I can't believe its already November, the time is zooming by this year. But it also means its time again for Tracey McNeely's 25 Days of Christmas Tags 2017!!
Tracey has once again organised 25 Days of Christmas tags created by different companies, who are also giving away prizes. You have the chance to win by linking your own tag here.
Myself and my other 'Girl Friday' team-mates are sharing tags today using products from CAS-ual Fridays Stamps, who are also offering a prize along with the many other companies.
I quite often use 'non-traditional' colours for my Christmas cards but decided to embrace red and green for my tag design:
My Tag Buddies Fri-Die was die-cut from watercolour CS as I was going to use Distress Inks. However I decided to create a subtle background instead by stamping and heat embossing the Starlequin border stamp twice across the tag in white. I then stamped the mistletoe from Mistletoe & Holly on watercolour CS and heat embossed in gold. I coloured it with Zig Real Color Markers, fussy cut it out and then popped on foam tape.
The sentiment (also from the Mistletoe and Holly stamp set) was simply stamped in black ink on white CS, fussy cut out and put on foam tape as well. I finished the tag off with some gold thread tied into a bow.
For all the details regarding the 25 Day of Christmas Tags click here and don't forget to check out Tracey's blog each day to see amazing inspiration from each company.
Take care
Shona
Hi there and welcome to another month at the Little Tangles Challenge!!! You guys totally rocked the Sketch challenge last month and this months theme is going to cause the Gallery to explode with talent, I can see it now!!
That's right, its everyone's favourite 'Colouring'!!!!! There are so many ways to colour a card these days. Copics, pencils, watercolour, distress inks etc....the possibilities are endless and I know some of our regular challenge entrants are masters of colouring, so I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!!
I haven't had this happen for a while but my mojo has taken a bit of a hit lately. Everything I tried to make was a disaster and I was hoping to have some new Neat and Tangled products to use from the October release but they have been stuck in Auckland, New Zealand for over two weeks with Customs. So all a bit of a bummer. However, I took my son Max to the skatepark the other day and stamped out a whole lot of images to colour. After doing that for two hours I was ready to make a card:
I'm a bit embarassed because my colouring is no where near as good as my Little Tangles team-mates. However I recently looked back at some of my coloured cards from a few years ago and the difference is incredible (in a good way) so there is hope for me yet!!
I started by stamping out the Floral Heart and little reindeer (from Santa's Wonderland) in black on white CS. Once I had finished colouring them with pencils I fussy cut the reindeer and used the matching Floral Heart Die. The Floral Heart image is so versatile and using the red and green colours really gives it a 'christmassy' feel. I also (for the first time....) had a go at adding some white highlights on the leaves etc with a white gel pen. It really does make a difference!!
To ground the images on the card front, I used my mini-blending tool and Distress Ink 'Mowed Lawn' to colour the background. I added foam tape to the back of the heart and then doubled the foam tape for the reindeer so he sat up even higher. I wanted the colouring to be the star of the card so I simply stamped the sentiment (also from Santa's Wonderland) with black ink on the card front and added some red, green and gold sequins for shine. I also added some Nuvo Crystal Drops in White to the snowballs for a bit of shine and dimension.
You have until Thursday 30th November to link your projects to the Little Tangles challenge and definitely check out my team-mates cards on the blog, lots of inspiration to be seen there!! I'm so excited to see all your entries, the Gallery is going to look incredible!
Take care
Shona
Hi there everyone!! Its been a very warm week here and I even got my first sunburn of the season yesterday, which seems a bit early for the beginning of November but I will take sun whenever I can get it!!
I'm just wanting to remind you about our current challenge at TIME OUT. We have a challenge with a twist for you:
SYMPATHY with optional twist of Distressing
The 'Distressing' could be the use of Distress Inks, distressing the papers i.e. ripping, sanding etc or maybe distressing over your design!! Its totally up to you!
The Sponsor for this challenge is Happy Little Stampers and they are giving the winner of this challenge a $15 gift voucher to their store!!
For my card I really wanted to concentrate on Distress Inks and create some rich, blended colours. I also wanted to keep it super simple as I hardly ever make Sympathy cards and find them incredibly difficult to do:
I started by cutting a panel of watercolour CS and heat embossing this floral image from Altenew 'Blooming Bouquet' in white. I then grabbed my Distress Inks 'Peacock Feathers', 'Mermaid Lagoon' and 'Salty Ocean' and used my mini-blending tool to add them to the panel, going over and over the colours to make them super saturated.
Once I was happy with the colours, I used a waffle-edged frame die from My Favourite Things 'Blueprints 27' and then adhered to the card front. I wanted to keep the sentiment very simple, so stamped 'with sympathy' from Simon Says Stamp 'Flower Friend' with black ink on a strip of white CS and popped on foam tape. And added some clear sequins for some subtle shine from Neat and Tangled.
You have until Wednesday 8th November to link your projects to the TIME OUT challenge and if your needing any help with design ideas, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team and our fabulous Guest Designer Sue from Sue's Card Craft have created for you. Look forward to seeing your cards in the Gallery!!
Take care
Shona
