The challenge over at Sweet Stampin this week is Snowmen/Snowladies - that's funny I've never seen an actual snowlady stamp.
The stamps I've used here are from an old set by Stampin Up called Flaky Friends. I started sponging a background winter scene - making it look kind of stormy with the added greens and yellows. I kept the colours of the snow people to two colour blues - the pale is from Kaisercraft and is called Lagoon - the darker is Stampin Up Island Indigo.
I added lots of glitter for sparkle including some sparkly ribbon and some extra embellishments on some of the snowmen.
Over at my Facebook Group The Joy of Sets we celebrate all things Stampin Up both retired and current as well as other stamp companies. It gives you the chance to still use the retired stock and not leave it un-inked and unloved! There is a special give away going on for our December Challenge with a $25 voucher from Lawn Fawn.
I'm also adding this into the challenge at Cards In Envy who want to see our Christmas cards - they could be inundated lol!
My card today mixed something old with something new. My favourite all time Christmas stamp is this lovely old image of Santa called Santa Collage from Rubber Stampede - I've had it for over 15 years and I'm always looking for new ways of adding him to a Christmas card.
I've combined it here with some of the new papers from Kaisercraft Wonderland set. I love the colours in these papers - which is unusual for me as I'm normally a traditional red/green girl but the blues are lovely. I've used some SU Crumb Cake for the base and for the Santa. He was stamped with Versamark and I used some silver embossing powder. Rounded the edges and added some Crumb Cake ink to the card and the base to distress it a little.
The papers are from Kaisercraft and I just adore those little reindeers! I aded a Die Cut of a reindeer in silver paper and tucked it beneath the Santa. The snowflakes inked in Crumb Cake are from SU Colourful Seasons. The sentiment is from the Kaisercraft Wonderland pack.
I love how this card turned out. I'm going to add it to the following Challenges
Watercooler Wednesday - Holidays
Cards In Envy - Favourite Holiday Card
Sparkles Christmas Challenge - For the kid in all of us!
It will be my 33rd Wedding Anniversary in September and I have been thinking of a card for hubby. One of my favourite retired sets from Stampin Up is called Summer by the Sea and stupidly I got rid of it when it retired all those years ago - 2006 I think! Browsing ebay (shh) I spotted one which didn't cost the earth and was lucky enough to win the bid. It was just the image I wanted for my Anniversary card as hubby and I are going to Wales (our home) for the weekend to celebrate and spend some time on the quiet beaches.
So I dug out my sponges and some inks and created a sunset theme - inspired by the wonderful Dawn Griffith.
I used Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Mango Melody and Rich Razzleberry to create the sunset scene. The water was a piece of whisper white inked with Pacific Point and torn. The sand scene is some crumb cake inked with a non SU dotty stamp I have and then some images of grasses from the Autumn Days set. I then stamped the image of the pair onto the Crumb Cake in Early Espresso and coloured them in with watercolour pencils and the ink using a blender pen.
The birds image is a Tim Holtz one. The Hugs was a RAK to me from one of my members of my Facebook Group Joy of Sets and I'd been looking for a great project to add it to. I love how this card turned out and hope hubby likes it too!
I am going to add this into the following challenges:
As You See It #182- loosely following their Divided challenge
Cards in Envy - New Product - the cut out wording and the stamps are new to me
Global Design Project - #GDP151 - Take Me To The Sea
The Paper Players #405- Colour Challenge ( I have added the touch of blue which may not be allowed )
Sunday Stamps - Colour Challenge #SSC185 - Summer Splash
Watercooler Wednesday #WWC183- Masculine Challenge - this is for hubby!
TGIF - #tgifc173 - Beach scene
Thanks for looking and leaving a comment - I love to hear from you.
It's always a nice thing to ink up some new stamps - I have a set of Clearly Besotted English Rose stamps that I haven't used yet and I thought they deserved an outing. Cards In Envy are asking for us to use new stamps and my card is flat enough to fit in an envelope.
The Sunday Stamps Sketch motivated me today to get card making - a simple sketch but it made me use some papers. I used some from My Mind's Eye Collectable Memorable collection - they were on my desk as I had just been doing a scrapbook layout so thought I could use them on the card too and it just so happened there was a lovely rose background paper in the collection.
I used some retired Stampin Up inks to stamp the roses, Pretty In Pink and Rose Red and another retired SU Ink Mellow Moss for the saying and the edges. The sentiment is from Kaisercraft Gypsy Rose set of stamps - another new set for me.
I added a pearlized doily from SU and punched the little butterfly out of another paper from the set. A touch of Wink of Stella and a ribbon finishes off the card. I love the way it has a sort of vintage feel to it.
My card today is for the above challenge Cards In Envy who asked us to choose a favourite sketch - I must admit I'm kind of new to the whole sketch idea - apart from the challenges that ask for them I rarely look at sketches to follow! Seems I've been missing a trick as I've now found them for scrapbooking layouts also All those hours scratching my head trying to think of something and all I needed to do was go on Pinterest - in the words of the immortal Homer Simpson - Doh!
I found this sketch which actually fitted the card I had just done - I think I've really done that the wrong way round but hey - it worked!
I've used a lovely new set for me from Penny Black with some really lovely flowers stamps on it - my stash was actually short of flowers and I just couldn't find exactly what I was looking for until I saw this set. I think it was called Enjoy. I used the little daisy stamp and used some SU marker pens to colour it in - the background was sponged in Pear Pizzazz and the outer layer of the oval sponged in Tangerine Tango - with its matching ribbon - this is the last of this bit of ribbon I have and I'm gong to miss it. The flower was one I had in my stash and I inked it in the same Tangerine Tango and added a brad - #bringbradsback!
One layer cards can be tricky - but necessary sometimes especially as the postage costs in the UK have risen if you have a card with a 'bump' on it! I found a new challenge to me today which is asking for one layer card - Cards In Envy with the Envy meaning envelope.
They do allow for a mat layer but I've kept my card one layer. I've used some stamps from a set I got from Clear Impressions called Rural Springtime. There are some lovely stamps on it and I chose to use three from the set.
I first used some Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Bundled Sage and Tattered Rose to make the background. I used Tim's new, to me, Stamping Platform to add my stamps. I found the platform great for this type of stamping where I was positioning a few stamps to make sure they ink correctly and in the right place.
I used some of SU Melon Mambo for the sentiment and a touch of Wink of Stella on the trees just to make them sparkle and give the card a bit of interest.
