WWC330 - Heidi's Challenge: All About Occasions

Photographing glitter is a royal pain!  My eyes pick up all the  glittery areas and the nuances of colour but neither my camera(s) nor phone can manage the same.  Clearly we have a way to go in attempting to match the human eye.

Why am I so hung up on glitter, you ask.  Well this card is actually all about glitter.  After all, the sentiment says the snow is sparkling like a million suns and my attempt here is to show exactly that. 

With the bright sunshine today and angled slightly, the card does show some of the sparkle.  I decided to have the bird appear to be standing on a snowball using the puffy white snow pen and then covering it with a combination of Shimmery Crystal Effects and a dab of Dazzling Details.  After stamping the sled, sentiment and bird with the StudioLight images, I turned to the Stampin' Up! images for the branches and bunny (stamped, coloured and fussy-cut before adhering it with foam Dimensionals).  The rest is freehand watercolour for my sunrise, snowy fields and shadows.

I plopped the card into one of my plants where the sun hit it directly, hoping to get more of the shine.

But I think there is more shine without the direct rays hitting the card, don't you?  This is an oversized card with a finished size of 6 1/4 inches by 5 inches.  I wanted the additional room to show off the pretty snowflake patterned paper.

Have fun checking out our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge and I hope you'll link your creation before the deadline on Monday, December 13th, 2021.

I've also entered my card at the following challenges:

Lemon Shortbread Challenge #159 - Anything Goes

Try It On Tuesday - Winter Wonderland

Simon Says Monday Challenge - Sparkle Mode

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge (CHNC) - Anything Christmas

WWC301 - Dawn's Challenge: All About Occasions

With Christmas a bit over two weeks away (eek!), I had to make a Christmas card.  Of course it features the adorable House-Mouse images.  Even with all the other gorgeous stamps I own, this year I'm drawn to the sweet and funny ones.  The ones with a bit of animated magic.  The ones which make me smile.

The image by Ellen Jareckie is called "Squirrel Singers".  I love the combination of realism and fantasy.  As always, I checked to see what colours would be best for a squirrel and the pine tree.  The mice have their own, individual colours, set by Ellen.  I love that each one is a little bit different, not just in size, but also in colour.  This time I turned to my Derwent watercolour pencils since I have a large selection and was able to get all the colours for this scene.  I love how the Aqua Painter brings the colours to life after I've pencilled them in.

I was happy to find this lovely Christmas coloured tartan paper in my stash.  It sets off the colours in my little scene perfectly, doesn't it?                                                                                  

 I've taken this photo at a slight angle so that the candle flames caught more light.  After everything was dry, I covered the flames with some Shimmery Crystal Effects.  Once that had dried, I added a second layer.  It gives the flames substance and a 3-D effect.  I love it!

Have fun checking out our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge and I hope you'll link your creation before the deadline on Monday, December 14th.

I've also entered my card in the following challenges:

HM&FMC #330 - Anything Goes

Simon Says Monday Challenge Blog - Favorite Technique (watercolouring)

Crafty Animals Challenge #45 - Must Have Animals

Lemon Shortbread Challenge #134 - Anything Goes

WWC279 - Helen's Challenge: All About Occasions

I'm so glad this challenge is All About Occasions!  I'm ready to begin building up my Christmas card stash and what a perfect way to begin, with those adorable little House Mouse designs.

I began with a base of Heavy Whisper White cardstock and then added a lovely die-cut matte of Garden Green.  I stamped the adorable Ellen Jareckie House Mouse image onto a piece of Mixed Media paper and then proceeded to colour it using my fabulous Derwent Watercolour Pencils.  Because I decided those little Christmas lights should be lit, I added a light wash of colour around each bulb.  You can just see it on the paper and  beside the bulb, but this is the way the colour would naturally spread.  After colouring the image, I took the next smaller die and cut out the image with it so that it would fit perfectly inside that green matte.

I added a layer of the Shimmery Crystal Effects to the Christmas Lights and some silver to the end of the pencil.  You can see that more easily with the slight angle of this photo.

