Spotlight on Dasher

It's my second week hosting at CAS Colours & Sketches and it's the turn of the sketch. Now I don't mind telling you that this sketch has caused a few problems for me, not least because over at the challenge blog we are celebrating 150 posts! Yes, 150... We are nearly three years old, and so it had to be a good one as there are prizes up for grabs! Enough, you say, show us the sketch

I think the fact that I've added an aperture, rather than a shape, may push the challenge. Also, you must use a 1 5 and/or a 0 to qualify for the prize draw. I decided to go all Christmas on you again

Recognise him? Yes, it's Dasher again. Stamped and heat embossed in gold, set into the aperture

Teamed up with a number stamp from Merry and Type and some SU DP.

You can see the aperture more clearly on the following shots. Very clean, very simple, quick and easy once I had decided on the theme.

The gold and the plaid go together so well for Christmas don't you think?

You can see I have used 25, which has a five in it, so it's good for the draw, you don't have to use just the 1 5 or 0, as long as we can see one of them there. Hope you find time to join in this week.

Merry and Type Triple stamped

With January having five Saturday's it is time for the challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown to revisit old challenges with our Pick A Previous feature. This time it's a previous sketch. To help you there is even an archive of all our previous sketches. I chose a golden oldie from almost three years ago, February 2012

I have given it a very up to date makeover though, thanks to the colour challenge at The Colour Throwdown

Here is my thoroughly contemporary take on the sketch. I stamped the graphics from the set Merry and Type with the triple stamping technique. I needed to use my Stamp-a-ma-jig for this and I don't mind admitting this is actually my second attempt after I stamped the very last image upside down on my first one!

I have replaced the sentiment banner of the sketch with a glitzy ribbon and added a few coordinating gems

 In the end I decided to 'rescue' my first attempt by turning the sketch upside down. Here you can see both cards

Double Embossed Christmas Ornaments

 Hello! It's Saturday morning and that means that I'm back with this week's challenge from 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown. I loved the idea of this one as soon as I saw it, as embossing is one of my favourite techniques, I wish  had more embossing folders (but then we always want more, don't we!) and heat embossing is a kind of magical, mystical alchemy to me, I love the way the powder becomes shiny and the colour changes... yes, simple things, simple minds... I know

 I thought that I hadn't made a card with ornaments for a while and so I reached for Merry and Bright and the trio of ornaments. I used Versamark and three colours of embossing powder, red, green and silver, to get the effect of shimmering baubles, reflecting the light. You do have to throw away the unused powders as they get mixed up, but if you use them sparingly it's not too wasteful

I used the dry embossing on my background which is matt silver. The sentiment is from Open Sleigh and three little bows and some black card stock complete the card.
Looking forward to visiting all your blogs to see your double embossing projects, don't forget to hop on over to the blog and have a look at the creations from my DT buddies, as usual they're awesome!I'm also going to enter Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge Extra for January.

Star light Star Bright

Sometimes you see something and you just want to try it out right there and then.  I saw this technique, for 'painting' with mica powder in a magazine and just had to do it.  The challenge at Less Is More helped too, as I think the metallic shininess (is that a word?) of the mica powder is always set of best by black. The challenge is black with a splash of colour/s and this fabulous firework photograph was my starting point.

I don't have any firework stamps, but I did find something else from the night sky in my stash - a star stamp.  Embossed in silver and painted with mica powder these stars were perfect for the effect I was looking to create. You add a small amount of water into some powder and paint it on with a fine brush.

When it dries the pigment is fixed, so no smudgy messes.

I cut them out by hand and love the way they stand out on the black card stock, slightly curling in the points. The sentiment is from Merry and Type and I've added a double scored border. 

Rainbows at Christmas

It's a colour challenge week...with a difference!  It's not about what colours we want to see on your card, it's about what colours we don't want to see...make sense?  Here to help you, from your 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown hostess, Danielle, is your challenge...

 Yep, that's right, a Christmas card with no red or green.  So get out your fave off the wall Christmas colours and go for it!
Actually, as I was making this card the idea that I COULDN'T use red or green made me want to use every other colour I could think of , and so I designed a rainbow Christmas card!  Take a look

Well, I've never received one like it, have you? I really like those brightly coloured stockings, from the set Open Sleigh and the tongue in cheek sentiment from Merry and Type.  I've actually stamped a more 'sober' Merry  Christmas and a Happy New Year greeting inside just to make sure the recipient knows it's a Christmas card. Crafting should incorporate some experimentation, I think, and this was mine! I'm going to enter my card in the challenge at Christmas Stampin' All Year Long where it is 'Simply Christmas' - so I guess they want simple, stamped cards.

