Christmas Card | Merry Little Christmas Challenge | Graciellie Design - "Wonderful Winter"

Hello!

Well...all of the Halloween stuff has been stashed away and I'm in full Christmas mode from this point on! (At least for the next few weeks so that I relax and enjoy the season when it actually gets here!) This card features the "Wonderful Winter" Set from Graciellie Design.  I actually made this card before I was asked to be a guest designer last month for Graciellie! We hope that you will join us for our November Anything Goes Challenge over at the Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog!

As you can tell by checking out the original floral/pitcher image above, I was a cropping maniac with this design! I pulled the png into PowerPoint, sized it and printed it onto 100# card stock. I decided to go with a bright plummy jewel-tone palette, which gives this card a softer, less-traditional feel! The image was watercolored, spattered with gold paint and fussy cut. 

I chose a stencil (I liked how this pattern echoed the 5-point shape of the poinsettia), ink-blended it with Distress Oxide Inks and used this to make my background pattern by running it through my die cutting machine. This technique leaves both color and the imprint texture on the card stock! I spattered this panel with diluted ink/paints and set it aside to dry in a heavy book! This background was trimmed to 5" x 3.75", backed with craft foam and adhered to a top-folding A2 card base; the poinsettias were backed/adhered in the came way. The stamped/die cut sentiment and sequins were glued in place and a touch of Diamond Stickles was added to the winterberries to finish off the card!

Thanks so much for stopping by and for keeping me inspired by your comments! ♥ 

Be sure to share your Christmas projects in our Merry Little Christmas Challenge Gallery!

Challenges:

Just Us Girls #560 - Wild Card Week - Word Die Cuts

Cute Card Thursday #658 - Sparkles

Krafty Chicks Challenge #531 - Anything Goes

CAS Mix Up Card Challenge - Watercolour

Rachelle ♥

All Occasion Card | Free Nature Image | Guest Designer Spot - CAS on Friday Challenge "Nature"

Hello!

Woo Hoo! I am so excited to be the Guest Designer over on the CAS on Friday Challenge and the theme is "Nature". I had an idea for a small woodland vignette and decided to draw my image for today's card! I have included the sketch in this post for you to as a free image to copy/paste below!

Using a large oval die as my basic shape, I sketched my scene in pencil to fit within that oval, inked and then watercolored it. The image panel was die cut with a rectangle die just slightly smaller than my top-folding A2 card base, backed with a craft foam panel and glued to the base. The oval window frame panel was adhered on top in the same way. I die cut the word 4 times from heavy black card stock, glued/stacked the cuts together and attached it to the front. A few clear droplets from Lucy's Little Things finished up the card! 

We can't wait to see your CAS "nature-inspired" creations over on the CAS on Friday Blog!

Here is the free image for you to copy/paste! Have fun!

Additional challenges:

Crafty Creations #412 - Anything Goes

Through The Craft Room Door - August 2020 - Anything Goes

Try It On Tuesdays - Words and/or Numbers

Crafting Happiness #60 - Anything Goes

Make My Monday #128 - Clean And Simple

Dragonfly Dreams - Anything Goes

Dare 2B Artzy - Anything Goes 

A Bit More Time To Craft #120 - Anything Goes 

Love To Craft Challenge Blog #49 - Anything Goes

Thank you so much for joining me today and for taking the time to comment! 

Rachelle ♥

Birthday Card | Honey Bee Stamps - "Swimming By"

Hi!

Do you ever get an idea for a card stuck in your head and you have to mull it over a bit before you can work it out? Well, that's exactly what happened to me with this mermaid card! I thought it would be cool to have a mermaid holding a bunch of birthday balloons made from sea shells and here's what I came up with! : )

I created a background with "Brusho Crystal Colour" for the first time and it was so much fun to use! Just apply a water wash to the paper, lightly sprinkle the Brusho powder onto the surface and then the magic happens! I generously spritzed the paper with shimmer mist and let the panel dry between two pieces of scrap paper while pressed in a heavy book. I stamped/colored/die cut the now-retired (but still available) mermaid from Honey Bee Stamps - "Swimming By" and the sea shells from Ellen Hutson - "Inner Mermaid". 

