Winter scene

You'd think after the last few weeks we'd all have had enough of making Christmas cards, wouldn't you? But it's only 11 months until the next lot of Christmas cards need to be in the post, you know! No slacking allowed!

For this card I stamped the image on a scrap of spare card, using a Kaleidacolor pad and a  stamp from a recent issue of Creative Stamping. Then I used a water brush to draw the colour into all the shapes and to soften the distant outlines, and picked up a little more colour from the pad to colour the sky. I then stamped the sentiment on the card using the next "segment"  of the pad along from the ones used on the image. I die cut the image and added it to the card, covering the join with a scribbled wreath die cut from silver mirri card.

I am sharing this with
CASology - Frozen 
Shopping Our Stash - Winter Blues
CAS Watercolour - Winter
CAS Christmas - Blue and silver

More bokeh

After my earlier attempt I'm getting a bit braver with the bokeh. I don't think this is ever going to  become a favourite technique but it does make pretty backgrounds. This time I used watery colours to make a little ocean for my sea otter.

I cut it out with a wavy-stitched rectangle die and ran a fine liner along the stitching lines to look like real stitching. The sea otter and sentiment are made with a Lawn Fawn stamp and die set that I recently won in the Playground.

I am sharing this with
Alphabet challenge - use stitching (real or faux)
Less is More - water 
CAS mix up - Bokeh & stamping & die cutting
2 Crafty Critter Crazies - Anything goes

Bokeh - a first attempt

When bokeh first appeared a few years ago it didn't really speak to me at all so I didn't attempt it. But it seems to be having a bit of a resurgence, with lots of online and magazine articles about it springing up, so I thought I'd have a go.

I tried to cut an acetate template but my Spellbinders dies and Grand Calibur  did nothing but dent the acetate so I ended up cutting it from card instead. Then I used a selection of distress inks to make a bokeh band across the middle of a white panel.

I stamped the sentiment and added a matching black mat.

I am sharing this with Make My Monday - use words or a sentiment

A shaped card at Back to Basics

It's time for our first challenge of 2019 at Back to Basics and this time we would like to see a shaped card,  so anything that isn't square or rectangular.

I've used a scalloped circle die  to create this card.

First I used it to cut a folded white card, without embossing. I positioned it so there were two scallops at the bottom, to give it a flat base to sit on, with the die projecting over the top of the card to leave an uncut edge as the hinge. Then I cut and embossed the entire die in pink  and stuck it over the base card.

I stamped the Woodware bicycle collage onto white card and die cut  a circle to fit the scalloped border and fussy cut the butterfly from the waste then coloured it with watercolours and finished the card with some fabric roses.

Butterflies and birds

.. and hearts and flowers and a postcard.

 

I promise you, in real life the background paper and doiley are the same shade of blue as the topper! But in these gloomy January days, we are so dependent on how colours look in artificial light and with flash, aren't we?

Anyway, the topper is made from several sheets of a Hunkydory "Florabunda" pad, fussy cut to give decoupage layers, and the rest of the elements are from my stash. The post card, while making a good panel for the inside, looked a little bit bare on the card front to I added a die cut butterfly.

I am sharing this with
Allsorts Challenge - Hearts and Flowers
Butterfly Challenge -  the letter I - I have used the colour Iceburg and Include a die cut

From the bits box

I imagine we all have a "bits box" or something similar, where all those odds and ends that didn't quite make it on to a card yet are too good to throw away end up - the backgrounds you made to test a new technique and you plan to use "soon", the extra stamped image you made in case you messed up colouring the first, the die cut that didn't look quite right when you went to add it to the card.....

Mine is really starting to get out of control so I was delighted that this week's Leftovers challenge at Just Us Girls  asks us to use some of those neglected bits.

The large panel with a stencil border is part of a card front that went wrong - under the die cut panel is a matching stencilled motif... AND three large inky fingerprints! I set it aside thinking one day I would cut off the border and use just that, but as I rummaged through my box I found lots of die cuts in shades that go well with it, and managed to assemble them in a way that covers up all those fingerprints.

Great Big Bold Snowflake

Just before Christmas one of the authors I chat to on Twitter sent me a copy of one of her books. And because it was Christmas, she added in some choccies and gift wrapped the whole thing - in gloriously glittery gold paper. She knows how much I love crafting, so she didn't even spoil the paper with sticky tape, she used ribbon instead.

I've used some of the gold wrapping paper on this card

and just in case you can't see the full effect of the sparkle, here it is at an angle to the light

The die I used is from Uniko and I think the sentiment stamp is an Altenew one. It looked a bit lonely there in the middle of the card so I added a gold glitter peel off border.

I am sharing this with
Jingle Belles - No time like the presents
 Addicted to CAS - Snowflake 
Christmas Crafts All Year Round - Let it Snow