Merry and Bright Christmas Tag

I had a nice Sunday afternoon crafting yesterday. I put on some christmas music and finished a tag I started a few weeks ago.

click to enlarge

For the background, I sponged a bit of Forest Moss and Shabby Shutters distress ink randomly over the surface of a kraft tag.  I put  some Ranger Texture Paste into four wells of an art palette and coloured each with TH reinkers - Fired Brick, Brushed Corduroy, Tea Dye, and Pine Needles. Then I spread the paste over a TH "Festive" stencil. When the paste was dry, I spritzed all over with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Irridescent Gold.

I cut some greenery using TH Holiday Greens thinlit dies from bits of TH Kraft-Core  paper, sanding off the surface in some places and sponging with distress inks to age.

From a Brick Red Kraft-Core piece, I cut the verse Merry & Bright from TH Holiday Word Block thinlit dies, and used a scrap of kraft cardstock to place behind the cut-out words. I thought the letters "R" and B" looked funny without their defining loops , so I glued on the little bits that pop out. If you have these dies, you know what I mean...LOL!   Now they look more like regular letters.  I also spritzed the gold glimmer mist over and fastened it to the tag with tiny gold star brads.

I created a bow from olive crushed silk ribbon, placing loops of metallic cord behind, adding a red metal bell, a pinecone (TH die) and two little gold, styrofoam balls. I recently bought a decorative sprig from Michaels for half price, $1.50, made with these little gold and silver balls - I thought they would come in handy as they were tiny enough for card making.

A pinecone brad and ribbon at the top finishes the tag.

It snowed overnight covering the lawns and streets.  Our first blanketing snow of the season!

Thanks for stopping by and reading how I made this tag.

Sharon
Nov.30,2015

Create a Scene Christmas Cards

The past two afternoons I have been playing with creating winter scenes using sponged distress inks and also watercolours, following tutorials on Penny Black YouTube videos (Heather Telford; Micheline "Mimi" Jourdain; and Jill Foster).  Last winter, I played around a bit with distress inks for snow hills and moons, but creating skies with watercolours is a new one to me.  I did several before having one I was pleased with...LOL!  All three of the ladies say in their tutorials they don't use many embellishments on the completed card as the scene is the main focal point....I tend to agree.

Also new to me is using Windsor & Newton Art Masking Fluid. Love this stuff! You flick it on the paper with a toothbrush, before doing any inking or watercolour, and it dries rubbery resisting the medium. After you  have finished your scene, rub it off with your fingers revealing white areas of "snow".  It goes on beige so you can see how little or how many flecks you have.

(1)  This card uses the sponged distress inks, Faded Jeans and Chipped Sapphire, for the snow and sky. The moon is masked off with a 1-1/4" inch circle while sponging. I applied the art fluid for the "snow". The tree is an old favourite one by Stampin' Up! stamped several times with Forest Moss, Pine Needles, and Crushed Olive inks.  The Santa sleigh and reindeer is a die by Impression Obsession; the word "believe" is cut from mat silver cardstock using TH Holiday Word die. I also stuck on two little silver stars - one by the moon, and other for the dot on the "i" in believe.     I recently read a hint on someone's blog to use stars, pearls, or a drop of stickles for the "i" , as the dot is such a tiny piece.  It's very easy to lose it when you punch the word from the die.  Good hint!

Click to enlarge

(2)  For this card, I followed the tutorial by Jill Foster for Penny Black. She has quite a few cards using this watercolour sunset sky for all seasons of the year. I used Cotman Watercolours -yellow, orange, pink and mauve for the sky; also Payne's Grey, Burnt Umber and Phalo Blue for under the trees and snow hill. The trees were stamped with Archival inks- Library Green and Black, branches in Coffee.  Snow is TH Picket Fence distress spray.  I don't have any Penny Black stamps for making scenes so I used my SU tree stamp once again, and the "branches" in the middle of the card are the tips of an older cling stamp by Tim Holtz. Deer dies are by Impression Obsession to which I added a few white details on their tails, spots, and antlers. I also added the TH words "peace on earth" cut from gold cardstock and a gold star.

I did a few of these sunsets skies while I had everything out, so I have some on hand for future cards.

We had a sprinkling of snow this morning on the lawn - puts me in the seasonal mood!

Sharon
Nov.  19/2015

Challenge:

Try it on Tuesdays:  Create a Scene

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - it's Christmas

Autumn and Halloween

I have been very lazy about my blog, and for a while I was going to stop posting completely. Having this discussion with stamping friends, I decided to keep it going, but maybe not as detailed as previous posts. Well, tonight I couldn't sleep so decided to surf Pinterest and other card sites. Whatever did we do without a computer in the middle of the night?  LOL.  After reading for an hour and looking at the incoming blog feed posts for the past week, I got inspired to post a couple of Autumn cards I made.  They are fairly simple, but just wanted friends to know I was thinking of them.

(1)  Free image downloaded and sized for a card. Tim Holtz pin and acrylic tag on which I cut out and glued an apple, copper metallic baker's twine.

Click to enlarge

(2)  The background was made with sponging TH inks then overstamping with several leaf stamps on brown dotted paper. Snoopy image was coloured with Copic markers, popped up with foam tape. I cut out a few leafs and sponged with TH inks. Bow, brad and baker's twine.

(3)  I used TH Harlequin stencil to sponge rust and black pattern over dotted paper. Image is from Crafty Secrets. Some TH tiny seasonal word stickers, rub-ons (corner border and spider). Edge of tag was distressed and sponged with black distress ink. The spider web was stamped with black Stazon ink on self-adhesive acrylic, edged with black stickles over the design, and cut out. The medallion is from a 12x12 sheet of halloween paper which I cut several so I could cut and layer. I stamped and embossed with black EP the magic potion phrase, glued on 31 and dotted black stickles around the edge. Pom pom black ribbon for the bottom and different ribbons for the top.

(4)  The image is by Stampendous, stamped with Versamark, and embossed with black EP. The pumpkins were coloured with Copic markers, then I placed a mask over them and sponged TH distress inks to make the night sky and grass.  Bat die is covered with black Stickles glitter. I made another medallion from the same sheet of paper as in above post and edged with black Stickles. Pompom ribbon at the bottom.

I am working on a Christmas project for my daughter. Will post it when finished. Well, I am going to go to bed and see if I can get an hour sleep before the alarm rings for my husband to get up for work. Nighty Night or Good Morning? LOL

Sharon
Nov. 15/2015

Birthday Card - Perfume Bottles

This is another card I created in October for a friend's birthday at the end of the month.

The image by Stampendous (Three Gifts #CRW064) was embossed in black EP, coloured with Copic Markers, then cut out with a Spellbinders die. I placed little chitchat words and phrases by Tim Holtz around some of the bottles for "inspiration quotes".  I applied tons of Stickles glitter and a rhinestone to each of the tops of the bottles for feminine bling. Added some vintage lace to the bottom. The image is popped up with foam tape

The rose background paper is a sheet from a 12X12" paper pad "Tea Party" by Craftsmith, sponged on the edge with TH Seedless Preserves distress ink. I fussy cut out one of the roses, rosebud and some leaves, added Stickles glitter and placed it in the upper right corner.

click to enlarge

Now I'm all up-to-date with posting. I'm working on a Christmas frame for my daughter - will post that when it is finished.  Have a great day!

Sharon
Nov.16/2015