Showing posts with label 'Tis the Season Christmas Card Challenge Blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 'Tis the Season Christmas Card Challenge Blog. Show all posts

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Merry Everything

It's time for more Christmas cards from 'Tis the Season.  This time around we have a color challenge and I used Mossy Meadow, Always Artichoke, Whisper White and Silver.  It probably should have been Smoky Slate, but I wanted a bit of bling in it. :) I wasn't too sure about the colors, but I think it really turned out quite nice.  It definitely looks darker in the picture than it really is, but that's the way it goes with my picture taking skills. lol


Here are the colors and a pic for inspiration for this challenge.  


Make sure you hop over to 'Tis the Season HERE to check out the other fun creations using these colors. :)




Thanks for looking and have a great day!
Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Christmas Wishes

Happy Thursday!  Today I have another Christmas card for you.  I have to say it seems more like Christmas here in Michigan right now with the snow we're getting than when it was actually Christmas!  I definitely wish we had this much during the holidays, but that's here and gone for a while.  That won't stop me from working on my stash of cards for this year though. :)  We have a great sketch over at 'Tis the Season for you to check out.


Make sure you head over to 'Tis the Season HERE to check out what each of the designer's have created.  We'd love to have you play along too!



I went with pretty simple for my card.  I stamped the cardinal with StazOn Black on watercolor paper and colored everything using my aqua painter.  Since I need to make more of these I think I'll try putting black under my cardinal and see how that looks.  I couldn't try it this time since all of the banner pieces were already stuck on!  



Thanks for looking and have a great day!
Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card:


Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Happy Winter Scenes

I'm back at it...that is making Christmas cards!  I sure do love the colors this week at 'Tis the Season, not sure that this card looks very Christmasy...is that a word? Well I'm going with it anyway especially after I showed the card to my hubby and he thought it was just fine. :)  


Make sure you head over to 'Tis the Season HERE.  The rest of the design team has some fabulous cards using these colors.  If you get a chance make sure you play along too.  It's not too early to start getting your stash of Christmas cards started. :)




I have to admit it doesn't show as much color in the pictures as it does on the actual card but I think that's pretty typical.  I sponged around the edge of the embossed cardstock and the window and that's hard to see in some of the pics.


Thanks for looking and have a great day!
Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog


Thursday, December 3, 2015

Thinking of You at Christmas

So how are your Christmas cards coming?  I hope better than mine are since I really have no idea if I have enough or not! lol  I'm just trying to figure out when I'm going to get the time to sit down and get them all ready to mail out!  I guess I'll manage since I always do.  I'm just glad I'm a part of the design team at 'Tis the Season since I know I have a good chunk ready to go...whew!  Speaking of 'Tis the Season we are having our last challenge of the year and it's inspiration challenge #56!  I love how this card turned out, but I sure can tell you I won't being doing this one three more times!  What was I thinking?!?!


I love this picture and I was inspired by the gold, red and green as you can tell by my card.  Make sure you head over to 'Tis the Season HERE to see how the other designers were inspired by this photo.  If you get a chance we'd love to have you play along too.




Even though my card is a CAS card it wasn't simple to make.  Actually it wasn't difficult, it was just time consuming!!  I used Stampin' Ups! Delicate Ornaments Thinlits Dies and cut one out of Whisper White, another out of Cherry Cobbler and the last one out of Garden Green.  I then used VersaMark and stamped it all over the Whisper White ornament, covered it with gold embossing powder and of course used the heat gun on it.  Then I cut out a solid ornament in Whisper White with that same shape, covered the whole piece with Stampin' Glue Stick and put the gold ornament over the top of the white solid ornament.  The next part is what took SO long!  I popped out the pieces of the red and green ornament and put them into the gold ornament and they would stick because of the glue stick on the solid white ornament piece underneath.  I started from the middle and worked my way out deciding as I went along what color I would put in next.  I did NOT punch all the little pieces out of the red and green ornaments right away, but instead took the ones I needed for the color I was working on.  That means I only popped out between two and four at a time.  Have fun figuring out that puzzle if you pop them all out at once! lol  


Thanks for looking and have a great day!
Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card:

Tweezers!

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Updated Picture Tutorial of Watercolor Wonderland

Since 'Tis the Season is running for three weeks because of Thanksgiving I created another card to go with our sketch.  My other card was pretty clean and simple.  This card is clean but was not quite as simple!  


I've really enjoyed seeing other creative ladies post card after card of beautiful water colored scenes, so I've been trying my hand at it off and on lately.  Since I'm a Stampin' Up! girl I've had to learn to make things work using their inks.  I'm ok with that, but I have a feeling if I ever try water coloring with water color paint or other stamping products it's going to be a lot different! 


