The Sponges Have It

I was in Sponging Heaven yesterday making some Christmas cards for my ladies to do in class. Rather than our usual stamp-a-stack making ten cards, these are one-off cards for those special folks  who deserve that extra time and attention - you know who I mean.

For the first two cards I borrowed from the creative genius of others but did give the cards a little tweak of my own. The third card is my own design.

Here's the first, CASEd from the genius that is Michelle Zindorf - surprisingly, not a brayered card!

I began with a piece of very vanilla and stamped the world stamp using early espresso ink. Then I stamped the swirl from Everything Eleanor using Versamark ink and embossed with a non SU embossing powder called Aged Ivory (it has little flecks of gold in it, just gorgeous). Next I sponged using crumb cake and then early espresso inks, rubbing the excess ink off the embossing with a tissue; that was then mounted on to a mat of crumb cake. Santa was stamped using Timber Brown StazOn ink onto watercolour paper and coloured, cut and adhered using snail, then everything attached to the cherry cobbler base using Dimensionals. Simple but effective! For the inside I stamped the world map with crumb cake ink and placed my card over it, pressing only in a few spots to get the partial image effect, then stamped the sentiment with cherry cobbler ink.

Materials used:

• stamps - Santa's List, Everything Eleanor, World Map, 
• card - cherry cobbler, crumb cake, very vanilla, watercolour
• inks - early espresso, crumb cake, cherry cobbler
• other - heat tool, aged ivory (non SU) embossing powder, sponges, aqua painter, Dimensionals, markers

Next is a gorgeous sparkly card CASEd from Cynthia Millan (she has a video tutorial HERE) that is incredibly easy to make; the pine is stamped on very vanilla, sponged and covered entirely with iridescent ice embossing powder. I mounted mine on another piece of vanilla, then on to the mossy meadow card base. The pine and sponging are followed through to the inside.

Materials used:

• stamps - Ornamental Pine
• card - mossy meadow, very vanilla
• inks - mossy meadow, early espresso, Versamark
• other - irridescent ice embossing powder, heat tool, sponges, Dimensionals

And lastly my new favourite trees (I don't know about you, but I am sooooooo over Lovely as a Tree after all these years!). I stamped them with Versamark on to a piece of whisper white and embossed again using irdescent ice, then sponged using marina mist and night of navy inks. The die cut sentiment was cut from silver glitter card and a few rhinestones added to look like stars. The sentiment on the inside echoes that on the front.

Materials used:

• stamps - Wonderland
• card - night of navy, whisper white, silver glimmer
• inks - marina mist, night of navy
• other - Christmas Sayings dies, Big Shot, iridescent ice embossing powder, heat tool, sponges, rhinestones, Dimensionals

We're also making some Christmas tags, so I'll come back with those another time.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Water, Water, Everywhere!

This month's class cards involve plenty of water as well as watercolouring and sponging - two of my favourite crafting activities! Thankfully my ladies seem to enjoy them too - not that I give them much choice, lol!

Firstly we'll make this simple card using the gorgeous World Map stamp. I resisted buying this one for quite a while but now I don't know why I did, as I just love it. Great for masculine cards too.

Materials used:

• stamps - World Map, Chalk Talk
• card - crumb cake, early espresso, soft sky, watercolour
• inks - crumb cake, soft sky, Timber Brown StazOn
• other - aqua painter, Dimensionals, wide oval punch

Our second card is a case from Michelle Surette - just love these little birdies. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Wetlands
• card - chocolate chip, soft sky, so saffron, whisper white
• inks - soft sky, so saffron, hello honey, Timber Brown StazOn
• other - sponges and sponge daubers, stripes embossing folder, Big Shot, burlap ribbon, Dimensionals

And our last card, this one inspired by a Teneale Williams creation that I've changed up a little.

Materials used:

• stamps - You've Got This
• card - smoky slate, watercolour, very vanilla, basic grey, blackberry bliss
• inks - wild wasabi, blackberry bliss, crushed curry, Versamark
• other - white embossing powder, heat tool, pearls, aqua painter, greetings thinlits, Big Shot, Dimensionals, sponge dauber, Sahara sand marker

That should keep them all busy! Thanks for stopping by and don't forget - if you like what you see, leave some comment love!

Cheers

Kez

Aged to Perfection

For last month's card classes we had a vintage theme and these are the cards we made:

Materials used:

• stamps - Best of Butterflies
• card - crumb cake, very vanilla, Graphic 45 Secret Garden dsp
• other - pearls, Big Shot, dimensionals, sponge daubers
• non SU - Gesso, nestabilities dies, copics

The papers were a little bright for what I had in mind, so I brushed them with Gesso which tones down the colours and also adds a lovely canvas-type texture to the paper.

Next I tried out a vintage masculine card using SU's World Map and Open Sea stamps.

Materials used:

• stamps - Open Sea, World Map, Happiest Birthday Wishes, canvas background 
• card - crumb cake, basic black, very vanilla
• other - twine, dimenionals, sponges, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches

For the last card we used the emboss resist technique over the dsp to age it a little more - it looks a lot like some old wallpaper my ladies thought! The rose was made with two toning colours of cardstock, one of which is core'dinations card and was sanded back for a distressed look. More crinkling of seam binding - this time always artichoke - similar to the card in my last post.

Materials used:

• stamps - Simply Sketched, Tres Chic
• card - raspberry ripple, very vanilla, always artichoke, primrose petals, Vintage something retired dsp (can't remember the name!)
• other - pearls, deco labels framelits, Big Shot, always artichoke seam binding, dimensionals, sanding set
• non SU - roses die, rose petals punch and embossing punch, hot glue gun

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez