Cozy Christmas

 My plan was to post this last night for today, but we are have some major internet connections. I even had to go into work today, which usually I work from home on friday's and mondays :(.  Looks like we won't be able to get anyone out to look at it until early next week.

I popped on after dinner tonight and it is very slow, but thought I would create this post and see how far I get.

So here is another Christmas card I made.  Lots of these cards are around on the internet.  Image is from Tim Holtz - Cozy Christmas. Love his Christmas images.

I stamped it onto some canson water colour paper using black archival ink.  I then used some distress reinkers and coloured the image.  I then sponged the back ground using distress tumbled glass and faded jeans, some shabby shutters and anitque linen.

Then came out the sprays:  Oxide distress speckled egg, and pumice stone.  I then took some walnut distress ink and went around the edges to darken it up.

I cut the image down with an MFT stitched rectangle die, layered it onto some antique gold stardream c/s, then onto some dark brown c/s for the base.

I cut the snowflakes (Memory box) from kraft c/s then applied some embossing ink and then embossed them using some chocolate sparkle embossing powder from Sparkle N Sprinkle.

I also added some tiny little gold star sequins along to top portion for a bit of added interest.

What do you think?  I love it, need to make more.  I made 2 so far, but need to get an assembly line going with this.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope this will post, doesn't seem to want to save, but I'll keep trying.

Have a good weekend

Pauline

Darling Deer

 Here we are approx 2.5 weeks until Christmas, can you believe it?  For a year that it has been, I must say the weeks have flown by rather quickly.  How are your Christmas cards coming along?  All done or still working at them? For me I have a couple more to make, along with a few birthday's that are coming up this month as well.

My cards for today, actually I made it a few years ago, but never sent it out to anyone, so thought I would remake a few more, which makes for a fast (or faster) card to mass produce.  They are all the same, just changed up the colours, washi tape, sentiment and a different reindeer.

Reindeer is by Tim Holtz - Sizzix  Darling Deer die set, I used washi tape and printed c/s by Alexandra Renke, Tag dies are from Sizzix - Fancy tags, I used a much older dies set from SB for the little tag I stamped the sentiment on, silk ribbon, the leafy holly sprigs are from Find It - Jeanine's Art frosty ornaments set. For the tags I used metallic shimmer paper as well as for my card bases.  Back ground paper is from my scrap basket.

To finish them all off I added some clear mini dots to each.

It's a short week for me this week, just working Mon, Tues & Wed, then off until Tuesday.  Still using up vacation days for this year.

Thank you for stopping by.  Have a wonderful day, stay safe, keep well!

Pauline

Live for the moments....

Hello there.  Hope your week is going well. 

Today's card features another image from the Tim Holtz Theories collection.  I think these images are fabulous for those 'masculine' cards.

I started by spraying some distress oxide inks onto some canson watercolour paper.  Drying with a heat gun in between, and then adding more ink.  Once completely dry, I stamped some background images using distress oxide inks, and also used a 'sun ray' stencil in the left upper corner.  I then placed the paper into my misti, then stamped the image using black archival ink - I believe I stamped a couple of times to get a nice dark impression.

I then added some washi tap along the bottom, used a PTI die to cut the circles at the top using some brown shimmer c/s, stamped the sentiment onto some black c/s, and embossed with white ep, I then trimmed the edges.

For the turquoise background, I took my distress oxide ink pads and ran them across my turquoise c/s to give it added colour, then layered this onto a piece of brown shimmer c/s. I also cut 3 little banners and lined them up the left side of my main piece (used scraps from my main background).

To finish off I added some enamel dots.

I'm always a bit hesitant to make cards like this, not sure what it is about it, but once I get moving along I really enjoy doing these types of cards. You will never get 2 the same as inks always blend differently each time.

Thanks for stopping by, and I wish you a happy and safe weekend!

Pauline

Theories #1

Hello all.  Does everyone struggle with masculine cards as I do?  I recently purchased as Tim Holtz - Theories stamp set from Simon Says Stamps when they had a sale, with masculine cards in mind.  I wanted to use my distress oxide inks so this stamp set was perfect for stamping over the background.

I started by applying my distress oxide inks to my glass mat, spritz with water then tapped my water colour paper into it, heat set it and repeated until I was happy.  Once it was completely dry it was a bit darker than what I had anticipated, but went with it anyway.  I stamped one of the images form the stamp set, using my Misti as I knew I would probably have to stamp it a few times to get a nice dark impression.  I used black archival ink for this.

I cut the image out using MFT wonky stitched rectangle, then used another die I purchased from Aliexpress (the rust colour paper in behind). I stamped Happy birthday (Simon Says Stamps) onto a piece of the rust paper and then used a stitched banner to cut it out -(also Simon Says).  The blue paper in the background is from Basic Grey, just some scraps I had in my basket, sponged some distress oxide vintage photo around the edges, then distressed them. Layered all this onto SU Not Quite Navy.

To finish off I added a couple of small enamel dots and a copper dot. Just finishing up another masculine card from the same set.  There are 4 images so my goal is to make a card using each.

