Hello. A new challenge has started at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. As always, the theme is anything goes Christmas/Festive. Here is my card:
I started with ink blending the background using Distress Inks Tumbled Glass and Peacock Feathers. Just the two colours – and where they met, a light coverage, as I knew I wanted to stamp the hillside there.
Once the panel was dry, and the hillside stamped, I die-cut the rectangle with a stitched die to add some interest, then stamped the sentiment.
The three deer were stamped in Gina K amalgam ink, then coloured with Copics, adding some blush to their cheeks, and some white gel pen for highlights.
I thought the two prancing deer were looking down at a very drunken deer – but maybe that’s the way my mind is working currently……..
I hope you can come and join us and add some festive creations to your stash – I look forward to seeing what you create. xx
Hello. I have a monster slimline card to share using the colours from the Color Throwdown Challenge:
This stamp and die set from Concord and 9th was one of the freebies when I attended the Virtual Crop On The Cape last weekend, hosted by Jenn Shurkus. I mean – how generous was this? Concord and 9th also included the matching die set too…………There was a session with Becky Roberts showcasing this stamp and die set, and I couldn’t wait to play with it using these colours.
The papers I stamped the images on are from Lawn Fawn, and those dots shine – as you can certainly see from the uppermost heart.
The monster has a stamp for it’s belly – even though mostly covered up – and those fingers? A separate stamp and die for those.
The background circles/bubbles die – I did toy with the idea of a colour behind it, then toyed with the idea of paper piecing all those circles in – some of them coloured……..well, that didn’t happen.
All the circles fell out when I die cut it – and even though I tried to match some up – I was getting a little frustrated…….so I left them all out. I like the tone on tone white I must say – the monster and hearts are the centre of attention!
I managed to find some purple polka dot ribbon – perfect for the balloon ribbon. I decided to attach arms to the hearts too – it made me giggle…….monster hearts……
I enjoyed creating this card and shall be entering the following challenges:
Hello. The Alphabet Challenge has reached the end of the alphabet, and for the letter ‘Z’, Caz has chosen ‘Zoology‘ (Study of Animals). Here is my card:
I actually struggled with this theme. I have lots of animal stamps and dies, but I didn’t know which direction to go in. In the end I went with a rainbow selection of animal from Clearly Besotted. A simple layout and design, with simple colouring.
I toyed with adding die-cut letters, but when I was sorting the layout, it didn’t look right – sometimes you got to go with your gut!
I hope you can come and join us with your ‘Zoology’ inspired creations. The design Team has some amazing creations – we all seemed to go a different way……. xx
Hello there. I am the host for the new challenge at Cardz 4 Galz , and I have chosen the theme of ‘Tea and/or coffee’. Here is my card:
As of next week in the UK, we can start to meet with people in our gardens – these current restrictions are easing slowly, but hopefully the weather will improve so we can as least sit and have a coffeee/tea and a natter…….
I decided to play with a Clearly Besotted stamp set – and my scan-n-cut before my blade became too blunt – and used a bunch of animals meeting up for coffee…………..coffee for me, anyway.
One coloured and die cut, I used a Mama Elephant slimline die for the light grey frame, and the fence, and stuck each animal down as you see.
The owl is holding two drinks as he is waiting for me, holding my drink, as I am taking the photo……in my world – anything is possible!
I hope you can come and join us with your girlie cards following our theme the design team have some amazing inspiration – I look forward to seeing you there. xx
Hello. It’s been almost a week since I last posted, but I have just spent the past three days virtually attending the ‘Crop on the Cape‘ hosted by Jenn Shurkus……….and I am absolutely shattered!
A fabulous two full days, and one evening – all at Eastern Time and I am GMT – so later start – but finished the day at 2am, 1am, and 11pm respectively…….chock-a-block with inspiration, laughs, a little time to create – but all worth it. Learnt so much, and some techniques I’m going to have to have a better try at – but all-in-all a great virtual event.
I was also on Whatsapp with my sister the whole time – she lives in Canada so ET was her time – but it meant we were crafting and getting involved together.
Anyhoo – back to my card. I cleaned and sorted the mess from the weekend – the ‘Craftermath’, as it were – , and decided to do a very CAS card – two cards for the price of one actually:
I started by creating white card base, then die-cut the Simon says Stamp ‘Sneaky Kitties‘ die out of dark blue card. The eyes stayed in the kitties – so I decided to leave them there, adding some tape to the back so they stay in, then cut the strip to a couple of inches and added foam pads to stick down to the card base. The sentiment is also from Simon Says Stamp, stuck down after running it through my Xyron.
The left-over piece of blue card – I used that for the second card. I glued it straight down onto the card base, put the die back in place and dotted where the eyes would be – then used a black gel pen to make them just a little more noticeable. The sentiment is from Mama Elephant.
Hello there. The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge has started a new challenge for the next couple of weeks. The theme is always anything goes Christmas/festive. Here is my card:
I bought this digital image from Whimsy Stamps quite a while ago, but as with most of the digital images I buy – I forget I have them. I was sorting out my files and folders – cos what else am I going to do to keep busy at the moment – and ‘found’ lots of images I had completely forgotten about…….there will be more of these in the future, I’m afraid. 🙂
Once printed , and coloured with Copics, I die-cut with MFT wonky rectangles for a little more interest, and then used some patterned card-stock – I forget where from, and found a sentiment stamp from a previous Simon Says Stamp card kit which matched perfectly the colours and the gingham effect.
