WWC96 - Gail's Special Fold Challenge

It's my turn to host this week's challenge. I decided to really challenge myself and pick something I don't do a lot of - Special Folds.

A special fold that is popular right now is one called Pop Up Panel. I have watched several videos showing how it is done, and the one I found the most easily followed was done by Dawn Griffith, also a Stampin' Up demonstrator.

Recently, one of my sisters was visiting, and it just happened to be her birthday while she was here. So I took the opportunity to make her a Special Fold birthday card.

Here is the front:

I also dug into my hoard - uh - stash of favourite retired cardstock to use for the cardbase and ink. Lost Lagoon is just the best shade of blue! And it goes really well with the silver foil dotted pattern from the Halloween Night Specialty Designer Series Paper.

The image is stamped on Whisper White cardstock, using Lost Lagoon and Archival Basic Black inks. The images are from Touches of Texture and the sentiment is from Rose Wonder. I used markers in Daffodil Delight and Old Olive to colour the flowers and leaves.

Are you ready to see the inside?

My sister loves cats, so it was a purr-fect chance to use the Pretty Kitty stamp set. It took a variety of markers to colour each panel as I wanted each kitty to be a different colour. The grass image is from Sitting Here.

Here is a close-up of the kitties:

This really was a fun card to make and I hope you will give it a try. Or, any one of the other fantastic fold projects done by the other Watercooler Artists you can see at the Watercooler Wednsday Blog.

WWC95 - Libby's Masculine Challenge

It's time for another Masculine Challenge, hosted this week  by Libby. The theme is "Anything Goes". That leaves it wide open to do anything you want. Can be any colour scheme, for any occasion. Doesn't even have to be a card. You could do a 3-D item, such as a gift box or a framed home-decor piece.

I decided to do a Christmas card and had a clear idea of how I wanted it to look. Even though it is a simple design and uses only stamps and ink, I did use 4 different stamp sets and 2 different techniques to make it.

The techniques are Masking and Off-set Stamping. For the masking technique, I stamped the car image from Guy Greetings onto a piece of scrap paper and cut it out. After placing it where I wanted it on the Crumb Cake card stock, I inked up the trio of trees from a retired stamp set (wish it hadn't retired!) from last year's Holiday Catalogue - Wonderland, with Always Artichoke ink and stamped to look like they are behind the car.

With the mask still in place, I cleaned off the stamp and re-inked it with Whisper White Craft ink. I didn't want to stamp the Whisper White image right over-top the Always Artichoke, so I move it slightly so the green would still show and the white ink would like like snow sitting on top of the branches.

Craft ink doesn't dry quickly, so I gave it a few minutes to make sure it was completely dry. After removing the mask, I stamped the car image into its spot using Early Espresso ink. Then I stamped a few random snowflakes with WW Craft, using the snowflakes stamp from the Christmas Pines stamp set.

I also used 3 different mediums for the white areas of this design. As well as the WW Craft ink, I coloured the snow under the car with the Whisper White Watercolour Pencil from the brand new Watercolour Pencil collection that will be available in the 2017 Occasions Catalogue. So happy we have Watercolour Pencils back!

To do the snow on the car, I used a Krylon White Paint Pen. I've been dabbling in Mixed Media and watching a lot of videos on YouTube - a lot! Many of the artists use paint pens, so I went looking for some to try out. I also have a Sharpie White Paint Pen, but it soaked into the cardstock - not the effect I was going for. Here's a close-up of the car:

The sentiment, also in Early Espresso, is from another sadly retired set - Endless Whishes. As a finishing touch, a bit of Clear Wink of Stella on the windows gives them a frosted look. Also, I sponged the edges with more WW Craft ink and then mounted the image panel with Dimensionals onto a Whisper White Thick card base.

I'm really liking the vintage-y look of this and think it could also work well for the men in ones life who have winter birthdays.

To see the wonderful project done by the other Watercooler Artists, visit the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge Blog. You have until Monday to link up your project. We hope you will play along - we love to see all the creativity!
 

All About Christmas

Since this is our last Blog Hop of 2016, we are going all out for Christmas!

If you are following the Hop line-up, you have arrived here from Marie's blog. I'm sure you are as impressed by her creations as I am!

My first project uses my favourite pattern from the Serene Scenery Paper Stack. I thought it made the perfect background for a wreath made with the Pretty Pines Thinlits dies.

I cut the pine boughs from the Garden Green patterned paper from the This Christmas Designer Series Paper. It was really easy to shape into the wreath form. The bow is also cut from the Real Red pattern from This Christmas DSP. And the holly branches are Real Red cardstock. I stamped the sentiment from the co-ordinating stamp set, Christmas Pines in Real Red ink on Whisper White cardstock.

Can you see the sparkles? They are the white mica flakes - so much fun! I also stamped some little snowflakes with the snowflake image from Christmas Pines using Craft White ink. Here's a close-up:

Next up is a card using the first Christmas set I got from this awesome 2016 Holiday Catalogue - Father Christmas. And I just had to use the brand new Watercolour Pencils in Stampin' Up! colours!! Yay! Look for them in January in the 2017 Occasions Catalogue.

Father Christmas is stamped with Staz-on Black on Very Vanilla and totally coloured with the Watercolour Pencils: Real Red, Basic Black, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo and Basic Grey. I used a white gel pen for his beard and the trim on his robe.

I wanted Father Christmas to be the focal point, so I cut out the image with our brand new Stitched Shapes framelits. These are a must-have! Then I layered it onto a bigger oval in Dapper Denim, cut with the Layering Ovals framelits.

Then, I used the holly branch to stamp randomly in Dapper Denim on Very Vanilla. I think it kind of looks like Toile and I love how it looks backed by the Dapper Denim card base.

For my third project, I went to the Christmas Pines stamp set. This set has so many elements to it, making it so fun to use. And this design was so quick to do, I had to do two versions:

I stamped the pine bough image in Always Artichoke right onto the Crumb Cake card bases and added some snowflakes using Craft Whisper White.

The tidings of comfort and joy sentiment is embossed with Copper Embossing Powder on Whisper White card stock, then cut out with the Stitched Shapes Framelits. You can see a little bit of Copper Wire peeking out from the corners.

For the other sentiment, I used the Real Red Glitter Embossing powder, again on Whisper White, also cut with Stitched Shapes Framelits.

I really can't decide which of all these projects I would pick as a favourite. I love them all! And I hope you like them too.

Now you're off to see what Jean has prepared for you. I know you will love her projects! Just click on the 'Next' button below to go to her blog.

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