HLS December Watercolour Challenge - With an Optional Twist of Stencil

I don't usually think of watercolouring and stencils together, but I know quite a few people do.  Time for me to try something different.  For this, I turned to a beautiful stencil by Tim Holtz called Holly Bough.

I have this wonderful die which has words creating a Christmas tree.  Under those words are a number of gift boxes.  Well, I didn't want to use those gift boxes and so, once I had made my die-cut out of Basic Black cardstock, I carefully snipped away all but those words.  Then I took a piece of Mixed Media paper and watercoloured six "stripes" all stacked on top of each other so that each would show under a separate word.  Once that was dry, I glued on the die-cut of black words over the colours.  For the star on top, I die-cut it once more from Gold Foil and glued the gold star inside the hollow star.

But the optional twist for this challenge is stencil, right?  Well for that I turned to the Tim Holtz stencil and added a holly twig to the top left and bottom right corners, using my Call Me Clover and Real Red inks and an Aqua Painter.  The woody part is Soft Suede ink and finishes it off nicely, doesn't it?

I tried several colours of cardstock as my base but to my eye the Basic Black suited it best.  I love the way it echoes the black word tree in the centre.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

I hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers October Watercolour Challenge with the optional twist of stencil.

Fun With a Sketch - Season's Tweetings

I was "cruising" around the challenges and found a sketch that appealed to me.  It was perfect for the very first ever Lawn Fawn bundle that I've bought.

Those little birds look so happy that I can almost hear them tweeting their joyous little songs, can't you?  I kept it simple, stamping the sentiment towards the top using the gorgeous Blueberry Bushel ink and then stamped the branch towards the bottom using Early Espresso ink.  I stamped the birds onto the branch and then stamped them again on a scrap piece of Whisper White.  Then I stamped the little musical notes above the birds.

I coloured the little birds using my AquaPainter and Balmy Blue.  Once that was dry, I used my Stampin' Markers to colour the earmuffs, scarf and beaks.  After cutting the birds out with their respective dies, I mounted them on top of their stamped images using Dimensionals.  Finally I cut out several leaves from the pretty Granny Apple Green and glued them in place using Tombo.

I've entered this card into the Paper Craft Crew Card Sketch Challenge #315 since it inspired the card.

I've also entered it in:

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #41 - Anything Christmas

Lawn Fawnatics Challenge #41

HLS November ATC Challenge - Optional Twist "Sew"

I haven't done a lot of sewing lately because (surprise, surprise) my sewing room is overflowing.  It's on my list of "to be sorted and de-cluttered".  That will happen after my crafting room has been organized.  It doesn't look too good for either being completed for quite some time since I'm always allowing myself to be side-tracked with other projects and, well, you know, Life itself.

So the ATC (Artists' Trading Card) will not be including any real sewing.  But isn't that what the wonderful stitched dies are for?  I'm sure it is the reason behind the sheer variety of stitching on all these dies I've bought.  For this project the "wonky" stitched rectangle dies came to mind.  Perfect, I thought, and went forward happily with my card.

I chose all the colours after decided to use that lovely piece of "gingham" patterned paper in my background.  I love that floral calico pattern and pulled the Pool Party and Daffodil Delight colours for my two stitched rectangles.  The stitched circle with the sentiment was also pulled from the background and is Night of Navy.  I finished off by mounting everything on a base of Soft Suede cardstock and then stamped the antique dress form onto a scrap of cardstock using Soft Suede.  After cutting it out, I mounted it onto the ATC using Dimensionals.  And there you have it.  My ATC for this month is done.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you will pop over and see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month for our ATC November Challenge with its theme of "Sew".

HLS November Anything Goes With Dies Challenge - Merry Christmas

It's fun getting new dies and, of course, it's hard not to use them immediately.  Well, for my November challenge I was able to use a set of brand new dies from Holland.  It's a simple set containing two evergreens laden with snow and a moose.  Well, I wanted that moose because, well, here in Canada moose are a big deal.  Along with the beaver, the moose is one of the animals with which we kind of identify ourselves.  But that's another story.  This is about the card.

As you can see from the die-cut trees, these dies also emboss and so there is a lot of wonderful texture on the trees.  I used a lovely piece of retired designer paper for my background and also used a stitched snowdrift die to anchor my trees and moose.  While the moose isn't embossed, I love the way the silhouette shows so well against the softer blues and whites.  I mounted my scene on a Matte of the retired Lost Lagoon cardstock and then onto a base of Whisper White.  The sentiment is simply stamped on the snow drift using Lost Lagoon ink.  I love the results, don't you?

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers November Anything Goes With Dies Challenge.

HLS November Christmas Challenge - With a Twist of CAS

There are so many way in which one can make a CAS (clean and simple) card.  The one thing to keep in mind is that there should be a good deal of white (or empty) space on the card.  For this challenge I decided to turn to a lovely retired stamp which I love to colour, the Watercolor Winter set.

This is a beautiful set of images.  I stamped the Poinsettia first and then masked it to add the holly branch and the fir branch.  Colouring was easy using my Watercolour Pencils.  I really wasn't sure about adding some background colour but, in the end, I did.  And once I did, there was no going back.  I think it would have cleaner lines without, but that's second-guessing myself.  All in all, I'm happy with the simplicity, keeping it all one layer and then adding that layer to the base.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

Hope you'll pop over to see what my Team Mates have created and come join us this month at our Happy Little Stampers November Christmas Challenge with the optional twist of CAS.