Merry Christmas to one and all

Just a few more hours and it's Christmas day, I hope you and your families have festive holiday and have a wonderful new year.

Card Recipe
Stamps: MFT Bear (unknown sentiment)
Paper: Coated Card, 110lb white, Red
Ink: Ranger archival
Accessories: MFT die, word bubble die, SU Embossing folder
Techniques: Saran wrap background, Die Cut

CAS Watercolour Mid month reminder

With only a week and a half to Christmas I'm trying to get my final  Christmas cards stamped and coloured. CAS Watercolour challenge December Anything Goes is great incentive for me.
Hideko is our guest designer for November, check out her amazing cards at Papercraft Boutique and head over to the other CAS Watercolour DT blogs for some wonderful inspiration.

I used the Daniel Smith Watercolour grounds again before colouring with Distress watercolours.  You cans see below in the first card I used the Pearlescent white.  This gave the blue and purple distress watercolours this wonderful cool tone.

For my second card I used the Gold which gave a much warmer background for the distress inks.

The stamp set was a gift from a sweet friend.  I finished both cards with a simple Christmas sentiment from Serendipity

Card Recipe
Stamps: Serendipity Sentiment, Ali express image
Paper: Watercolour, 110lb white
Ink: Ranger Archival black
Accessories: Daniel Smith Watercolour grounds (gold and pearlescent white)
Techniques: Watercolouring

Playing with Distress Oxide inks on Glossy Photo paper

Distress Oxide inks on Glossy Photo paper

Back in September while playing with some crafty friends I took along some glossy photo paper.  Now I should tell you I've had this paper since about 2002, it actually said manufactured in 2001.   I think we got a new printer and thought we would print out own pictures, little did we know the cost of the coloured ink for the ink jet printer would be ridiculously expensive so the paper got filed away.  I'm so glad I found it.

You can see the glossy surface 

I inked my craft mat with Distress Oxide ink, spritzed it with water and then picked up the in ink on the photo paper, I heat set it after each layer, I wasn't impressed as the colours looked very chalky and rubbed off when I touched them.  After our crafting session I just dropped it in my bag and forgot about it.
Well a few weeks later I stumbled across this video on You Tube and realised I just missed one important step, I just need to wipe the surface with a baby wipe. What a transformation.
You can see in the photo below the area which is bright has been wiped the dull matte coloured portion hasn't.

I did a few samples with different coloured Distress Oxide Inks

I'm entering this for the following challenge
CAS Watercolour

Card Recipe
Stamps: Vissible Image
Paper: 110lb white, Glossy photo paper
Ink: Ranger archival
Accessories: Distress Oxide inks, Zigs Watercolour pens, baby wipes
Techniques: Distress oxide on glossy photo paper

CAS Watercolour December Challenge Anything Goes

It's time for a new challenge for CAS Watercolour and for December it's Anything Goes. 

Our Guest Designer for this month is Hideko of Paper Craft Boutique, please head over and say hi and  check out all her wonderful creations along with the rest of the CAS Watercolour design team.

Being way behind on my Christmas cards I thought I would stick with the Christmas theme for this months.

This sweet little pup is from a Hero arts set with a kitten and a puppy.  I used some Daniel Smith Gold grounds on watercolour paper, then stamped the image and coloured with zigs.  The gold grounds give such a warm glow under the zig watercolouring.  I used a white gel pen to colour in toe, heel and cuff of the stocking.

This is a close up of the partially watercoloured image. I'm still playing around with the grounds, I also have the pearlescent white grounds so you may see more in the future.

Thanks for your comments, I love hearing from you and I'm happy to answer any questions you have.

Card Recipe
Stamps: Hero arts Fluffy stockings stamp and die
Paper: Watercolour paper, Cream 110 lb card stock
Ink:  blackRanger archival, Delicata gold
Accessories: Daniel Smith Gold Grounds, Zig Watercolouring Wens
Techniques: Watercolour

Christmas tag

with all the Tag inspiration out there I'm posting another and there may be more 😀

My background was made last year at Susan's and I don't know which stamp we used. We white embossed some images and then blended distress inks into the background.  I used Real Red SU pen to add the berries, this was sitting in my UFO for almost 12 months and I decided to turn into a tag for Loll's tag event and a few other tag events.

and 

Happy Little stampers November Christmas Challenge anything goes with an optional twist Tag

Card Recipe
Stamps: unknown, Sentiment - Unity
Paper:mixed media, 110lb white
Ink: Versamark
Accessories: MFT tag die, distress inks, SU real red marker, silver embossing paste, Americana stencil. silver rope cord,
Techniques: distress blending