Head over to 'Tis the Season HERE to check out all the fun Christmas cards created with this sketch.  If you get a chance we'd love to see what you create!  Plus it's not too long and you'll need to be sending out your Christmas cards...yikes!!


I think this card makes a good masculine Christmas card and I already have someone in mind that I'll be sending it too. :)


Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click 
on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!


Updated Picture Tutorial


I made three samples this time around as I was trying to make this tutorial.  I took picture of two of them and you'll see all three at the end (but not on finished cards).


I started with a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper cut to size and taped the edges of the piece to a folded piece of paper towel.  I use tape to give the picture a  framed look, but don't always use it.  I think it's best to use painter's tape, but I didn't have any on hand so I used masking tape.


I used a sticky note cute to shape on my first sample to start my first hill.  Sorry it's so blurry!  None of the pics turned out of thise! :(  I used my aqua painter and wet the top panel. I wanted it pretty wet so the ink would flow easily.




I started with Pool Party, then added Night of Navy while it was still wet.  You can see that I pulled off the panel at this point while it was still wet.  I don't know why, but if you do that do it carefully if you want to keep your clean line.


This is the second sample I made.  I didn't use a sticky note panel, but instead just wet where I wanted to put my sky.  The shape is similar to my first panel.  


I started with Pool Party and took a picture before I added in more color. :)  This shows you how wet my watercolor paper is!



While the Pool Party was still wet I added Night of Navy.  I dabbed it in and let it spread on its own.  I added more Night of Navy as I needed to make it a little darker.

I waited for both of my samples to dry completely (or I might have used my heat tool to dry it faster!).  Once it's dry put your sticky note back on so you can start stamping your trees. You can see just a little gap between the sky and sticky note.  I did this because just that little extra layer of paper makes it so you can't stamp right on the edge because it bumps up a little.  It makes sense once you try it if you don't know what I mean! ;)  I used the trees from the set Wonderland and inked them with Old Olive and Mossy Meadow classic stampin' pads.  Sometimes when I stamped I used both colors on the stamp at one time and sometimes I just used one or the other color.  Once the stamp was inked I spritzed it a couple of times with water.  I wanted the trees to bleed a little once I stamped them (I wanted them to look like they were watercolored even though they were stamped!).  



I reinked the pad, spritzed it and stamped again until I had the amount of trees I wanted.



This is my second sample.  Even though I didn't have a sticky note when I did the sky I did cut one to fit my shape before I stamped my trees.  Notice I don't have the space like I did on the first one and the tree farthest to the left doesn't go all the way down...it's floating! lol  That's what I was trying to explain earlier about leaving a bit of a gap.



Back to the first sample.  I didn't take pics of the steps on this one, but as you can see I added a lot of color.  I started with Pool Party and added in a touch of Night of Navy.  You can see that I added a bit more Night of Navy under the trees while the paper was still pretty wet because it bled downward. The second sample below shows the steps a little more.  Just keep in mind each picture you paint is going to be unique!



You can block off the bottom (I did in the first sample, just didn't show it).  In the second sample you can see where it's wet because it's shiny, but I didn't block it off.



I started with Pool Party again.  As you can see I applied more color at the bottom of the hill. And of course it doesn't look like I have a pic of when I added in some Night of Navy.  Just add it in wherever you'd like.  For the most part I let it do it's own thing.



Sample number one again...Once your watercolor paper is completely dry it's time to add in some more trees.  It's basically a repeat of everything we've done so far.  Cover up the bottom with a sticky note, ink up your stamp, spritz it with water and stamp it on your card (I have another floating tree down there! lol)  Do this until you have enough trees or you're sick of doing it. ;)



Same sample as above, but I've added a little more blue to the sky.  I really like how my original card has a big difference in the sky.  I wanted to add that same look to the rest of my samples.  They sure did turn out differently!  You can see that I hit the top of most of my trees and they started to bleed when I tried it.  Don't let that bother you...it is supposed to have that watercolored look, plus it makes it unique.  
You can also see that I've wet the bottom of the card so I can add my last little hill.  And of course I've already blended Pool Party and Night of Navy on the paper.

Back to the second sample.  If you remember from earlier you see that I've only added Pool Party on the hill.  Now you can see that I've added in Night of Navy too.  I needed the floating tree to get back on the ground too so I used Night of Navy to help me with that. Right now the whole painting doesn't look very nice, but with the trees added on it will be just fine. :)  You can see I've added a sticky not once again before I added the trees.  I had to cut a little notch in this one because my water bled a little out of my original lines, but I went with it.