Christmas Bird!

When I saw the challenge at Merry Monday Christmas Challenge I just knew I had to find the time to join in.  I love Christmas cards with birds, I especially love those red cardinal birds, I think they must be from the US since we definitely don't have them here. I'd love a stamp of one of those -I'll have to look out on ebay I guess.

My Christmas bird of choice is the penguin, this one's from Zoo Review and I've stamed him and used a mask before sponging a nice chilly scene for him, with a couple of shades of blue.  To add some Christmas sparkle and an icy touch to the 'snow' I have used silver Stickles

I used a sentiment from Merry and Type, heat embossed in silver with a couple of eyelets on the tag. A shiny blue snowflake, complete with matching gem in the centre for a little bit of Christmas bling and my card was complete.

CAS Holly Wreath

It's Saturday again and here's another challenge from the team at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown.  It's a theme week and the theme is 'Holly'

 Don't these look lovely and seasonal? I can never find holly with berries in the week before Christmas, is it because the birds eat them?  If you know why I'd be interested to know.  I always scout out a few good trees in early December
but when I go back...no berries!
Anyway, here's my card

I could only find a tiny, freebie holly sprig, with three leaves and three berries, so I layered it up into a wreath, using my Gumball Green marker.  The sentiment is from Merry and Type and was previously uninked. I made a triple bow, used a dark red mat and the card base is Naturals White. All in all a 5 minute card, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, I could make a whole batch in half an hour!
This will be my last post for 52 CCT for a few weeks, I'm taking a short break, but will be back half way through September.  I'm sorry- I will miss commenting on all your lovely cards, but I'll take a sneak peek every now and then if I can get to a computer and wifi whilst I'm away.

Ice Bear

The fun continues on 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown where the theme for week 3 in March is Christmas Animals. These days there are cards with all kinds of animals on for Christmas, cats, dogs, reindeer, camels, donkeys and I thought I would go for the very cold and icy polar bear. Her's my card

I know, I know, it's Zoo Review again, but I just love it! My polar bear is floating on an iceberg and you can see his reflection in the icy water (courtesy of my brayer). I made the icicles using a Tim Holtz EF and cut them out and added silver stickles, you can see them better on this close up.

The snowflakes are done using a resist technique, dabbing versamark overthe card with a cotton bud and then clear embossing. The inks are a blend of Pool Party and Indigo Island.  I think 'Peace on Earth' is a good sentiment for this card.

Pink and Purple Christmas

OK this one is all down to me so I hope you will like it, (I apologise if it's not your cup of tea). March is my month of hosting the very successful 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown challenge blog, and the first week is always a sketch. Now, I had a lot of fun designing this one but I think I probably thought too hard, as there is not much room for interpretation- although some of you will prove me wrong no doubt! What I do love about it is the effect of 3D that it creates.

To compensate for this I chose an ultra contemporary colour scheme.  The design is good for showcasing DP and I had some gorgeous papers, so that's where I started.  The centre is an embedded image, can't tell you the name of the stamp as I stamped it at a workshop a while ago, coloured with markers, and the sentiment is from Merry and Type. I used a strip cut from one of the papers to offset the image.  The bow is there to balance the sentiment

Note to self, next time make card and then create sketch! Do go and have a look at the designs from the rest of the DT - they have done me proud - thanks girls!
I am going to pop my card into the challenge at Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge too, where the theme for Challenge 114 is ribbons and Crafty Hazelnuts Extra Christmas Challenge for March

Hi Ho Silver

Hi Ho Silver - that's the cry from Cas-ual Fridays challenge blog this week, whilst Merry Monday's challenge #50 is for an Elegant Christmas card. I've created a card that fits the bill for both..

 I used a Tim Holtz embossing folder to emboss the card blank with snowflakes and stamped the large ornament stamp from Merry and Type in Versamark, before heat embossing it in silver. I added gems to one of the baubles and 1 in the centre of the large one.  I matted the black card onto silver mirri card.  Finally I stamped the little oval Christmas Greeting and also heat embossed that in silver, popping it up on dimensionals.
A simple recipe, white, black and metallic -CAS and elegant I think.