Received my new Hero Arts kit today and couldn’t wait to start playing. Double D has a What is your Christmas style challenge on this week. Like one of my stamping buddies I don’t really think I have a particular style. I just like trying things out, but this card leans to the more traditional style.

My kit included both stamps and dies so it was fun to pick images and create a scene. As the door opens I decided to stamp a welcome underneath it with the animals in the doorway. Not seen on photo, but there is a cat as well as the dog on the mat. I marked the door with pencil on the card base so I could get correct placement for the images. coloured them with a combination of pencils and brush markers. Die cut the door front and shaded in the bricks with pencils. Used brush marker for the door and sakura pens for the lights and the wreath. Made silver door handle and letter flap.

For the Paper Players challenge this week, I created the following card …

I used a background PP from a winter paper pack and cut it to the size for the card front. I then created my own iceberg with scraps and popped it up. Using a LawnFawn stamp set I stamped the polar bear and coloured him with a gray and a pale yellow copic. Added a bit of sparkle to him and put him on the iceberg. Added the sentiment from the same set.

When I started this card yesterday I hadn’t even seen the challenge about circles and was intending this solely for the Mod Squad. This morning I saw the other challenge As You See it and wondered if I could make it fit both. For sure it is okay for the Mod Squad but I’m not 100% certain about the other.

Never the less I shall add to both challenges and if it gets eliminated so be it. I did the circles yesterday using one of my Bonnie stencils and distress oxide inks. Left it to dry overnight. This morning I commenced stamping the Penny Black Loads of Love truck but directly on top of the circles made a part of it dull looking so I restamped on a separate piece and coloured it using a combination of Sakura pens, Copics and a pencil. Added some sparkle here and there and also added Liquid glass to the window and headlight for extra shine and dimension. I stamped few tiny snowflakes onto the circles using white pigment ink. Stamped the sentiments, one from the Penny Black set and the other from my mice on ice set by LawnFawn. I fussy cut the entire truck out and adhered it over the top of the original stamping using pop dots. After adding pp to the card front I glued the whole panel on top. Always a bonus is that I actually like this card as it is so bright and cheerful to look at.

The masking I tried had left me with the shape I needed but some very messy lines. After looking at it again I realized that I could rescue the actual stamping and the background by cutting it out in the diamond shape and using it on another card front. Once it was cut out I added a border with a fine gold pen and using the same pen I added some gold to the snowflakes. I also added some sparkle with a Sakura gelly roll pen. I added three gems to the middle of snowflakes for added interest after which I adhered the entire thing to the card front. Added the 2 sentiments on angles and am much happier with the result now.

For this challenge I initially tried to do some masking in the diamond shape and then stamp into the shape. Messed that up royally and couldn’t think what to do with the mess. While I was thinking about it I also had another idea to play with …

… I stamped the gingerbread men in a rough diamond shape with the sentiment in the middle and then coloured them in with a mix of sakura pens and Prisma Colour pencils. Added a few gems and was amazed that it worked out. Then I took another look at my initial mess and had an idea. See next post for that.

One of our dearest friends was a highly decorated veteran for the USA and when he died some years ago we were devastated. His wife was almost destroyed by his loss and yet somehow she managed to get herself back together and have a life without him. This card is for her as we found her truly inspiring in how she pulled herself out of the deep mire of grief.

I chose the poppies for both her, as she loves them; and also because we have just celebrated Remembrance Day here in Canada. Thought they were appropriate somehow. Stamp set is from Gina K. Designs and was a gift from a stamping buddy. I stamped in Iced Spruce Distress Oxide and then heat embossed clear. Did the same thing with the sentiment. Coloured with Prisma Colour pencils and blended with Gamsol Added the sequins and it was complete.

It wasn’t my intention to make any cards this weekend but an email arrived from a friend who is having a hard time, a new challenge showed up and I have a new die to play with so here it is.

The die is my win from a recent challenge and is by Stamplorations. I wanted to try it out and I thought paper piecing would work for the challenge and make a nice card to send my friend. I can’t believe I decided to paper piece such an intricate die but all things considered it turned out quite well. I ended the design by spraying with Perfect Pearls shimmer as it had a bit of stickiness on top of the card front and I thought this would work to help with that. I was a bit heavy handed in my spraying but the shimmer is pretty never-the-less. I added a sentiment heat embossed on vellum in white to finish it.

Finally managed to finish my two snowflake cards and upload them. I played with the stencils last weekend and then didn’t have time to create the cards.

Firstly thank you Bonnie for sending me the stencils. They are great and easy to use. I decided to go totally non traditional with both. The purple one was clear heat embossed and then I sponged on the colour. Added the gems which took most of this afternoon because they are so tiny and stick to everything then get lost. I added very small sentiment strips in each corner which come from an Idea-ology Tim Holtz collection. On the second which is equally non traditional I used the yellow on the outside edges and some lilac in the center which turned gray for some reason. I added a bit of sparkle to the center and then the same type of sentiment strip to the middle. The photos don’t really do them justice as they show better in RL.

This creation was made to fit 2 challenges and fortunately it worked out. It works for the Global Design sketch and for Double D this week.

Using a kraft card base I added a silver heat embossed white panel. Stripes were done using a background stamp from Gina K. I found the piece of neutral mulberry paper and added a small piece of paper ribbon, that looks a bit like bark, to one side, then added it to white piece. Using the stamp set called Stitched Leaves also by Gina K I stamped 3 of the leaves onto a scrap piece using different distress oxide inks to get the soft fall colours. I die cut these and than popped them up on top of the paper ribbon and I added a few tiny black shapes left from another die. I found a sage coloured thread and tied a bow then added that. Stamped the sentiment and cut it out and then sponged the edges to match the sage thread. I’m quite happy with this one.

For this card I used the positives of the die cuts from yesterday. I decided to use the 2 reds on one card.

I added some white pearls and coloured some tiny ones red for added interest. Added the sentiment and it was done. Hardest part was the gluing. The florish ends go all over the place and positioning it properly was a challenge.