Berry Branch – Autumn & Winter

Here are the other two cards from my little four seasons Berry Branch set. Winter is definitely my favourite and is the only one where I embossed.

Thank you for the kind comments about the first two; I am happy to have inspired a few people to try the same thing with one stamp.

Supplies:

Stamps: Berry Branch (Penny Black), Teeny Tiny Wishes, Very Vintage roller(SU)
Inks: Chocolate Chip, Real Rust, Riding Hood Red
Cardstock: Flourishes classic ivory

Supplies:

Stamps: Berry Branch (Penny Black), Short and Sweet(SU)
Inks: Versamark, Marina Mist, Bashful Blue, Real Red, Basic Black
Cardstock: Flourishes classic white
Also: Clear e.p., Winsor & Newton masking fluid

Berry Branch – Spring & Summer

I have been busy on another project lately which I will share in the future but today I have a little set of cards I finished a while ago.  I made them for a friend’s birthday; there are four – one for each season- all made with the same stamp. Here are the spring and summer cards. Winter and autumn to follow another day.

Supplies:

Stamps: Berry Branch (Penny Black),Teeny Tiny Wishes(SU)
Inks: Regal Rose,  Bashful Blue, Always Artichoke
Cardstock: Flourishes classic white

To create both cards I inked the stamp with the lighter colour and added darker highlights with marker. I also masked and sponged but you know that; it is what I do!

Supplies:

Stamps: Berry Branch (Penny Black),Hugs & Wishes(SU)
Inks: Certainly Celery, Old Olive,  Bashful Blue, Always Artichoke
Cardstock: Flourishes classic white

Snowy New Year

As my Christmas card count was very low this year I have made a few New Year cards for people I still want to send a greeting to. This one features Marina Mist, an SU colour I just purchased and really like.  I masked the hill, embossed the trees and snowflakes in clear and then brayered the sky. I’ll definitely use this technique again; I like the crispness of one colour with white.

Have a great day.

Supplies:

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Teeny Tiny Messages, Holiday Sampler
Inks:  Versamark,  Marina Mist
Cardstock:   MFP White
Also:  Clear e.p.

Snow laden tree

Crafty Creations Challenge is aiming to warm things up with a heat embossing challenge. I chose to emboss a very chilly scene. We have discovered since living in Canada that the sunny days which look so beautiful in winter are the coldest days despite the sun!

The large tree is the only part of the card heat embossed. I stamped the tree once in versamark then restamped ever-so-slightly lower in black before embossing in clear. The result is snow laden branches as seen in the close up below.

Thanks for dropping by today.

Supplies:

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, All Year Cheer, small tree stamp from Embassy Arts
Inks:  Versamark, Basic Black, Marina Mist, Bashful Blue
Cardstock:   MFP White
Also:  Clear e.p.

Masked and hand drawn

I was inspired by this lovely card by openseed  and created two cards that don’t involve any stamping but doodling instead.

I used masking fluid to paint the words  first then used fine felt tip pens to draw all manner of plant doodles around the masking so that when I removed it the words would be clear.  In the one below I masked one word and drew the other but I prefer the one above. I added a little green to both with markers but they are cool with just black and white as well. These are my first attempts at this technique, but as you can probably imagine the possibilities are endless!

Supplies:

Markers: Black Prismacolor Fine line markers, Stampin Up selection of green markers
Cardstock: MFP Watercolour cardstock
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid

Watercolour leaves

There is plenty of snow outside now but I have slipped back into a fall colour scheme to try out this technique. I painted the word in masking fluid with a small paintbrush on watercolour paper. I then used two leaves from With Gratitude, a few colours and a water spritzer to dampen both the stamp and the paper. I sponged a bit of brown and green before peeling off the masking fluid.

This is a second card for the Just One Word challenge at Less is More.

Supplies:

Stamps: With Gratitude (SU)
Inks: Summer sun, Certainly Celery, Wild Wasabi, Close to Cocoa, Old Olive
Cardstock: MFP Watercolor card
Also: Windsor & Newton Masking fluid

Last minute tags

These are my last minute tags, inspired by, but nowhere near as gorgeous as, the ones featured here.

Supplies:

Stamps: Baroque motifs, PSX pine bough, Embassy arts trees
Inks:  Bashful Blue, Basic Black, Chocolate Chip, Garden Green
Cardstock: confetti white, confetti cream

Just one word

I need a few more cards on Christmas Eve so I pulled out a new punch and created a wreath from designer paper. The original card featured a two word sentiment but it worked just fine with one word too so I will enter it into this week’s Less is More challenge to use just one word.

I made some last minute tags which I post soon too. Have a relaxing day.

Supplies:

Stamps: Christmas Music (flourishes)
Inks: Riding hood red
Cardstock: Flourishes classic ivory
Also:  Merry Moments D.P. , red twine, Recollections leaf punch

Those snow scenes I love to do…

A couple of posts ago I featured a snow scene I did for the Less is More snow challenge. I love creating snow scenes but that one I entered in the challenge was not the first one I did that day. It was the fourth.  The first three are featured in this post. All of them are ok, but they were not quite what I was after. Snow scenes can be a little tricky at times.  In the one above you will see I managed a strange yellowy tinge in the sky; wrong sponge I think.

In the one below the tiny words in the sentiment are a little hard to read and the shadow on that tree? Well, it is hardly a shadow; I could have planned that a little better.

The card below suffered from a restamping of the foreground tree which didn’t really match up; I must have moved the positioning tool. To salvage it I used an embossing pen to draw snow on the branches but it is still a bit messy.

All that to say: sometimes it takes a few attempts before I come up with the scene I am after, but those attempts can often be used, as is, or with a little creative alteration.

Enjoy your day, still no snow here, but now we have plenty of ice!

Supplies:

Stamps: Many Merry Messages,  Branch out,
Inks:  Versafine Onyx Black, Taken with Teal, Bashful Blue, Versamark, Basic Black
Cardstock: MFP  Snow Storm Smooth Heavy
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid, white e.p.

Less is More Music

This week at Less is More it’s a music challenge. With all the music going on around our house I am always happy to come up with a music themed card, especially at Christmas.

I used my old faithful technique for this card: masking and sponging, but with stamping,  colouring and drawing thrown in.  First I rolled the music notes in sahara sand and sponged around them. Next I added the pine branches and sponged around them too. Finally I stamped three little Christmas balls, coloured them with coloured pencils and gold pen then added their strings.

I just did a count and I only have ten Christmas cards made! How can this be? I guess I might scrape through because there are 12 days of Christmas after all!

Supplies

Stamps:  Christmas Music, All that Glitters (Flourishes)
Inks:  Sahara Sand, Garden Green, Old Olive, Basic Black
Paper: Flourishes Classic Ivory
Also: FaberCastell Polychromos Pencils, Gold smooch, Black fineliner