Black and White

For June, Branka is hosting the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. She starts with a sketch for us to play with.

 

I have a lot on at the moment, so am trying to keep it simple for my cards.

This one started with the base sqaure, I die cut a circle into it. I edged the circle and outside edge in black, then ran it through an embossing folder.

I cut a smaller square to go behind, and stamped the poinsettia, from Tina Cox for Clarity. I used versafine clair for a strong black.

I stamped the swirl stamp in the same ink, and cut the strips. They looked a little odd individually, but together you can see the swirl pattern and it works much better. The sentiment is printed. The strips and sentiment were edged in black, then I put it all together.

 

 

Simple and stylish in black and white - at least I think so!

 

 

 

 

 

Now over to you, how will you interpret the sketch? You have a week to join in on the 52CCT blog, until Friday 10th June.

Drippy colours

For my colour challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, I've chosen pink, purple and blue. Purple is my favourite colour, pink is my daughter's. I wanted colours next to each other on the colour wheel so I could play with messy colour techniques, mixing colours without worrying about creating other colours!

I had a session making a series of backgrounds with these colours and different media. I added the colours to the top of the watercolour card while holding it upright, then spritzed with water to get drips and runs down the page.

From the left, I used brushos, sprays, distress oxides, distress reinkers, then I have three mop up sheets, printing from the paper towel used to catch the run off and mop up from the craft map.

I used the pieces made from brushos, sprays and one of the mop ups.

In the Black Friday sales, I couldn't resist this frosty bauble stamp from IndigiBlu. I don't usualy go for stamps that make a card in themselves, preferring to have more input, but this was so pretty! And at the moment with home schooling, something quick was appreciated.

I stamped and embossed with silver powder, then cut the cards down to size (14x14cm for a 6x6 card blank).

To finish, I added sentiments, from ClarityStamp, also heat embossed in silver, and edged in silver as well.

 

This is the card made with spray inks. It's the darkest and most dramatic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This uses a mop up piece, much more delicate and pretty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This angle shows the stamp off better - the perennial problem of photographing shiny cards!!

And finally the brushos - I cut away the part of the card with the bursts that I usually love from brushos (although it's in the stash for another time!) so this has a much softer, dreamier feel, with shades of colour that I adore.

However you choose to play with these colours, please visit us at 52CCT to see the wonderful inspiration from the design team, and to share your card. The challenge is open for a week until Friday 19th February.

Bells

The third week of each month is a theme challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.

Andreja has chosen "Bells" for us to play with this month.

I have had this bell stamp for years, it was a ClarityStamp design club stamp from when I was a member, but I've never used it. So this was its chance for glory!

I stamped it in the middle of a large sheet of card with versafine clair black, then heat embossed in clear.

I then added brishos around the image and spritzed. The colours are alazarin crimson and sandstone - both new for Christmas so had to have a play! I kept them quite central around the image as I like the effects at the edge of the brushos and didn't want to have to crop that off.

Once dry I coloured the image with inktense watercolour pencils and a water brush.

I've done this before and really liked the effect. Here, on the other hand , I was fighting the brusho colour too much, it really didn't work and the card started to pill. Oops!

But I like the brushos, and there's always (usually) a way to rescue things. I stamped the image again on a scrap of the same card, and coloured it as before but without the brushos. I then fussy cut it out and adhered over the original.

The sentiment is stamped in black and heat embossed in clear. I edged this and the background, cut to size, with a black permanent pen. It went on a 6x6 card blank.

 

Beautifully bright and wild! I love the randomness of brushos, and the gorgeous shades.

And nice to have finally had a use for this stamp.

 

  

To play along with our "Bells" challenge, visit us at the 52CCT blog, where you'll find lots of inspiration from the rest of the design team. You have until Friday 22nd January to enter.

Happy crafting!

The final strait

 

For our final challenge of the year at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, we've given you plenty of choice. Just choose one (or more!) of the 44 challenges from this year, to play along.

I went back to the April theme challenge - my original card for this was about my favourite card I've ever made.

 

This card also qualifies for the March technique challenge,

and the March colour challenge - just about, there are hints of orange in the background.

The base of the card was made with brushos in olive green and leaf green.

