Dreaming of a Pink Christmas

I don't know if you all know this - what with the million challenges out there relating to the subject - but October is breast cancer awareness month. One challenge you ALL should participate in is the Jingle Belle's Challenge. For every entry they receive to their Pink Christmas challenge they are donating $2 to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. There's no limit to how many entries. So this challenge is getting a BIG call out here.

CLICK AND SUBMIT! Just go do it! You can be creative AND do good!

So, with the premise Pink Christmas, I knew I wanted to create something sparkly and pink. I broke out my snowflakes and stamped them into some embossing ink. I spread some holographic embossing powder over them to give them a real shimmer. Next, thanks to the Ombre challenge over at Just Us Girls, I used my distress inks to create shades of pink and really make the snowflakes shine. 

 

I used the following pinks: Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, Picked Raspberries. 

To create a tag for my card, I used a bunch of wintery sentiment stamps and arranged them all together in a pattern. I squished some inks on a craft mat and spritzed with water then stamped my image into the watery ink, before stamping onto the tag. It gives a really blurry watercolor feel. 

I think the end result is just stunning! I never would have thought to create a pink Christmas card, so thanks Jingle Belles!!

I used this sketch from the Retro Sketches competition for my card layout:

I'm also going to enter this into:
Simon Says Stamp's Use Watercolor challenge
STAMPlorations's Stamps and Embossing challenge
Penny Black's Get Ahead for Christmas challenge

To those of you who leave me a comment: Bless your little hearts. They make my day. 

Using Distress Inks with a Rubber Brayer

The leaves are blowing off the trees here in North Dakota. Bare branches reach for the ever colder air and a brisk wind scatters the leaves from one pile to another. Winter draws closer every day and the magic of the first snowfall will soon make its entry. 

That's the feeling the card I created tonight gives me. My boss's father passed away this week and I set out to make a sympathy card for her. Sympathy cards are always the toughest for me to create because I never know what to say, what not to say. Everything seems trite. 

It seems fitting then, that my card ultimately turned out rather clean, without my usual layers or embellishments. 

To create this look, I used one of my favorite Distress Ink Techniques. Many people have heard of dipping the colors, but not everyone has learned about using a rubber brayer to create a smoother transition of colors. 

To get the colors to pop, I used a glossy photo paper. Squish your chosen colors (here is Mustard Seed, Wild Honey, and Spiced Marmalade) into a craft mat and spritz with water until the colors begin to run together. Take a brayer, and roll it through the colors, until it is inked up. Then roll the brayer onto your chosen paper. When my aunt showed me this technique, I fell in love with its effect right away!

I freehanded the hills using a gray-black Spectrum Noir Marker. Next, I used an older (2008) Stampendous stamp set called "Winter Trees" to create my deer scene and mounted the image on black cardstock. Lastly, I embossed the sentiment using a gold powder. 

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

STAMPlorations October Challenge - Stamps and Embossing

Try it on Tuesday's Challenge -Animals

Addicted to Stamps Challenge - Anything Goes

SSS Monday Challenge - Falling in Love With... (show a technique you fell in love with)

Pile it On Challenge - Autumn 

In case you want to see a clear difference between a dipped background (I wrote a brief tutorial on dipping here) and a brayer background, I created two backgrounds. The left is dipped (and I added Fired Brick Distress Ink) and the right is a brayer background. 

Thank you for stopping by! I REALLY enjoy reading your comments so thank you to all those who leave encouragement!