CAS Christmas Card Inspired by Therese for AAA Card Challenge 279

Hi everyone its time for another anything CAS challenge with AAA Cards and this week the optional topper is Christmas/Winter. Living down under it's definitely not Winter as we head into Summer and I always need one more Christmas card, so Christmas topper for me.

Looking at my Christmas sets I decided I would play with one of my oldest sets called Santa's Elves by My Favorite Things as it was known back then. It's so old the die is solid and when I first started working with these dies I got really really frustrated until some kind person suggested I die cut out a blank shape and then use that to line up my die and that works fine. Today I've made it even trickier as I have been inspired by a set of cards Therese Calvird from Lost in Paper created using this set which you can see HERE. So as well as trimming close to the image I then had to put a solid die on top and line up my Big Shot's top plate to cut out at the line. 

I only  Copic coloured my image once I knew I was successful. Like Therese, I also added some stripes to the cap as I thought that looked really fun, I used minty greens and strawberry pink tones for my colouring. Copics used: G00/02/05; RV13/13/21; E000/00/11/13; N0/2/4. I then added some Stickles, when dry I added my wee panel to the front of an A2 card base using foam strips, you could add directly but it's kind of fun it's "floating". To be honest if you didn't pop up with foam you could stamp and colour directly to an A2 panel and attach to your card base to hide the bleed from the alcohol markers.

Supply List:

Stamps: Santa's Elves (MFT)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Clair Nocturne

Paper: Neenah Solar White #80 and #110

Other: Copics, Diamond Stickles (RNG), Black glaze pen (Sakura), Gelli roll 10 (Sakura), Sharpie pen. foam strips

Challenges: AAA#279

Gosh this was a quick and effective CAS card and Therese has lots of great ideas, so do check out the link to her above, this design would work for so many images. I hope you can find time to join in with us this week. Thanks for popping in.

✿Karen✿

Loads of Joy with Tic Tac Toe

Hello and welcome to another fab Tic Tac Toe challenge and this week the board has been chosen by Vicky and I had so many possibilities looking at it but I had to go with the left hand vertical row as it contained 3 of my favourite things to do on a card: ink blending, CAS and die cut. I could also have chosen the top line: ink blending, snow and tree; as well as diagonal from top left hand corner: ink blending, foliage and festive sentiment.

I'm also going to play along with Simon Says Stamp Instagram Challenge for November wanting Holiday-themed projects.

To KReate my card I blended a sky with three Distress inks; Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves and Chipped Sapphire on Distress Heavy white cardstock. I sprayed the background with a shimmer spray to create some "snow" but ended up with some big blobs which I did not like so have added a few dots with a very fine paintbrush.

I've used my Copics to colour up the scene and tried to only use a few colours to keep it as clean as possible. I've used RVs to work with my sky. Colours used follow (darkest > lightest):

Presents and hat: RV19/17/55

Trees and presents: YG17/25/21 E13
Greys: N8/6/4/2/0

Yellow: YR12/21/20
Snow: B000

Other Supplies Used:
Stamps: Loads of Joy (MFT)
Ink: Versafine Clair Nocturne - sentiment, Memento Tuxedo Black - images

Paper: Neenah White, Sahara Sand (SU!), Distress Heavy white (RNG)

Dies: Sweet Stacks: Circles (HB), Stitched Hillside border (LF), the cool wee rail track is part of the dies included with the Loads of Joy set (MFT)

Other: Prismaglitter (LF), blending brushes (TE), clear embossing powder, Quickie glue pen (Sakura), Frost shimmer spray (imaginecrafts)

Challenges: TTTC#260, SSS IG Challenge

I hope you can find time to play along with us at Tic Tac Toe Challenges team this week, we'd love to see what you create with any line; remember it can be horizontal, diagonal, vertical; there are so many possibilities

✿Karen✿

The Gnomies are Sharing some Love

This hopefully is the last love/Valentine's card for this year from me and it was pretty quick and simple apart from letting the Crystal Glaze dry. I wanted to play along with CAS on Friday's Valentine Challenge (CAS and Valentine), The Paper Player's Love theme and Tic Toe Toe's challenge board (today I'm using the diagonal: enamel dots, die cut, dry or heat embossing). I'm also going to play along with Simon Say's Stamp's Wednesday Challenge (Anything Goes).

I've had this wee set in my stash for a while and haven't used the gnomies before, I do love the size of them small but not too small. 

Looking on the MFT site I saw a fab colour combo from Rachael Alvarado and really liked how bright her pink was and that she had added green to the blue-green combo. I think I may need to practice some more to even slightly emulate her but they are fun and vibrant colours. I'm laughing today I can see what I thought was a face she's coloured as a beard!! I also discovered that if you have a few bubbles in your glaze don't add more to it, it may make it worse. I only used the Crystal Glaze as in the end I thought the RVs were too bright but liked her BG combo and will definitely do that one again. I added clear embossing powder to my stamped sentiment so it's nice and shiny and black. I added Rock Candy glitter to the cap stripes and Prisma Glitter to the pom pom. I also die cut out 2 more gnome shapes and glued them all together to give him a bit more dimension but otherwise a one-layer card.

