Penguin Fishing for Snowflakes

Evening folks.
It's time for a brand new challenge over at HLS CAS. Here's my inspiration for you.






Must admit that the theme from Frozen the movie ran through my brain when I read the theme prompt, but in the end I chose this cute penguin fishing from HobbyHouse crafts.
I loved the idea of him bashing a hole in the ice to go fishing and ending up with a snowflake on the line!
Fussy cutting him after colouring with Copics, I added a die cut snowflake instead of the one from the image, it made cutting out so much easier!
There were a few snowdrifts in the original image too but they didn't fit the design, so I added some die cut ones of my own, adding depth with a dash of Copic colour and some Wink of Stella.
The sentiment is from Uniko's Festive Sentiments.

For more freezing inspiration please check out the rest of the team here.

I'm joining in over at:-



     

BA @ Uniko

Hi, I'm up over at Uniko with a little bit of Christmas card inspiration.
For details on how I made these cards check out the Uniko blog here.

Altenew Plentiful Pine

Morning all.

It's time for a brand new challenge over at Cardz4Guyz. This time our theme, very appropriately is -

ICY COLD

So, perhaps another chance to use the theme to make more Christmas cards like me?

The other weekend, I treated myself to a crafty day with Altenew's Lydia Evans over in N Wales.

We made a batch of cards and had a great time chating with like minded crafters, old friends and new.

We used a couple of the new November release from Altenew, including Plentiful Pine. Like many of their stamp sets it is a layering one but as in this card it doesn't mean you need to use all the layers!

As it is a OL card, so a bit of planning was required before I started stamping.

I first created a window mask and then added a strip of torn post it tape across the opening and added a die cut circle mask too. I carefully added some Faded Jeans DI across the top of the window and then stamped the second layer of one of the small trees in black whilst the mask was still inplace. 

Carefully removing the torn mask, I moved it down the opening and added some more of the Faded Jeans DI to create another snow drift. Before stamping my foreground trees, I removed the circle mask and stamped over the torn mask with the second layer of the tree in Altenew's Evergreen ink three times. I then over stamped each of these with the third layer and black ink.

A little bit of Weathered Wood DI was added to the moon and across the snow to create some suggested shadow. 

Removing the window mask, I stamped the sentiment from the same set in black and added some stars to the sky with a white gel pen.

Over at Twofer, the wonderful Darnell and her DT are asking for Winter Foliage themed cards, so as I still had my stash out, I made another OLC but this time I used the whole card front.

I used the same torn tape masking principle but this time I used Salty Ocean DI to create the sky and to stamp the background trees. An extra snowdrift was added and the large pine tree was stamped in all its glory using Altenew's Green Fields and black ink set. We discussed using white EP for the final layer on the Saturday but I didn't use it this time, I may in future designs. I did think that the base green was a little too pale on the large tree, so added another base layer with a light inking of the Salty Ocean. The sentiment completes.

Two rather Icy Cold scenes I think!

For more Icy inspiration please check out the rest of the DT here, then why not have a go?

I'm joining in over at:-

Use a Frame

The Most Wonderful Time of The Year

Evening folks.
Have you got all your Christmas cards made yet? I know I haven't, I'm a bit behind this year but perhaps the latest challenge at Perfectly CAS will help you.
Here's my inspiration for you.

The ladies over at CAS Mix Up are featuring the oxidized metal technique, something I'm not familiar with, so after investigating the links, I decided to have a go.
The panel I made was used for this tag and the left over bits were die cut with smaller snowflake dies to make this card. The panel coped best with the large die, these smaller dies had a tendency to cause the embossing layer to flake off but a little heat settled it down again.
The original panel was a silver and turquoise colour that had been in my stash for many many years and it was a little distressed around the edges to start with, but that made the end result even more interesting. I only have one reinker, Tumbled Glass DI, so it dictated that I use a wintery theme!
My sentiment from Uniko's Most Wonderful stamp set was stamped and embossed with silver EP on a white base card and the die cut snowflakes arranged around it, leaving lots of white space.
Quite a quick card and very post friendly.
For more festive CAS inspiration, check out the rest of the team here.

Joining in over at:-




Winter Blues

25 Days of Christmas Tags

Hi. It's the time of year when Tracy McNeely hosts her 25 days of ChristmasTags blog hop.

Today its the turn of Uniko to sponsor the hop, so the DT are sharing some festive tags with you.

Here's one I made using the Sparkling Snowflake die and the oxidised metal effect.

The ladies at CAS Mix Up are focusing on this technique so I had to have a try, so I booted up You Tube link from their site and went experimenting.

I started by creating a panel by adding Tumbled Glass refill ink to a panel of distressed turquoise/silver foiled card that's been in my stash for years. Using my heat gun, I dried the inky surface then covered it with clear embossing powder. After heat embossing the panel, I die cut my snowflake from it. The card was quite thick but I wasn't worried that all the small bits didn't cut out first time as I liked the look, any loose bits were taped in place on the back before adding it to a circle of embossed white card. A hole punched into the top and some silver chord complete.

I've also made a second tag with one of my sentiment panels.

This time I die cut a tag from a panel made with clear embossed stamping on kraft, inked with Vintage Photo DI. A circle of tartan DP, a couple of stamped and die cut holly leaves and some twine and a button, all edged with Vintage Photo DI complete.

The rest of the team have a great selection of tags for your inspiration over at Uniko, but to enter Tracey's blog hop link up here. You'll also find all the Ts and Cs there too.