November CAS Watercolour Mid Month Reminder

It's the middle of November and time for CAS Watercolour Mid Month reminder, if anyone has checked out my "about me" page you will know I have 2 absolutely gorgeous and sweet golden retrievers Dylan (4yrs) and Tika (18mths) so you'll understand why I love this adorable puppy.  I ended up making 2 cards, the first card I made I didn't think it was quite CAS enough, so I made a second for the challenge.
As the stamp image is quite large, I created a square card which is 5 1/2" by 5 1/2" for the challenge.  I watercoloured the image and used some pencils to add some shading to the puppy and his hat.  I added some Wink of Stella to give the white on his Santa's hat a little sparkle.  The background has a little water colour wash.

This is the one I opted not to post, just a little less CAS with the black frame and darker wash on an A2 Card.  This was such an easy image to colour I think I'll do a few more as I have a few dog owner friends😊

For lots of great holiday inspiration pop over the CAS Watercolour challenge and play along.  Ina of Little Bits of Craft is our awesome guest designer for this month so hop over check out her gorgeous cards and don't for get to say hello.

Card Recipe
Stamps: Stampendous puppy, Paper Smooches sentiment, Amuse sentiment,
Paper 140 lb watercolour paper, black, 110 lb white, Linen cream
Ink: Ranger Archival
Accessories: Frantage, Simon Says Stamp Square stitched die, Wink of Stella,
Techniques: Watercolouring

Bister background save

A few moths ago I was a little heavy handed with some black Bister, I never throw anything out so this went into the UFO pile for later. So with Christmas and night sky in mind I pulled out my very very dark Bister background and revived it with a little sparkly Frantage which has blue, white and glitter embossing powder in it.

Here is a close up of the frantage, you can see the blue and white but not the glitter, it's the perfect wintry night sky for these deer.

I'm entering this for 

CAS Mixup November- Glitter

CAS Watercolour November Holidays

and 52Christmas Card Throwdown

Card Recipe
Stamps: Sentiment- Freebee from a magazine
Paper: Coated card, 110lb whte
Ink: Ranger archival
Accessories: Frantage, Bister, memory box die cut (Deer Family Circle #99575), Simon Says Stamp stitched circle Die
Techniques: Die cut, Bister,

Loll's 12 tags of Christmas

Yes it's time for 12 tags of Christmas with Loll and Friends and I'm today's guest designer 😀.

Drop by and play along, you will see some beautiful tags by some very talented people.  Don't forget to tale a look at the challenge rules as there a few prizes to be won.

The background to my tag has been done with lots of stencil layering with some traditional and non traditional colours and stencils, it was so much fun. I used distress inks and Inka gold randomly over the tag and then used some brown to blend around the edges.  I stamped the poinsettia twice watercoloured and the fussy cut the full image then a smaller version to give some depth.  I shaped the leaves slightly to give more of a 3D effect.  I painted some Wink of Stella over the leaves, you can't see it in the picture but it does sparkle in real life.  For even more sparkle I added some gold gems to the centre. The twine was attached to a tag from something I recently purchased and thought it would be perfect for the distressed tag.

I hope you have time to play along, if not drop by and check them out for some future inspiration 😊

Card Recipe
Stamps: Flourishes - poinsettia
Paper: Manila tag, watercolour paper
Ink: Distress inks, Ranger archival
Accessories: Stencils, gems, twine
Techniques: Stencil layering, fussy cutting,

Twelve Tags of Christmas with Loll and Friends

It's already day 4 of the Twelve Tags of Christmas with Loll and Friends, so head over and enjoy some of the awesome Tag eye candy that's on display.

Here is my tag, a little up-cycling has taken place 😏.  While I was in the UK 6 weeks ago I had a little retail therapy and bought a pair of embroidered jeans and a top. They both had these great stiff tags attached to them.

I gesso'd the surface and began playing.  I covered the tag front and back with a medium blue Pan Pastel, I then stamped (circle and star wreath) and with Versamark and added a darker blue pan pastel.  The Versamark picks up the pigment and the image stands out.  I used two stencils one with snow embossing paste and one was a crackle paste. I then stamped the JOFY tree coloured it with watercolours and fussy cut it out.  I used my Versamark to cover the edge of the tag and picked up some gold embossing powder.  I did this a couple of times to give it a thick shiny effect.  Finally I added some dew drops to the tree. The tag was a little distressed before I started so I was looking for a grungy glitz effect.

Here is a close up of the bottom of the tag.

