Christmas Rosebuds

I wanted to make a Christmas card with my Rosebud stamps, so I wanted it to be stylish, elegant and dramatic.  Bit of a black tie do.  As it happens, the challenge at The Paper Players is Black Tie: Holiday Projects that are Fancy.

Maybe not too fancy, but definitely posh enough for Black Tie.  I inked the image in Old Paper Distress Ink, then painted it with Festive Berries and Mowed Lawn.  I added a bit of Antique Linen around the edges of the image, then offset-mounted it onto silver mirri card, and then onto a splattered card base.  The sentiment is from Oh, Christmas Tree - I love the Dymo style sentiments.

I'm also entering it into Simon Says Monday Challenge, Anything Goes.

The Twelve Projects of Christmas - A Sprinkle of Imagination

I am honoured to be one of the guest designers for The Twelve Projects of Christmas, hosted by A Sprinkle of Imagination.  There are some seriously gifted crafters in this line-up, so I'm thrilled to have been invited.

For my card, I stamped the image onto white card with Versafine Onyx Black, then squished some Distress Inks (Festive Berries, Barn Door) onto an acrylic block and used them as watercolours to slosh layers of colour over the dress and shoes.  I washed some of the colour onto another piece of card, then stencilled HO HO HO with Black Soot Distress Ink and cut the words into squares, and drew a border with white gel pen.

I added some white embossing powder to the dress hem and collar.  The background text is partially stamped in Versafine Smoky Grey and a text stamp.  Here's a close-up.

Dylusions Mini Couture Stamp Set
Tim Holtz Curiosities (background stamp)
Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Schoolhouse
Tim Holtz Distress Inks: Festive Berries, Barn Door, Black Soot
Versafine Onyx Black, Smoky Grey
White embossing Powder
Sakura Gelly Roll white pen


If you leave a comment on all twelve of the guest designers' blog posts, you will be in with a chance of winning a fabulous goodie box.  What are you waiting for?

Craft Stamper Reminder - White Stamping

Craft Stamper's December challenge is underway, and this month we want you to use white stamping.  White ink, white paint, white heat-embossing - your choice.  You can include other colours of stamping, but the focus should be white stamping.  Our sponsor this month is Rubber Dance Art Stamps:

and here's the prize for one lucky winner:

That's not all: the winner gets their card published in a future edition of Craft Stamper (so hold on to your card!) and is invited to be a guest designer in a future challenge.

You don't have to be a subscriber to Craft Stamper magazine to enter the challenge, you just have to use stamps and follow the theme.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy :)

I created a masterboard for my card by stamping snowflakes with Versamark and heat embossing in white, then I sponged Distress Inks all over the masterboard.  I water-stamped some large snowflakes, then stamped 25 December in Brilliance Moonlight White.  If you look closely, you can just make out  some of the letters from December down the right-hand side.  I also stamped some snowflake swirls in Versafine Smoky Grey, and some smaller snowflakes in Brilliance Moonlight white (you can see a couple in the top corners - very subtle).  I squiggled a border with a white gel pen and added a snowflake charm and chain.  The sentiment is Clearly Besotted.  Here's a close-up:

So now I have another 5 panels from my chopped-up masterboard for quick and easy cards - bonus!  Here's one with the 25 December stamped in Chipped Sapphire:

More Barbed Wire and Bling

Here's another version of the barbed wire wreath, this time with sparkly red and white pom-poms, a satin star and lots of gems.  The wreath is silver-embossed, the sentiment is Dymo tape, and the white panel is matted up on to silver mirri card then on to ribbed card.

I'm entering this into Simon Says Wednesday Challenge, Bling It On.

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I'm over at STAMPlorations later tonight using up leftovers from this card.  Pop over to see what I did with them.

 

Blogger is being a bugger lately, switching on word verification when the settings show it to be off, and loads of people seem to be suffering from it.  Although it can be ignored and comments are published, the other option is to change the comment form to embedded rather than pop-up, so that's what I've gone with for now.  Hope it doesn't put you off commenting ;)

Happy Christmas Tree

I'm playing along at Virginia's View, where the challenge is All Things Distressed.  How could I refuse?

I inked my favourite Magenta Christmas tree stamp with Distress Inks, spritzed and stamped.  I dabbed a wet paintbrush around the edges of the image to soften the lines, and along the base of the tree to ground it, and added the sentiment from Woodware.

Oh, and I added some splatters, my go-to embellishment!

Christmas Kiss

I'm playing along with the challenge at Unity Stamps for the first time.  I used the colours from this fabulous inspiration photo:

I stamped the image onto mixed media paper, coloured it in, then cut out the top background area.  I cut the sentiment in mirri card, then ran it through my X-Cut and covered it with fine glitter.  I added some snow for dimension.

I'm also sliding in under the wire at Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Christmas/Holidays

Christmas Calories

Here's a little sneak peak of some new stamps from STAMPlorations.  The set is called Sugar Rush and it's available to STAMPlorations Stamp Club members - check out the Stamp Club details here.

I couldn't resist turning the images into festive treats!

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog for more inspiration using this fabulous set!

CHALLENGE DESIGN TEAM CALL

Did you know there's a design team call for STAMPlorations challenges?  There's still time to apply - click here for all the details.