Christmas, New Year and Winter

Bold Snowflake

Hi Everyone!

Today I’m playing along this week’s Freshly Made Sketches challenge Please don’t tell me I’m the only one that looks at the sketch and sees the sign for the London Underground! Fortunately, I fought through my commuting visions and came up with a festive card instead!

I went through my festive paper mountain and cut a strip of Bo Bunny paper. I then blended a couple of regular distress inks before spritzing the blended piece with a water/Pixie Dust concoction! When the water had dried, I cut it with a bold Simon Says Stamp die.

I attached the snowflake to a vellum circle before attaching it to the card base. I added a sentiment from My Favorite Things and a few gems to complete my take.

Thank for stopping by!

LucieG.

 

Celebrate the Season

Hi Everyone!

Today I’m playing along this week’s Freshly Made Sketches challenge

Using regular distress inks and a spritz or two of water, I stamped the fabulous tree image from my most recent Hero Arts purchase, the fun Meowy Christmas set! I cut it out using the coordinating die and then coloured the baubles with Twinkling H2Os.

I then stamped the Mod Pattern Bold Print background stamp using Pumice Stone distress oxide ink and spritzed it with Pixie Dust. I die cut a square from the stamped panel and adhered it to my base card on top of a smaller square of glitter cardstock. I then adhered my tree using foam squares and applied some red Nuvo glitter drops to each ornament.

I was pondering how to reflect that horizontal strip at the bottom of the card and then I remembered my old Holiday Ribbons wood-mounted set – also by Hero Arts! I seriously can’t believe these were made in 2005! I think I got them much later than that though… Anyway, I stamped the sentiment in the same inks as the tree – it’s always a bit nerve-wracking to use a wood-mounted stamp at the end of a project but luckily it stamped beautifully. Phew!

Thank for stopping by!

LucieG.

Deck the Halls

Hi there!

It’s time for a new challenge at AAA Cards!  This fortnight we’d like you to create a CAS card with just one image; our optional twist is ‘shimmer’. Our sponsor is Funky Fossil Designs.

I heat embossed a gorgeous ornament image from Julie Hickey Designs and then coloured it with my Twinkling H2o paints. It really shimmers in real life, but it’s so difficult to capture in a photo! I fussy cut around the image and got to work on my card base.

I cut a piece of Hero Arts Nautical cardstock (such a fabulous navy cardstock) and applied a little distress oxide to the centre of the base to create a glow from the ornament. I then spritzed a layer of Pixie Dust across the card before adhering the ornament with foam pads. I then embossed a Mama Elephant sentiment to complete my card.

My team mates have come up with some beautiful cards which are on the AAA Cards challenge blog. We are also joined a previous challenge winner, Joyce, who has some lovely inspiration on her blog!

Hope you can play along with us!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Merry and Bright deer

Hi Everyone!

I’m playing along with the current My Favorite Things sketch challenge today. As soon as I saw the sketch, I thought of the Memory Box circular scene dies that I’ve acquired over the years and decided to use them for my card.

I wanted to use the Reindeer Circle and Countryside Circle dies, but the latter is bigger than the former so I had to get creative as I wanted the circles to be the same size. I started with the Reindeer Circle die and used this to cut to circles in a white panel. I then cut away one deer and replaced it with the scene from the Countryside Circle die. I adhered a little deer from the Savvy Stamps Woodland Meadow set and then positioned one of my rejected stencil monoprint backgrounds behind the circles before adhering the whole ensemble to a card base.

To complete my card, I used a sentiment from the My Favorite Things Merry Everything stamp set and added a few sequins and a drop of red stickles for Rudolph’s nose!

Thank for stopping by!

LucieG.

CAS Stencil – Christmas Sky monoprint

Hi there!

I am so delighted to be a Guest Designer for this month’s CAS Stencil Challenge.  The host this month is Linda and the technique that she is introducing is stencil monoprinting.

Basically, you apply a layer of ink, paint, or other colour medium to your stencil, spritz generously with water, flip it over and press it onto watercolour paper…..

Now it’s been a good few years since I tried this technique and I almost called this post ‘Mission Impossible’ as I got through a LOT of ink, baby wipes, paper towels and watercolour paper until I produced a background I felt was worthy of using….. I think I may be too much of a perfectionist for this technique! I love the soft, arty patterns I achieved with each impression but I felt I couldn’t really see the beautiful design of the stencil.

I used the beautiful Carta Bella Christmas Sky stencil and paired it with the Memory Box Pine Tree Hill die and a sentiment from The Ton Stamps.

The CAS Stencil DT has come up with some amazing inspiration over on the challenge blog. I hope you can play along!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Prestigious deer

Hi Everyone!

Today I’m playing along this week’s Freshly Made Sketches challenge

I created an ink-blended panel with some distress oxide inks and then stamped the gorgeous Impression Obsession Vintage tree background. Oh how I love this stamp – I wanted it so much last Christmas but couldn’t find it anywhere – I actually ended up buying it at Simon Says Create in March – I KNEW I’d use it this Christmas!

I cut the fabulous Penny Black Prestige die from glitter card and adhered it to a circle of vellum.

I couldn’t decide where to place my sentiment so in the end I decided to leave it blank. I’ll probably add a sentiment strip before I send it but I’m not completely sure about that!

Thank for stopping by!

LucieG.