Wonderful Time

I got two final Christmas cards made for 2023 today... although I plan to keep creating, and just add them to my stash for next year.  This is the Wonderful Time stamp set by Anita Jeram for Colorado Craft Company that my niece gifted me this fall!  I have a few of her sets, and really love them.  I pulled out my Copics, which was fun, as I haven't used them much lately.

Merry Stitchmas Trees

If you scroll down on my blog, you'll see a few stitched Christmas tags that I've made with the Spellbinder's Merry Stitchmas kit.  I also made up several different cards featuring some of the dies.  I thought that this three-part tree would lend itself better to being on a card rather than as a tag:

I got six of these made up!  Quick and easy to stitch, and I love them done with the metallic gold thread, and glitter paper as the trim.

Let It Snow

I really do love the snow... from the window of my Craft Room, LOL!  And I'm actually intimidated to paint it - but this year, Bonnie has done some fabulous snowy tutorials, and it's really made a difference for me.  My second project for the Art Impressions Watercolour Weekend, uses the new 5822 Rustic Christmas Set:

I positioned both the cabin and birdhouse from the set on the same block so that I could ensure that I got the perspective right, and that they were both straight - then stamped them on some smooth watercolour paper after colouring them in Tombows #969/565.  I then coloured the larger wreath from 5830 WC Mini Wreath Set in #249, and stamped it on the birdhouse.  After masking off the cabin, I added three trees using 5826 WC Large Tree Set 2 coloured in #249.

I painted a mix of #249/565 on the birdhouse, adding darker areas under the eaves, and then painted the cabin in a mix of #947/969, making the beams darker, and then used my brown Twintone marker to draw in the wood siding.  I didn't want a bright red, so I mixed a little 969 in with my 856 for both the chimney and door, and used N55 for the cement porch.  I hand drew the mountains and walkway, painting both in shades of #565.  I always pick one side of the mountains to be darker, and concentrate my shadows there.  I added in a few shadows on all my snowy areas using #565, and painted it as a wash in the sky.  I used Dr. PH Martin's Bleed Proof White to add snowy touches and to create snowflakes and icicles on the roofs.  I hand drew in the red bow on the wreath with my red Twintone marker, and used a sentiment from 5566 Christmas Sentiments.

I die cut my scene with a 5063 Rectangle A2 Double Stitched Die, matted on some rusty red cardstock to complement the cabin, and then adhered it to my 5853 Christmas Magic paper with some 3D foam adhesive.

December Watercolour Weekend

It's a short month on the Art Impressions blog for the Watercolour Weekend posts, as the blog shuts down for a holiday break later this month.  So Tricia and I are both posting today on the Ai blog.

My card is a twister.  I adore making these!  I've wanted to try this idea for a while...  I started by picking my patterned papers from the new 5812 - Christmas S2 Paper Pack, and used that as my colour palette to paint the front and back images of the snowman from 5815 Mini Christmas Twister Set:

I stamped him using Tombow #N55 (using a grey for a less muddy outline) on some Bristol Smooth cardstock, then painted him in with #312/249/847/N55, and I used my 933 marker directly for his nose.  The dies that are included in the set cut him out so easily!  And they add on the little notch at the top and bottom that fit into the opening for the twister.  I used the 5724 Nested Rectangle Dies to cut out all my background papers, and mounted them onto my card base.

With the smaller (lemon-shaped!) die, I cut the opening for the twister, through all layers of paper (I did trim away a few to make it less bulky).  I cut a frame for the opening out of the same red cardstock for both the inside and outside of my card - I always like to make the inside of the card neat and tidy looking, and glued them in place.  I love the 5072 Block Letters Die Set, and cut the J and Y in red, and a second set in the striped paper from the pack - layering them both for a bit of a shadow effect.  After gluing the back-to-back snowman pieces together, I bent him slightly to fit him into the frame.  I added a sentiment from 5566 Christmas Sentiment Set with some 3D foam adhesive.

I will have another project to share later today.  Check out the Ai blog to see what Tricia is showing this week.

Pigment Craft Co. Merry Christmas

I'm going to date myself, here!  Who remembers these papers from CTMH?  Oh - maybe 10 or 12 years ago.  I had bought them in bulk, and even though I made up 15 of these this week, I still have plenty left.  I paired them with a sentiment from Pigment Craft Co., and added a poinsettia from my Spellbinders Holiday Blooms set.

 

Let It Snow

 I got 8 cards made up yesterday!  Using up some Fancy Pants patterned paper that I've had for a while, along with some Art Impressions snowflakes and a sentiment from Pigment Craft Company.  I pulled the colours from the background paper to make my blue & green snowflakes, and added a little detail using a Crimped Rectangle die from The Greetery.

Tractor card

 Just a quick card that I put together to create a fun scene for a little fella turning 3 (who likes tractors!).  I used the 5596 - Harvest Farm Truck Set from Art Impressions, masked it, and added a gnome from 5785 Gnomes Set as the driver.  Since I wanted to create a little scene, I added the barn, and fence from 5371 - WC Barn Set.  The rest was sketched in with a pencil.

These sets are typically part of the Watercolour line at Ai, but I wanted to be quick and simple, so used Copic markers.  I took a black fineline pen and outlined all of the features that I drew in to balance things out.  I stitched the scene to some black cardstock with my sewing machine, and mounted it to the bright background paper with some 3D foam adhesive.