Watercolour Holly

 Good morning, just popping by to share a Christmas make in this quiet time 'twixt Christmas and New Year. It's another of my watercolour experiments, this time using clingfilm and watercolour washes.

The holly berries were masked with masking fluid, before the leaves and background painted with washes of watercolour. Before it dried, I added some scrunched up cling film, it's a bit like the technique I've used with Brusho but on a smaller scale. When dry, the cling film and masking was removed and the berries painted. To finish the panel, some branches were painted in with a rigger brush and some snow, splattered white acrylic, added. The frame was simply added over the top and attached to an A6 base card, a sentiment strip completes.

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Christmas

Festive Foliage

CAS

Dachshund Through The Snow

Good morning!

Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and that Santa brought you lots of what you wanted. If he didn't, well I hope that it was still a great time with your loved ones. We got an extra Christmas present, my eldest grandson caught Chicken Pox from his younger brother!!

Anyway, over at Cardz4Guyz we've got a brand new challenge for you to keep you busy in the twixtmas period!!

This time we would like to see your take on:-

A WINTER THEME

Here's my take. I made it before the holidays when there was a hard frost and the overnight temperature on the roof,  according to the solar hot water panel, was down as low as minus 11'C!!!!! As I type, there are still plenty of frosty corners that the sun doesn't reach. I've used this fun LOTV digi- Dachshund Through The Snow, the doggie reminds me of our Max, though not a dachshund nor would he let you put a coat on him! 

The background was lurking in my scraps box, leftover from an earlier project and too good to throw away, works well with this cute boy with his dog and sledge from LOTV.

If I remember correctly, I stamped an arrangement of tree branches with Versamark and heat embossed with white EP. Using some Salty Ocean, Blue Print Sketch and Peacock Feathers DI more branches were stamped over. When dry I blended some of the Salty Ocean over the embossed and stamped branches.

After printing off this cute LOTV image, I coloured with Copics and fussy cut him and the pooch out, laying him on pads over the background. A sentiment from Uniko was stamped on the snow and then the whole panel was added to an A6 note card.

For more masculine winter themed inspiration, check out the rest of the team here.

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Clean and Simple

Another Festive Penguin

Evening. Only just over a week left before the big day and over at Perfectly CAS we are asking you to show us your CAS Christmas makes. Here's one I posted out at the beginning of the month featuring another of the cute penguins from LOTV.

 

I found him in the bottom of the printed but not coloured box, a leftover from a sheet I printed last year. The itsy bit of DP is also from a LOTV pad from many years ago that was in the scrap box too! I slipped it behind a die cut frame and sat my Copic coloured, fussy cut, gift toting penguin inside with just his scarf hanging over the edge. Sentiment, Woodware, stamped along the bottom edge of the frame and then added to a white A6 top fold card. SIMPLES.

This design has lots of 'white space' , in other words no embossing or pattern over at least 2/3rds of the design, please make sure your entry complies. I know that CAS means different things to different people but we are a CAS challenge that requires the patterned area to be 1/3 or less.

If you are still unsure, please check out the rest of the DT for more fab Christmas CAS inspiration.

Ossie Owls

Good morning, I don't want to scare you but Christmas Day will soon be here, hope you have all your prep done because I haven't! Anyway I've another card to share for the brand new challenge at Cardz4Guyz. This time it's -

Something beginning with O

As soon as I saw that, I thought of owls and as I had the Lawn Fawn owl out after thinking to use it for the last challenge, I just had to use it!

I used to make owl themed Christmas cards as a joke for my old next door neighbour and Owls fan but sadly she is no longer with us but I do have a couple of kids that are still Owls fans. Not the fluffy creatures but the football team, Sheffield Wednesday. I have my late father to thank for that, personally I support the other football team in the city, Sheffield United. Their nickname is the Owls because they used to play at Owlerton a district in Sheffield. They are also called Wednesday as that was the only day they could get together to play back in Victorian times.

I started with a panel of white Copic friendly card and stamped an array of owls over it. I coloured the scarves in the colours of Wednesday, blue and white and the away colours of blue and yellow.

My die cut sentiment panel was already in my stash, so I just added a matte of gold card and a couple of small die cut holly sprigs which I coloured with Copics. The panel was then added to the card on pads.

So what will you come up with? We'd love to see your takes in the Cardz4Guyz gallery.

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Use die cuts

Watercoloured Poinsettias

 Hi, just popping by to share a card for a few challenges whilst I've got a moment or two to spare!

It's a CASe of one here I did many years ago using this fab Penny Black poinsettia and a Stampendous background stamp.

If you are a regular visitor you will have noticed that I have been indulging my artistic side with some watercolour themed cards and this is no exception!

On a panel of textured card, I stamped the three poinsettias, masking as I went, with Altenew's Limestone ink for a watercolour effect. Masking these off with outlines cut from Post It notes, I then stamped the text panel with Versamark and heat embossed with white EP. The sepals were then watercoloured using a mix of DIs smooshed onto an acrylic mat. After colouring the area around them was painted with plain water and the green DI added to give a textured effect. The tiny yellow flowers were added using a couple of Zig watercolour pens. Trimmed down, the finished panel was then added to an A6 red note card.

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I love ..... Watercolouring!

Anything Stamped with option of Winter Wonderland 

(no option for me)

HO Cubed!

 Morning all, it's looking very wintery outside this morning. The heavy overnight frost is glistening in the bright sunshine, it's cold but it looks so pretty. Even the dog was happy to go out and was quite reluctant to turn back!

Anyway, thought I would just share this card for the latest challenge over at The Paper Players. It features one of the fun MFT Santas.

On a red card base, I stamped my Uniko Background Blocks Falling Snow twice, masking off the bottom, to create my background and heat embossed with white EP, added a circle of black card, stamped the simplest of the sentiments and finally the Santa, Copic coloured and fussy cut. Simples!

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Guinea Pig Conga

Evening all.

December is here and it's time for a new challenge at HLS Birthday, where it's always -

ANYTHING GOES

Here's my card to celebrate the festive season!

I love this guinea pig conga stamp from Colorado Crafts, so much fun to colour too.

I thought that the guinea pigs could easily be mistaken for hamsters so it was the perfect card to celebrate the lovely Darnell's birthday earlier in the year!

After stamping the conga line, I used Copics to colour and then added some clouds behind with an MFT stencil and a soft brush with Salty Ocean DI. The sentiment is from the same set but the ink I used for it was new, so very juicy and easily smudged, so I added some clear EP and heat set. My completed panel was trimmed and then added to an A6 side folding note card, simples.

I know it's a busy period for a lot of you but there are still birthdays to celebrate, I always feel sorry for December and early January birthdays as they tend to get lost in the celebrations around Christmas and the New Year! So why not make time and send a December baby some birthday love?!

If you are in need of some birthday inspiration, why not check out the rest of the team here?

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Four Legged Friends

Anything other than Christmas

Color Hues #54

Good afternoon, it's December already! How can that happen, it was the heat of mid summer so recently it seems. Anyway, time for the final Color Hues colour combo of the year. Here's my take.

This card is a CASE of a card I made a few years ago here, using a freebie magazine die and part of a Uniko sentiment. 

To start, I die cut a panel of navy blue card with an MFT die and then cut away the bauble with the freebie. Below the opening I stamped the sentiment and heat embossed with white EP. The panel was then added to an A6 matching base card and the aperture filled using a black fun foam bauble and the original cut from the panel, slipping a length of gold chord behind the die cut and panel. A bow tied from the same chord was added on top. The JOY word was cut using a Tim Holtz Sizzix alphabet die from cream card and added across the center, an IO gold die cut snowflake completes.

We are keeping this challenge open for the whole of December, so if you get a little bored with all the festivities you might want to slip to your craft room for some respite and join us.

For more fab inspiration from the DT and our guest GD check out the Color Hues blog here.

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A Greeting Card