Bling and simple for a fall birthday

 Today I tried a method where one uses Brusho's and stencils to create an image. I own only background stencils so I made my own with a die. Brusho's have a lot of power, I'll say that. I haven't used them for ages so this was quite a learning curve. The left side is the reverse image, also beautiful on it's own right.

 

Then I die-cut the image and used that for my card. I placed it onto a gold circle and flicked some gold paint over it.

Entering this in these inspiring challenges:

AAA Birthday: #91 Small and dainty

CAS Mix-Up: Stenciling with powdered inks (you can find some links here on how to make this happen)

 

Four Seasons Challenge: Fall season November - I took the white and orange from this board

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Bling it on 

Creative Artiste Mixed Media: #132 

 

Deck the Halls

 Today's card is quite simple, and, may I say, quite dainty.

These were my supplies: a small stamp, a die and some ready cut greenery I have received.

I started by stamping, then painting it in with my Gansai Tambi watercolors. They give more coverage than regular watercolors. Then I fussy cut the image. I arranged some greenery around it. Then I die cut the twig out of red card stock and cut it apart for flowers / berries.

 

Entering in these lovely challenges:

Inkspirational: #380 Christmas florals and greenery

Sweet Stamping: Use red 

Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog: #71 AG Christmas

Aud Sentiments: #343 Stencils and/or Christmas+ Sentiment - I chose Christmas+sentiment 

Love to Craft: #75 AG 

Merry (very mischievous) Christmas

 Back in March I made this motherboard from my (some of my) gelli print scraps. Today I cut it, and wanted to use one for a background right away.

 

Today's card is for a dear family member who also has a cat. So my new cat stamp came in handy as well as some Christmas stamps and dies.

 

I stamped the cat, the tree and Santa's hat and fussy cut everything. Then I die cut the garlands, one from a silver card stock, the other one from a fractal silver one. I also glued some silvery snippets onto the tree. The photo does not do the shine justice.

Then I arranged everything and stamped the sentiment "Mischievous Christmas". The cat is looking very mischievous indeed, throwing lusty glances at the tree... I wonder what's going to happen next?

Entering this in these lovely challenges:

Christmas Kickstart Challlenge: #116 Meow-y Christmas and a yappy New Year

We Love Stamping: Christmas critters / AG - Playing with Critters

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Bling it on

Crafts Galore Encore Challenge: #153 AG

PiP: #2644 AG 

Harry Potter has a lot to answer for

 A while ago I was visiting my 10y old GD. She loves paper crafts and has a nice collection of paper crafting 'schtuff' to which I could relate very well. I used the opportunity to stamp some of her wooden stamps from kindergarden for a later use.

Today's card was made for a young Harry Potter fan. It is a Christmas card although the usual snowflakes and reindeer are missing. This young folk goes for a billowing cape and a magic wand instead. (I cut all these by hand as I don't own suitable dies.)

 

I cut a head and colored it in, making sure the eyes looked suitable for a magician. I used copious amounts of glittery card stock to give it a magical and festive flair.

 

Entering this in these wonderful challenges:

TioT: Make it magical

ABC Christmas: V is for violet (purple)

Simon Says  Wednesday Challenge: Bling it on

The Paper Funday Challenges: #93 AG/ twist of Autumn of Christmas - playing with Christmas

Crafty Catz: #723 AG

Sending happy thoughts

 Today I felt like using some of my pretty papers again. Granted, there is not much real estate to cover on a greeting card. Nevertheless, it felt great to have three scraps over and done with.

There were a couple of nice challenges that took my fancy today, and I tried my best to do every one of them justice.

 

 This was my selection: a couple of papers, a stencil (by Um Wow - boy is it ancient!), texture paste, gold paste, and a stamp. Not pictured are die cut leaves from my ready stash as well as a length of twine.

I started by piecing the background. I then mixed the texture paste (which was pale purple) with gold. The result was a beautiful rose gold. I then applied it trough the stencil to an upper and lower corner. 

 

While it was drying I stamped the poppies and fussy cut them out. I arranged the leaves behind the poppies, then glued everything and tied the twine into a bough.

Finally I flicked some gold droplets onto the finished card.

 

Entering this in these wonderful challenges:

Double D Challenges: Textures

The Pick 3 Challenge: #10 Oct-Nov. My picks were twine- poppies -gold

 

Simon Says Monday Challenge: Thinking of you

Beautiful Blossoms Challenge: #46 AG / moodboard optional - I am playing with AG

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Bling it on

Little Red Wagon: #883 AG 

My thoughts are with you

 Today's card is a mish-mash of ideas. The first inspiration came by a challenge asking to case any card in their inspiration line-up. I like this kind of exercise, not only is it a technical challenge, it also means a new view on one's supplies.

