It's time for our theme challenge at the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.
Myrna has chosen an unusual but inspired theme:
I love this idea, and so many ways to be "non traditional".
I went for an animal not usually associated with Christmas, as well as a non Christmassy colour scheme.
I started with a Clarity stencil, and brushed through mustard seed distress ink.
To this base, I added distress oxides. I applied the ink to an acrylic block, spritzed with water then dabbed onto the card. I dried between colours. I used spiced marmalade, picked raspberry, twisted citron and broken china.
I had a splodge of the orange, so spritzed the card directly to disperse it - and lost all trace of the stencil underneath!
So I put the stencil back into position and went through with fossilised amber distress oxide.
I wanted more definition, so put the card through the embossing machine with the stencil to emboss the swirls. I also stamped through the stencil with a dotty texture stamp, in spiced marmalade, to add more detail to the swirls.
I cut the card down to size, and added broken china distress oxide round the edge to frame, with a sponge.
For the topper I die cut a flamingo from the same card. The boots and scarf came with it, the hat I borrowed from another set.
I coloured all the pieces with distress oxides and a water pen.
I used a pen for the eye.
I also die cut a sentiment, and coloured in the same way.
To construct, I used foam pads to raise the flamingo, and foam tape to attach the whole to a 6x6 card blank.
The flamingo doesn't stand out so much in the photos, it does in real life!
I think this is really fun - and I had fun making it. Partly because I was sharing the table with hubby doing lego and daughter playing, so it was a lovely family afternoon.
Hubby says this is a traditional Floridean Christmas card - which just goes to show! As we aren't in Florida, I hope this still counts as non traditional.
To join in with this fabulous challenge, head to the 52CCT. You have until Friday 27th July to enter.
This month's colour challenge at the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is black and gold or silver.
I didn't immediately know what to do with this one, none of my ideas really appealed. So I ended up taking inspiration from my BAC birthday card (are you allowed to do that?!?) and making a mixed media style card.
I started by die cutting a fancy square from black card, as well as a reindeer (a tattered lace die I haven't used for ages).
I also took some net - this started out pink, I painted it with black gesso.
I embossed the square using a tattered lace holly folder on one side and one of their spotty folders on the other.
This was the largest die in the set, so to cut a mount that was larger, I drew round the die on white card and cut with scissors.
I then sponged gold paint over it. This gave a more matt finish than a bought gold card or mirror card, which I prefer for this card. I die cut my favourite Merry Christmas sentiment from the centre to be frugal!
I glued the net and reindeer onto the black square base and trimmed the net. Once dry, I used the sponge from the gold paint to dry "brush" gold over to pick up the detail.
When everything was dry, I added the sentiment to the black, then onto the mount, and attached to a 5x5 card blank.
In real life, the sentiment doesn't stand out as much as in the photos. This was actually a really simple card to make, and I'm very pleased with how it turned out in the end. I'd like to make more in different colour schemes.
To join in with this challenge, go on over to the 52CCT blog. You have until Friday 20th June to enter.
It feels like ages since we've had a new 52 Christmas Card Throwdown challenge - the last one was two weeks. But a new month means a new challenge, and Myrna, our host for the month, has given us this sketch to play with:
I have to admit, I wasn't sure what to do with this one for a while! Having made quite tidy, inky cards for a few weeks, I wanted to do some thing messy and painty again.
I dug out some old gel press prints from my stash as a starting point, here's the first.
I cut them down to size (for a 6x6 card blank), then used solid Clarity stamps to add my circles and border (reinterpreted as a row of petal shapes!) I added white acrylic to a small gel press plate with a brayer to pick the paint up from.
I used the matching outline stamps, with versafine black ink, to edge the shapes. I didn't want it too neat, so tried not to line up exactly - I missed a few times and got it spot on!
I then used a black drawing pen to doodle on and around the shapes, for more interest.
I used gold embossing powder for the sentiment, with the Clarity word chain Merry Christmas.
It didn't show that well initially, especially on this background which has gold in anyway. But a bit of work with a white gel pen and...
... ta da! I love these pens, how did I manage without them?
I also gold embossed snowflakes over the petal border.
I edged with black ink to frame and finish, then mounted onto the 6x6 card blank.
The other card was meant to be the main, one, this was just using a more scrappy piece of card to see how it went, but I think I may prefer this one in the end! Funny how that happens.
To join in with our sketch challenge, pop over to 52CCT. You have until Friday 13th to enter.
Have fun playing!
This weekend our wonderful local arts and craft shop, Berkhamsted Arts and Crafts, celebrates its 40th birthday!
They asked for birthday cards to share, so I couldn't not make one, could I?!?
It also gave me a chance to play with a birthday present. I got some powertex, and related mixed media goodies following a workshop in June with Angela Simpson and Leonie Pujol. We had such fun playing there, so I wanted another go.
(That's my journal middle right - it's really not that dark!)
Angela on the far left, and Leonie next to me in the front. And the other lovely ladies!
I started my card by collecting all kinds of bits and bobs to go onto it.
I added grunge paste to the card base for texture, as well as to the wooden letters and numbers, and some stars I die cut from an old tissue box.
These also came from the tissue box - the plaque has three layers, glued together for depth.
I also had papyrus (which stretches out wonderfully with the powertex), cheese cloth, lace, string, wooden embellishments and some clay balls to play with.
I added them all to the base with the powertex. (It's a fabric hardener, so gives the gorgeous texture to the cloth, but also works as a glue.) I had the transparent one, I decided it was the most versatile, as you can use it with patterned cloth etc and retain the pattern.
This was the result! It looks a bit of a mess - it is! This is not tidy crafting. Powertex sticks to fingers best of all, I was covered by the end, but peeling it off is hugely satisfying!
Once this had dried (keeping the lovely folds and dimension in the fabric), the next step was to paint it all with black gesso.
This took a while to get into all the nooks and crannies! Despite examining it from all angles, I missed loads the first time, so had to go back in for a second pass (and there were still some tiny gaps!). This is where spray gesso would come into its own!
Once dry, time to add the colour and highlights!
I dry brushed with acrylic paints - metallic blue, purple, which I mixed with a pearlescent medium, and gold. I then added metallic wax in gold, with a bit of blue, purple and silver, to highlight areas. Finally, I watered down the paint left over from dry brushing, and splattered on a layer of each colour. I wiped it off some of the words I wanted to highlight.
The final step was to mount onto an 8x8 card blank (using super sticky tape as it wasn't very flat so needed to be held firm!). I added a squiggle round the edge with a black drawing pen, as the plain white didn't look right when the main piece is so full on!
It's maybe a bit over the top for a card, but I had so much fun playing with this! I have plenty of journals and things I can do something similar with. It's really very forgiving too, it's not hard to create something that looks great (in my humble opinion!).
Maybe next time I'll go for something not quite so dark!
