Triple gold

Today's card featured 3 ways of adding gold to your card: gold embossing, gilding flakes, and gold sequins, just perfect for Taheerah's gossip column (precious metals) and a few other festive challenges.

I heat embossed the poinsettia (Winter Woodland, Winnie & Walter) twice in gold embossing powder (Wow) onto vellum and added colour to the back using a red and green alcohol marker. I snipped off a few leaves from my green version and adhered them to the back of my red poinsettia using multi medium matte. For my front panel (Neena solar white), I die cut the smallest of the two faceted panels from the True Multifaceted Border Cutaways (W&W). Next, I added a small strip of thick paper using gilding glue, put the die cut in place and then added my gilding flakes when the glue was tacky. I stamped the sentiment (Happy Christmas, W&W) using green ink before mounting the panel onto my A2 card base (Fog gray cardstock, Simon Says Stamp), and then adhered my poinsettia using some clear foam tape (Kool Tak). To finish off, I added a few gold sequins using glue dots.

Challenges:

Taheerah's Gossip column at W&W - No. 5 Precious metals

LIM - 300 Celebrations and Festivals

Christmas Card Challenges - 46 Anything goes

CAS on Sunday - 95 Flowers

Masculine Christmas card

I've been wanting to play with my gilding flakes ever since I found them at a newly discovered craft shop in my area, because I was determined to use them to play along with Taheerah's current Gossip Column challenge at the Winnie & Walter blog, which is all about precious metals. This week's Christmas Muse card by Cornelia was a great incentive to do so.

I used more or less the same layout that Cornelia used, but I toned down the colours by using a kraft card base and I used 2 stamps and the kissing technique to mimick Cornelia's foil tree.
I first placed my tree stamp (Winter Woodland, Winnie & Walter) on the door of my MISTI and stamped the tree using green ink (Studio Calico), and then I stamped the stag from the same stamp set in two colours of brown, using a different corner in my MISTI. I then stamped the Tiny flag background (woodblock mounted stamp by Hero Arts) onto the tree stamp (still on the door of my MISITI) using Versamark ink and then stamped the tree again. After heat embossing the tiny flag pattern using Sticky embossing powder (Ranger), I spread out some gilding flakes over my heat embossed image and burnished using a piece of Rubit Scrubit (Ranger). I messed up my heat embossed sentiment (Happy Christmas, Winnie & Walter), so I heat embossed it again onto a snippet of vellum and attached this over the original sentiment using a tiny staple. I love how it adds to the masculine feel of my card. I coloured the edge of my white card base by swiping my green ink over it and then adhered my panel. To finish things off, I adhered a few woodgrain sequins (Studio Calico).

Challenges:

Muse: ChristmasVisions - 67 (see Cornelia's muse card below)

Taheerah's Gossip column at W&W - No. 5 Precious metals 

(do check it out if you haven't done so, and be amazed and inspired)

AAA Cards - 76 Masculine

Christmas Card Challenges - 46 Anything Christmas goes

52CCT - Embossing (dry or heat)

A blog named Hero - Geometric

Hero Arts - Holiday cards
Jingle Belles - While shepherds watched their flocks (i.e. feature animals)

With (pink) love at Christmas

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog. Today I have another pink Christmas card to share with you. The Jingle Belles are still celebrating a pink Christmas and there are several other challenges asking for pink creations this October month.

I used the stamps and dies from the latest Stamp of Approval collection, Candy Cane Lane, to stamp and die cut all of my elements. The sentiment, Christmas candies, and candy canes (and accompanying dies) are from the Candy Cane Lane set (Catherine Pooler), while the label is from the Merry Labels Dies (CAS-ual Fridays). Before mounting my label onto my light grey cardstock using foam tape, I went around the edges using one of my Clarity brushes that still had some pink ink on it. The candies were adhered using liquid glue.

Challenges:

Jingle Belles - Pink Christmas

As always, Stephanie and Lauren will each be donating 

$2 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for each 

pink creation that is linked up before Wednesday 

19 October by 6pm EST, so I encourage you to 

link up your pink Christmas cards if you 

haven't done so already.

