Festive Florals

Jenny has a theme challenge for us this week at the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.

Red poinsettia may not be very original for Christmas, but they are so pretty! I used the stamp by Tina Cox from Claritystamp - I do love her designs.

I started by stamping text in black archival ink, then went over with brusho - brilliant red I think.

The white card is die cut, this is a Tim Holtz design. Part of the red card went behind, then I stamped the poinsettia on the rest, some on the text and some off to see the difference (not a lot), and fussy cut them out. I used a white gel pen to add highlights.

 

The first card was quite clean. I added the holly stamps from the same set, and a printed sentiment.

 

There was quite a lot of white space, so I tried something different for the second, with three flowers. I splattered the background with black gesso (watered down) for a grungier feel.

 

I do like this card, the lattice is so pretty, as well as the poinsettia, and the repetition of the red colour, and then of the white with the highlights, is pleasing to me.

 

 

But it'll be no suprprise that the busier grungier version is my favourite!

 

 

 

 

 

To play along with this challenge, click on over to our 52CCT blog. You have a week, until Friday 22nd July, to enter a card. There's loads of inspiration on the blog from the rest of the Design Team.

Happy crafting!

Snowball fight!

Goga has chosen "Children" as her theme for April at the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.

 

This is children on the card, rather than a card for a child - I had thought about making something for my daughter!

I used the Clarity frame dies for this card. 

The background has snowflakes heat embossed in white, then I added prussion blue brushos. While this dried, I made the topper.

I die cut the frame first - it cuts the holes out of the card - then masked to leave the central square. Using denim adirondack ink and a sponge, I created the hills with torn paper, then added the children and trees, all Clarity stamps. I then cut down around the frame.

I die cut the background with a larger die, and trimmed that too. I sponged the denim ink around the edge to give a stronger contrast with the white card.

This all went onto a 7x7 card blank.

I haven't done one of these little scenes for ages - at one time they were my crafting go to!

The background I really like - one of my favourite techniques. And the dies finish it nicely, give another element.

To join in with this theme, visit us at the 52CCT blog - you can check out the beautiful cards from my DT colleagues, and share your card. You have until Friday 22nd April to play along. Enjoy!

Brusho sketch

I'm hosting the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown this month , and this is the sketch I've chosen.

I wanted to play with the brusho stencil technique I used here. I didn't have any stencils the right shape for my triangles though, so decided to use die cuts instead. I used a snow flake swirl, and an abstract Christmas tree. And this is when this all started to get much trickier than expected! I had a load of trouble doing the die cuts to start with - they wouldn't cut, then wouldn't release from the dies.

Once I finally had them, I realised why stencils are generally made from mylar, not coated paper! Brushing ink round then without moving them proved a bit of an art.

Once inked, I spritzed with water, removed the sdie cuts, and sprinkled on some brusho. For the snowflakes, I used blue shades. 

 

The simple sentiment is cobalt blue archival ink, which also edged the card.

For the tree, I inked in green, then added  green brushos. I went for a tiny touch of a festive red - but was heavy handed and ended up with loads! But think it looks bright and cheery, and as I didn't add more water to mix the colours, haven't got too much mud between the red and green.

The brighter colours needed a more striking sentiment - I'm not sure I've used this one before. I stamped in fern green archival, then coloured with polychromos. I blended the forest moss oxide around the edge - my current favourite colour! Then edged in the fern green.

I then realised that my hard won die cuts now had ink on them! The snowflakes I haven't used yet, but for the trees, I made another background with the same brushos as above, then added them to it as per the sketch.

Then a bit of finessing. I edged as above, and stamped some holly to add interest. I lightly coloured these with polychromos. The sentiment is black, and I use a white gel pen to help it stand out against the busy background. Then to help the contrast in the trees, I went round them loosely with a fine black pen.

This one using the "waste" may be my favourite!

To join in visit us at 52CCT - you can be inspired by my design team colleagues, and share your interpretation of the sketch with us. You have until Friday 11th March to join in.

Fairy Lights

I can't believe we've reached the final challenge of 2021 at the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.