For the inside, I inked up only the one Christmas bulb and stamped it in the upper left corner.  Then, after watercolouring, I added some Shimmery Crystal Effects to the bulb as well.  The sentiment is from an old, retired set which I've kept simply for the assortment of sentiments. 

I love the way the card turned out and hope you do, too.  Have fun checking out our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge and I hope you'll link your creation before the deadline on Monday, July 13th.

I've also added my card to the following challenges:

HMFMC #320 - Anything Goes with the option of stitching

Shopping Our Stash #424 - Hanukkah/Christmas in July

Lemon Shortbread Challenge #123 - Anything Goes

Fezziwigs Festive Frolics - Anything Festive Goes

WWC269 - Fifth Week Anything Goes Challenge

April may be one of the shorter months but it has five Wednesdays which means we have an awesome Anything Goes Challenge.  I'll admit I thought about doing a special fold but then I got caught up in using one of my new Altenew stamps instead.

Isn't it gorgeous?  This set is called Dotted Blooms and has a coordinating die.  While I would have fussy cut the image, it was far easier using the die.  If you look closely, you'll see it's really just one image of a branch with flowers and buds.  I've stamped it twice and, having attached the branches at odd angles to each other, it almost looks like different stamps, doesn't it?

I began with a base of Heavy Whisper White and then a matte of Soft Suede cardstock.  On a piece of Strathmore Mixed Media paper, I played with water and the Distress Oxide Salty Ocean ink.  I've only used the one colour but layered it, sprayed it, and otherwise man-handled it until I was happy with the results for my background.

For the images, I used Toffee Versafine ink to stamp them twice and then used my heat tool to ensure the ink was totally set.  Then I used the filler stamps to set the first layer of colour into my flowers.  For one branch I used Calypso Coral and for the other branch I used Flirty Flamingo.  Then I used my AquaPainter to softly colour in the rest of the flower petals with the same ink.  To finish, I used my Soft Suede Stampin' Marker to colour in the stem.

After stamping the sentiment, I added a few sparkly embellishments to the card and also added some Shimmery Crystal Effects to the centres of the open flowers.

I love the way the card turned out and hope you do as well.  Have fun checking out our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge and I hope you'll link your creation before the deadline on Monday, May 4th.

I've also entered my card in the following challenges:

Lemon Shortbread Challenge #118 - Anything Goes

Artsystamper Digitals Challenge #14 - Springtime

Addicted to Stamps & More Challenge #387 - Make Your Mark

Simon Says Wednesday - Anything Goes 

WWC247 - Marsha's "All About Occasions" Challenge

I have a brand new House Mouse stamp that is perfect for our "All About Occasions" Challenge.  And this time I was able to "marry it up" with one of my favourite Stampin' Up! Specialty Designer Series papers, the Feels Like Frost.  I hope you love the results as much as I do!

Isn't that a fun image?  I love the way the mice appear to be swinging on top of those bells, hanging from the snow-laden branch above.  For this card I used a base of Heavy Whisper White and added a matte of Night of Navy.

I stamped the adorable little House Mouse image onto a piece of Mixed Media paper using my Stamparatus.  I left the paper attached with the magnets and proceeded to paint the bells using the Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint.  Once that had dried, I inked up the bell images again, avoiding the mice, and then stamped the lines back onto the bells.  I love the results, don't you?

I used the Stampin' Blends to colour the mice, the ribbons, and the details on the bells.  Of course I had to fussy cut the images and it was simply impossible to cut each hair that sticks out around those sweet mice.  I therefore used my Basic Black Stampin' Marker to ink only the hair around the mice and stamped that where I intended the images to be on the Designer Paper.  You can see how well that worked once they had been glued down.  It looks as if the entire image was stamped in one piece, doesn't it?

I also used the Shimmery Crystal Effects to add sparkle to the snow on those branches.  It adds more dimension, not to mention the pretty shimmer.

Since I had a strip of the Designer Paper left over, I used it inside the card, adding a wide strip to the left side and a very narrow strip to the right.  I think it makes a perfect border for the sentiment, don't you?

