Inkspirational: Snow

Happy Saturday! Here we are, getting closer and closer to Christmas (and the end of 2020, woo hoo!) and the new Inkspirational challenge is perfect for those last few Christmas cards - or for other winter themes. Our word prompt is SNOW. I decided on a snowy night scene: 

The background panel is blended with blue and purple distress inks, and when dry, I added the snowflakes with a stencil and white paper glaze. While that dried, I cut two hillsides (for just that tiny bit of extra dimension), coloured the window with a pale yellow Copic, and inset it back into the house. A simple sentiment and a die cut snowflake were the only other additions.

I'm adding this card to two December STAMPlorations challenges: Clean and Simple Cards (without the optional colours, obviously) and the Stencil challenge. I'm also linking up to my friend Jo's Christmas Kickstart challenge: Peace on Earth. 

Beautiful snowy inspiration from the Inkspirational team as always! I hope you will be inspired to join us. 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, Technique Tuesday Jingle All the Way stamp, Simon Says Stamp intense black, Catherine Pooler juniper mist & shaded lilac, faded jeans & chipped sapphire distress ink, Simon Says Stamp falling snow stencil, Picket Fence snowdrop white paper glaze, CUTplorations winter stitched landscape & Sunny Studio Stamps snowflake die, Copic marker

 

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12 Tags of Christmas: Here Comes Santa Claus

Christmas tags. Obviously, I'm obsessed. :D Anyway, here I am with a tag for Day 3 of Ellen Hutson's 12 Tags of Christmas 2020, Day 3's song is Here Comes Santa Claus. Since I have a stamp set called Santa Claus Lane, it seemed an obvious choice:

I decided to make an interactive tag. To start, I ink-blended my tag base with distress inks, and after it was dry, added some white-embossed snowflakes. Santa and his sleigh are stamped, embossed, coloured with Copic markers, and die cut. I thought it would be fun to make Santa a separate tag that could come out of his sleigh. 

For even more fun, I stamped a sentiment on the reverse: 

That's it for this tag! There may still be more... 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, Sunny Studio Stamps Santa Claus Lane stamps & dies, Stampin' Up Visions of Santa & Concord & 9th Stocking Stuffers stamps, Versafine onyx black, Memento tuxedo black, & broken china, blueprint sketch & chipped sapphire distress inks, Wow clear gloss & white embossing powder, Copic markers, silver metallic Sharpie, Sugar Pea Designs beautiful Bauble die, Michaels ribbon, Twinery maraschino twine

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12 Tags of Christmas: The Little Drummer Boy

Another tag for Ellen Hutson's The 12 Tags of Christmas challenge! Day 2 features the song The Little Drummer Boy. I knew right away what I would use! 

Since I had already used this image for the 25 Days of Christmas Tags, I wanted to make a completely different tag this time. I embossed the drum set in gold on black cardstock. The two patterned paper circles are from an ancient Echo Park patterned paper pad - this drum might be a little truer to the song. ;) Since I like things clean and simple, the only other addition is the gold cord. 

Supplies: Recollections black cardstock, Echo Park This & That patterned paper, Essentials by Ellen Twelve Days stamp, Versamark ink, pirate's gold embossing powder, Technique Tuesday This Is tag die, circle punch, scrap gold cord

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Ellen Hutson's 12 Days of Christmas... Tags?!

Hey! It's been an entire week since I last posted a tag! And while you would think I would have had my fill of tags in November, I couldn't resist making a tag for Day One of Ellen Hutson’s 12 Tags of Christmas 2020 Challenge. Each day, there will be a Christmas carol or song to prompt tag-making, along with inspiration from EH designers. Day 1's song is "Silver Bells". I went for both the title bells and the "Christmas time in the city" lyric: 

I had already made a cityscape mask for this card earlier, so I used it again to blend a city glow and night sky on a circle tag. Some homemade Perfect Pearls mist dots added snow to the sky. The sentiment is from one of the first Essentials by Ellen sets! My jingle bells are trying to look gold in the photos, but they really are silver bells. ;) 

Will I make more tags? Time will tell... :D 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, Essentials by Ellen Tis the Season stamp, Memento tuxedo black & Catherine Pooler sauna, stone blue & juniper mist ink, Avery Elle circle tag & MFT skyline border dies, white confetti Perfect Pearls mist, Offray navy ribbon, American Crafts white twine, $ store jingle bells

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ABC Christmas Challenge: Y and Z!