I'm also entering this for
Craft Stampers November Challenge,
Stamplorations November Mixed Media Challenge
and
Stamp and Stencils

Card Recipe
Stamps: Jofy
Paper: Tag, Watercolour
Ink: Ranger Archival, Versamark
Accessories: Stencil- Tim Holtz, American.
Techniques: Pan Pastels, Art Extravaganza Texture Paste White Crackle, Aleens Glitter snow , watercolour, Dew Drops

November CAS Watercolour challenge Holliday

Yes we are all gearing up for Christmas, the decorations are in the shops and I'm sure we all haven't made enough Christmas cards.  CAS Watercolour challenge for November is giving you the chance to top up your stash and join in. There will be lots of inspiration from the Design team, Guest Designer (Ina) and of course you.

For my card, I swiped some distress watercolour ink pads on my craft mat and used my watercolour brush using a wet on wet technique, the snow in the trees is frantage and I used a white gel pen on the fence.  To frame the image I a Simon Says Stamp stitched circle and selected the best part of the image.
This month our Guest Designer is Ina of Little bits of Craft, Ina has some fabulous cards on her blog please drop by and say hello.

I would love to hear from you 😃

Card Recipe
Stamps: Serendipity, Crafters Companion Christmas in Mulberry sentiment
Paper:Watercolour 140Lb, 110lb , Linnen
Ink: Archival Black
Accessorie Stitched circle die (Simon Says Stamp) Distress inks, Frantage, White gel pen,
Techniques: Watercolouring

Splash watercolour technique

Karen Dunbrook (Snippets) is hosting Technique lovers challenge over at Split Coast stampers and the technique for this week is "Splash watercolour".  Karen included a fun and easy video on splash watercolour by Loll Thompson (Stampining with Loll).
I love this technique and always have a few background on hand in different colours.  Blues are always great for wintry scenes.  I used my MISTI and some silhouette stamps to create the Santa and his sleigh scene.

While I was over at Split Coast Stampers I also thought I would join in Kia who is hosting this weeks CAS challenge which is "O Christmas Tree.

I had a Christmas tree and a bear which were sitting in my Christmas stash since last year.  The tree is alcohol inks on acetate, the bear is popped up on foam. So an easy peasy card with almost no work other than stamping the sentiment and adding a tiny gem to the tree.  I love these types of cards😀

Card Recipe
Stamps: Stampin place, MFT bear, Merry Christmas sentiment Paper Smooches.
Paper: 110lb white, mixed media, black
Ink: Ranger Distress, Distress oxide inks
Accessories: MISTI, gold gem
Techniques: Splash watercolour.

Missed the deadline for Tag You're it but thought I would post anyway

Marcia of Marcia's Stampin Pad is featured artist over at Tag you're it with this beautiful fall tag.

I missed the challenge dead line but here is my tag anyway 😊.  I used Kraft paper and a swatch of left over gilding flake covered card stock. I used some Sookwang double sided tape on card and then covered it in gilding flakes, so much easier than glue.

I stamped the tree in white ink off the edge of the tag and used copper embossing powder for the sentiment.

Card Recipe
Stamps: Penny black, Purple Onion sentiment
Paper: Kraft
Ink: Memento Lux wedding dress
Accessories: Bronze embossing powder, gilding flakes, Leaf Die cut (Ali express), Tag die (memory box)
Techniques: Tag, Gilding flakes, die cut

CAS Watercolour mid month reminder

It's the middle of October so time to pull out the leaf dies and stamps and join in the CAS Watercolour challenge.  It's also CAS Watercolour's 1st birthday and to celebrate with some prizes 🙌.  This month our guest designer is Marcia Hill, Marica is such a talented card maker please stop by and check out some of her beautiful creations.

Prizes

$25 Gift Certificate to Simon Says Stamp for Challenge Winner

&

$25 Gift Certificate to Simon Says Stamp for one random draw of all entries

 (must follow rules to be eligible for prizes)


Come play along for a chance to win!

For my card I put some Distress Oxide inks on an acrylic block and spritzed with water.  I placed the block on watercolour paper and weighted it down for a little while and then removed the block.  The puddle of colour gave some pretty autumnal tones.  I stamped the watercolour with a script stamp from Chocolate Baroque and adhered a pretty wooden leaf.  I hope you like it,

Card Recipe
Stamps: Cholcolate Baroque
Paper: Hot press watercolour, Kraft
Ink: Distress oxides, Ranger archival potting soil
Accessories: Wooden leaf
Techniques: Acrylic block stamping