Mistletoe Christmas

 I'm continuing to play with watercolors. I made this little mistletoe image after watching a video on painting winter foliage, and I like it enough to use it on a card.

The card is mini slimline size with a white base. I found the patterned paper already cut on a diagonal, and trimmed just the tiniest bit to fit it onto the card, where I think the strong diagonal adds a little interest. The mistletoe itself is matted on red and accented with a bit of baker's twine. The sentiment is from Stamp Simply.

The card is entered into these challenges:

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #568 -- anything Christmas

Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge -- use patterned paper

CRAFT #617 -- Christmas

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2146 -- anything goes

Word Art Wednesday #517 -- anything goes

The Paper Shelter 492 -- Say Something

 

Patchwork technique

 I learned a new technique via the folks at Splitcoast Stampers, and it is a great one for using snippets.  It's called Disappearing 9-patch. You begin by creating a standard 3x3 nine-patch--I cut my squares with a 1-inch square die. After assembling the patch, you cut it in half horizontally and vertically. At that point you have four squares you can arrange in any way you find pleasing to the eye. It's fun to see the variations. I ended up turning each piece 180 degrees from how it started. 

You can put all four pieces back together with or without space between them and I chose to add a narrow edge around all the peices by mounting them on a mossy green snippet, which is then mounted on a yellowish snippet.

For the 9-patch, I used really small snippets of 9 different patterns of fall-ish papers. Six or seven were from the same set, and I found a few others that worked well with them. One-inch squares are pretty small, and knowing I started with one-inch squares, that  means the corner pieces are now 1/4-inch squares. 

I added a die-cut acorn and a sentiment from Mark's Finest to create a Thanksgiving card.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday: Thanks/Thanksgiving

Word Art Wednesday #515 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2145 -- anything goes

Pixie's Snippet Playground #415 -- use snippets

Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge -- use patterned papers

Mushrooms

Splitcoast has watercolor challenge on Wednesdays, and last week it involved painting mushrooms. I sometimes play along -- usually days late -- with watching the tutorial and trying the techniques, but I don't often end up pleased enough with the outcome to go all the way to completing a card. I thought the mushroom challenge was a lot of fun and was happy enough with the painting to use it on a card.

The image is from Pattie's Creations, painted with watercolors. The sentiment (Impression-Obsession, maybe?) is white embossed. After I made the painting I went looking for paper to use behind the image and stumbled upon a white-dotted paper that perfectly matches the 'shrooms I'd painted! 

(I chose what I thought were fantasy colors for mushrooms, only to find out that mushrooms come in every color, even blue and purple. I guess that's my "you learn something every day" moment for today.)

This card is in these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkie's #2144 -- anything goes

Word Art Wednesday #516 -- anything goes

Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge -- use patterned paper