Copic Colours used (darkest > lightest):

Bright pink: RV66/55/52/00

Teal blue: BG18/23/11 G00

Pom pom: C2/0

Skin: E13/21 RV10

Supply List:

Stamps: Love to my Gnomies (MFT)

Ink: Jet Black (LF), Versafine Clair Nocturne, Salvaged Patina distress oxide (RNG)

Paper: Xpress IT blending, Neenah Solar White #110

Other: Copics, Fine sparkle adhesive backed gems (SU!), Crystal Glaze (Nuvo), Prisma glitter (LF), Rock Candy distress glitter (RNG), clear embossing powder, blending brush

Challenges: CAS on Friday #276, PP#675,  TTTC #240, SSS Wednesday Challenge #113

Well this was a really quick Valentine/love card to come together, so another one for my Galentine's cards which I'd better get in the mail today so they could arrive by the 14th. Have a fab day and thanks for popping in.

✿Karen✿

Technique Tuesday #2

This week's technique that Libby from Hero Arts shared was stamping directly into paste with a red rubber stamp. You can re-watch that video HERE. We have been challenged by Hero Arts to do one thing in Mixed Media that scares us. I have to admit stamping a stamp into paste scares me a lot, so much so when I had a go I actually used an old background stamp I own called Lines Background (HA) which has been in my collection forever.

My next dilemma was I don't own any coloured pastes, Libby was  using a gold paste that looked magical. So I made my own by adding to a small amount of Hero Paste 1 drop of Ocean Blue and 1 drop of Daffodil Watercolor inks (both HA), it was too blue for me so I added 1 more drop of Daffodil and now it was too minty green but I could see my paste was getting watery looking so thought, oh well let's work with that.

I spread it over part of an A2 panel of Heavyweight cardstock (RNG) and then stamped my stamp in it, I think my layer of paste was too thick as it just showed mainly texture not the pattern but there was quite a bit of paste still on my stamp so I thought lets not waste it and stamped bottom RH corner and then top LH corner and I really liked the look of that impression. My image is upside down below so the first stamp off is showing in the image as top LH corner.

At this stage I was trying to think what to do with "the mess" but left it to dry overnight. I decided to persevere and not start again and sprayed my background 3-4x with Hero Arts Two Tone spray : Spring Green and Gold. When that dried I added some script text from Mixed Textures stamp set (HA) using Warm Buff ink (PFS). I have also added some gold Hero Wax to the raised bits using my ring finger. Most of it gets covered up but you can see it peeking out in places.

I decided to add a largish flower and thought I would use Flowers in Bloom (MFT) which has a coordinating die. Looking at the colour wheel the colour directly opposite to yellow-green is red violet. 

Off to my source of all things Copic I used Kit and Clowder's weekly blends to get some red violet combos. Alyce had 5 on her site and I settled on no. 3 which she calls Razzmataz RV69/19/04. I also used Lawn Fawn's Jellyfish ink to do a no-line colouring look.

I splattered some White gold Metallic ink, added some Cork Hero Pearls and a few Encouragement Sentiment Strips (HA) I have inked the edges using Concord and 9th Dragonfruit ink to finish off

It's hard to imagine that my card started off as a blob of minty green paste with TEXTURE but it truly is so pretty, vibrant and positive at the same time, even my partner called it a "work of art".

Time to restart challenging myself in 2023

It's a new year and life is nearly back to normal, think I have one more trip to the beach to squeeze in with my partner but feel confident to say I can start looking at my favourite challenge sites and start doing challenges again. Saying that some of my favourite sites are still on their "holiday breaks" so I can ease myself back in slowly and very thankful that both AAA challenge sites were perfect IMO. I love bears and I have a lot of birthdays coming up in the next 2 months so I have combined their current challenges to create this cute "bear" birthday card which is CAS.

AAA cards wants "bears":

and AAA birthday cards "anything birthday goes":

I have one favourite bear stamp set which I got in 2016 and I have used all the bear images in the set apart from one, so I have inked up that one and coloured with my Copic markers today.

Copics used (dark>>light):
Bear body: E59/57/33/53

Bear muzzle/nose/ear lobes/cheeks: E53/51, W6/4, R20

Mint-green icing: G05/03/02/000

Cake: Y04/02/00
Cake board: E47/44/43

Hat: G09/05/03

Supply List:

Stamps: Beary Special Birthday (MFT) and matching dies

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Clair Nocturne

Paper: Xpress-IT blending, Neenah white

Other: Additional A2 Layers (WF), stamping foam squares (SP), white gelly pen (Sakura), Crystal glaze (Nuvo), Copic markers

Challenges: AAA #231, AAA birthday #45

Well he's a wee cutie and his tummy looks a bit like mine post-Christmas. I am not sure why it's taken me 6 years to ink him up but I think we'll see it much sooner again. Both challenges have 1-2 weeks still to run so there is plenty of time to join in the fun. I never really worry about having enough cards in my stash since I have started doing challenges and I give away a lot to family as RAK's or as gifts and I also don't feel so guilty about all the supplies I have accumulated over the years too. So if you haven't made any New Year's resolutions I challenge you .... to enter some card challenges.

