WWC234 - Dawn's "All About Occasions" Challenge

I love our "All About Occasions" challenges.  This week Dawn is our host and I've decided to create a Christmas card since I don't want to get into a frantic state when it's time to write my cards, only to discover I haven't enough for everyone on my list.  (Isn't this year just speeding along?)

I fell in love with the sweet images from the Wildly Happy stamp set.  And while I love all the animal images, the fox is closest to my heart.  And so I began by stamping the foxes onto a piece of Heavy Whisper White cardstock, using my Memento ink.  While I was colouring the images with my Stampin' Blends, I was also considering what I would do with them.  Would I cut them out?  Would I create a dark background and add some falling snow?  I don't always have a definite plan in mind but go where my thoughts lead me.

Well, once the images were coloured to my satisfaction, I decided to colour the complete background black, carefully skirting the images without taking away any details.  I had a piece of the wonderful, retired Wood Textures DSP on my table and that inspired me to use it as my background.  As you can see, it's the pile of firewood.  I carefully cut out several of the pieces of firewood, leaving a "cave" or den for my little fox family.  As it happened, the black background I had given them worked out beautifully.  I also took some of the Designer Paper scraps and created a second layer of them, making the foxes appear further inside.

Then I cut two pieces of Shimmery White cardstock to make it appear like snowdrifts at the bottom of the wood piles.  I used the Puffy Snow to outline the drifts and also to "cap" a lot of the pieces of firewood.  After using my heat tool to dry and puff up the snow, I added a shadow of Seaside Spray along the snowdrift using my AquaPainter.  Then I stamped a retired sentiment, Silent Night, onto a piece of Whisper White using Seaside Spray ink and added that to the upper right logs.

I used a base of Heavy Whisper White for this card and absolutely love the results, 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:

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #54 - Anything Christmas Goes

Crimbo Crackers Challenge #190 - Anything Christmas Goes

WWC217 - Michelle's Masculine "Anything Goes" Challenge

How serendipitous it is that this week's challenge is for a masculine card and I need one for my brother-in-law's birthday!  Finally, I get to use that gorgeous Let It Ride stamp set.

My brother-in-law loves horses and the great outdoors.  What better way to use some of the images from this set than to create a watercolour background and then carefully do my stamping?  I used a combination of Soft Suede and Crumb Cake inks for the mountains.  Then I added some Balmy Blue for the water and, finally, some Mossy Meadow for the grass.  Once that had dried, I stamped the trees using Mossy Meadow and then stamped the image again just to the side of the first stamping without re-inking.  The darker and lighter trees add depth to the background.

I stamped the horses using Basic Grey ink.  To colour them in, for the one on the far left, I used a combination of Crumb Cake and Sahara Sand and for the one on the right, I used Grey Granite.  To finish up, I sponged the edges using a combination of Soft Suede and Crumb Cake.

My base is Early Espresso followed by a layer of that lovely and sadly retiring Wood Textures Designer Series Paper.  I love how the colours work together for this card, 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:

Stinkin' Inkers Challenge Blog:  Lovely As A Tree

Dragonfly Dreams Challenge - Inclue an Animal

Dare 2 B Artzy April Challenge - Animals

Crafty Creations Challenges #388 - Anything Goes

WWC213 - Karen's Masculine "Anything Goes" Challenge

I bought a new stamp from Impression Obsession and I believe I'm obsessed.  In the course of a week I've made three cards with it.  Each time I've made one, I've thought of a different way I could have used it.  Oh yes, it is definitely obsession.  Luckily it works perfectly for our challenge this week which is a Masculine "Anything Goes", hosted by Karen.

For my first card I had the idea of giving it a wood-burning sort of style.  I used a light coloured pattern from the gorgeous Wood Textures Designer Series Paper and stamped the image using Soft Suede.  I heat dried that to really set the ink and then used my AquaPainter to lightly add some Crumb Cake, Soft Suede and Early Espresso to the image to add to the wood-burned style of it.  Once I was satisfied, I ripped around the perimeter and proceeded to sponge the raw edges as well as distress them.  I love the aged look it gave the paper, don't you?

For my base I used Early Espresso and used the retired Wood Grain embossing folder on the front.  I added a layer of the Wood Textures DSP in a slightly darker shade, but which coordinated with the stamped piece.  I'm really happy with the rustic, vintage style of it.

A couple of days later I just had to try it again on another piece of the Wood textures DSP, but this time I chose a white birch look.  The shabby white-washed piece was perfect to stamp on with my Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  It had the same tone as the distressed part of the patterned paper, but slightly lighter.  After stamping, I didn't add any colours but instead, used my distressing tools on the edges to make the stamped piece look old and shabby.

I used the retired White Naturals cardstock as my base and a piece of Soft Suede as the matte.  In the top left corner I added a stamped and die-cut fly-fishing hook from the Best Catch bundle and, after colouring it in neutrals, attached it over a piece of linen thread.

I like the look of that hook in the corner, don't you?  It finishes the card off quite nicely.

And then I got the bright idea to stamp the image on Whisper White cardstock using my Black Memento ink.  After that had dried nicely, I got to work colouring the image using my Faber-Castell coloured pencils and Gamsol.  For this one, I used a base of Heavy Whisper White and then double-matted with Gray Granite and Basic Black.

So you can see what's kept me busy this past week.  I had to satisfy my obsession so that I could begin thinking about other stamps.

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:

Incy Wincy Designs Challenge - For the Men and Boys

Dare 2 B Artzy March Challenge - Anything Goes