It's Not Just Black & White

 

     The new challenge at Christmas Craft Creations this month is a colour theme, use black, white and one other colour. A splash of red for Christmas and an idea that positive and negative might work well was what started these two cards.

      It took a little while to work out what had to be stamped where and in what colour but once I got going it all worked out. I also stamped some on kraft card to try later as this was the sample I had seen at HoneyDoo Crafts shop.

      White ink can be a bit hit and miss so I embossed with white to get a good coverage. Stamping with black was fine so these were not embossed. I asked Amanda at HoneyDoo how she had got that perfect red on her card and she very kindly told me it was paper pieced.

      I stamped enough for these cards and a few spare......just incase. 

     

      I found it easier to add shading to the main image before adding the paper pieces, this was done with a mixture of 4B pencil, white pencil and a white pastel pencil. Detail was added with a white gel pen and a black fineline pen.

      It was important when I cut the paper pieces out that I cut along the lines, this meant there were no red edges showing outside the stamped line.

      All off the paper pieces were stuck on with Stix2 3D PVA, it's a good strong glue that dries clear.

      There was a lot of open space around the image so I hand drew a wiggly line around the edge as a frame, I was going to add a few sprigs of holly but my drawing skills are not great and after all that work I didn't want to make a mess of it.

      The base cards are 7x7 so I had room for a mat layer or two. When adding narrow mats I tend to use an inexpensive white card and an alcohol marker rather than cut up my precious coloured card.

      The mat on the greeting is also a 'frugal' layer. All main layers were stuck down flush to the card blank but the greeting was put on with foam tape, just to give a little bit of a lift.

      These cards can go letter post as they are thin enough but sadly being over 6.5 inches wide they will be large letter. By making two similar cards I am managing to increase my card stash a little faster as well as stretch my imagination.

      Please pop over to the Christmas Craft Creations blog for lots of inspiration and remember it doesn't have to be a card, we accept other projects as long as they follow the theme.

I would like to enter these cards in the following challenges:

The Holly and Ivy - #103 Anything Christmas

CraftyHazelnut's Christmas - #563 Anything Christmas

Merry Little Christmas - #39 Anything Christmas

Peace On Earth Christmas - #1 Inspiration Board

Mix It Up - #54 Anything Goes / Paper Piecing

Dead Gorgeous Kitty

 

      And now for something completely different, this month's project for The Paper Funday is all about almost Halloween. I say almost because it's not something we really celebrate here, but I do have a friend that loves all things black, purple and fantasy so this is for her.

      

      To make the coloured hexagon I used a stencil from Crafts Too that fits in my stamp platform and a few Distress Oxide inks.

      I cut a small circle in Stix2 masking sheet for a moon and placed it within the hexagon before starting to ink the shape. I started with the palest colour around the moon, working out with darkening shades of purple, I used a touch of grey at the bottom to add a bit more depth to the shape.

      

       Once the stencil was removed I stamped a tree branch by Lavina Stamps in Versafine black coming in from the side. I searched my stash for a tiny bat stamp but couldn't find one, something to go on the wish list.

      The cat skeleton is an old die by Sheena Douglass cut in black card twice, I then stuck both cats together to make him a bit thicker.

      When I put it onto a black card blank it looked a bit too crisp around the edges so before sticking it down I went all the way around with a Memento grey inkpad, then I touched a little grey ink onto the moon and that was that.

      The Paper Funday is an anything goes challenge but we do have an optional twist, this month it's Halloween or Purple, please come and join us with your spooky makes.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Crafting Happiness - #116 October colours Purple, Black

Crafty Calendar - Halloween

Just Us Girls - #604 Halloween

The Paper Players - PP561 Spooky

Wildlife By The River Of Creativity

 

     I'm trying something different for this month's River Of Creativity, we may be a multi craft challenge but that doesn't mean you can't enter with a card project. So if you are making your Christmas cards you can join us as long as it has a wild animal on it.

     This trio started as a splodge background using Distress Oxides. I like making a few of these splodge backgrounds in a nice long, messy play session, no two are ever the same, even when using the same colours.

     To add a little sparkle to the background I used pearl mica water instead of just water when spritzing the inks, I have found that this means I can tip the stamp platform around mixing up the inks with no need for a brayer. You do need a heavy weight card so it doesn't buckle when wet or better still watercolour card, although that can be harder to stamp on than smooth.

     Tartan seems to be popular this year so I searched through my stash and found one that picked out the ink colours perfectly, more by luck than judgement. 

      I stamped with Versafine Black using Lavinia Stamps deer and trees, the beauty of a stamp platform is silhouettes are no longer hit and miss, these images were stamped three times to get a nice dark coverage.

      When I cut mat layers I am very frugal, why use a complete layer when a wide border will do, I can keep the inners for another project.

     Although each card has a similar background I wanted them to be noticeably different. The first one was cut as a stitch dot square, mounted on a thin black mat, then on top of the tartan layer using foam tape, with the tartan flush to the card. To finish off I used a white gel pen to add highlights, mixed results with this, then a few tiny silver peel off stars.

     The second one I cut with a stitch dot circle, matted on a black layer with foam onto the tartan layer that was die cut in the corners with a snowflake pattern. To keep the curve element I used a corner punch on both the tartan and the card blank.

     I have been admiring the eclipse cards popping up in blogland so decided to give it a try. The main panel was again cut with the stitch dot square but then die cut with a bauble die. I then cut four plain card layers with the same bauble and stuck them together to make a thick mat. I wanted to add a little sparkle so I coloured the edge of this thick mat with a silver Sharpie, followed by a silver glitter gel pen, then I stuck the top layer on.

      As the bauble was raised I chose to mat and layer all the other pieces without any foam tape. This image has a small Father Christmas and reindeer stamped in the sky and to finish it off I used a white Posca pen to add the snowfall.

      All three cards are 7x7 inches so will either be a large letter or hand delivered. It was challenging to make them all appear different while using the same stash and it adds three cards to the box ready for December.

      Please come and join us at River of Creativity with anything you have made, including cards, that features wildlife. 

I would like to enter these cards in the following challenges:

Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round - Something beginning with S or T

Sparkles Christmas - #129 Flora / Fauna

Jingle Belles - Snow

CraftyHazelnut's Christmas - #152 Anything Christmas

The Holly and Ivy - #102 Anything Christmas

Merry Little Christmas - #39 Anything Christmas

Peace On Earth Christmas - #1 Anything Christmas