Come fly with me

The come fly with me stamp set that amuse studio sells features an airplane, but I thought the sentiment worked just as well with a bird.

This technique (Inked Shadows from the TJ newsletter) uses the negative of the die cut and a painted background.  It also uses a LOT of pop dots.  It came together fairly fast, as I already had the painted paper (I make lots!).

Challenges:

• TandaStamps - chilly colors
• So Artful - bird life in winter colors
• Totally Gorjuss - easy does it
• CAS-ual Fridays - 10 minute card

Cardinal ATC

I needed a winter bird ATC, so I used my old TAC cardinal - my favorite winter bird stamp, if you don't count the doves (doves are awesome for Christmas).

I will say I had problems.  The background is some white paper that I painted silver, for the shimmer and for the brush strokes (I love the look of a painted background!).  I stamped with Memento black, which took okay, then I tried coloring it with copics.  The copics did not adhere well - when I tried to bring in colors for blending, it took off the original colors.  I then decided to try my glitter pens, because, well, you know how I am with glitter pens.  I then blended the glitter pen ink with my LaPlume markers, which worked surprisingly well.

I couldn't resist framing it with a little bakers twine.  I love the look of the bakers twine with the cardinal!

Challenges:

• Shopping our Stash - Winter, not Christmas
• Marker POP - jewel tones in coloring

Sympathy Snowflake

I usually put butterflies or Dragonflies on y sympathy cards, but this time of year, a snowflake seemed better; their unique and ephemeral nature makes them a good allegory for the fragility of human life (yeah, I'm overthinking it).

I have been wanting to try this technique ever since I got this medallion stamp from SweetStamps:

The parts that look gray in the scan are actually silver.  The large silver rectangle is a piece I painted myself a while back, and the silvery accents on the medallion are done with Stargazers.  All the stamping here is heat-embossed.  I love the look and texture of heat embossing.  It is one of the reasons rubber stamps will never go away.

Challenges:

• SweetStamps - sketch
• The House that Stamps Built - 2 or more shades of blue
• Our Daily Bread Designs - snowflake
• Shopping our Stash - winter, not holiday

Purple Christmas

Sometimes I get tired of every Christmas card being all red and green, so I went with some different colors.  The image is colored with glitter pens and mica powder paints, so it looks really sparkly.  I wanted to go with a low-key background, so I fished through my scraps for pink, purple, and blue to match the color challenge at Blessings Ink, embossed them, and pieced together a nice colorblocked background.

I really like this vintage image from a•muse studio - it's classic without being religious.

Challenges:

• Mark's Finest Papers - White Christmas
• Pause Dream Enjoy - snow
• Aud Sentiments - seasonal sentiment
• Fab n Funky - vintage Christmas
• Ruby's Rainbow - Christmas with non-traditional colors

Tag suitable for mailing

I tried another Tim type tag, with the idea that it could fit into a normal envelope for mailing.

I love this background paper from a•muse studio - the print is small enough that it looks like book text, but it has "T'was the Night before Christmas" written in paragraphs on it, so you never have to worry about strange text showing.  It has a nice ivory color, which looks good plain or burnished with distress ink, like I did here. all the stamps here are a•muse studio, too. I used the Blended Glitter and the Faux Vellum technique from the Technique Junkies newsletter; the burnished emboss resist is a basic Tim Holtz technique.  The framed sentiment is from CTMH.  It has a little dimension from pop dots, but nothing that would upset a postal machine.

Challenges:

• ABC Christmas - favorite punch (pine branch is my favorite Christmas punch)
• Crafting for all Seasons - red, green, and glitter (on the tree and the coloring)
• Creative Moments - anything but a card
• Dragon's Dream Tag It On - Christmas tag
• Papercraft Star - Christmas Tree

Tim type tag

Tim Holtz isn't doing 12 tags of Christmas this year, so neither am I; but one of my yahoo groups is having a Tim tag swap, so I had to make one.  It has a big Tim flower for the homemade flower challenge at Amusing Challenges.

Yes, it is deeply dimensional, and loaded with metal dangly bits.  You can see the NOEL clearly when the silver isn't reflected straight at you.  Now here is the problem - I don't see how in the world I can mail this to anyone for less than $5.  I like it, but I think that is a little steep for a single item swap.  It's silly not to enter the swap after I've made the tag, but really...

Challenges:
Fussy and Fancy - Christmas
CCEE Stampers - new die (spellbinders foliage)
Crafty Ribbons - tag
Do You Stack Up - silver and gold
In the Pink - pink Christmas