I hope you'll check out the wonderful creations by the Watercooler Artists over at our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.

I've entered my card into the following challenges:

House-Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge #304 - Anything Goes

Lemon Shortbread Challenge #106 - Anything Goes

Arty Divas Challenge #8 - Anything Goes

WWC244 - Helen's "All About Occasions" Challenge

Since our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge this week is "All About Occasions", I decided to use one of the adorable House-Mouse Designs stamp sets.  Of course it's all about Christmas this time.

I chose a base of Heavy Whisper White and then added a piece of retired Christmas DSP.  Then I cut a smaller piece of Soft Suede, just large enough to frame the stamped and coloured image of my adorable House-Mice.

The image is stamped on a piece of Mixed Media paper using Versafine Onyx black ink.  I intended to watercolour my images and so I needed my ink to be waterproof.  I used watercolour pencils and layered the pigment.  I love the results.  Each Mouse has its own colour and the shading turned out very well.  For my background I took my AquaPainter and used Balmy Blue ink.  It's soft but makes a nice background colour which doesn't "fight" with my other colours.

Of course I had to add a few additional touches.  Those berries, for example, just cried out for some shine and I gave it to them with the Shimmery Crystal Effects.  And the gold halo on our "holly angel" looks authentic with the addition of some Vegas Gold, doesn't it?

Finally, for the sentiment, I wanted something very small which wouldn't cut across my images.  I found just what I wanted in the retired Christmas Magic set.  I inked half the sentiment and stamped it in black.  Then I took the second half and stamped it on a scrap of Whisper White using black ink as well.  I used the retired tiny tag punch to cut it out and then attached it below the already stamped word on the card.  a tiny ribbon of baker's twine, and we're good to go.

It was really a labour of love working with this fun image.  I hope you enjoy the card as much as I enjoyed creating it.

I hope you'll check out the wonderful creations by the Watercooler Artists over at our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.

I've entered my card into the following challenges:

House-Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge - HMFMC #302 Anything Goes

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #58 - Anything Christmas Goes

Lemon Shortbread Challenge #105 - Anything Goes

Arty Divas Challenge #7 - Anything Goes

Crafty Creations Challenge #401 - Anything Goes

WWC236 - Heidi's "All About Occasions" Challenge

Guess what!  I'm hosting the challenge over at the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge this week.  And I decided to make a Christmas card using the stunning new Feels Like Frost Specialty Designer Series paper combined with the even more stunning new cardinal from the Toile Christmas stamp set.

I love the realism of the Designer paper, don't you?  It comes in a package of 6"x6" pieces with one side showing a gorgeous photographic image and the other side, a pattern in white with silver foil.  No matter which side you use, it's a win/win situation.  Of course, for this card I used the photographic image.  I though the icy branches and the bokeh effect would be a perfect backdrop for my wonderful Cardinal.  He really does show up wonderfully against those neutrals, doesn't he?

My base for this card is the very subtle Purple Posy since the background has some of that colour in it.  Then I added a matte of Basic Black and, of course the gorgeous DSP.  For my Cardinal, I looked up images on the Internet to get a good idea of colouring.  With my Koh-I-Noor coloured pencils and Gamsol, I layered the colours until it looked nearly life-like.  Then I used the matching die to cut him out.  First I thought I'd simple have him stand on a branch and then I changed my mind and used the banner in the stamp set, stamped on Highland Heather cardstock and cut with the matching die.  I thought that he looked great standing on that.  For a bit of added "bling", I die-cut a "swirly" piece of silver foil to go at the bottom of the banner.

In this close-up you can see the glittery ice-like Shimmery Crystal Effects which I added to several of the branches.  I love the way it sparkles subtly and gives the illusion of real ice.

I hope you'll check out the wonderful creations by the Watercooler Artists over at our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.

I've entered my card into the following challenges:

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #55 - Anything Christmas Goes

Cute N' Crafty Christmas Challenge #17 - Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps & More #356 - Anything Goes