CAS-ual Fridays - CFC158 1 in 8 - use 8 of something

Allsorts - 385 Pink October

Christmas Card Challenges - 45 Colour inspiration (optional)

Happy Little Stampers - October Anything goes with dies

From our home to yours

Phew, this is my last post of this marathon session. I have one more card to share for the Word Card Making Day fun at the Winnie & Walter blog.

I was inspired by a set of cards that Jennifer McGuire made, using one focal image and a repeated sentiment.

I started by stamping the holly and birdhouse using masking and then repeated stamped the sentiment (all from the W&W Happiest of Holidays - Evelyn T Designs set) onto a die-cut panel (SSS) of watercolour cardstock (Crafter's Companion). I used my Inktense pencils and a small brush to colour my image and then adhered my panel flat onto an A2 sized kraft card base.

Challenges:
W&W - Background building by Shay
W&W - Pick 'n mix by Taheerah (colours: kraft + poppy, lawn, woodland; technique: die cutting; trends: watercolour; elements/themes: Christmas)
Virginia's View - 24 Focal point
CAS-ual Fridays - CFC158 1 in 8 (I have just realised that I have stamped the sentiment 8 times!)

Just because you make life sweet

I'm back with two more cards for the Winnie & Walter challenges.

For my first card, I heat-embossed the tree image from the Kinness with Evelin T Designs (Winnie & Walter) in clear embossing powder and then coloured the image using Inktense pencils and a small brush. The sentiment is from a stamp set by Paper Smooches.

Challenges:

W&W - CAS with Kate

W&W - Stretch your stamps with Kelly

W&W - Make a card for a (crafty) friend with Taheerah.

This card is for my sister to whom I seem to have recently passed the stamping bug. She has proven that she has a talent for thinking outside of the box. I sent her a set of Memento dew drop inks and she used them to stamp a sunflower, using the ink pads as stamps. Amazing! I also know these fresh colours will appeal to her. In addition to being my sister, she is also my friend.

ATCAS - 98 Watercolour

CASology - 218 Support

My second card was another card that was long in the making. I started working on it for Winnie & Walter's Rerun challenge No. 13, and was inpired by Gayatri's bouquet. I finally managed to finish it this weekend.

I used the blooms, leaves and sentiment from various W&W stamp sets. The vase is from a NBUS set by Wplus9. The dotted vellum is by Papertrey Ink.

Challenges:

W&W - Background building with Shay

W&W - CASE with Lydia (Gayatri's cards from Rerun No. 13)

The Flower Challenge - 1 Anything goes

Rainbow birthday

While I was having my party hat stamp (Winnie & Walter) and my rainbow-coloured inks out (see my previous post), I decided to create another rainbow card for the new AAA challenge. After seeing the inpiration photo and Melissa's card I instantly thought of a way to combine my ingredients. The sentiment is from a set by Simon Says Stamp.

Challenges:

W&W - Rainbow colour with Gayatri

W&W - Stretch your stamps with Kelly

W&W - CAS with Kate

Virginia's View - 24 Focal point

Seize the Birthday - Anything goes

AAA Cards - 75 Photo inspiration

ATSM - 214 Clean and Simple

And here's a picture of my table after I had finished my cards:

I'm linking this up at the W&W Craftie challenge.

Merry in pink and in rainbow colours

I've been spending lots of time in my craft room this weekend and managed to finish and create a bunch of cards. Yay! Many of them were inspired by the challenges that were posted last weekend at the Winnie & Walter blog in honour of World Card Making Day.

First up, I have two Christmas cards to share. The first one features the poinsettia from the W&W stamp set In bloom: Elsa's flora and the Merry die by W&W.

I started this card a while back, but finally managed to finish it this weekend, just in time for this fortnight's challenge at Jingle Belles. As always in October, they are hosting a PINK challenge.

