My Official Faux-Vintage Christmas Card

Hi again, my second post for this pleasant Sunday. Hoping your weekend was refreshing!

I made this card with the Jingle Belles in mind. I played my card from my last post at their current Old-Fashioned Christmas challenge, but I felt it wasn't really vintage-y enough, so I made this one with Tim Holtz stuff because Tim is the King of Official Faux-Vintage (shabby and distressed version). I don't really own any "real" vintage materials, like the kind you find at estate sales, auctions, or even good charity shops. I'm not into that, so my paper and stamps will have to do. ;-)

  

The sketch I used is Mojo Monday's current one, #515. I resized it to 5x7 in PSE.

 

I used a sheet from each of these 8x8 Paper Stash pads by Tim Holtz. I really wanted to put the plaid on front as my base mat, but when I saw the sheet that had the same vintage decoration brands as on the stamp (Ribbon Icicles, etc.), well, I just had to use that sheet on front. So the plaid went to the back. I did use one piece on the front as a mat for the stamped image.

I used stamps from Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection (image) and Lawn Fawn (sentiment frame) and See-D's (sentiment) on the front of the card. Hot Off The Press and Hero Arts on the inside and Technique Tuesday and Sweet Stamp Shop on the back.

I stamped and diecut the banner frame and then stamped the sentiment on it. I also distressed all the patterned paper edges with Tim's distress tool. I also used my Fiskars 4-way punch on the black card stock layers for a little added interest.

Here's the inside and the back of my card. I left my usual siggie off the back for now, as this is kind of a snarky card inside and I may want to play that up with a siggie stamp I have, provided this card ends up going to someone who would appreciate it. So I will add that later.

  

Here are some close-ups of my coloring of my focal image. You can click on them to make them larger. I used various Distress inks and a sponge finger dauber, and then edged it in Black Soot.

CHALLENGES:
1. Jingle Belles JB:19:10: An Old'Fashioned Christmas
2. Mojo Monday Sketch 515
3. Split Coast Stampers 2019 Christmas Challenge CCC19MAY: Plaid or Gingham Checks - the back of my card has plaid paper and the top mat of the focal stamped image on front is as well.
4. Outlawz Festive Friday for May 17-30: Christmas Theme
5. Winter Wonderland May: Anything But a Square Card - mine is a 5x7 rectangle
6. Through the Craft Room Door for May 14-20: Always AG
7. Crafty Creations #390: AG Always

I thank you for visiting me and hope you enjoyed my card. Hope Monday goes well for us all, xoxox.

The Sea is Calling...

Good Sunday, everyone, so happy to SEA you here. {grin} For months now I've been wanting to play over at Tag Tuesday, and the excuses have always been the same: ran out of time and how will I use the tag I make? But today, the Gods are with me and I've made a tag!

This tag will be the focal image on a sketch card that I will share when it's finished. My substrate is a manilla shipping tag measuring 2 and 1/8 by 4 and 1/4 inches. I don't use tags enough to know what tag number that is, they were in my stash from awhile back. But it's a nice size for adding to an A2 card front. 

  

Impression Obsession Nautical

   

  

I used stamps by Artistic Outpost, Impresion Obsession, Our Daily Bread and See-D's.

I began by taking 2 tags and stamping the AO Sounds of the Sea stamp in VersaFine Clair Nocturne at the bottom of each tag. I turned one of the tags so one tag had the hole facing to the left, one to the right. I did this to see which looked better for my card later on.

Since the stamp was not as long as the tag, there was an empty space which I set about filling by stamping my ODB Fish Net stamp in VersaMark and covering the space. I then heat-embossed in Seafoam White. I found the coolest fibers in my stash and tied them on since I would be collaging around it. Kept them long for now.

Next I stamped out the See-D's (the tiny ones) and Impression Obsession (the larger ones) sea life stamps. I did this using two different shades of Ranger Archival browns. I fussy cut all of those out. See the Webster Pages 6x6 card stock? That will be on my card and I pulled it out to match colors.