So this Christmas Scruffy cat turned out to be quite dramatic in the end.
I hope you can come and join us and increase your Christmas stash – I look forward to seeing what you create. xx
Hello once again. The Alphabet Challenge has started a new challenge, and having reached the letter ‘Y’ – Dawn has chosen ‘Yellow’ as the theme for the card. Here is my creation:
I really enjoyed creating this card. I recently attended a Jenn Shurkus online class about Distress Inks and Distress Oxides. During that class, we made lots and lots of different background ink smooshing, blending, water-colouring with both, and also used Distress water-color card stock, and also Distress heavystock – which I have never used before. I learnt to dry between each layer, to not think too much about what goes where – and just to play….
That class reminded me how brilliant the Distress products are – and how much fun it was to create a background – and to have an inky mess. Now I just can’t stop myself – any excuse to get inky and messy – loving it!
This yellow layer is using two Distress Inks – and layering at least 5 times…….just two colours of yellow. I was also ‘Jennabled’ to purchase the Ranger Heat Tool – so much better than trying to use my embossing tool – much gentler, less warping.
The honeycomb die was cut from white card stock, and those greeny/browny pieces? Well that was another messy ink layered background also die-cut with the same die, and just adding some of the pieces. The white was too stark on it’s own.
I hope you can come and join us with your creations featuring yellow – I look forward to seeing you there. xx
Hello. Cardz 4 Galz has started a new challenge, and this time Misti has chosen the theme of ‘Spring Rain‘. So – we want to see your girlie cards with umbrellas, rain boots etc. Here is my card:
I used a digital image from Jan’s Digi Stamps, ‘April Showers’, printed then coloured with Copics. As the rain drops on the umbrellas got lost whilst I was colouring – I really did try to go round them but they were too small – I went back in with a white gel pen to make them stand out more.
I also played a little with the size and placement, also adding the sentiment which comes with the same digital set. That’s something I really love about these digital sets – as well as the images, you get a range of matching/suitable sentiments to use too. Jan also supplies some great video teaching on how to layer, and re-size etc – which I find I have to watch every time…………I just can’t remember from one time to the other.
I decided on a dark blue, then googled which colours work best – saw orange was a good suggestion – so here we are. A blue and orange card. The outer layer is white card-stock coloured with a blue Copic to match the image – something I am finding works really well when layering digital images like this. Both the image and blue layer die cut with a stitched rectangle.
I look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery. xx
Hello yet again. The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge for the next two weeks has started. The theme is always anything goes Christmas or festive. Here is my card:
The image is a digital stamp from Lee Holland – I’m afraid I bought quite a few of these dragons – Christmas and otherwise. I have yet to colour any of them apart from this cute couple. What a lovely image, isn’t it?
I printed it onto some Copic friendly card then coloured with a range of Copics. For the penguin body I did take inspiration from the image being coloured by someone else – I think on Facebook – trying to achieve a fluffy/furry kinda look, and I’m quite pleased how it turned out.
I didn’t find a sentiment which seemed to fit, so I left it without, but I’ll definitely add one to the inside.
I also couldn’t find matching card-stock in my huge collection for the layers underneath the image, so I just coloured each of the green and pink borders with one of the Copics I had used – that way it’s sure to match and co-ordinate.
I hop you can come and join us with your Christmas creations – there’s some amazing inspiration from the rest of the Design Team – I hope have time to check them out. xx
A new challenge has started at ABC Christmas Challenge. We have reached the letters E, F and G – and we want to see your Christmas creations with the following themes:
E for Elves, F for Fir Tree, and G for Garland.
Here are my makes:
E for Elves
F for Fir Tree
G for Garland
The MFT ‘Christmas sElfies’ was stamped, coloured with Copics, and the square die-cut with a stitched square from Sue Wilson. Patterned paper adhered to a card base, and the sentiment strip raised with 3D foam – trying to keep the squares and lines etc in alignment – I think I did a pretty good job at that.
The second card using the Hero Arts stamp – an old one I don’t think I’ve actually used yet – stamped using Altenew Obsidian black ink direct onto the card base. I did use my Misti, and it took about three stampings to get a solid image. I liked the effect so much I stamped it again using a couple of Concord & 9th inks too. The sentiment is from my stash – no idea where it came from – and I even added a plain white Tim Holtz deer – just because I could, really…….
The third card is using a stamp and die set from Uniko. The leaves of the garland are stamped directly onto the card base, with the holly leaves, pine cones, and berries also glued down. Not too much dimension. I struggled with an appropriate sentiment on this card, and in the end left it without one – I’ll probably stamp one inside when the time comes.
It appears these three Christmas themes inspired me to create for all three letters – I must have had a mojo lightning strike that day!
I hope you can come and join us – please remember the letters have themes that we have chosen, and we would appreciate your Christmas creations adhering to those themes. I hope to see you in the gallery. xx
loopyloocards 
![http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D4ciAoORH0Y/UswdGfU27dI/AAAAAAAABss/vgbZVPUzF30/s1600/CCC_Badge.jpg"](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D4ciAoORH0Y/UswdGfU27dI/AAAAAAAABss/vgbZVPUzF30/s1600/CCC_Badge.jpg"){kind=link}