Snow

The theme at Daring Cardmakers this week is snow - a few flakes, a blizzard, a snowman or peaceful snowy landscape - anything as long as it features snow!

I've gone retro with a bit of recyling thrown in for good measure (tomato paste tube metal is great for embossing and makes lovely metal embellishment dots if you dome out circles with a stylus). I’ve used an embossing folder that suggests swirls and some die cut flakes to finish.

Supplies:
Metal from a tomato paste tube
Retro Circles embossing folder
Gesso
Snowflake die (Waltzingmouse stamps, no longer with us)
Brilliance ink by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Memento Luxe ink by Tsukineko (Love Letter)
Crop a Dile and small circle punch
Pinflair glue gel
White and chocolate brown card stock

Thanks for stopping by!

November Card Chain

It's the last Card Chain Challenge of 2018 and my card this month has gone to Marga in Spain.

From the options for the month I chose the colours and the theme of baubles. Sticking with my strategy of one layer cards for air mailing I did some masking. Since I also chose to heat emboss that was a little bit tedious but I like the effect of the single image being made into a group.

The front ornament has clear Wink of Stella for some sparkle - it just looks a bit odd on the photo!

Stamps:
Holiday Ornaments (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Versamark by Tsukineko

Other:
Detail embossing powder (gold)
Memento markers (Lady Bug, Rhubarb)
Gold gel pen
White paint pen by Posca
Wink of Stella pen (clear)
Micro Glaze
Brusho pignment powder (Emerald Green)
Joy Stamp n Cut (Hero Arts)
Corner Chomper

There's a little Christmas break while the Card Chain Challenge folk catch their breath so there's no December challenge but if you fancy making and receving a hand made card each month, why not subscribe to e-mail updates at Card Chain Challenge so you can sign up when January's challenge goes live?

Thanks for stopping by!

Stars up above

Daring Cardmakers is seeing stars for this week’s challenge - whether it’s a single star guiding the three wise men or a whole sky full of them, let's see some stars!

Retro Rubber is celebrating its 100th Challenge with a tic-tac-toe board and I’m playing along there too. I chose the middle row: ink smooshing, confetti, die cut or punched shape. I hope die cut confetti fits the bill, I don’t have any other sort in my stash. The larger star is punched.

The dancing snowman has been in my collection since 2009 and I thought the sentiment suited him!

Stamps:
Dancing snowman (Cornish Heritage Farms, sadly no longer with us)
Sentiment from Festive Foliage (mine is the original Waltzingmouse Stamps set, the same design is now available from Gina K)

Paper:
Bristol board
Silver glitter card

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers)

Other:
Copic markers
Confetti die by Mama Elephant
Star squeeze punch by Fiskars
Black fineline marker

Thanks for stopping by!

Tag time

We have another of our Christmas run-up challenges over at Daring Cardmakers this week - tags, toppers or labels, whatever you use to make your packages personal!

These cute tags are a simple assembly job with just a few white pen highlights for extra character. I was inspired by some lovely wooden tag ornaments I saw online - they had brightly coloured "woolly" hats and fabulous wonky smiles. I gave my snowmen black bowler hats - I am English after all - but the smiles were too adorable to resist going that way rather than the traditional coal dots!

All the punched circles have been domed with a stylus for a bit of dimension.

Supplies:
Stitched tag die (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
Festive Greenery strip die (Tim Holtz/Sizzix)
Small circle punch
Pink chalk
Black fine line marker
White Posca paint pen
White, green, red, orange and black cardstock
White pigment ink
Crop-a-dile (to make dots used as berries)
Corner Chomper 

Thanks for stopping by!

Festive foliage

We have another of our challenges in the run up to Christmas over at Daring Cardmakers this week - we’d like to see winter flowers and foliage on your cards this time.

Of course the prompt made me think of my Festive Foliage stamp set so I’ve used that for a CAS design with an eclipse sentiment. I used markers to ink up the stamp and the MISTI to stamp multiple times to build up depth of colour. I used two shades of green and two of brown.

The sentiment has been given subtle sparkle with Wink of Stella and a few tiny gems add a bit extra festive glimmer.

As Retro Rubber has an “anything goes” theme for #rrcb99 and I’ve had this stamp set for at least six years I'm hooking up there and my card also fits this month’s Fan Club Christmas Challenge at Splitcoast - join us to find out how if you’re a Fan Club member!

Stamps:
Festive Foliage (mine is the original Waltzingmouse Stamps set with 2010 copyright, the same design is now available from Gina K)
Peace Stamp n Cut (Hero Arts)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Memento markers (Bamboo Leaves, Cottage Ivy, Rich Cocoa)
Zig Clean Colour marker (Dark Brown)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Die from Peace Stamp n Cut (Hero Arts)
Copic marker
MISTI
Nail art gems
Clear Wink of Stella pen
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

November elements

Alarmingly we're into another month already! As Christmas is fast approaching, our challenges at Daring Cardmakers are starting to have a bit of a festive theme. The mood board for this month could lend itself to other things though if you don’t celebrate Christmas or are still in avoidance mode!

As usual with a “elemental” challenge, just chose at least three elements from the inspiration picture to kickstart your project. I chose the silver ribbed bauble,  NOEL sentiment on separate tiles and the colour scheme. I used a piece from my scraplings pile for the card base.

The bauble is embossed with silver powder on silver mirror card - I think it turned out with quite a stylish look.

Stamps:
Holiday Ornaments (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board 
Silver mirror card

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Pumice Stone)
Versamark by Tsukineko 

Other:
Silver detail embossing powder
Square Nestabilities by Spellbinder
Silver gel pen
Corner Chomper 

Here’s our inspiration this month:

We’d love to see which elements inspire you!

October's link in the chain

I joined in again with the Card Chain Challenge for October.

From the options for the month I chose the sketch and the theme of clocks and made this one layer card which has gone to Cat. A one layer card is ideal if you're airmailing something, I find!

I stamped the top leaf and masked it, then the second leaf and the sentiment, masked those and stamped the clock. Lastly I masked clock and the edges of the card and sponged with Antique Linen before stamping the flourishes in the same colour for a tone-on-tone effect.

Fineline marker pen defines the sentiment strip and Copics add colour to the leaves and drop shadows to the various elements to give it some illusion of depth. I added a bit of sparkle with some Wink of Stella on the leaves, too.

There are still a few days to sign up for the November challenge (the last one of the year) if you fancy being a link in the chain. It's lovely to get a special hand-made card as well as sending one you've made.

Stamps:
Time to Stamp (CHF, sadly no longer with us)
Falling Leaves (Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous)
Vintage Flourish and Dinkie Vintage Flourish (Indigo Blu)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen)

Other:
Copic markers
Low tack tape
Brown fineline marker
White paitn pen by Posca
Clear Wink of Stella pen

Thanks for stopping by!

All that glitters...

Svenja has set the challenge for us over at Daring Cardmakers this week and she'd like to see us sparkle - add some glitter! Any kind of glitter is fine!

I used some glitter cardstock and some Glamour Dust on my slightly minimalist-looking Christmas card! The loose glittter is on lines of PVA glue to make some sparkly ground for the deer.

I sponged the edge of the moon with some blue ink for a bit of depth, I think that's just about visible on the photo. I used my cereal packet "diffuser" to emboss the card and leave a smooth area at bottom left for the sentiment.

Stamps:
Noel (mine is the original Waltingmouse Stamps set, the same is now available from Gina K)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Blueprint Sketch)
Versfine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Reindeer Flight die (Time Holtz/Sizzix)
Confetti die (Mama Elephant)
Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinder)
Softly Falling embossing folder (Stampin' Up!)
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Apple day!

It's my turn to set the challenge over at Daring Cardmakers and as October 21st is Apple Day here in the UK, I'd like to see us celebrate the humble apple! If you don't have apple-themed stash, show us some other tree fruit instead (pear, plum, peach etc).

Although nobody likes to find wriggly critters in their apple for real, these little guys are cute enough to raise a smile on a card, I think!

These are stamps from a clear set - they're separate so it's easy to combine them in different ways. I thought the raised face of the big catapillar made it look like he might be greeting his friends in the apple.

Stamps:
Hetty's Garden Animals by Marianne Designs
Paper:
Bristol board
Chocolate brown
Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)
Other:
Copic markers
Tracing wheel
Phrases set 1 dies by Spellbinder
Nail art gems
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas cat

Shabneez is setting this week’s challenge over at Daring Cardmakers and she'd like to see pets featuring on our cards - cats, dogs, goldfish, guinea pigs... any domestic pet will do!

I’m playing for the first time at Retro Rubber too - the idea is to use stamps that are at least a year old. Challenge #rrcb97 is a tic tac toe; I’ve used the bottom row of the grid - animal, window, circles. The cat was one of my early stamp purchases (about 11 years ago) and the sentiment is even older!

I wanted the stone wall texture in the corners of the card but the folder wasn't wide enough to send it through the Big Shot and have it cover the whole width of the card front and use "diffusers" so I used a rubber mallet and did one corner at a time.

Stamps:
Festive Cat (Tanda Stamps, long since closed its doors - stamp is 11 or 12 years old)
MSE sentiment set

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Memento markers (Lady Bug and Rich Cocoa)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Copic markers
Christmas Window die (Die’sire)
Dry stone wall embossing folder (Crafter’s Companion)
Confetti die (Mama Elephant)
Clear Wink of Stella pen
Gold gel pen
Corner Chomper
Misti (a great help in getting the cat in the right place!)
Pinflair glue gel
Rubber mallet!

Thanks for stopping by, we'd love to see you at Daring Cardmakers with your pet-themed cards!