Never would I have thought of using dies with an embossing folder, but that's what I selected. (The dies are by Spellbinders.)

I cut a plethora of small flowers and leaves and circles and colored them with markers. 

 

Then I embossed the card base. I made it square instead of a rectangle, figuring I could fit my cuts better. I then colored the embossed parts to match my die cut florals. After that it was a wuestion of bringing it all together. The sentiment says: 'My thought are with you'.

 

Entering this in these challenges:

Just Us Girls: #847 Case a DT - I chose Denise

A Cut Above: November AG

Passion for Markers: #862 Square cards only

Simon Says Monday Challenge: Thinking of you

Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends: #289 AG

 

 

Happy 15th

 Today's card was heavily inspired by several challenges - thank goodness for those for inspiration!

It was a day to show some love to either neglected stuff (the embossing folder by Marianne Design, last used over 3 years ago) and some stuff that hasn't seen the light of day yet (the Woodware stamp, the numbers on sticks by Gummiapan).

I started by embossing the background, then cutting it into a rectangle shape. Then I die cut the numbers from gold card stock (salvaged from skin care packaging) and stamped the flowers. I used both inks, first a heavy layer of the light blue followed by just a touch of the darker one. This gave me a nice medium value.

Then it was just a question of arranging everything. Here I followed a sketch. Lastly I added some gold droplets and splashes. The text says: 'Happy and perfect birthday'.

 

Entering this in these very inspiring challenges:

AAA Birthday: #91 Small and dainty

 

Sunday Stamps: #398 In the corner

 

Dragonfly Dreams: Embossing

CYHTP: AG w/a twist of Numbers - I am playing with the twist

The Neglected Stuff: November

and as I am using never-before-used-schtuff I am showing this card also at the NBUS #92 November line-up. 

Boo to you

 This card took part in the Card Chain and flew to Wendy in Ireland. Did you get interested? If you want take part, too - the sign-up linky is open till the 6th. 

For this I decided to use my new kind of wonky house stamp (Aall&Create) and my bat die (Gummiapan).

I stamped the house and colored it with markers and arranged the bats around. The text I had to write by hand, as I don't own much in the way of Halloween sentiments. 

  

 Entering this in these challenges:

Die Traumfabrik: #155 Halloween

Creative Knockouts: #581 Halloween or fall - Halloween!

Sweet Stamping: Halloween or the colours of Halloween 

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: AG 

NBUS: #92 November 

Consider yourself hugged

 One of my very first acrylic stamps was this utterly cute fox stamp. The fox is sleeping, has a wreath around their head and roses in front of their nose. I haven't used it for some years now, so it was time to dig it out again.

Inspired by a few challenges I imagined the fox sleeping in their den during the day (foxes are active by night). I stamped lots of leaves and fussy cut them after painting them with markers. The fox was cored in with markers as well. The background just happened, I found a nice striped piece of designer paper with darker and lighter areas in my stash. The arch was a leftover from another project (always a win to use those!). As a final touch I added golden spots. The sentiment says 'Consider yourself hugged'.

 

Entering this in these inspiring challenges:

Just Add Ink: #797 Choose two or more - I chose spots and stripes

 

Alphabet Challenge: N is for nocturnal animal

Simon Says Monday Challenge: Trees 

Critter Crazy: #116 November AG

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: AG

I Love Promarkers: #618 Flowers/ AG - I am playing with AG 

Hip hip hooray!

I have some digital stamps by Mo's Digital Pencil (link), they are so well drawn and great fun. Today I was reminded by a challenge to use one, so I printed out 'Grooving'. 

The other supplies I needed:

The background had many steps: first swipe Wild Honey and Fossilized Amber onto the card base and let it dry well.  I wanted to preserve the color, but I also wanted to use a stencil and add some other colors. As I had an almost empty bottle of clear glue I smeared it through the stencil. It didn't spread evenly, but that didn't matter. When the glue was dry in places and dry enough in other places I went over everything with more Oxides. I first swiped the colors, but that didn't give good coverage, so I spritzed it with water and let the colors run together. 

 

While that was drying I colored in the image and fussy cut it. After that it was just assembly.

 

 Entering this in these challenges that were my inspiration today:

Passion for Markers: #861 Use your favorite digi or stamp

Digi Choosday: #11 week 1 AG 

Stencil Fun: AG/ orange optional - playing with AG

Little Red Wagon: #882 S is for stencil

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: AG