Thursday, December 4, 2014

25 Days of Christmas Cards: Day 7, "Sparkly Holiday Cheer"


Hi Everyone!

Today's card is a fun sparkly card, for sure! I loved the non traditional idea of using black for a Christmas Card. The sparkly snowflakes were so much fun to do. I used versa mark ink and some embossing powder I bought at Michael's. The snowflakes are from Inkadinkado and the sentiment is from the very much used set I've employed over the last few days!


Not really a lot else to say about this card. It was pretty easy to put together and I was quite happy with the final result! Here are the two cards side by side, as always for you to see. 


Have a great day; and I'll see you tomorrow for Day 7!

LOTS of Challenges for this one today!

1. Crafting by Designs: Anything Goes/All Christmas 
4. Creative Moments: Winter/Anything Goes
5. Fresh Brewed Designs: Christmas
6. Inspiration Destination: Anything Goes
7. Nutcrafters: All that Glitters
8. Scrapper's Delights: Anything Goes/Non Traditional Christmas Colors
9. Simon Says Stamp: Christmas
10. Stampavie and More: Snowflakes

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

25 Days of Christmas Cards: Day 6, "Home for Happy Holidays"

Hi Everyone!

Today's card was another challenging re-creation for me, primarily because I did not have the set of dies that Kristina used for the housing scene. The closest I could come to a matching image was one from Hero Arts "Right at Home." I stamped it in Pine Needles Distress ink and then fussy cut the image and used W1 Copic marker to add a little shading around the edges and in the windows. I also free cut some "snowy slopes" from some white card stock.


For the background, I used a watercolor brush to paint Seedless Preserves, Pine Needles, Evergreen Bough and Crushed Olive across some Strathmore Water Color Paper and let it dry naturally. I find the color remains true if you let it dry on its own, as opposed to using a heat gun to speed dry.
The Christmas trees are from Simon Says Stamp which I stamped with pine needle ink, cut out and embellished with some stickles. The "Happy Holidays" sentiment is from the same set I used yesterday.

For the finishing touches, I added some snow to the sky with the a bit of blank canvas acrylic paint and then shaded in a bit of road/driveway shading under the house.

Thanks for visiting me again. I'll see you tomorrow for day 7!

Challenges:

1. Crafty Sentiments Design:  Anything Goes
2. Loves Rubber Stamps: Anything Goes
3. Papertake Weekly: Anything Goes
4. Party Time Tuesdays: Anything Goes

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

25 Days of Christmas cards: Day 5 "Arctic Season's Greetings"

Hi Everyone!

Welcome back for Day 5 of "25 Days of Christmas cards." If you are just joining me, let me fill you in a bit about what's going on at the blog these days. I am doing a series of 25 Christmas Cards inspired by Kristina Werner's Holiday Card Series. Each day, I post my interpretation of Kristina's card and then a side by side of mine and hers.

For Day 5, I used a set from Inkadinkado called "Christmas Characters" because it was what I had on hand that most closely matched the image Kristina used. One thing I have learned in making these cards this year is that I really really really need to get some masking paper! Masking the polar bear image was a little difficult and if you look at this card very closely in real life, you can see where I missed a few spots.
I'm not the best at copic coloring either....I need to get some lighter colored grey copics for "coloring" white areas; but again...you do the best you can, right?!


I created the background with Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Faded Jeans, and Black Soot distress inks and then added some shading with copics under the image to "ground" the sled. 
The sentiment is from a set I bought at Michael's a few years ago and have used surprisingly a lot! I embossed it with white embossing powder. I added some white studio paint "Blank Canvas" for the snowflakes/stars in the sky. I was quite pleased with the final result! I adhered the image panel to a standard sized card on 110lb Neenah solar white card stock. 

Here are the two cards side by side for you to see. Not too shabby if I do say so myself!
Once again, thanks for visiting me today, I'll see you tomorrow for Day 6!


Challenges:


4. Incy Wincy Designs: Christmas (non-traditional colors)
5. My Creative Moments: Anything Christmas or winter

Monday, December 1, 2014

25 Days of Christmas Cards: Day 4

Hi Everyone!

The card for Day 4 presented the first challenge I really had with recreating one of Kristina's card. I didn't have the type of images she used and so I had to make some adjustments with images that I had. First, I decided to change the background and do a white base with stamped images from Verve's "Merry and Bright" in Cool Caribbean ink and Hero Arts Wet Cement. I colored the images in with Copic markers. I added the Cool Caribbean card stock to the bottom of the card with the sentiment embossed in white. I rounded the corners, and added the two ribbons. I punched a small heart and colored it with a copic marker and then covered it with red stickles and adhered it with foam adhesive.


Here are the two cards side by side. The final card was the result of 2 attempts that ended disastrously! But, I kept trying and ended up with something I really ended up liking. 


Thanks for visiting with me! I'll see you again tomorrow for Day 5

1. Amuse: Anything Goes
2. Christmas Card Challenge: Anything Goes (Must be Christmas)
3. Stamping Sensations Simply Christmas
4. That Craft Place: Anything Goes