The ocean background panel was cut with a rectangle hem stitch die and adhered to the front of an A2 top-folding card base. The sentiment was stamped with VersaMark Ink and heat embossed with gold powder. I popped the mermaid in place with foam tape, attached gold thread to the shells and glued the knotted end to her hand. Iridescent bubbles from Lucy's Little Things finished up my underwater scene!

Challenge submissions:

Crafty Calendar Challenge - August Anything Goes

The Fairy and The Unicorn - August Fantasy

Krafty Chicks - #518 Anything Goes

Little Red Wagon - #560 - Give Us Your Background!

Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

The Sisterhood of Crafters - Anything Ocean / Beachy

Watercolor Wednesday - WWC282 - Anything Goes

Double "D" Challenges - Let's Go To The Beach

A Bit More Time To Craft #120 - Anything Goes

August Crafts Galore Encore #78

Thanks so much for stopping by and for taking the time to comment! I really appreciate it! : )

Rachelle ♥

Birthday Card | MFT Stamps - Captivating Mandala

Hey There!

I’m in ♥ LOVE ♥ with MFT’s wonderful stencils! They make it so easy to create a beautiful, simple card and the design options are endless!

This CAS birthday card features MFT’s “Captivating Mandala Stencil” and “Happy Birthday Script Die-namics”. I taped the stencil to the front of a top-folding A-2 card front (110# Neenah Classic Crest Solar White.) Several distress oxide inks were lightly blended over the stencil. After carefully removing the stencil, the card front was spritzed with shimmer spray, and flecked with a combination of diluted inks and metallic watercolors. My favorite metallic watercolors, which I highly recommend, are the Kuretake Gansai Tambi "Starry Colors" sets. They are vibrant, full of shine and give you a full range of colors to choose from.

I blended a panel (approx. 4” x 5”) with distress oxide inks (in a modified rainbow color progression), sprayed it with water, flecked it with the same metallic watercolors and die cut this panel with the Birthday Script. Because I wanted the die cut to have some dimension, I cut 2 additional scripts, glued/stacked them together beneath the inked layer. The script was adhered into place and the card was finished with a scattering of clear iridescent jewels from Lucy’s Little Things. The color palette on this card turned out beautifully – sometimes you struggle to make it work and other times it just falls into place!

Thanks for joining me today!

Rachelle ♥

All Occasion Card | Lawn Fawn - i love you(calyptus)

Hi There!

Here with an all-Lawn Fawn card today! February was my birthday month and I took advantage of Lawn Fawn’s offer of the free “Party Koala” stamp-die set. I added the recent “i love you(calyptus)” set to the order so that I could double the “Koala” fun and these two adorable sets work perfectly with each other!

    

I stamped, colored and die cut the bear; adding some black glaze pen for his eyes/nose and a light touch of Wink of Stella. I knew that I wanted to create a small tree-climbing scene off the right edge of my top-folding A-2 card and so I die cut a circle from a piece of 4.25” x 5.5” white card stock to get started. I used the die cut shape as my guide and built the scene on top of it. I blended two grass backgrounds with distress oxide inks and die cut them using Lawn Fawn’s “Stitched Hillside Borders” and “Grassy Border” dies. I then cut the trees using the “Birch Trees” dies and shaded then with some oxide inks, too. I cut a piece of 'Elsie' blue gingham paper from Lawn Fawn’s “Gotta Have Gingham” petite paper pack for the sky and glued that onto the circle die cut. I then continued to arrange my scene within that shape. I made a couple of small slits on the bear’s arms so that I could position him hugging onto the tree and popped him off of the background with foam tape. I adhered this scene onto the card base and trimmed off the excess from the right side. I backed the die-cut piece of card stock with craft foam and attached it onto the card front overlapping the koala scene. I stamped/die cut the banner onto pink paper with the “Bannertastic” sets and then stamped the sentiment. I stacked/glued several banner die cuts together to give it stability and glued it into place on the front. I really like how it waves into the scene! I added a die cut heart and some pink bling from Lucy’s Little Things "True Love" Crystal Collection.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Rachelle ♥

Thank You Card | MFT's - Captivating Mandala

Hello!

I was lucky enough to have a bit of extra time during the Christmas holiday and was able to get out all of my thank you notes pretty quickly. This pretty snow-inspired card features the MFT’s Captivating Mandala Die. This wonderful die can be used in so many different ways but its "snowflake-look" was perfect for these thank you cards.

I started by randomly blending a background using distress oxide inks (Salty Ocean, Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Feathers, & Wilted Violet). The background was spritzed with shimmer spray, flecked with metallic watercolors and blotted with a paper towel. I created the shaped card base by partially die cutting a horizontal A-2 top-folding card base with MFT’s Elegant Rectangle Stax Die-namics. The inked background was die cut with the same shape and adhered to the card base. The mandala image was die cut once from white glitter paper and twice from heavy white card stock; these die cuts were glued/stacked together to create dimension. I wanted a simple sentiment to stretch along the bottom of the card front and chose one from Lawn Fawn’s “Simply Sentiments”. The mandala “snowflake” was glued onto the card front and it fit perfectly into the heat-embossed sentiment! The card was finished with a bit of ‘bling’ with Lucy’s Little Things’ Clear Iridescent Jewels.

Thanks for stopping by!

Rachelle ♥

Birthday Card | Lawn Fawn - Out of This World

Hi!

Are you up for an ‘out-of-this-world’ color challenge? I was determined to create a space scene featuring a fiery color palette fit for birthday astronaut!

The background was blended with Distress Oxide Inks (Fossilized Amber, Wild Honey, Abandoned Coral, Wilted Violet, Seedless Preserves.) I cut a sun ray stencil from 130# card stock with my craft knife/straight edge, lightly sponged rays with pearlized white ink, moved the stencil slightly and then spattered additional rays with gold metallic water colors; this gives a real depth to the background. The background was spritzed with water and shimmer spray and blotted dry. I blended just the yellow/coral oxides onto a piece of white card stock, created heat “waves” by sponging of a curved stencil, and die cut a 4” circle from the panel. The circle was cut in half and the sentiment was stamped onto the sun using the MISTI.

Using Lawn Fawn's "Out of This World" set, I stamped, colored and die cut all of the images, keeping in mind that the lighter sides (which were all highlighted with gold metallic/pearlized watercolors) would be leaning toward the sun. A 4.25” X 5.5” piece of black cardstock was adhered to an A-2 top-folding card base and the background panel was glued down on top. The sun was backed with a piece of craft foam and adhered to the bottom of the background and all of the planets were popped up with foam tape. I glued a mix of “Itty Bitty Stars - Rainbow Delight” from Little Thing’s By Lucy onto the background and attached the astronaut onto the card with an action wobbler.

This card almost glows with a vibrant warmth and shimmer thanks to the complimentary color palette and metallic paint! Hope you like this unconventional space colorway!

Thanks!

Rachelle ♥

Birthday Card | MFT's "You're Rawr-Some"

Hey There!

I wanted to share a “Dino-Mite” card with you today! 😊 It’s for a family member who is turning 65 and I thought this was perfect for her as she completes her Medicare sign-up paperwork!

I stamped, watercolored and die cut all of the images from MFT’s retired stamp set “You’re Rawr-Some”. I cut a 3.75” x 5.5” panel from white cardstock, die cut the cloud and backed the panel with craft foam. A digital sentiment and a strip of MFT’sBlack & White Stripes Paper were adhered to the bottom of the panel. I glued the background foliage directly onto the panel and popped up both the dinosaur and cloud with foam tape for a bit of dimension. This entire panel was glued onto the front of a top-folding A-2 white card base and it was finished with a sprinkling of Lucy’s Little Things – Clear Iridescent Mix Jewels. I love this jewel mix – it takes on whatever color is nearby and is super versatile!

Here is the digital sentiment I created for the inside of the card:

Thanks for stopping by!

Rachelle ♥

I submitted this card for Seize the Birthday's "Anything Goes" Challenge!