

Here's a close-up ...

Photographing acetate is difficult.  This is much brighter and totally sparkly in real life.

Stamps:  Summer Glow, Happy Snippets (Penny Black)
Paper:  White (Neenah 110 lb. card stock)
Ink:  Versafine Black ink (for stamping on acetate); Memento Black ink (for stamping sentiment)
Accessories & Tools:  Acetate, Glitter (light purple, dark purple, green), glue (Tombow Mono), Rectangle Nestability die (Spellbinders)

Twelve Quick Artsy Cards

Hi everyone.  A reminder for the CAS Watercolour December Challenge - Thank You is only running for two weeks this month.

There's just one more week to play along before it closes.

I'm sharing the twelve thank you cards I sent to my wonderful Guest Designers of my Christmas Tag event.  They were fun and easy to make.  I started by making six large backgrounds using stencil monoprint technique with Brushos.  Once the backgrounds were dry, I cut them in two equal pieces, creating my twelve card fronts.  I pulled out several silhouette stamps and started stamping the card fronts with Black ink.  I used white embossing on black card stock for the banner sentiments.  The front card panels were popped up on foam to add a bit of dimension over the card base which had been splattered with diluted black acrylic paint.

Above are two cards made from the same background.  Below are the remaining 10 cards, again grouped in twos with each set using one background cut in half.  Hope you like them!

Challenges:
CAS Watercolour December Challenge - Thank you