THE MALE ROOM CHALLENGE - #194 - JANUARY 2024 CAS

Happy New Year everyone and welcome back to our first challenge for 2025 at The Male Room.  Apologies for me still being in Christmas mode - I've been ill for nearly all of December and haven't been able to blog or add any projects so I'm still in a kind of Christmas mood hence my choice of card. 

This is about as CAS as it gets for me as it's not a genre I'm comfortable with as I tend to much prefer throwing everything at my projects.

I let the lovely Christmas Tree from Tim Holtz Watercolour Trees be the star of the show with some gentle background stamping and shading.  The sentiment is one of my favourite Christmas sayings.

CHRISTMAS CRAFT CREATIONS - FEBRUARY

Our challenge at Christmas Craft Creations this month is to use a stencil or embossing folder.  I chose to use a stencil and decided to make a Christmas tag.  One of my favourite things to make for the Christmas season.

I started with a Tim Holtz tag cut from one of his dies and I used the Tim Holtz Christmas Tree stencil.  Before adding the stencil I made a background from Iced Spruce Distress Oxide Ink.  I added some splashes of water and let it dry.  I then added some Twisted Citron and added water and let it dry.  I then did some stamping using Versafine Clair ink in Shady Lane.  I used word stamps from Visible Image and a pine branch from Tracy Evans. 

I then used the stencil with some Cosmic Shimmer Antique Sand Paste in Moss Blanket.  It is a lovely paste to use and gives a lovely muted grungy look.  Once it was dry I added a very fine layer of Cosmic Shimmer sparkle glaze on top.  The Christmas tree is a very old stamp from Tim Holtz which has the matching die cut and I stamped them in two Versafine Inks, Shady Lane and Verdant.  The O Christmas Tree sentiment is from Tim Holtz and the little saying is from one of his Ideaology Christmas books.  I added some white splatters before I added the trees and added some fine thread behind the trees.  I edged the tag with a black Micron pen and then roughed up the edges and used Tim Holtz Scorched Timber around the edges.  I finished the tag with some green and brown ribbon from my stash and an old brad. 

SPARKLES - CHRISTMAS TREES

Our challenge this month at Sparkles Christmas Challenge is all about trees.  I had such fun making this card and love how it turned out.  I started off by inking some Distress Ink on to my cardstock and then using a Tim Holtz stencil and Peacock Feathers Distress Ink for the background.  

I inked a background for my die cut before I cut it out using Peacock Feathers, Walnut Stain, Speckled Egg and Liquitex Ink in Iridescent Bright Gold.  The die cut of the tree with that lovely image of the deer and the birds is from Lisa Jones and Sizzix called Folk Christmas Tree.  It cuts out the tree and a background for the tree which I inked in Walnut stain.  

The star was from my stash and I added some more of that lovely gold ink.  The sentiment was cut from a larger stamp to show the words Christmas Tree and I added the Oh in die cuts from Tim Holtz.  I've yet to find a nice stamp I like which has Oh Christmas Tree all in one stamp!! I added some more of that lovely gold ink to the edges of the sentiment and added a border around the cardstock.

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

Merry Little Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes 

FabnFunky - Christmas 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Anything Goes

Addicted To Stamps - Christmas 

Through the Craft Room Door - AG