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. 

KRAFTY CHICKS #695 CAS

Oh it's CAS over at Krafty Chicks where I am still the Guest Designer for this month.  As regular readers to my blog will know I'm not great at the CAS cards - I love to throw everything at it in a Mixed Media type of way and find it hard to just leave it alone.  Here I've used some old Kaisercraft stamps - they are individual stamps but when you put them together they do create a tree shape.  I stamped them in different colours of greens to create my tree.  I added the star and a water droplet to the top.   The little pot is from Tim Holtz.  I really had to walk away then and not add anything else.

TRY IT ON TUESDAY - GUEST DESIGNER

I was delighted to be asked to be a Guest Designer at Try It On Tuesday for this week's challenge of Winter Blues.  Personally I'm not feeling the January blues as I've just become a grandma for the second time - my darling daughter had a bouncing baby boy on Wednesday amidst all the snow we had in the UK.  His name is Rowan Luke and completes her family now with her daughter Hazel.  Considering my daughter, like me, was told she would not have any children she has done marvellously.  

Anyway on to my card.  I masked off a space on some cardstock and used Tim Holtz Distress Oxide ink in Salty Ocean.  I spritzed it with some water to allow some of the white to show through.  I used the Poppy Seedheads stamp from Tracy Evans stamping it in Versafine Clair Medieval Blue.  I edged the card with some blue and layered it on to a white background.  The sentiments are from a Creative Expressions set Missy Mouse - I love that Oh Hi sentiment - I can see a lot of use for that.  I added some silver thread behind the Happy Birthday and popped it up on dimensionals.  A touch of sequins from my stash finished off the card.

Fiona 

SNARKY CATS

One of my craft gifts was a set of Snarky Cats and stencils from Tim Holtz.  I'm joining in with the challenge over at Make My Monday - they've asked us to choose our favourite theme from last year - what a great challenge - I ended up doing two challenges in one - Friendship from September and Washi Tape from April.

I started my card off with the stencil that looked like string all tangled up.  I used three Distress Oxide Colours Peacock Feathers, Rusty Hinge and Saltwater Taffy to create the background.  I stamped the cat on top and coloured him in with some Rusty Hinge Distress Ink and some Luminarte paint for his eyes.  There is a touch of Spectrum Noir glitter pen on the ball of wool and through the string.

I added some touches of Washi tape from Aallandcreate - I like to tear little bits off the tape and use it just here and there.  This tape had the same blues I'd used which was a bonus.

I added the quirky sentiment with Versafine Clair ink in Warm Breeze - now who should I give this card to? lol! It will most probably go as a RAK card on my Facebook Group the Joy of Sets.  RAK stands for Random Act of Kindness and we send cards we make out to each other -it's lovely as a crafter to receive as well as give.

I'm also adding this into the following:

Just Add Ink - Favourite - cats are my favourite animals 

Crazy for Cats - AG 

As you like it - favourite reason to send a card - as mentioned above as a RAK for my group members 

The sisterhood of crafters - something new - my stamps and stencil

Fiona 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS - #IC403

We have another lovely Inspiration Board from Hand Stamped Sentiments for you  this week.  I took my inspiration from the top right hand corner and the tree and the baubles.  I liked the fact that it seemed to be a little bit out of focus so I used that to make a soft watercolour effect on my card.

I used stamps from Tim Holtz old set CMS322 called Christmas Classic. As well as tthe lovely Santa image in this set which is the one I always seem to use it has some lovely foliage stamps which can sometimes get overlooked so I decided they needed a chance to shine.

I used Versafine Ink in Morning Mist which is a soft grey to stamp the images then used some Tim Holtz Distress Oxides to colour in the holly and the berries.  I used a very soft wash of Tim Holtz Evergreen Bough around all the stamping and part way down the card.  

The bauble stamp is an old one from Gina K Designs called Season of Joy which  just suited this perfectly. I stamped it in Tim Holtz Archival in Mermaid Lagoon.  The other sentiment is also Tim Holtz Tiny Text.  I covered the card with a few splatters of white gesso and added some sparkle from Spectrum Noir glitter pen - as it's Christmas lol! 

I'm adding this into the following challenges - 

The sisterhood of Crafters - Winter 

SimonSays Stamp Wednesday - AG 

four Seasons Challenge - Winter 

GDP#371 - Winter 

Simon Says Stamp Monday - cold

Merry Little Christmas - AG 

JUBILEE WEEKEND

It has been a four day weekend of celebrations here in the UK to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee - 70 years on the throne - such an achievement.  Across the country there were tea parties so this was on my mind for my card today.  I've taken the sketch from Sunday Stamps and the idea of food and drink from The Paper Players.

I used some Ranger Dylusions Ink Spray in Postbox Red for the background and went over it with a stencil to remove some of the colour.  For my background panel I found a blue background I had previously done in my stash and stamped the images from Kaisercraft Tea Party stamps in Versafine Black.  I coloured the roses in Red to represent the Red Rose of England.  

The sentiment comes from Clearly Besotted Warm Solutions.

The Paper Players - Food/Beverage

Sunday Stamps - Sketch 

Taylormadecards4u - Red White and Blue AG 

As You See It - Beverages 

The Card Concept - Red White and Blue 

SWEET STAMPIN - BLOOMIN WONDERFUL

We are all about the flowers at Sweet Stampin this week - as Spring starts in the UK the flowers are slowly coming to life - such a lovely time of the year.  For those of us with gardens stuck at home during the current crisis they have become our lifelines!  

For the last few years Hubby has been treating me to Flowers Friday where he brings me a bunch of fresh flowers home every Friday.  Obviously with lockdown and not being out of the house for nearly a month this little treat has stopped. 

I choose to do some spotlight colouring on my card today - this is an old flower stamp from Altenew I think - I'm not sure as I found it in my stash and there was no name with it.  Oops!  I stamped it twice - first on the background paper and again on some scrap ready to colour. I used Tri-Blend pens by Spectrum Noir in Vintage Blends to colour in the flowers and a touch of SU Soft Sky watercolour for the background. I then used a heart framelit to cut it out and fix it with some dimensionals onto the card.  I added a dotted line around the backgroudn to match the heart.

The sentiment is from Kaisercraft stamps called Curiosity and has been stamped in Ranger Archival Ink in Cobalt - such a gorgeous colour blue!  I then layered it all onto some Night of Navy cardstock from SU.

I'm looking forward to seeing all your lovely flower creations to cheer us up at this time.

I'm also adding this into the Flower Challenge - 
Allsorts Challenge
Colour Crazy Challenge 


 

TRY STAMPIN ON TUESDAY - #TSOT452

Our challenge this week at Try Stampin on Tuesday has the added optional theme of flower power.

I started off with a stencil from The Crafter's Workshop called Mini Honeycomb and sponged it with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Mustard Seed.  I then stamped the branch of flowers from Kaisercraft Stamps Summer Breeze and coloured them in with Tri Blend Spectrum Noir blending pens.  I used some of the See a Silhouette DSP from SU and cut out four of the hexagons.  I used the same papers for the butterflies using some retired SU butterfly punches and added some gem stones.  The sentiment is from Kaisercraft Curiosity stamp set stamped in Ranger Archival Ink in Monarch Orange.