I've added my trees and the little tree fits perfectly into the notch. :)  And once again I forgot to take a picture, but I went ahead and wet the bottom part, then added Pool Party and Night of Navy.  
Once your painting is completely dry you can carefully peel of the masking tape...remember carefully! :)

Here are all three samples that I made.  The bottom two are the ones I showed my steps with and the top one is the final one I made.  I love that they're each unique and yet similar. :)  



One little trick I do to make them flat again if they warp is to run them through my big shot using an embossing folder.  Instead of putting it inside like I normally do, I put it under the embossing folder between the two plates.  Works like a charm every time! :)  I hope you enjoyed my picture tutorial!  If you have any questions just let me know and I'll try to answer them if I can. :)

Sara

Supplies used on this card:


Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Silent Sleigh Ride

It's Thursday so that means I have another Christmas card for you.  How are you all doing on your Christmas card stash?  I'm not doing as well as I should be since I'm only making one card each time I post instead of four!  I need to get busy or my Christmas list is going to shrink drastically this year! 

Anywhoo...today's card is inspired by 'Tis the Season's color challenge of vanilla, coral, blue and razzleberry.  Wow was this a hard combo for me!  I'm not a big fan of orange and blue together at all (sorry Tigers' Fans!).  I paired up a couple of different blues and oranges and picked Calypso Coral and Marina Mist.  As you can tell I did NOT mix them, but used just a touch of the coral to outline my blue and razzleberry sky that I brayered.  I used vanilla cardstock to finish out my fourth color and am very pleased with the result. :)  Oh, I can't forget to add that I used liquid frisket to get the starry/snowy look in the sky.  I love using this stuff for that effect, but wow does it stink! lol  


Head over to 'Tis the Season HERE to be inspired by our design teams' Christmas cards.  So many different ideas using these colors.  Love seeing what everyone comes up with each time.  We'd love to see how you use these colors too so play along and build that Christmas card stash! :)



I have to admit I think the card looks prettier in person.  In the picture the sky almost looks dark blue or purple.  I guess the top is purple, but here it looks more like eggplant when it's really a razzleberry.  Does that make any sense? lol



Thanks for looking and have a great day!
Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies use on this card:

Liquid Frisket


Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog



Thursday, October 15, 2015

JOY

I never thought I'd use the ink color Sahara Sand for a Christmas card, but his week over at 'Tis the Season Christmas card challenge we have an inspiration challenge.  Of course I don't have a barn, fence or ice skates stamp so I was inspired more by the hazy, snowy look and came up with my card idea based on that.  I guess I used the color from the the barn and skates for my snow instead of the hazy, snowy color...does that even make sense? lol  I like how it turned out though since it's so different than the normal Christmas card. :)


Head over to 'Tis the Season HERE to see what this picture inspired the rest of the team to create.  Show us how you're inspired too.  We'd love to see what you create!




Have you had a chance to pull out this new set Happy Scenes from Stampin' Up's! Holiday Catalog.  This is the first time for me!  It's good for most seasons and a couple of holidays. :)  It also goes with the Hearth & Home framelit.  Plus it's a set for fall, Halloween, Christmas, winter and spring...you can't beat that! :)  


Thanks for looking and have a great day!
Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card:

"joy" retired from Snowflake Card Thinlits Die

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Christmas Wonderland

It's a Christmas Wonderland today on my blog.  Well it kind of looks like a starry night too and that's what it is...starry and/or snowy.  Whatever you'd like it to be. :)  This week we have a great sketch to work with at 'Tis the Season Christmas card challenge blog.  I had an idea and ran with it, but I wasn't quite as happy with it as I had hoped to be so I took something simple and (of course) had to make it a bit more complicated! lol


This is our sketch for the week.  It's pretty basic and simple.  Trust me it really is!  I just like to complicate things for some reason when I make cards! I NEED to learn to make CAS cards every now and then.
   

Make sure you head over to 'Tis the Season HERE to check out all the great Christmas cards made using this sketch.  It's so fun to see such a variety of cards made from the same sketch.  We'd love to have you play along too!  You know you'll be making your cards sooner or later...and sooner is much better than later! ;)

Sorry  I have so many pics on here.  I just know I love to check out different pictures, 
so I'm hoping you do to. :)  






So which color is  your favorite?  We all agree at my house on one color in particular.  Wow, we all agree on the same thing?  That doesn't happen very often!  Anyway I'd love to hear from you letting me know which color you like the best.  






Thanks for looking and have a great day!
Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on cards:

Used on ALL cards...

Beautiful Season (retired set) & Scallop Edge Border Punch (retired)

Liquid Frisket


Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Inks used on Night of Navy Card:


Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Inks used on Elegant Eggplant Card:


Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Inks used on Blackberry Bliss Card:


Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog