Woodland critter cards

Over the past month, I've coloured up all of the 5953 - Woodland Critters and 5954 - Woodland Bears images with Copic markers.  I had the idea to pair them up with lyrics from Christmas songs, so set about die cutting a million (or so) letters from several colours of cardstock, and set about figuring out my layouts.

I kept my colour palette limited, and had used the 5963 - Winter Woodland papers for inspiration, so I used that paper pack when planning out my cards.  I made all of the cards 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" - so that restricted which words would fit in the space!

It was a lot of fun putting these together, and I have several more images and song lyrics kicking around - so I'll keep going if time permits over the next couple of weeks.

My Top Five Ai Watercolour cards for 2024

I'm on the Art Impressions blog today, sharing my Top Five Watercolour projects for 2024.  They're in no particular order, but are all ones that I really enjoyed creating:

May Birdhouse

June Gnomes

July Fairies

August Floral Butterfly

October Grateful

I wanted to take this time to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who views our work both here on my blog, Ai's blog, and on Ai's other social media - and for leaving hearts and comments.  They're so appreciated!  And of course a huge thank you to Bonnie, and everyone at Art Impressions for their generosity, and for giving us all of these wonderful products to create with.  I'll be back for the Watercolour Weekend in January with some new watercolour inspiration - Happy Holidays!

Watercolour Christmas

I have another watercolour Christmas card using the 5857 - Baby Mini Foundation Set from Art Impressions.  I was painting this a few weeks ago, and deemed it not adequate for my monthly post!  But persevered, and was happy enough with the results to finish it up and share.

My hesitation was over my attempt to paint the aurora borealis in my winter sky... not what I'd hoped, but again, kept working it until I was satisfied.  We're always our own worst critics.  I mounted it on the 5853 - Christmas Magic paper pack.

Uninked Betterpress card

I have really been loving how Betterpress cards look when they are uninked - just with an impression.  This is my third card using the Spellbinders October Betterpress Society set, Cozy Fireplace.  Instead of using the entire 4pc set of plates, I have only used the larger tree, pressing it onto a Porcelain Cotton Card panel.

I wanted to keep this as an all-white card (almost!), so I also pressed a sentiment from the August BP Society set, Winter Sprigs Tree, as the ones included with Cozy Fireplace all talk about hearth/warmth etc - and they didn't really work with just the tree.  I matted the panel with some brushed gold cardstock from the Spellbinders Treasured Gold Cardstock pack, and cut a tiny star from it as well, to crown the tree.  I adhered everything with 3D foam adhesive to my card base, that I ran through my die cut machine with an Altenew piercing plate.  

I'm really happy with the simply design, but the card was so hard to photograph!  I discovered that a lower light photo on an angle worked best.  You can get a subscription to the Betterpress Society through the Papercrafter's Workshop.

Ombre Cozy Fireplace

My second card with the October Betterpress Society plates was done with an ombre inked background.  The set is called Cozy Fireplace, and is a set of registration plates, which means all of the elements are separate plates, allowing you to do them in different colours.  In this case, I pressed all of the pieces with black ink, except for the small tree done in pink.

I started by blending Picked Raspberry, Kitsch Flamingo and Spun Sugar Distress Oxide inks onto a Porcelain Cotton Card panel.  

After pressing all of the images and sentiment, I mounted the panel onto some black cardstock, and added a few black jewels for some glimmer.

I took a photo before mounting and adding the jewels, so you could see what a simpler version would look like.

You can get a subscription to the Betterpress Society through the Papercrafter's Workshop.

 

Pigment Craft Co. Christmas cards

I was able to purchase several new-to-me stamp and die sets by Pigment Craft Co. this summer, and was very keen to get them made into cards.  Their flowers & foliage stamps are amazing, and just my style... so after MUCH fussy cutting, I got four cards put together:

Stamp sets used are Berry Sprig, Winter Sprig and Festive Floral.  I had several foliage dies in my collection that I pulled out and cut in brushed silver and gold Spellbinders cardstock to tuck into my sprays, plus an old Echo Park word die set for the Merry.

I used the rectangular postage die set from Spellbinders to cut out my background, and adhered it to the base with 3D foam tape.

I wasn't sure if I'd use my second colour combo for Christmas cards or not, but once the shimmery gold die cuts were added, I thought it worked really well.

Happy to have two of each version in my stash... and have many more pieces to still create with.

Here's my pile of stamped images that were fussy cut!  And yes... each of those pine boughs was painstakingly cut while I watched Hallmark Christmas movies :-)

A Spidey Birthday!

I have a wonderful Great Nephew who turned four this week, and he's a huge 'Spidey' fan - he's the version of Spiderman aimed at a younger audience.  So... I pulled out my supplies and got creative in figuring out how I could make a Spidey card.

I used an oval die to cut out his head, then reshaped it a little, and copied the web pattern on his head with a marker.  I had one of these silhouette die cuts already, and decided to layer them to make a shadowy cityscape.  After spelling out his name, I decided that the D in the alphabet die set would work for his eyes, so I added those, plus a few dots for decoration... and a Spidey card was born.

Happy Birthday, Alex!

Cozy Fireplace

The October Betterpress Society plates from Spellbinders are called Cozy Fireplace - a set of registration plates (meaning multiple colours/pieces) for the holidays.  This is the first of several projects that I've made with the set:

I wanted a retro vibe for my card, so chose some muted Distress Oxide inks, which have a muted cast to start with: Vintage Photo/Ground Espresso/Bundled Sage/Rustic Wilderness/Speckled Egg.  The trees were done with an ombre effect.

I love the idea of mixing die cuts with Betterpress images, so pulled several Spellbinders sets from my stash, and decorated the mantle.  I matted my scene with the same pink cardstock as my poinsettia, and added a gold star to the small tree.

You can get a subscription to the Betterpress Society through the Papercrafter's Workshop.

Ai Christmas Card

 I am on the Art Impressions blog today, for my last 2024 Watercolor Weekend!

Today I am using the 5857 - Baby Mini Foundation Set that was released last year.  This image was part of the Nativity Journal Bundle, but works great all on it's own as a card.

Before stamping, I determined that I was going to use the 5065 - Oval Double Stitched Dies to cut out my image, so I traced the outline on my Canson XL Watercolour paper to give myself a painting guideline.  I stamped my image using #N65, as I wanted a soft outline to paint with.  I used four of the branches from 4960 - WC Fir Trees Set coloured in #249/565 and stamped in all of the pine boughs.  There are two branches that bend in each direction, so it allowed me to make it look as though the branches were hanging down from each side.  I coloured each branch in #249, then added #565 along the bottom edge to provide a built in shadow.  I touched all the branches with a damp brush to bring out the colour, and soften the lines.  The birds were painted with #969/947/865, with several layers to add some depth.  #992/969 were painted in streaks on the manger, to indicate a wood-like texture, and I used the #992/993 markers directly on the paper to create the hay underneath.  #850/947 were painted on the Baby's face, with a little glow added to His cheeks.

A wash of #565 was painted on the sky, but it was a bit too purple for my liking, so I darkened it up a little using Blueprint Sketch Distress ink.  It was also added to the snowy hillsides, and as shadows around the manger.  I used my Twintone markers to add in the bird's eyes/beak/legs, and the Baby's features.  I used Bleedproof White paint to add snow to the branches, along with a few snowflakes in the sky, then painted in some shadows with #565 on the snow.

I used the oval die to cut out the image, then matted it and mounted it onto my background paper from 5963 - Winter Woodland PP with 3D foam adhesive.  A few jewels and a foiled sentiment finished it off.  *I am sharing one project this morning, and Gennette will be posting another one this afternoon, so be sure to check out the Ai blog later on!  

Christmas Pudding

I've pulled a few different products together to create today's card.  The Christmas Pudding die set, and the Cooking Up Christmas stamp/stencil set are both from The Greetery, combined with several different dies for the pine boughs and foliage.

This was a labour of love!  There are ten colours of cardstock and seven inks involved... and much fussy cutting.  And when you go to this much trouble, you make more than one, so I have eight of these added to my stash.  You should see my craft desk, it's like a bomb went off.

I wanted a little glimmer, so I used brushed metallic gold paper to cut out the Joy sentiment, and spattered some gold paint on the finished product.  Happy to have these completed, and plan to spend the next hour tidying up my craft room :-)

Winter Farmhouse

I've been hoarding the Winter Farmhouse papers from Simple Stories for a LONG time!  But I am slowly trying to use them up.  I had precut the tag, and had the bits and pieces from Spellbinders Holiday Blooms die set already on my craft desk... so this card was born.

The Joy is an old Memory Box die that has been in my stash forever... and the little gold strip was cut off of a panel that I'd run through my Minc machine this weekend.

This is one of the rare times that I haven't added foam tape to a card!  It'll be a good one to mail.

All supplies were bought from the Papercrafter's Workshop.

Poinsettia Spray

I'm wanting to revisit some of the stamp and die sets that I've acquired this year, and this Poinsettia Spray die set from Spellbinders is one of them.  I've tried it with an arch and a rectangle, but never an oval, and this is the most traditional colour combo that I've done.

I wanted a warmer card, so added the soft yellow to the mix, and LOVE the kraft base.

The sentiment is the Christmas Sentiments Foilables from Pink & Main.

All supplies are available at The Papercrafter's Workshop.