The die cut birch trees were brushed with brushed corduroy distress ink.

The deer is a Clarity stamp, archival black on kraft card. I fussy cut it out. I scribbled round the edge of the stamped sentiment with a black drawing pen.

The front piece had the aperture cut, and I edged with the brushed corduroy. It has all been mounted on a 6x6 card blank.

 

 

I quite like the clean look of this, with the wildness of the brushos behind.

 

 

 

 

To play along as you finalise your cards for the year, visit us at the 52CCT blog. There's plenty of inspiration from my design team colleagues, and we're holding a DT call to find another member to join us.

All the challenges from the year are listed in the archives tabs for you to choose how to play.

For this one, you have until Friday 1st January 2021 to play along - so you can share cards you don't want to show until after Christmas!

 Happy crafting and a Merry Christmas!

Santa sleigh sketch

 

Gill is our host for November on the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, as Christmas gets closer!

This is the sketch she has chosen for us to play with:

 

This ended up being very last minute for me, what with everything that's been going on with lockdown 2.

So no process photos this time.

The panels on the card are inked with antique linen distress oxide, with a light touch of fossilised amber and vintage photo. I splattered with water to bleach.

The images are stamped in gothic purple stazon ink. The houses are from Clarity, the sleigh is a set from a magazine that I hadn't used before. I wasn't sure what the quality was like, but it stamped beautifully.

The background is also an antique linen base, then I stamped baubles and stars in potting soil archival ink all over. I embossed with a Spellbinders folder, then sponged vintage photo distress oxide over, which picked up the embossed detail.

I finished it off with ribbon and lace, and a clock face embellishment from Craft Box. I don't often use embellishments, but they seemed to be what was needed here.

This isn't at all how I imagined this turning out! I really like the background but battled with positioning the panels - I had a stamped sentiment to finish it off, but changed my mind!

 

To join in with this challenge, visit it us at 52CCT. You have until Friday 13th November to enter your cards.

A krafty blue deer

Majda has chosen blue, white and kraft for her colour pick on 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.

I usually struggle to use kraft card, and end up die cutting it. This time I went for a different approach and used the kraft as my base.

Starting with two pieces (in case one went wrong), I stamped across each in gesso, using a wooden tree stamp I bought second hand.

 

I added a moon with gesso on a sponge, masking the trees. I used two different sizes of moon mask to see how they looked.

 

For the blue, I dabbed distress oxides out onto my craft mat - broken china, faded jeans and chipped sapphire. I spritzed then swooshed the top of the card through.

I wiped the ink off the moon.

When they dried, I stamped a holly deer from Clarity onto each in versamark, and heat embossed in white. The different sized moons meant I had to position one higher and one lower for them to look right.

At this point I wasn't sure I liked them, they didn't have the feel I'd anticipated. However, when I cut them down to size (17x11.9cm for a 5x7 card blank) they came together somehow.

I framed each with a snowflake border wooden stamp. I mixed the gesso and heat embossing for a less uniform look.

I decided for the sentiment to use a blue drop shadow behind white embossing. Should be easy! However, I couldn't get the cobalt archival ink to dry - it must have been the surface. So the embossing powder stuck to my drop shadow as well as to the versamark. I brushed it off and tried heating to dry it, then left it overnight, then used my antistatic bag (which to be fair is nearly empty). In the end I had to leave it for a day then smother it in talcum powder to get the powder just where I wanted it.

To finish, I edged in the cobalt archival and mounted on the card blank.

 

These have ended up with a delicacy that I think is pretty, and are quite atmospheric. I don't often make scenes, this is the closest I get!

To join in with our colour challenge, head to the 5CCT blog. This challenge is open until Friday 16th October.

Under the sea

Andreja has set me a real challenge on the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown this week. Her choice of theme is:

And she wants to see under sea creatures celebrating Christmas.

I really struggled with this! I don't really have character stamps. I can do under the sea, but how to give it a Christmassy twist?

In the end I came up with a card but it doesn't really fit the brief so I won't post it on the challenge.

The base of my card has been done with brushos, then I stamped into the ink and transferred within the paper using a seaweed and bubbles stamp from Clarity.

I added distress oxides with the same stamp, and spritzed with water to disperse a little.

I struggled to get a focussed photo - this was the best!

I used crushed olive, then decided it was too yellow, so overstamped in peacock feather ink.

The next layer is corals. I started with an old technique I haven't used for ages, smooshing ink inside a plastic folder and dipping the card in. I used distress reinkers for intense colour, in oranges and seedless preserve. This sometime gives a coral-like pattern, but of course not this time! So instead, I went over with the silver pen. The pattern is from a free to use image I downloaded; I did trace it on and then go over it, but then I couldn't see the lines and had got the hang of the repeat so went free hand. It was long winded but satisfying, and I think the results are beautiful.

The small square is stamped in grey archival ink with a coral stamp that came in a Clarity set with a seahorse - I didn't have it when I planned and started this card otherwise I'd have used that!

The starfish is a wooden embellishment, painted with gold paint.

For the sentiment, I use a Clarity stamp again. I couldn't resist highlighting the "sea" part of season's greetings. Using the stamp platform, I lightly wetted the card and stamped "sea" in peacock feathers distress oxide, masking the rest of the word. I spritzed again and let it dry. 

I then overstamped with green stazon ink - the stamp was in the same place on the platform still.

The rest of the word, and "greetings" I stamped in black archival.

I edged each piece in black, before arranging and putting together.

To join in with the challenge head over to the 52CCT blog, where you can check out the other DT cards, they've done a much better job than me of making Christmassy Under the Sea Creature cards to inspire you!

Funky Groovi snowflakes

Becca is our host at the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown this month.

She has kicked us off with this sketch:

While the snowflakes don't have to actually be snowflakes, they are my favourites, and I have more of them than anything else in my stash, so I have used them. I have a new Groovi plate with "funky snowflakes", so out that came!

First the line work, as always. I used a variety of plates, mostly with snowflakes!

Next, colouring. I used sharpie pens for the detail areas, as they give such a strong colour.

I used polychromo pencils for the background, and to colour the background snowflakes.

I wanted the smaller snowflakes that are from the sketch to stand out more, so I actually did some white work around them - I don't usually do any of the traditional parchment techniques. With hindsight, I'd use different style snowflakes with more area that I could colour with the sharpies.

I cut the parchment out with pinking shears, and cut a patterned background to go behind. I attached the parchment using tiny silver brads I found when I was going through a box of craft stuff the other day.

You can't really see the patterned paper in the photos, but it shows through the snowflakes.
I love the delicacy of parchment for doing snowflake cards, I think it works so well.



To join in with the challenge, visit the 52CCT blog - you'll also see the fantastic inspiration from my design team colleagues.

This challenge closes on Friday 12th June.

Embossed forest and deer

Tracy has given us a really flexible challenge for her technique week at the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.

This can be dry embossing or heat embossing, so gives us lots of choice to play with.

This card started out as an entry for "forest and deer" last month, but didn't get finished in time so has rolled over. It is also part of my current resist embossing phase.

To start, I went through and pulled all the natural, rustic colours out of my distress oxide box.

Not sure I needed this many colours!

I sponged them onto an A5 sheet of Sheena's stamping card, very roughly, just twisting the sponges.

I stamped my holly deer (Clarity) with versamark and heat embossed with clear powder.

For the next stage I prepared a birch tree stencil by applying distress inks - not as many this time, mainly yellows and browns.

I then spritzed the card with water to make the ink run everywhere but the embossed area.

While this was still wet, I pressed the inked stencil into it to create the forest behind the deer.

Once this was dry, I cut down to fit a 6x6 card.

I sponged inks around the deer's feet with a natural sponge to create texture in the foliage on the forest floor. I added a bit around the edge, and inked the edge in brown.

I used a scrap I'd cut from the edge to stamp the sentiment, mounted this on another scrap that I inked with a little brown, and added to the corner.

I love the misty effect this has created in the trees. The colours are a little less vibrant than I'd expected, but this does make the deer stand out, I think it looks like a shaft of sunlight has caught it.




To join in, visit the 52CCT blog.

This challenge runs for two weeks (as we have a fifth Saturday in May) so you have until Friday 5th June to enter.