As we enter the final run up to the big day, I hope we've helped you to build up a great stash of cards you're proud to send to friends and family.

This challenge gives you plenty of scope for those last minute efforts - or maybe you're starting next year's collection!

 

 

I have revisited the November theme challenge of Fairy Lights - except I missed this one, so not really revisiting!

 

I drew the line of fairy lights, using free pictures online as a guide. I went over with an embossing pen, and heat embossed in platinum.

I added brusho powder inside the bulbs, in alizarin crimson, leaf green, and yellow. I then spritzed with water, to activate the pigment. I got lovely bright colours, with a beautiful "glow" around the bulbs.

Once dry, the colours weren't quite so vivid, so I added a gloss glaze to the bulbs, to lift them.

I cut down to size, and used the offcuts to stamp the sentiment in black archival.

I edged the card and the sentiment, and put together on a 6x6 card blank.

I never tire of using brushos, I love the effects they give!

 

 

 

 

 

To play along, pop over to our 52CCT blog. You have all month for this challenge, entries close on Saturday 1st January 2022 (!)

Happy crafting, a very Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones, and see you next year.

 

Christmas kisses

I missed a week on 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, my daughter's birthday and party took priority! But I have a plan for that challenge.....

This week, Gill has asked us to use the stamp kissing technique.

I used a background stamp that I think of as damask/wallpaper - I've no idea what it's actually called. I started with a holly stamp kissed against it, but that didn't work well. So I swapped to this texture stamp. I used distress oxides, with a mixture of antique linen and pumice stone sponged on first, then peeled paint added with the second stamp.

Once I had my panel, it was a case of making a card around it!

The base is brushos, with a large script stamp used to lift and then restamp. I also stamped in forest moss and vintage photo ink, into the wet brushos.

The holly squares and sentiment are watercoloured with oxides.

I also used oxides and a waterbrush to add drop shadow and an edging.

 

It hasn't all come together quite right. This is one of those cards that could have done with walking away for a day and revisiting with fresh eyes. But I was on a deadline!

To join in, and get some guidance and inspiration, visit the 52CCT blog. This challenge is open until Friday 3rd December. Almost Christmas!!

 

 

 

Holly layers

We welcome Gill to host 52 Christmas Card Throwdown this month, as we enter the final run up to the big day!

As always, she starts the month with a sketch.

I went for a layered, mixed media card with a limited colour palette.

I started with an A4 sheet of card, and cut a 13.4cm square from it. I collaged on torn pieces of old papers - a dictionary, sheet music and a book page. I used transaprent gesso so I could add brushos over it.

I added the brushos to the centre of this piece and the whole of the other pieces from my A4 sheet. I used olive green, then added yellow for a warmer feel.

I cut a 14cm matt from one of the larger pieces. I die cut an ivy branch from the centre of this, being frugal, and another from one of the other pieces, as well as a holly die cut.

I tore a piece of the book page, and inked the edges, then a narrower strip from brusho card. The sentiment is stamped onto the blank edge of an old book page, and the edges inked.

The cream holly I originally die cut from a book page, but they didn't look quite right, so I used a scrap of plain card instead and inked in cream with brown edges.

I stamped some holly onto the collaged piece, and edged this and the matt with brown, before assembling. I added a bit of thread around the sentiment strip. I finished with pearls in the centre of the holly - I wanted tiny wooden buttons but didn't have any!

 

I'm very happy with how this has come out, it has a lovely earthy feel.

 

 

 

 

 

To play along this week, visit us at the 52CCT blog. You have a week, until Friday 12th November, to join in.

Pop-Up Baubles

 

I am here with Majda's final challenge for the month at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown - it's either stash or technique, and she has chosen "Pop-Up" cards.
 

My card is a twist out design. I learnt this at a workshop with Angela Simpson earlier in the year (online!). She used it with a lovely colouring technique - I was running late but was able to catch up as I used brushos instead! Much quicker!

I cut all my pieces, from watercolour card and black, then stamped and embossed. This is a lovely folksy bauble set. Then sprinkle on the brusho, spritz, and watch the magic! I think I used alizarin crimson, yellow and emerald green.

And next, construct the card - I won't try to explain how it goes together, but it's easy once you know how!!

And the final card goes into a C6 envelope - although it's quite thick, so not one to post!!

To play along, head over to the 52CCT blog. The challenge is open for TWO weeks (we have a break on the 5th Saturday of the month), so you have until Friday 5th November to enter.

Happy playing!

Snow Globe

Super quick post tonight, as I'm late again with my 52 Christmas Card Throwdown card for the week. At least I have already made my card for next week, so I have no excuse for posting that late!!!

Majda has chosen the theme of "Snow Globe". Such fun!

I wanted dimension in my card, like you're looking into the snow globe. I die cut the circle out of both sides of a card blank, and the front of a second one.

The stand is from a Clarity stamp, I edged the circle in silver sharpie, and added stars, some grounding, and brushed chipped sapphire ink around.

I used die cuts of trees and Santa between the back of the front card and the front of the back one. I attached the cards to make a "Z" shape.

The background is from my stash - I made it using brushos and gold mica powder, with clingfilm. I thought it looked quite magical behind my little scene.

I like the depth this design has created, it came together quite well. This Santa die is new, I'm very pleased with it.

 

 

 

 

To join in, visit us on the 52CCT blog. You have until Friday 22nd October to play along. Have fun!!

By the light of the moon

This October we welcome Majda as the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown host for the month.

She starts off, as always, with a sketch:

My card is following techniques by Lavinia Stamps, and the ivy and mushroom stamps are from them. There are also Clarity grass stamps, an IndigoBlu script stamp, and the stag is one I've had for ages and don't know who made it.

The base of the card is a gel print, distress ink with brusho. The red was a "bonus" - it was either on the plate or the brush already, as I didn't add it!

I then inked over, using a moon mask cut from paper with a die, and torn paper for the hill.

 

I love how luminescent the moon looks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To play along, head to the 52CCT blog, you'll be able to admire the inspiration cards from the rest of the design team, and enter your take on Majda's sketch.

Framed Stag

Rosi is our host for September at the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. To start us off, she's chosen a sketch for us to play with.

 

I have stuck to this one pretty much as it is, without any flips or tweaks! I even managed to keep some of the open space, which I love, but am very bad at leaving on a card.

The first step was to heat emboss the stag silhouette on the card. I tried two different scales, one with the full stamp, and one with the body masked off to just give the head. I seem to be doing cards in pairs at the moment, trying out two versions of the same thing. The larger is a mix of black and copper powder, to give a bronze effect, the smaller is just black.

I then added brushos, using an aperture stencil to contain them and the water within an oval area around the stag. This worked a bit better than I hoped - the areas are more defined than I had in mind, especially the larger one.

I also added brushos to scrap pieces to cut the strips from, using darker colours for contrast. I edged these with walnut stain distress oxide.

The frames are die cut, the two came as a set.

The sentiments are different to suit the different sizes. For the larger one I die cut the sentiment, then heat embossed in black. The smaller has a stamped sentiment on a scrap of card. I edged both in black permanent pen, then mounted on a 7x7 and a 6x6 card blank.

 

 

I do love the brushos, and these warm, natural colours are such a great backdrop to a stag image, suggesting a woodland scene.

 

Now it's your turn to show us your interpretation of the sketch. Share it with us at the 52CCT blog, where you can see all the wonderful inspiration cards from my design team colleagues.

The challenge is open for a week, until Friday 10th September. Have fun!

 

Oh, so pretty

For her last week as host of the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, Jenny has chosen a fabulous stash challenge - Stencil.

So many options for what to do with this one! I went for something very simple, and I hope it doesn't sound boastful if I say I think it's turned out beautifully!

I used two frame stencils, from That Special Touch. I placed them at an angle on my card, to form a curve, then brushed distress ink over them. I used bundled sage on the holly one and tumbled glass on the snowflakes. Light colours as this is a base layer to give definition.

