Here is my entry into the Say It In….Black and White Challenge over at Annabelle’s Stamps blog. Black and white are very bold and striking colours to work with and so why not make a Christmas card seeing that my new Hero Arts Decorative Ornament stamp only arrived last week and I haven’t had much of a chance to play with it.

I am also entering it into Challenge 14 at the Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog where you have to make a Christmas card, but the colours red and green cannot be seen!

My inspiration for this card came from Kath’s beautiful card over at her blog. Mine is not quite as refined, but you can see where my inspiration came from.

Here is a close up of the ornaments which I black embossed and then raised using foam dimensionals.

Supplies:

Stamps: Hero Arts Decorative Ornament, Hero Arts Friend Definition
Ink: Versafine Ink – Onyx Black, VersaMark Clear Ink
Card: Regal Craft Card (white horizontal single fold), White cardstock, black cardstock
Other Supplies: American Crafts Black embossing powder, heat gun, black ribbon, Kaisercraft pearls, Computer Font “Edwardian Script ITC”, Thin white ribbon, Foam dimensionals, glossy accents (to stick the white bows on with), black felt pen

Thanks for looking,

Update Nov-10

This card placed 2nd at Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog. My first ever win in blogland!

Hi there,

I have made a card for the Clean and Simple Stamping challenge – Fall to layout #113. The challenge is to use the following sketch.

Well I thought it would be really easy to get something happening – but it has been sooooo frustrating!! Nothing was coming together last night! But alas, after some sleep, a tidy up of my craft area and some peace and quiet, I managed to come up with the following – and I am quite happy with the results. I think I was trying to be too clever last night whereas I should have just stuck with clean and simple all along!!

I coloured in the butterflies with 3 shades of turquoise and then used gamsol. The white card is actually textured but this is a bit hard to see in the photos.

Supplies:

Stamps: Hero Arts Antique Engravings
Ink: Versafine Ink – Onyx Black
Card: Regal Craft Card (white textured single fold), Turquoise Bazzill card
Other Supplies: Prismacolor pencils, gamsol, stubbs, Kaisercraft pearls, TLC Quik words “thank you” rub on.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Hi there,

I have been playing around with the Hero Arts Scroll Tree stamp and have some up with this really simple card. It doesn’t show in the photos, but I spritzed the stamp with some Perfect Pearls first – so in real life it has some shimmer to the tree. I don’t usually decorate the inside of the card, but I am entering it into the latest Caardvarks challenge which is to make a card decorated inside and out. The challenge is sponsored by Penny Black.

Supplies:

Stamps: Hero Arts Scroll Tree, Hero Arts Classic Messages stamp
Ink: Versacolor Ink – Umber
Card: White cardstock, Brown Bazzill
Other Supplies: Kaisercraft pearls – pearl, chocolate, latte, brown ribbon, perfect pearls, mini mister

Until next time,

Hi,

Today’s card uses this cute little digi stamp from the Digistamp Boutique called Eric Dino – well actually ‘he’ became a ‘she’ and so I have called her Erica. Cute huh?

I have decided to enter her into two competitions – one over at the Digistamp Boutique in their October Competition and the other at The Papertake Weekly Challenge which I have recently come across. Their challenge is to create a card that incorporates 3 of something into your design – and I have 3 flowers to accompany Little Miss Erica.

Erica was coloured in with Copics and the flowers some Carl Craft daisy punches. I drew the stems and leaves myself. I also have finally bought some thickers as I have seen so many great cards lately using these stickers, so I thought I would give them a go and I like the results!

A close up of her plates, spots and eyes which have Glossy Accents on them but a bit hard to see in the photo).

Supplies:

Stamps: Eric the Dino from DigiStamp Boutique
Ink: Printer
Card: Regal Craft Card (white square single fold), White cardstock
Other Supplies: Copics, glossy accents, Carl Craft daisy punch (small and medium- which I punched onto white cardstock and coloured in with copics), Kaisercraft pearls, black felt pen, American Crafts Glossy Letter Thickers – Nutmeg, Weave Extras – Teeny Tiny letter stickers – 8mm black.

Thanks for looking,

Well I have finally finished my batch of 50 cards that I have been making for a Christian Bookshop…a mammoth effort but I am relieved it is done. Now to package it up and send it off.

Today I am sharing two of the last couple of cards that I made for the batch…a cute little bird stamp and sentiment stamp that I grabbed for a song off Ebay a while back (I think someone was having a craft room clean out!). I made two different versions of the card as I like to experiment!!

The patterned paper behind this one was originally green leaves with a white background, but it was too white, so I used Bamboo Verscolor ink  and a sponge dauber to ink it up a little.

I paper pieced the love heart paper from Kaisercraft onto the bird and used glossy accents on the egg and leaves.

Supplies:

Stamps: Bird on nest stamp – Savvy stamps, Birthday Sentiment – Inkadinkado
Ink: Versafine Ink (black onyx), Versacolor Ink (Bamboo)
Card/Paper: Regal Craft Card (white square single fold), White cardstock, dotty green cardstock (not sure which brand but I LOVE it – it has embossed dots on it), Kaisercraft Patterned paper – Sugar Cookie (bird), Paper Chic by Cristina Re patterned paper (leaves background)
Other Supplies: Prismacolor pencils, Gamsol, stubbs, sheer ribbon, foam dimensionals, sponge daubers, glossy accents, black felt pen, Kaisercraft gems

The layout for my second version was inspired by this little cutie card by Kerry over at her blog – A Load of Old Pickle. I really love the simplicity of her cards and because of her I have become a fan of faux stitching as it is easier than getting out my sewing machine!!

And as you can see, more flowers and bows on the card, thanks to Jennifer McGuire’s great video instruction which can be found here.

Supplies:

Stamps: Bird on nest stamp – Savvy stamps, Birthday Sentiment – Inkadinkado
Ink: Versafine Ink (black onyx)
Card/Paper: Regal Craft Card (white square single fold), White cardstock, Dark Green Bazzill, Dotty green card (not sure which brand but I LOVE it – it has embossed dots on it), Kaisercraft Patterned paper – Sugar Cookie (bird),
Other Supplies: Prismacolor pencils, Gamsol, stubbs, brown twine, thin white ribbon, Kaisercraft green flowers, S.E.I button, foam dimensionals, sponge daubers, glossy accents, black felt pen, Kaisercraft gems

Until next time…