Scarlet & Green

Today I have a hand painted Christmas card to share. I have been trying to practice watercolouring. I have been trying for a while!

Anyway the other day I painted this:

I am actually quite pleased with it even though the bauble isn't round!

I do have to admit that I was inspired by this card that I found on Pinterest.

I used some of my newly acquired Catherine Pooler re-inkers to paint it and found that they work really well. You can water them right down or keep the vibrancy of the rich colours.

I think I will keep practicing. I used a metallic gel pen to add the detail on the bauble and finished it off with some fine green splatters and a die cut greeting.

I am sharing it at:

Color Hues #53 - scarlet and green + a touch of bronze hope that's allowed.

Just Us girls #659 - red green and gold. My gold is really bronze, hope that is OK, please disregard or delete my entry if not.

Happy Little Stampers November Watercolour Challenge

Supplies:

cardstock: Daler Rowney watercolour paper; metallic card; white card base

Ink: Catherine Pooler re inkers rocking red, rouge, spruce, melon ice, garden party

Dies: Creative Expressions, merry and bright; Create a Smile stitched rectangle

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

We Love Stamping November Reminder

Today is the 18th November  so time for a reminder for our current challenge over at we love stamping where the theme is:

** Christmas **

Can you tell that this is the same stamp I used for my first post this month? This time I stamped and gold heat embossed the smaller trees from the stamp set onto some coloured card. Then I inked the edges of the card with Distress ink festive berries (I think). I used a red fineliner pen to ink inside those lovely shapes on the trees, mounted it on a matt of the same coloured card and then mounted that onto a cream hammered card base.

The joy is a die cut which I embossed several times with the same powder. I think this stamp makes a lovely clean and simple card, what do you think?

Don't forget there is always a prize to be won and this month the prize the complete At Home with Santa range that will be split between 2 winners. Why don't you head over to the challenge blog to check it out? The prize winner is selected randomly and in addition the DT will choose one entry to join us as a guest designer for a future challenge.

I hope I have inspired you to join us this month, all you have to do is follow the prompt and ensure stamping is the main focus on your card. The challenge will close at noon (UK time) on Wednesday 30th November.

Here are a couple more cards using the same stamp:

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Adorable scorable, mattastic; Paperbox, hammer cream 260gsm

Ink: Distress ink, festive berries

Other: Wow embossing powder, gold pearl

Stamps:  Chocolate Baroque,  Christmas tree tangle

Dies: Nellie Snellen, double stitched rectangles; Sizzix thinlets, joy

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

A Few Christmas Trees

Today I have a couple of Christmas cards to share. I bought this embossing folder on the spur of the moment after seeing it feature on several cards recently. I was ordering birthday presents for my husband from Amazon when I found myself having a little search for embossing folders. Low and behold it came up, so it just had to make it into my shopping cart! I have made several cards with it so far and will share two with you today.

Card 1

A really good thing about this folder for me is that it is A6 so it fits my card fronts perfectly. I often find they are larger or square or something which means they have to be cut down or they are not quite tall enough. Anyway that was a bonus for me.

I kept this one simple and just coloured one type of tree with a green sparkle pen. The greeting was stamped on vellum and a tiny die cut Christmas tree was added for interest. I am not sure if you can see it, but I added a tiny star gem to the top of the die cut tree as a little finishing touch.

I am sharing this one at:

Christmas Kickstarter #68 - Trees Trees Trees

Card 2

I kept this one simple by using just a strip of embossing and adding it to a coloured cardbase. The sentiment is cut from pearlescent paper, so it has a shine to it. I have glued tiny gems into the holes in the die cut tree. These little trees on both cards have been cut from snippets from my left over bits folder.

Sorry about my bad pictures, I am hoping to get the hang of taking them in the lower light sometime soon!

I am sharing this card at:

Let's squash it #26 - Make a Christmas card

here's a bonus card on the same lines:

Supplies:

Embossing Folder: Sizzix 3D textured impressions 665254

Die: Christmas tree Docrafts; Sentiment Creative Expressions

Stamp: Free with magazine

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

We Love Stamping November Challenge

Today is the first Sunday of November so time for a new challenge over at we love stamping where the theme is:

** Christmas **

That should be easy as we are all going to be extra busy making Christmas cards this month.  Our wonderful guest designer this month is Pia from Norway. I hope you have time to pay her a visit.

I started by making my background with chalk pastels (I decided I really ought to use them more) and after making a mask for the moon I blended different colours until I was happy. Then I stamped and heat embossed the image onto white card and fussy cut it out, leaving a white 'apron' under the trees. I die cut the background panel and the lower edge of the tree pieces so it would line up along the edge. The edge was glued down and I used foam pads under the trees to lift them off the background and give some dimension. I added loads of stickles to give some sparkle and the illusion of snow. Apologies for the slightly out of focus picture above.

I took this photo to try and capture the shine, not just from the stickles but also from the heat embossed trees. Don't you just love those trees? I do anyway. The sentiment was cut 3 times and stacked, I coloured the white card with an alcohol marker.

Don't forget there is always a prize to be won and this month the prize is the complete At Home with Santa range that will be split between 2 winners. Why don't you head over to the challenge blog to check it out? The prize winner is selected randomly and in addition the DT will choose one entry to join us as a guest designer for a future challenge.

I hope I have inspired you to join us this month, all you have to do is follow the prompt and ensure stamping is the main focus on your card. The challenge will close at noon (UK time) on Wednesday 30th November

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Finally, I just thought I would share a couple of pictures from my morning walk yesterday (Sat 5th Nov). Most mornings I walk along the river into town and sometimes I am moved to take a photo. Today it was really still and quiet and the tide was in, so lots of lovely reflections. About an hour later it was completely overcast and raining! I would miss it so much if I couldn't walk, so every day I am grateful. It keeps me fit too.

River Deben looking east towards the river mouth.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Bristol Board; White stamping card; Adorable Scorable coated card

Ink: Versafine Clare, green oasis

Other: Chalk Pastels; Stickles; Clear embossing powder

Stamps:  Chocolate Baroque Christmas Tree Tangle

Dies: Sentiment Creative Expressions; Stitched rectangle Create a Smile

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

October CCC Reveal

Today is 2nd of the month so time for the Card Chain Challenge big reveal. This month 32 card makers took part and I sent my card to Joanne in California. 

I have been struggling for inspiration recently so I just used the friendship theme from the different options this month. I had this flower spray which I had stamped, heat embossed, fussy cut and coloured, sitting on my desk, so I decided to try and turn it into a card. I also had the frame on my desk, it was a gift in a previous CCC card that I received. I am sorry I can't remember who gave it to me, but I am pleased to have used it.

I placed a piece of vellum behind the frame and stamped and white heat embossed the sentiment and the leaves, before attaching the elements to my card.

I am not terribly happy with this one, I think it is missing something, but as it had a long way to travel I just stopped fretting and sent it on it's way. It took it’s time and finally arrived with Joanne on 31st October.

I was very lucky to receive this gorgeous card from Jo in UK:

I love the texture on this one, thanks Jo.

If you would like to take part in the next card chain challenge, you have until 6th to sign up here

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it.