Watercooler Wednesday Challenge #138 - Marsha's All About Christmas Challenge

It's Christmas again at the Watercooler! This week, Marsha is hosting an All About Christmas Challenge.

I was lucky to be able to earn the special, bonus stamp set that is available only until Oct. 31 - Merry Patterns. And it arrived just in time for me to use it for this challenge.

I love this 2-step candle image, and used Fresh Fig and Berry Burst for the patterns and Archival Basic Black for the outlines. The flames are Crushed Curry.

Half of a silver Metallic Snowflake provides a base for the candles, and I set it off with some Black Lace ribbon.

The banners are from Merry Music DSP. A piece of Black cardstock sets everything off. The card base is Thick Whisper White.

It looks like there is a lot going on with this design, but it did come together quite quickly. I'm thinking I make more and just change up the colours in the candles. I really like the black & white with just a pop of colour.

Now it's time to visit Watercooler Wednesday and check out the awesome Christmas creations from the rest of the team. It's easy to link up your entry.

Watercooler Wednesday Challenge #137 - Penny's Masculine Challenge

This week's challenge, brought to us by Penny, is all about the men in your life.

It just so happened that I was making a sympathy card for my brother-in-law whose brother has just passed away. Sympathy cards are tough to make at any time.

While I didn't want to use really bright colours, I don't always want to use somber, dull colours either. So I started with playing around with a piece of the new Champagne Foil and the Woodland Embossing Folder. And here is what happened:

To make the trees show up more, I dragged my black StazOn ink pad across them. The Carols of Christmas framelits and Smoky Slate make the perfect frame for the embossed piece, and shows up nicely against the Basic Black card base.

The sentiment is from Rose Wonder, stamped with Archival Basic Black on Smoky Slate, then cut out with a Stitched Framelits oval.

Visit Watercooler Wednesday Challenge and see all the great creations from the rest of the team.

Watercooler Wednesday Challenge #136 - Gail's All About Birthdays Challenge

This week is my turn to host and I picked an All About Birthdays theme. Birthday cards are probably the most needed type of cards for all of us.

 Since birthdays are festive occasions, I thought this is the perfect opportunity to use a new stamp set I received recently - Half Full. It's a special set, as it was designed by a demo who reached a remarkable milestone - one million dollars in sales. And, it's all about wine!

My card was inspired a package of napkins I spotted in London Drugs, a local pharmacy. That's what I used as the background. It was really easy to adhere to the Sahara Sand cardstock base by using the Adhesive Sheets. A gift card was used to smooth out the very thin layer of tissue.

The colours on the napkin matched perfectly with Sahara Sand and Fresh Fig. So I stamped the tag with Fresh Fig on Very Vanilla and fussy cut. A small piece of Jute Twine is threaded through a hole punched in the tag, and I tied a piece of Copper Trim around that. A few dimensionals pop it up.

The row of wine glasses were stamped on Fresh Fig cardstock with Fresh Fig ink. For the sentiment, I used the 'happy birthday' from Teeny Tiny Wishes. And, of course, I had to use a trio of my favourite embellishment of the moment - Black rhinestones.

To do the wine bottle, I used Always Artichoke ink on Very Vanilla. The colouring was done by picking up some Always Artichoke ink from the lid of the stamp pad with a blender pen. I wanted it to look streaky, like it is a very old, some-what dusty bottle that was hidden in the back corner of the wine cellar.

For the top of the bottle, I wanted it to look like it had a foil wrap around the cork. I stamped just the top of the bottle on the back side of a piece of Champagne Foil that had a piece of the Adhesive Sheet adhered to it. After fussy cutting, it was easy to place it on the bottle.

The final touches on the bottle, the white highlights, are done with a white Posca paint pen.

While it looks like there is a lot to this card, it went together very quickly. And I still have a lot of napkins left to make more cards!

Now go visit Watercooler Wednesday and see what the other Watercooler Artists have created.

Watercooler Wednesday Challenge #135 - Judy's Feminine Anything Goes Challenge

Judy brings us a Feminine Anything Goes Challenge this week.

For my card this week, I used a hostess set from the 2017-2018 Annual Catalogue. All the hostess sets in this current catalogue are outstanding, but the Tranquil Tulips really caught my eye, and I was finally able to get it. Just in time for this challenge!

This set is a two-step set - my favourite kind! - and it has a watercolour look to it - my favourite technique!

I started by stamping the tulips with Melon Mambo, then stamped the leaves with Wild Wasabi on watercolour paper. Next I used a small watercolour paint brush, wet but not saturated, and just painted over the stamped images to smooth them out.

When that was dry, I went in with the same brush, again wet but not saturated, dipped into drops of Soft Sky ink and did a wash across the piece.

To give a bit of detail to everything, again using the paint brush, I mixed some water with a drop of Tranquil Tide ink and splattered it across everything.

Now, have a closer look at the dragonfly.

It is cut with the Detailed Dragonfly Thinlits, from a brand new product you will find in the 2017 Holiday Catalogue - Champagne Foil. Isn't it stunning? Because I haven't been able to stop using the Black Rhinestones, also from the Holiday Catalogue, I went all out and used all three sizes on the body of the dragonfly.

A thin border of Basic Black cardstock is the perfect accent for the watercolour piece, and it's all mounted on a Tranquil Tide cardbase.

Now, go create your own Feminine Anything Goes! Visit Watercooler Wednesday to be inspired by the rest of the Watercooler Artists - and a special Guest Artist as a bonus.