Thanks for stopping by, have yourself a fabulous day!

Pauline

Glorious Bouquet

Hello everyone and Happy New Year (since this is my first post for the new year).  Hope everyone had enjoyed the holiday. Well it's back to work for me today, after having 2 weeks off :(.

I had some time off during the holidays, so spent it making cards and doing day trips  for the opportunity of some bird photography.  I also did a lot of re-organizing of my stamping supplies (dies, papers, stamps - lots of stamps - stamps I haven't used in a long time) and gave to a friend who I know would use it.  It's always good to de-clutter once in a while!

My card today is one that I did before the holidays.  I saw a similar card like this at our local stamp store Paper Pickle, and fell in love with it.

I stamped Tim Holtz Glorious Bouquet using distress ink tattered rose onto some cream cardstock. For the black border I stamped one of the borders from Tim Holtz Ornate Trims using black versafine.  I then stamped a butterfly in black as well.

For the leaf I used this shiny dark grey/black paper and cut out the leaf - Memory Box - Large Olive branch.  Adhered it to the card and added a small rose silk bow. 

I then layered this onto a piece of cream shimmer and then onto my card base which I believe is like a rose shimmer c/s.

A very quick card indeed!

Thanks for your visit today, I have 7 cards to share with you in future posts! Have a wonderful day.

Pauline

Peace & Joy

Good morning all.  I hope all my friends south of the border had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Today, I have 3 cards to share using the Stamptember Tim Holtz Christmas set from Simon Says Stamps.  Unfortunately, this set is no longer available.  There are several images in the set all are lovely as the next.  I chose to use two of the images for my cards along with one of the sentiments.
The sentiment on the last card is an old (very old) PSX wooden stamp from 2003! I still wish PSX was around, they had some awesome images and sentiments.

So, for my cards they are all done the same way, just different images and inks.
I placed my cardstock and stamp in my MISTI and used distress ink markers to colour the images and stamp several times to get the depth of colour I wanted, turn paper around and continue etc.

I then sponged distress inks around the edging for colour.   Splattered with some white paint (which you can hardly see). Sentiments were embossed with either gold or platinum.

Card # 1 - distress ink markers - shabby shutters, twisted citron, mowed lawn, iced spruce, milled lavender, wilted violet, seedless preserves, peacock feathers, and  for shading - milled lavender distress ink.  Sprayed with water with micro pearl added to my spray bottle.

Card # 2 - distress ink markers - crushed olive, shabby shutters, pine needles, vintage photo, ground expresso, fired brick, candied apple and for shading around the edges - antique linen, also spritzed background when done with Hero Arts metallic shimmer gold spray.

Card # 3 - distress ink markers - twisted citron, iced spruce, peeled paint, peacock feathers, pine needles, fired brick, tombow markers - #837 & #847 (for a deeper red).  Antique linen distress ink used for sponging the outside edges, sprayed Hero Arts metallic shimmer gold spray.  Added a few gold sequins.

These cards were part of a card order I did for a friend, but I still want to make some for me to send out this year.  These work up fairly fast once you get going on them especially if you are doing several in the same colours.

I'll see you soon with some more Christmas cards to share.  Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the rest of your day!

(NOTE:  New picture above- spotted this Red Breasted Nuthatch sitting in our backyard one day after work a few weeks ago)

Pauline

Crazy bird

Hi - hope your weekend is going well.  Remember that heat wave I complained about earlier in the week, well we got relief - like 60 degree weather, cool winds, it sure feels like fall as landed upon us, so I made a big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup. Mmmmm good!

We were invited to our neighbors 75th birthday open house today.  When we got the invite last week, I thought what kind of card should I make.  He has a good sense of humor, both  dishing it out and taking it.  I don't have a wide variety of choices when it comes to masculine images, but then I remembered I have Tim Holtz's Crazy Bird set - perfect!

So off I went to create a card for my neighbor:

 
I just loves these birds!  I started out by stamping the bird onto some water colour paper- cold press 140 lb using black archival ink. Crazy bird was water coloured using distress inks- hickory smoke, twisted citron, peacock feathers, fossilized amber, spiced marmalade.  After that was coloured I wet the paper  around the bird with my paintbrush - make sure it is really wet, then picked up some of the fossilized amber (stamped off onto my Teflon mat) and dropped the paintbrush down onto the wet water colour paper.  If you have enough water on the paper the ink will spread. I continued to add a bit of twisted citron and a bit of peacock feathers.  

The corners were rounded, twine was added, then I added a piece of fun foam cut a bit smaller than my image layer and glued it to the back.  I find by using the fun foam, it gives you a much even and stable layer - sometimes using foam tape or dimensionals your  paper can droop/sage in spots.

This was then layered onto my card.  I added some MME enamel dots to finish this off.
Inside for my liner I stamped this:  "Happy birthday you old bird".  I know Gary will get a chuckle out of this!

Thanks for stopping by today, enjoy the rest of your day,

Pauline