Peace . . . On Earth

     I have been itching to do some Ai Watercolor painting and I had a card due for the Sketch N Scrap design team. Even though I knew the proportions would be off, I decided to combine the two. 
     The Ai Watercolor Swing Set is my newest stamp set and I completed the project using the YouTube video. Of course my painting hardly even looks like the example. In fact, I did 3 of these and none of them looks the same - that would be impossible.

     I used this sketch by Heather Hall. You can see that the rectangle is now a square and I slanted the banner. 

Sketch #157 by Heather Hall

      When I went looking for patterned paper for this card, I immediately went for something in the old leftovers drawer. I have 4 or 5 old Christmas collections to pick from. This paper is three years old. I remember buying it to make gift card holders for a swap. My daughter and I both entered this swap. She made Silhouette Christmas purses and I did a tri-fold. Anyway ---- plenty of houndstooth and this red (that looks like a solid) to make 3 cards. Sad to say: there is still a healthy bit left including a plaid that is to die for. 

Inside of Card

     For the inside of the card, I had three Christmas Pine squares sitting on the table from cutting out the frame for the painting on the front. I love to use the scraps from the front of the card to design the inside of the card.

Materials List:

     Patterned Paper: Carta Bella - Christmas Delivery

     Cardstock: Gina K - Christmas Pine

                                  Ivory

     Watercolor Paper

     Stamp: Ai Watercolor - Swing Set

                                       Cats Set

                                       Branches Set

                                       Foliage Set

                Gina K - Winter Cheer

     Markers: Marvy - 72 Pine Green

                               86 African Violet

                               28 English Red

                               40 Brownish Grey

                               45 Sepia

     Dies: Sizzix - Holiday Words (Script)

     Punch: Fiskars - Apron

     Embellies: Molotow - Masking Liquid

                     Paper Studio - Gemstones 4mm Pearls

Christmas Train

     We are starting a New Year and Sketch N Scrap is starting a new month-long challenge. The first sketch of 2018 is a layout.

Sketch #144

     Our HOA sponsored a Christmas Train on December 9. The grandchildren came over dressed in their Christmas finery. I rode the train with them telling them that we were going to the North Pole to see Santa. When we walked into the clubhouse we jumped in line to tell Santa our Christmas wishes. Lucas ran right over to talk to Santa, but Elena wasn't interested in talking to him until he held out a candy cane. 

 

For the layout, I needed to slant the photos on the first page in order to accommodate the train. The train and tracks are from a Stamps of Life die set from 2013.

Subtitle

I used the Silhouette to create a transition from train ride to our chat with Santa. This is "North Pole" by Kate's Cuttables.

     For the journaling tags, I cut two red circles with words on the Silhouette. I placed a smaller brown circle mat behind each.

Materials List:

     Patterned Paper: Doodlebug Designs - Santa Express (Evergreens)

                              Pebbles - Birthday Wish (Yellow and Blue Polka)

     Card Stock: Bazzill - Maltball

                       Gina K - Red Hot

                       Shiny Silver

                       Scraps   

     Dies: Stamps of Life - Train 2 Stamp

             Elizabeth Craft Designs (Burniston) - Jolly the Mouse (candy cane)

     Silhouette: Miss Kate's Cuttables - North Pole Sign

                    Font: Bubble and Brew

     Embellies: White Felt Snowflakes

                    Red Pearls

    

Challenges

Brown Sugar Challenge - Not a Card - #140 - *
ITD's Creative Playground - Anything Crafty - #35 - *
Pixie's Crafty Workshop Challenge - #313-14 - Snippets - #55 - *

Christmas Magic

     I made this card using the scraps from Dreaming of Snow. It is basically a card on top of a card. When you untie the bow a gift card holder is revealed. 

 

Materials List:

     Patterned Paper: PhotoPlay - Festive

                                               Frosty

     Card Stock: My Colors - Dark Molasses

                                        Snowbound

                                        Dare Devil                                    

     Dies: Elizabeth Craft Designs - Hardware I - Hinges

             Burniston & Riley - Word Set 3 - Holiday #1022

                                         Snowman #1017

                                         Gift Card Label #1019

     Embellies: White Ribbon

                    2 Red Brads

  

    

Baby, It's Cold Outside

     BRRRRRR!!! You can feel the cold coming off of this card! A couple of weeks ago, I took a watercolor class - using my watercolor markers to color my stamped images. I threw my first snowman away. This is one is better, but I obviously could still use some more work on this. One thing I like about this technique is that there is lots of stamping. Most cards only require 2 or 3 stamps, but I stamped this snowman at least 7 times. 

     The stamp set I used is "Winter Cheer" by Gina K. I colored the image by coloring my stamp with watercolor markers and moving the color around with a paintbrush. The hat brim and ball are enhanced with clear Wink of Stella. It is distressed with Pumice Stone distress ink.

Inside of Card

Other supplies:
Dies: Darice - Nesting Wavy Squares
         Cheery Lynn - Allison's Ribbons
Embossing Folder: Sizzix - Poinsettias

 Challenges 

Christmas Card Challenge - Holiday - #13 - *

Cut It Up - Die Cut/Watercolor - #16 - *

Stamp TV - Favorite Technique - Watercolor - *

Stamp TV - Snow - *

Use Your Stuff - Watercolor - #3 - *

Winter Wonderland - Cute Character - #33 - *

Merry Wonderland

     I am not a CAS kind of cardmaker, but today I decided to try the white on white. I trimmed a strip of white card stock to 1/4 inch wide. I glued the sentiment on it and pop dotted it to the card base. I really liked the effect, but I would like to try a slightly grayer white card stock behind the sentiment. That is the way it appears on the reindeer card which gave me the idea.

     The focal point is heat embossed as well as the snowflakes and sentiments inside the cards. I used a partial focal point heat embossed on the envelopes.  

Inside of Card

Challenges

Stamp TV - Christmas In July - *