I colored everything with my Promarkers. I went back to my tag and stamped and heat-embossed more of the fishing net around the tag's perimeter. I purposefully stamped the netting over the word SEA in the AO collage stamp, because I then went to my other tag and colored and cut out the SEA on it, then adhered it over the netting.

I arranged my little pieces and adhered them with some KIMemories Gloo (like Ranger''s Glossy Accents). I inked the edges of the tag with a dark gray Promarker. I then noticed stray seafoam white had melted on the girl's hair so I took a black Posca paint pen and filled in what I saw. (I now see from my photos I need to do this more and I will when I make the card.)

Here are some close-ups. You can click on them to make them bigger:

 

 

 

And a final view.

CHALLENGES:
1.  Tag Tuesday: Sea World
2.  Take a Word: At the Seaside
3.  Passion for Promarkers: #493 Summer is Coming - I used my Promarkers to color the tag.
4.  Try it on Tuesday: 10th Birthday Share AG
5.  Colour Crazy Week 18: AG with Colouring - I used my Promarkers to color the tag.
6.  Mix It Up #25: AG + Opt. Mixed Media - I used inks, embossing powder, alcohol markers, collage, stamping and paint.

Hopefully, I'll be back later tonite with an official faux vintage Christmas card. Until then, xoxoxoxo.

Jingle Bells

I sure am glad I gave myself a talking-to in my last blog post about my Christmas card output. It got me enthusiatic again about making them. We shall see how long it lasts, haha.

I once again went to my box of Christmas paper scraps. This card has a Kraft card stock base and dark green SU card stock matting. Patterned paper on front is Magenta and on back is Karen Foster (and that my friends, is some OLD paper, lol). Used my Spellbinders Classic Circles Nesties to die cut the circle framing my Stamplorations bells.

 I used Tuesday Morning Sketch's latest. I resized it to 5x7 in PSE. The Jingle Belles wish us an Old-fashioned Christmas and want to see vintage style. Hmm, well I have very old scrap paper and supplies, does that count if I used them? Ha! This is my version of it. :-) I have another card in process to play tomorrow that uses Tim Holtz papers and stamp. That one will be official faux vintage, at least. ;-) {grin}

The front Stamplorations sentiment 'Jingle bells' came with the bells in the set. I stamped them in Versamark and heat-embossed in Ranger Fine Gold EP.

 

Here are the inside and back of my card. Papertrey Ink inside sentiments stamped with Ranger Archival. The back, with the Karen Foster patterned paper, has my current Technique Tuesday siggie du jour stamped in Versamark and heat-embossed in gold ep, with the Sweet Stamp Shop stamp stamped across in VersaFine Clair Rainforest Green. I die cut a Spellbinders 5-pt star out of a Magenta scrap and placed underneath for interest.

 I stamped the bells on white Neenah Solar Crest with VersaFine Clair Rainforest Green and heat-embossed it in Ranger Gold EP, just for grins to see if the green would show through. It's cool, it has places where it looks like tarnish build-up. I must remember I can have fun mixing ep colors and ink colors to see the results...

I fussy cut the bells and colored my image with Promarkers. Then I brushed over the bells with Wink of Stella Yellow, for some glittery shine. My final step was to take my fine tip Carbon Fountain pen and subtly outline the jingle bells, leaves and bow.

CHALLENGES:
1.  Tuesday Morning Sketch #503 - (sketch shown above)
2.  Jingle Belles JB:19:10: An Old-Fashioned Christmas
3.  ABC Christmas: J is for Jingle - I gots some Jingle!
4.  Sparkles Christmas #100: Let's See Some Holly - my patterned paper in front has holly and there's holly in my stamped bells image.
5.  Winter Wonderland May: Anything But a Square Card - mine is a 5x7" rectangle
6.  Merry Little Christmas Challenge #10: Anything Christmas Goes
7.  Happy Little Stampers Christmas May: ACG + Opt. Circles - my front focal element is circular
8.  Christmas Crafts All Year Round May: Christmas Ornaments - reminds me of the scene in It's a Wonderful Life "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings." The family is tinkling some bells like the ones on my card that were hanging on their tree. That says Christmas Ornament to me!
9. Outlawz Festive Friday May 17-30: Christmas Theme
10.  Split Coast Stampers 2019 Christmas Card Challenge: January - Glitz It with Glitter - Wink of Stella on my bells
11.  Colour Crazy Week 18: Always AG - I colored my bells image with Promarkers
12.  Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Papers Challenge May: Always AG
13.  Try it on Tuesday 10th Birthday Share: AG
14. Stamplorations Never-Ending Challenge: Anything Goes featuring Stamplorations - I have featured the bells and a sentiment from the Christmas Bells stamp set