 

With the stencil still in place, I spritzed water onto the card in the same area, then removed the stencil. I sprinkled on brushos and left them to react in the water and dry. I used leaf green for the holly, and ultramarine with a touch of turquoise for the snowflakes.

 

Once they were completely dry, I could tap off the brusho in the dry areas that hadn't reacted.

The sentiments were stamped onto offcuts of the backgrounds from when I cut them to size. I used archival ink, in fern green and watering can. I edged the sentiment and base with the inks too.

 

Very simple, but oh, so pretty! For once, it's not the snowflakes that have won me over, my favourite is the holly.

 

 But the snowflakes are gorgeous too.

To play along, visit us at the 52CCT blog, where you'll also find all the inspiration from my design team colleagues. This challenge is open for a week, until Friday 3rd September. Have fun, I really look forward to seeing what amazing cards we receive!

A sketch - or five

Jenny is our host for August at the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. She has some great challenges lined up so I hope you'll be inspired to craft along and start, or build up, that Christmas card stash for the end of the year.

She has chosen a fun sketch for us.

As soon as I saw this, I thought of a bauble stamp I have. I was sure I'd blogged cards made with it before, but don't seen to have done so.

I got a bit carried away with this sketch so have a few cards to show you! Unfortunately the photos haven't come out particularly well.

 

This first is a CAS of a card I made for hubby last Christmas.

I stamped the image and embossed on black. I then added brushos, in alizarin crimson, yellow and emerald green, and spritzed with water.

Once dry, I used inktense pencils to bring out the baubles, and polychromo pencils to knock back the background in places, and add a drop shadow.

The sentiment is from Clarity's sticker sentiments.

For this one, I used the stamp platform and inked the stamp in distress oxides. I think I used aged mahogany, fossilised amber, and some green... can't remember which!

I spritzed the card and stamp with water before stamping, so the ink moved around. I repeated for more ink, then left to dry without taking the stamp out of the stamp platform.

Once the stamped image had dried, I over stamped with watering can grey archival ink. As the stamp hadn't been moved, it lined up perfectly. I am so happy with how this has come out!

The sentiment is stamped on a scrap of card with the same grey ink, which I've also used to edge the sentiment and card.

After the colour stamping for the card above, there was ink left on the stamp, so I stamped onto another piece of card, which I'd spritzed with water to activate the oxides. It gave a lovely soft print, although the ink didn't travel much.

I overstamped in the grey as above, but as there wasn't so much colour, I added in a watercoloured background with inktense. I liked the prettiness of the baubles so decided to colour the negative space. It's by no means great watercolouring but I'm still really pleased with this, it may be my favourite!

I put this onto a 5x5 card blank (the others are 6x6).

The other thought I had when looking at Jenny's sketch, which is inevitable for circles, was snowflakes!

I tried the same technique as above with the stamping platform and the bleeding ink. I did one with oxides and one with distress inks, to compare. There wasn't too much difference, and neither bled as much as I hoped. It may be the card I used for this one, although it is designed to take water, or maybe the stamps are too fine to hold enough ink.

I over stamped the snowflakes with versamark and heat embossed in white.

They looked quite lonely and plain on an expanse of white, and not in a good way! So I needed to add layers to these cards.

For the card above, I heat embossed the Merry Christmas at the bottom, then stamped the "Let it Snow" stamp in archival, with shades of blue and second, third and fourth generation. I then smooshed through blue inks on the mat. 

For the card below, I stamped the Let It Snow sentiment in archival cornflower blue, then heat embossed a lovely background word stamp over the rest of the card, masking the snowflakes and sentiments, before smooshing.

 

The snowflakes had sunk back a lot, so I sponged more oxide over these and the Merry Christmas sentiment, and spritzed with water, to make the embossing pop out.

I edged with blue and mounted on DL cards.

The photos of these are particularly bad, the camera hasn't coped with the mottled background! They are quite soft but pretty, with delicate detail that doesn't show in the photos.

 

So, there are my efforts using the sketch. I hope that, together with my design team collegues on the 52CCT blog, I have inspired you to play along.

This challenge is open for a week, until the 13th August.

Enjoy!!