EDITED: AAA cards runner-up :)

✿ Karen ✿

Creating a rainbow of clouds

Is really easy if you use MFT stamps cloud and rolling cloud stencil and I own both so I have 8 sides so no cleaning between blending. I wanted a wee card for my great niece Grace who has just turned 1 & I also used my Hippo Happiness stamp set and matching die from SU!

 I used Pinkfresh studio inks for the hippo and balloons : Rocky Slope, Ballet Slipper, Bubble Gum, Grassy Knoll, Sunshine and Candy Violet.

Distress Oxides used were Spun Sugar, Dried Marigold, Squeezed Lemonade, Cracked Pistachio, Tumbled Glass and Shaded Lilac.

I just used one of SU! wee notecards as I thought that was an appropriate sized card for the wee hippo.

I don't think my clouds were perfect but it's the first time I have done a multi-coloured array of clouds and I loved it. So many happy returns wee Grace.
✿ Karen ✿

Brilliant Butterflies

When I saw this BEAUTIFUL image at the Color Throwdown I knew exactly what stamp set I wanted to use.

I had bought the Brilliant Butterflies stamp set from MFT stamps sometime in 2020 and had never gotten around to inking it up so today was the day or should that have been several days ago.....

OMG what a frustrating stamp set. I was ready to throw it out the window if I have to be honest. It has a matching die and multilayer stamping (4 layers). The set comes with a guide and the stamps are clearly linked on the sheet what goes with what. From what I had seen in many videos it was best to die cut first and then stamp the really detailed wings then the background colours. 

This is where it all came apart the colour guide is not a true reflection of what the final die shape is and the best thing was printing off the Black and White Image from MFT stamps for the dies and then look at the stamped images inside them (second day). FYI this is the image at MFT stamps for the dies that I am talking about:

I still got it wrong for 2 of them, so in case you are interested this is the answer to the what stamp goes with what die: top row from left to right is "orange" then "green", middle row is "teal blue" then "purple"; bottom row is "red" then "yellow". 

My dies are now on a magnetic sheet and clearly marked what "colour" they are. The colour ties them up with the layering guide that comes with the stamp set. 

Because the stamps actually have to be stamped in different places in the die it's really hard to line up a clear photopolymer stamp on a piece of white card stock and you had to do the tiny body and feelers as well. They released after this stamp set More Brilliant Butterflies which when I look at it online, addresses some of my frustrations with this stamp set. 

I now feel comfortable working with the stamps and dies but I have never in all my years of stamping taken 2 days to work out how to use a stamp and die. 

 Anyhow back to the fab challenge what an amazing image and in the end I don't think I did it justice but I worked out how to use my stamp set and dies and I know whoever receives the card will love it as it looks so fab and opulent IRL with all the gold; some embossed, some inked, some card stock.

Supply List:
Stamps: Brilliant Butterflies (MFT) and matching dies, Sainty Swiss Dots BG (Altenew)

Ink: Versamark, Blush and Rouge (Altenew), Fresh Freesia and Highland Heather (SU!), Metallic Gold (Encore)

Paper etc: White, vellum card, the gold paper came from a 12x12 DSP which had gold and white stripes ?CTMH but it seemed a really close match to the Rose Gold EP (Altenew), the friend die came from SSS a long time ago.

After all that I feel like I need to eat cake!

✿ Karen ✿

Last Christmas Elf

LOL that title sounds a bit like the last bugle post call but nothing so complicated. This is the  card I created for my Pete for Christmas and I used the 3rd elf in the MFT Santa's Elves set. I had always wanted to use one of the sentiments that come in the set for his card & had all the elements coloured up & hidden somewhere in my craft room, knowing he'd never find it. As it turned out I ended up making the card on Christmas Eve when I had a few minutes to spare & I wasn't at all happy with my stenciled star background, as the stars were bigger than I wanted but I didn't have more time to do it again.

The colours I coloured in this wee elf are really the same colour combos I used in my original Christmas elf post. The hat is the dark blue colour combo.

I've used my white Signo gel pen to make the jacket spotted. And the fab stitched dotted circle is an old MFT one that is now retired but I found one for sale on e-bay & snaffled it up awhile ago. I really like it as it makes a nice change from the usual stitched look that is very prevalent. I made the banner myself using my square punch again, one day I will buy myself some banner dies (or not).

The base card stock is Pacific Point from Stampin' Up!

Recipe:
Stamp: BB Santa's Elves (MFT)
Ink: Memento Black, various Copics, Tumbled Glass distress ink
Paper: XpressIt blending card, Pacific Point(SU!)
Other: Stitchable Dot Circle STAX (MFT), Wink of Stella glitter pen, Signo white gel pens, Lots of Stars stencil (Create A Smile), Clarity stencil brush, dimensionals

I'll blog the fab homemade cards I received in the next day or 2. I'm going to try & make a few Christmas cards every month this year to ease the pressure at the silly season & also use some of those other stamp sets that I bought to make Christmas cards last year & didn't use. This certainly will not be the "last post" for the Santa's Elves from MFT as they are so adorable.

Thanks for popping by.
✿ Karen ✿