I hope you enjoyed my card and I thank you for visiting me. XOXOX til next time!

A Dotty Kitty Christmas

Friday Greetings Once More, my Blogging Friends!

  

I'm back with a Christmas card that I did not really like the entire time I was making it! Once it was finished, though, I was okay with it. Neither the colors nor the design is my usual, but I'm definitely in like with Tiddly Inks' Mavis Kitty digital stamp. Isn't she adorbs? I used a Split Coast Stampers sketch, kraft card stock for the base and focal image frame, and papers, enamel dots and sequins from my stash.

I'd just like to notate that in all but 3 of my photos, the brown paper base layer looks like plaid or some such weave, but it is actually teeny tiny polka dots. The scrap I used came from Lawn Fawn's Snowday paper pack. Second row, second paper - that is the one I've used. For some reason my camera doesn't record it correctly. And this is important, because the Tiddly Inks challenge theme is Let's Get Dotty, so I need those dots! I also have dots of snow around the kitty, but still, those are more spots than dots so all the dots should count, lol.

I used a front sentiment by Sweet n Sassy Stamps and Ranger Archival ink. The greenery patterned paper is actually Christmas wrapping paper and to get a color match I just cut a strip of it and turned it over to stamp the sentiment on. The green card stock peeking out here and there is from my paper scrap stash, as is the kraft I die cut into a circle to frame my image.

Here is the inside and the back of my card. A Hero Arts sentiment inside and my Technique Tuesday and Sweet Stamp Shop siggie stamps on the back. You can see the polka dots on that back paper strip.

I resized Mavis Kitty in PSE, printed her out on Neenah and colored her with my Promarkers.

But before coloring, I took a Sakura white Glaze gel pen and colored dots all around Mavis. When it dried, I had a resist that showed through my blue coloring. No stenciling or paste needed, just draw and color.

There's my wonky camera colors again. The fur on her dress is not gray, it matches her white cap fur because it's Neenah white because I did nothing to those areas. Anyway, I love how she came out, mostly because I managed to stay in the lines for once, lol.

Ahhhh, finally a photo that clearly shows my teeny tiny polka dotted brown paper! This card makes 11 Christmas cards so far for me. My goal was 5 cards a month, so I'm 11 cards behind where I wanted to be so that's not good, only 50% on target.  Let's hope I can get caught up in the next few weeks!

CHALLENGES:
1.  Split Coast Stampers Weekly Sketch Challenge #747
2.  Tiddly Inks Challenge #225: Let's Get Dotty! - Dotted patterned paper and dot spots of snow around Mavis Kitty
3. Cutie Pie Challenge #135: Bingo - I chose Flowers - Punches/Dies - Spots

4. Winter Wonderland May Challenge: Anything But a Square - my card is 5x7 rectangle
5. 12 Months Christmas Link-Up #53: AG + Opt. Twist... Creature Feature - My creature is a kitty.
6.  Show Us Your Pussycats #42: Furrything Goes
7.  Outlawz Festive Friday May 17-30: Christmas
8.  Split Coast Stampers 2019 Christmas Card Challenge: December
9.  Christmas with the Cuties #26 Theme: Feature a Creature

Mavis and I hope you enjoyed our Dotty Kitty Christmas card and we thank you very much for visiting. Until next time, xoxoxoxox (meow) :-)