Time for a Christmas Card!

It is practically October already, and I have been remiss in playing along at Muse: ChristmasVisions! I hope to remedy that, beginning today. The current Christmas muse is Chriss, with this sweet card: 

I took inspiration from the watercoloured background, the sentiment, and the white focal image in the bottom left corner. And while I love making polar bear cards, I went with a snowman image instead and ended up with this: 

Sure, I could have fussy-cut my snowman after colouring him, but I didn't. Besides, it more closely echoes the shape of the bear. :D I also could have added holly, to adhere to the song lyrics, but my snowman's a rebel and is hall-decking with ornaments instead. I did add some falling snow at the top of the card, as Chriss did, which is much easier to see in person than when photographing in almost-October light. Yes, I did already refer to October, but eek, it's almost October! This is only my fourteenth Christmas card of 2018! Time to get serious about this. ;) 
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge is Anything Goes, so my snowman is linking up there. And with a little snow and a chubby snowman, I'm also linking up to the current Let it Snow challenge at Jingle Belles. 
The current Muse challenge is open until Monday morning (or some other time, depending on where you live), so why not start making Christmas cards? 

Supplies: white cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, Craft Smith red card base, Unity Role Poly Winter Joy & WPlus9 Strictly Sentiments 6 stamps, Versafine Smoky Grey ink, Ranger clear & Hero Arts Sparkle embossing powders, Copic markers, sea spray Twinkling H2Os, Simon Says Stamp falling snow stencil, Dreamweaver glossy white embossing paste, MFT blueprints 24 stitched rectangle & Spellbinders circle dies, frosted lace Stickles, Glossy Accents

Birthday Travel!

It's time once again for a new Seize the Birthday challenge! 

Our optional *topping* for this new challenge is TRAVEL. As always, if our prompt doesn't immediately inspire you, we'd love to see any birthday card. 

My first thought involved a little café table with the Eiffel Tower in the background... looked awesome in my head and not so much on cardstock. So I strayed a little farther from the thought of a vacation in Paris, but kept the air travel for this: 

It was fun to pull out this airplane set, which I hadn't used in a long time. A little Copic colouring, a die cut skyline, and a sponged sky was all that was needed. Well, and a few die cut clouds, just to finish everything off. 
Since it's the end of the month (where'd you go, September?), I'm linking this to Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Anything Goes challenge. 
There are so many ways to interpret this challenge... for proof, check out the cards made by the rest of the design team, as well as our current surprise party guest, Marianne! 

Supplies: white, yellow, teal & Stampin' Up smokey slate cardstock, PTI Fly Away stamps & dies, Versafine onyx black, Memento Luxe love letter & tumbled glass distress inks, Ranger clear embossing powder, Copic markers, MFT skyline border & Paper Smooches cloud dies, MFT cloud stencil, Wink of Stella clear glitter brush pen, pop dot tape

Monsters!

Happy fall equinox, on my side of the planet! And happy start of spring, if you're on the other half. (I'm envious.) We have a brand new challenge starting at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers, that relates to autumn only in the sense that we're just over a month away from Halloween... M is for Monsters! I'm not sure Edna wants to look behind her right at the moment. :o 

I was in a tag-making mood when I tackled this challenge...

I'm a fan of monsters in purple, and I thought the purple metallic embossing with purple watercolour powder made this guy appropriately slimy-looking. While this stamp set comes with facial features to add to your monster, googly eyes seemed more fun. The background I made ages ago, when I was sponging some stencilled backgrounds and decided this one was best left for Halloween use. Spooky-eye ribbon and sparkly purple tinsel twine finish him off. So to speak — it would likely take more than a couple of bits of ribbon to finish him off if you met him in a dark alley. 

Whether or not Halloween is your thing, it's always fun to put a monster or two on a card! Check out the monstrous creations of the rest of the snarky sisters as well as our current Queen of Snark and guest designer, Sharon! Hope you'll join us for this monster challenge. 

Supplies: white cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, Hero Arts Build a Monster stamps, Versamark & carved pumpkin, twisted citron & wilted violet distress inks, metallic purple embossing powder, Magenta Nuance wisteria watercolour powder, Heidi Swapp polka dot stencil, American Crafts ribbon, Tim Holtz Idea-ology tinsel twine, $ store googly eyes, foam tape

Die Cut Birthday Wishes

It's a Thursday the 13th! As far as I know, there are no superstitions attached to this date when it falls on a Thursday... but it does mean there is a new Seize the Birthday challenge! 

Our always optional *topping* theme this time out is to use dies or punches in the creation of your birthday card. I realized after I made my cards for last challenge's rainbow theme that I'd inadvertently made two cards with die cutting but no stamping. Not only is that a rarity for me, but either one would have been perfect for today's new challenge. So I carried on with the theme and arrived at this: 

My die cutting includes the sentiment in white and black cardstock as well as black fun foam, and the stitched white panel. I coloured the words with Copic markers, placed them in an old saucer, and poured rubbing alcohol over them. This lightened the colours and allowed them to blend a bit. I realize the proper thing to do is buy Copic blending solution, but so far, I'm good with my drug store purchase. :D The before colouring: 

I inset the black die cut words into the white base, stuck the little bits of white back in (the insides of the Ps, for example) and then popped the fun foam-raised rainbow words a little bit down and to the right of the black for a shadow effect. 

The Seize the Birthday team would love to see any birthday cards you make! Be sure to check out what the rest of the team has made, as well as our newest surprise party guest, Marianne. 

Supplies: white & black cardstock, (?) happy & birthday word dies, MFT wonky stitched rectangle die, Copic markers, rubbing alcohol, black fun foam 

Don't LEAVE...

... after all, it's Saturday, and time for a new Snarky Stampers challenge! 

IT'S STILL SUMMER. Yet I realize, after Labour Day, with school back in session and cooler days and nights... thoughts turn to fall. But I'm not ready! Edna obviously is, however, considering Lee's great graphic and the new Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers theme: L is for LEAVES. I decided to bypass the whole obvious autumn inspiration and went straight for the fun part... Halloween:  

My cool dude jack-o-lantern is a combination of an Essentials by Ellen pumpkin and facial features from The Ink Road's Meow Mix set. I inked him with distress ink then used a paint brush to pull the ink from the stamping to colour the rest of the pumpkin. The leaves were coloured the same way. The background is made with a stencil, a whole lot of different distress inks, and a stencil brush. I like how the white web stands out against the background. 
While my card may have more attitude than snark, you can rest assured there is snark to be had on the Sisters blog! Be sure to check all the leafy creations, including that of our repeat queen, Lisa! I hope you'll join us.

Supplies: black cardstock, Bienfang bristol, Canson watercolour paper, Essentials by Ellen Got Candy? & Thankful stamps & dies, The Ink Road Meow Mix stamps, Versamark, Versafine onyx black & too many distress inks to list, Liquid glass & Hero Arts white embossing powder, ARTplorations cobweb stencil