In their own words:

Woohoo! It's time for our favorite prompt of the year, Pink Christmas! If you've ever hung out with us in October, you already know the drill, and there's an FAQ type post just above this one, but basically: each year in October, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Stephanie and Lauren host a challenge where we ask everyone to make holiday cards that are, (as the title suggests, lol) *PINK*... and then we each donate $2 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for each card that gets linked up. 

The card itself was inspired by Lydia's card for the Winnie & Walter Rerun No.14 challenge. You can view her card here.

I added a little glitter glue for some addition sparkle.

I'm linking up this card up at:

Jingle Belles - PINK Christmas

W&W - CASE with Lydia

W&W - Background building with Shay

The Flower Challenge - 1 Anything goes 

(this is a brand-new challenge that is all about flowers)

My second card features rainbow party hats turned Christmas trees from the Ring in the Celebration set by W&W (part of one of the earlier Stamp of Approval collections). The sentiment is from the Merry Everything set by Simon Says Stamp.

I'm linking up this card at:

W&W - Rainbow colours with Gayatri

W&W - Stretch your stamps with Kelly

W&W - CAS with Kate

Virginia's View - 24 Focal point

I'm also linking up my card at 

W&W Rerun No. 15 - It's a wonderful Pennant. After seeing Kelly's challenge prompt last weekend, I thought it would be fun to use the party hat as a Christmas tree and then later this week I saw Gayatri's card for the new Rerun challenge. So fun!

Christmas in turquoise and lilac

Less is More was having a fun colour challenge this week, namely turquoise & lilac. Since I love these colours, I had no excuse but to play along. In addition, my Stamp of Approval box arrived on Wednesday, and I could not wait to ink up some of the stamps of this holiday collection, called Candy Cane Lane. So here goes.

I heat-embossed the Merry sentiment and several of the tiny snowflakes and stars from the Hip Holiday set in Silver pearl embossing powder (Ranger) onto some watercolour cardstock (Crafter's Companion) and then used my Winsor & Newton watercolour paints to add colour to my background. To finish off, I added a few clear sequins (SSS) and mounted my panel onto a side folding A2 sized card from Fog cardstock (SSS).

Challenges:
LIM - 296 Colour: turquoise & lilac
ATCAS - Watercolour
CAS on Sunday - 93 Heat embossing
HLS October Christmas challenge - Embossing
Virginia's View challenge - 24 Focal point

Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

On the very first last day of the hop I finally managed to create a card for the 2016 Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop, using some of the supplies that I bought earlier today.

Earlier this week I discovered (after more than 7 years) there is actually a shop in Heraklion that sells scrapbooking supplies and some other craft supplies, and this afternoon my husband and I went to check it out. It was amazing to be in a brick and mortar craft store here on the island of Crete. It may not have a big selection of stamping stuff, but I was really happy to find gilding flakes and Viva Inka gold, the latter of which I used on my card today.

I had fun rubbing Inka gold in copper and antique gold onto some Neenah cardstock using a blending tool and then adding a few coppery streaks to the gold using a piece of paper towel. I die cut the coffee cup (Simon Says Stamp, NBUS) from a part of my panel that had both the copper and the gold. The label (CAS-ual Fridays) was cut from a snippet of water colour cardstock that I had used to dab up the Inka gold that was left on my craftsheet. I had spritzed some water onto it to clean it up and then thought I might just as well try to put it to good use.

The background panel had been created several weeks ago, using distress inks and Clarity brushes onto watercolour cardstock. Before mounting it to my card base, I spritzed some water onto it and dabbed with a paper towel.

The sentiment is from a STAMPlorations set (Literary Caffeine-ations, designed by Becca Cruger) that I purchased last month. To finish off, I added a piece of twine and a few (coffee) brown sequins.

Love the soft sheen of the Inka gold. Hope you can see it in the close-up below.

I'm linking my card up at:
2016 Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop
Cards in Envy - Goodbye summer, hello fall
Aud Sentiments - 165 Anything goes with a sentiment
STAMPlorations September Theme and Sketch - Theme: Stamps and Monochrome
STAMPlorations Never-ending Anything goes with STAMPlorations products
SSS Wednesday - Anything goes