This is it! December has arrived, and that means we are at the last two letters of the ABC Christmas Challenge alphabet: Y and Z. Let's begin with Y for Your Favourite Things: 

I picked a couple of real life favourite things - the colour red, cats, and two favourite cardmaking things - heat embossing and watercolouring. This Penny Black stamp is an oldie but goodie, and provided a large Santa hat for my red. I used an alphabet stamp set for my ho ho ho - much easier than trying to mask a one piece ho ho ho stamp! 

Our second prompt this month is Z for Zzzzz... This seemed like the perfect theme to combine with the current Christmas Kickstart challenge: Twas the Night Before Christmas! 

Oh look, another cat! I did actually consider a sleeping dog, but he was a little too big for the rest of the scene.  The scene is made up of stamps from two different MFT sets, and the background and sentiment are patterned paper. A little Copic colouring and everything came together quite easily. 

I'm also entering this into the current The Library Challenge - it's The Night Before Christmas, but I'm inspired by the theme, not the book cover. (And we librarians know it's really called A Visit From St. Nicholas...) ;) 

Perhaps the two letter prompts and the beautiful work of the rest of the ABC design team will be just what you need to get those last few cards done! You have right until the end of the year to join us. 

Supplies: (ho ho ho) Stampin' Up garden green cardstock, Ranger distress watercolour paper, Penny Black Jolly Xmas Kitty & Lawn Fawn Claire's ABC stamps, Versafine onyx black & Memento Luxe love letter ink, Hero Arts sparkle embossing powder, Gansai Tambi watercolours, Spectrum Noir clear sparkle pen, Glossy Accents; (twas the night before) Neenah white & Recollections dark red cardstock, Pink Paisley Snow Village & Teresa Collins Santa's List patterned papers, MFT Merry Christmoose & I Knead You stamps & dies, Memento tuxedo black ink, Copic markers, icicle Stickles, Spectrum Noir sparkle marker, foam tape

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Color Hues: Blue and Magenta

Welcome to a new Color Hues challenge! Our latest colour duo is BLUE and MAGENTA. I'm finding this challenge is quite educational! I know what colour I think of as magenta, but when it came time to plan my card, I decided to double check, and magenta can be quite lighter in hue than I would normally think it, and also darker, closer to a purple. But then I discovered I had an ink called magenta, and I was all set! 

Since my magenta ink was a Colorbox pigment ink, I now also know how nicely pigment inks blend! I used magenta and peony, along with two blue distress inks for my sky. Originally I was going to make a birch tree scene, but then at the last minute totally changed my mind and created this paper-pieced, hot-beverage-drinking bear. (His cheeks and ears aren't pink, they're just a really pale shade of magenta... :D) Even the not-blue stripe in my plaid paper worked! 

There is a gorgeous array of blue and magenta creations on the Color Hues blog - some are Christmas (it is December now, after all) but there are a few other occasions represented, too. Feast your eyes, and then I hope you'll join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, Koh-In-Oor smooth Bristol paper, Echo Park Winter Wishes patterned paper,  MFT Cool Day & Bitty Bears stamps, Versafine onyx black, Simon Says Stamp extreme black, Colorbox magenta & peony, & faded jeans & chipped sapphire distress inks, Hero Arts clear sparkle embossing powder, MFT diagonal stitched rectangle die, icicle Stickles, foam tape

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