Father Christmas {Scrapy Land Challenge #26}

Today is the beginning of a new challenge from the Scrapy Land Challenge.  The theme is ADD AN IMAGE (Rubber or Digi) PLUS use any brand of die that Scrapy Land sells.

The dies used to create this Christmas card were:
Elizabeth Crafts Designs - Merry Christmas Stand-Up Helper
Memory Box - Pine Needles Border
Sizzix - Susan's Garden: Christmas Holly

To start off, I stamped this Holly Berry Father Christmas rubber stamp with Staz-On ink (Jet Black) and then used Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers to color the image.

A Snow Writer pen was used to add dimension to his collar and gloves and while the paint was still wet, I sprinkled on some Cloud Nine Velvet glitter.  Wink of Stella was used to accent the holly leaves and berries and a shimmer mist was spritzed over the entire card for a touch more sparkle.

Now it's your turn to create a project using a rubber or digi image and use any brand of die that Scrapy Land offers.  You'll have until Oct 4th to upload your entry.  The winner, chosen by all the designers, will receive a $15 gift certificate to go shopping at Scrapy Land.

Noel {Scrapy Land Challenge #25}

It's the first Wednesday of the month and that means it's time for a new Scrapy Land Challenge!  The theme is Anything Goes Using any Brand of Die that Scrapy Land sells.

Did you realize that Christmas is now less than four months away?  To help inspire you I've created a CAS Christmas card using the Die-Versions Christmas Cardinal and the Noel Sweet Wordlet.

This is a pretty easy card to assemble with the only difficult part (which really isn't) is die cutting the image out of multiple colors of cardstock and inlaying them together.  Inlaid die cutting technique is the official term for it.  Be sure to save the negative pieces as well as the main pieces, as you will need to use both.

To add a little more interest to my cardinal, I heat embossed his beak with Lemon Chiffon embossing powder and added touches of Copic markers here and there.  In order to create a snow covered branch, I added DecoArt Snow Writer to the branch and sprinkled on some Diamond Dust glitter for extra sparkle.

The sentiment is a Sweet Wordlet and I think these are the perfect size for card fronts.  For the complete list of all the Sweet Wordlets, check them out here.

After die cutting my sentiment from gold metallic cardstock, I adhered it to a strip of ribbon.  Hope you enjoy today's CAS card and it gets you motivated to start making your Christmas cards.  Christmas will be here before you know it :-).

Be sure to check out what the rest of the team has created for you too.  You will have until Sept 13 to upload your project.

Christmas Cardinal

Christmas Cardinal is one of 29 new dies released this month from Die-Versions.   I paper pieced the branch and added some Snow Writer (which I promptly wiped most of it off for a more subtle look of snow).  

The Classic Deckled Oval from Spellbinders is covered in glitter for a very sparkly look.

The sentiment is a combination of the new Holiday Half Pint, which I tucked behind a panel and DV's Mister Micro font.

Snow Fun

After a nice holiday break, Pattie's Creations is all ready for the new challenges for 2013.  The first one of the year is all about having fun in the snow.

 Pattieboop Winter Snowflakes, which can be found at Pattie's Etsy Store, is a perfect image depicting fun in the snow.  She's colored with Copics and I added Diamond Dust to her "fur" accessories and a Snow Writer was used to create the snow.  The sentiment is a rubber stamp that I heat embossed with Amethyst Spray embossing  powder by Sparkle N Sprinkle.

Be sure to visit the challenge blog to see what the rest of the team has created for you. You have two weeks to upload your idea of fun in the snow.   You'll also want to mark your calendars as Pattie's Etsy store will be having a 40% off sale January 18 - January 27.  Use the code ALLIE2 at checkout for the 40% off discount.  This gives you time to get a great image for this challenge as well as stock up for future challenges.

Merry Christmas Lamp Post

We have one more challenge for you from Pattie's Creations before we go on holiday for a few weeks. It's an easy challenge: make a Christmas Card.  Pattie has so many wonderful Christmas images in her Etsy store, but I decided to use the Merry Christmas Lamp Post for my card.

The image is colored with Copic markers and I added snow using a Snow Writer with a touch of glitter.  A Spellbinders die was used to cut out the image and I added a double bow with a snowflake embellishment as a finishing touch.

You'll have two weeks to join the Pattie's Creations Design Challenge and then we'll all be back for a new challenge on January 11, 2013.

I'm entering this in the following challenges: Oozak (anything goes + red); Stampendous (CAS Christmas cards); CASology (sparkle).

Cheery Lights Mailbox

It's time for another fun challenge from Stamping with the Dragon.  Our sponsor is Meljen's Designs and the theme is Bling it Christmas.  We want you to show us your Christmas Bling.  The winner will receive four images from Meljen's store.

I chose the Cheery Lights Mailbox  to create a fun winter/Christmas card.  Since the theme is Bling it Christmas, I chose a slightly different way to show lots of bling:  I used Creative Inspirations paints and Twinkling H2O's.  Both have so much bling and sparkle in person and are so fun to use.  I also used a Snow Writer (thanks Tammy) for the snow and added bits of glitter to it while it was still wet.

Here's a close-up so you can see what I'm talking about.  If you follow my blog, you know that I describe Creative Inspirations paints as "bling in a bottle" and it's so true!  And Twinkling H2O's live up to their name - they really do twinkle.

The background was created by using a Cheery Lynn Designs die.  I've found that I can emboss with these dies by using my embossing plate and mat with my Grand Calibur machine.  How fun is that? Two for the price of one.  I don't know if this works with other die manufacturers, but luckily, these have not cut my embossing mat when I run them through.  (What a great discovery.)

I also wanted to remind everyone that Stamping with the Dragon is having a Design Team call.  You can read all about it HERE, plus you get a free Stamping Dragon Designs image to work with.  You have until 12/23/11 to submit your application.  Good luck to all (and don't be afraid to submit your work).

Now it's your turn to show us your Bling for Christmas.  You have two weeks to upload your creation to the Stamping with the Dragon blog.  Can't wait to see all your shiny  Christmas bling.