Blue Christmas

 

First Christmas card for the year ... it's hard to believe it's only been a month since Christmas day.

I've been in a sort of CAS mood with my card-making lately, and this is no exception.  The card features white bauble, cut from a dry-embossed piece of white cardstock with a Prickley Pear die. It's hanging from a white-embossed tree branch on a gold cord. The sentient is also white embossed.

This card is for these challenges:

Rudolph Days --anything Christmas

Double D -- blue and white

ABC Christmas -- B is for Bauble

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- anything goes

Word Art Wednesday # 527 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2204 -- anything goes

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #578 -- anything Christmas

Feeling like flowers

Greetings. I hope your having a good week.  It's been very cold here -- today it was sunny (which was a nice change from dreary) but below freezing all day long. So I needed some flowers!

I sort of randomly signed up for a Facebook group of CAS stampers, so I see a lot of CAS cards in my feed, and that influenced this card.

I started with snippets of watercolor paper, and die-cut the flowers (Sizzix/Tim Holtz wildflowers) and butterfly (Sizzix/not Tim). I then used a bunch of water colors and reinkers that were sitting on my desk to color the flowers, stems, and butterfly. After determining the general layout I wanted, I cut the aperture (Whimsy Stamps die) on a large white snippet, and then black-embossed the sentiment. Mounted the white on a large black snippet then adhered the dies in place. Adhered it all to a white card, and added a few gems for a little bling.

This card is for these Challenges:

 Butterfly Challenge #165 (used two of the required colors -- Thistle and Tickle Me Pink) and a butterfly.

Dies R Us #185-- anything goes with dies (Sizzix and Whimsy)

Die-Cut Divas Jan. 2022-- florals

Snippet Playground # 420 -- use snippets (everything but the base)

Word Art Wednesday #527 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2204 -- anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- anything goes

New to me

 

It seemed many challenges are concentrating on "something new" where you show off new stuff. I combined new stuff with a new-to-me technique, a play on triple stamping called "offset triple stamping." (I was made aware of this by a link to a pinterest page posted in a group I'm in, so I don't know if if there are rules or directions for doing techniques. I just figured it out based on the photos.)

The stamp I used is an NBUS image from Stamplorations, a lovely and detailed stamp. I used snippets of white cardstock for the layers and snippets for the lavender matting around the various pieces. To highlight different sections of the image, I used colored pencils in key spot.

This card is entered in these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- Something new

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2202 -- anything goes

Pattie's Creations # 190 -- anything goes

NBUS #34 -- Stamplorations image

Stamplorations Never-ending Challenge -- Stamplorations image

Pixie's Snippet Playground #419 -- use snippets (white and lavender snippets)

Word Art Wednesday #525-- anything goes

Christmas Quilt

 A merry Christmas to all.  

For what will probably be my final holiday card for the year, I'm revisiting the Disappearing Nine-Patch.  I made a Thanksgiving themed card with this technique earlier this year, but I have a ton of Christmas DP snippets and this seemed like a good use for them. (See the inset photo for some of the snippets I started with. As you can see, most aren't any bigger than a tiny ink cube, which is the black square at the top of the photo for scale.)

To make the patches, I started by die-cutting nine different papers with a Spellbinder's one-inch square die. I then arranged them into a 3x3 square and adhered all to a backing paper. Then I cut the nine-patch in half horizontally and vertically,  rearranged the pieces to my liking, and matted them on a green snippet. For the sentiment, I used another tiny snippet that says "Tis the Season" matted on another small snippet. 

I sprinkled a few red sequins on because I felt the card "needed something." Now I'm not sure that's what it needed, but there they are.

This card is entered in these challenges

Pixie's Snippet Playground  #418. (everything but the card base was a teeny tiny Snippet)

Word Art Wednesday #523 -- anything goes

Pammie's Inky Pinkies #2151 -- anything goes

Die-cut Divas -- Christmas/winter  (used Spellbinder's one-inch square die)

 

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