Hello lovely crafters,
Suddenly we find ourselves in December. I know I'm not the only one who wonders how we got here and that the world must be spinning faster on it's axis.
We have our final Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge for 2017 and it runs all month.
Hopefully you have a nice little pile of Christmas Cards stashed away but if not we are asking you to Pick a Previous CCT challenge from the 2012/13. There is plenty of choice and you can see the lists of themes, sketches, colours and stash/technique archives at the top of our challenge page.
Here is my card inspired by the August 2013 challenge - Holly. Click here to see that challenge. There are some fabulous cards there.
I used one of my favourite techniques for this. I stamped all over a piece of watercolour paper with holly stamps and embossed in clear powder. Then I wet the paper and used Brushos to all over.
I should perhaps have tried to keep the green off the berries but instead I used water to fade the green, once the sheet was dry, but finished up using a drop of bleach in the water to help. I'm not really allowed to play with bleach having ruined various pieces of clothing over the years! I really only used a drop here though.
I rather like the blue berries but, for the sake of tradition, I went with red.
After I'd bleached out the green I added Scarlet Brusho and blotted to give paler colour.
The final step is to iron off the embossing powder with a hot iron and plenty of copy paper under the iron to absorb the sticky mess.
I only used a quarter of this sheet so you may well be seeing more of it at a later date.
I finished it off with some washi tape and bow and also a little heart which is punched out, inked and covered with Glossy Accents. I made 6 of these for another project and only used one. Now I've used 2, lost one, found it again and still have 4 left.
The holly stamp is Honey Doo and the sentiment Creative Stamping #49.
I hope you'll find time to join in with our challenge.
Thanks for visiting and Enjoy Your Day. x
We are into the second week of our Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge - October stash. We have been asking you to use canvas or wood on your cards.
I think wood is a popular feature on cards but canvas is maybe not quite so easy.
I have used an embossing folder which I have had for a good long while and rarely used. It is actually called 'Hessian' but I hope I can be forgiven for that.
I started with grey paper, embossed and then inked directly with a Dew Drop Brilliance white pigment ink pad. I blended more grey and black dye ink around the edge.
The ribbon on the left is covering an unembossed area where the folder was too narrow and I couldn't get it in my machine in the other direction.
I heat embossed the holly (Honey Doo Holly) on vellum, added some more Brilliance with a brush and a touch of red pencil on the backs of the berries.
I will say that the holly was reluctant to lie flat even after scrolling with a ball tool on the back. It had to be quite well stuck down so as not to be damaged in transit. It really behaved like real holly being prickly and curled up in all directions. In fact it was like one of those paper fish you hold in your hand that tell your fortune. Perhaps because I'd painted it with ink.
I wanted to create a wintry frosty look and I think that's what I've done. I hope you will feel inspired to join in with our challenge. Do have a look at all the great work by the rest of the DT.
I'm Joining in with October Rudolf Days over at Scrappy Mo's. There are always wonderful cards to inspire.
Also Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Callenge #357 Anything Goes as long as it's Christmas.
Thanks for visiting and Enjoy Your Day, x
