Two projects (by Magda)

There is still time for Christmas, but these beautiful stamps from Chocolate Baroque have tempted me to try two very different projects.

Long Card :

1. Blend Distress Ink Pad Antique Linen on 3 white ATC cards
2. Stamp with Versafine Olympia Green  on each ATC a different subject, from Frosty Trees
    and New England Winter set
3. Decorate with red gems and Stickles - Crystal
4. For the background of the card blend Distress Ink Pad Antique Linen, Old Paper, Mustard Seeds
    and Rusty Hinge.
5. Stamp with Versafine Olympia Green  a sentiment from the Frosty Trees set

Journaling Page:

1. Colour your journaling page with green, red  and yellow acrylic paint

2. Cover all the page with Dina Wakley Media white gesso 

3. Stencil spots randomly with Distress Ink Pad Pine Needle 

4. Stamp with Distress Ink Pad Pine Needle and Walnut Stain the tree from the Frosty Trees set  in order to create a scene

5. Use Dina Wakley Media white gesso  on the snowflakes of Seasonal Elements stencil 

6. Stamp with Versafine Vintage Sepia the sentiment Let's get Festive

7. Decorate with some red gems and Stickles - Crystal

Thank you for passing by

Magda

   

winter (by Veronica)

 I used the lovely house stamp from New England winter, stamped using distress markers to colour the stamp. Thanks to my friend Janet for introducing me to the combination of dusty concord and iced spruce, which i really liked and makes a nice change from the usual Christmas colours
I used the same colours to ink up the pine cones from the same plate to create the background, with some second generation stamping to add interest.
The sentiment from lets get festive was also coloured with the marker pens, and the die cut edged with the same markers. i also coloured the mats with the marker pens to get matching colours




The next two cards use the large stamp from the reindeer landscape plate.
For the first card I stamped with versamrk onto black card and clear embossed it, before adding colour with distress oxide ink pads. I dragged colours across the sky to try to give a northern lights effect. The snow was a white pigment ink sponged on, with a little of the oxide colours added for a reflection of the sky. Some white glitter in the foreground to finish before trimming right down and adding white and pink mounts. The greeting from the same plate was stmaped in a silver grey ink.

I wanted to see if i could make a shaker card using this stamp - I stamped the edges of the stamp onto the base card using hickory smoke distress ink to extend the scene.  I stamped the image onto spare card , colouring the stamp with distress markers, and trimmed this down to a 62 square. I die cut a circle from another piece  of card the same size, backed it with acetate and fixed it over the image using foam pads having first added some sparkly silver snowflakes I found lurking in a drawer.                                   The whole thing was then added to the base card after sponging more grey ink round the edges. The sentiment from lets get festive was stamped and silver embossed  , edged with grey and mounted on top.                     

Christmas selection (posted by Claire)

Good morning, Claire here with a selection of Christmas cards made for Lesley's shows on Hochanda.  

To make this acetate card I cut the front off an 8x8card blank leaving a little border (about 2cm) along the top and used red line tape to attach an acetate panel. I stamped the gorgeous little house from New England Winter on watercolour card and added some colour with watercolour paints, highlighted with glitter and glossy accents. I cut this out and then tore several strips of card, adding glitter to the torn edges. The important thing with this style of card is to add some weight to the front of the card otherwise it doesn't stand up properly so the strips of snowy card give the front some strength. Layer the strips of card, popping the house in between. I added some 'snow' with a white Posca Pen and some icicles with glue and glitter. I stencilled the moon using Seasonal Elements stencil and white gesso with a sprinkle of glitter. The sentiment is from Let's Get Festive. I made the background using watercolour paint, creating a very dilute wash of colour. 

My second card was made using Frosty Trees. I began by stamping the slender trees with a rainbow ink pad, it doesn't show too well in the pic but the trees are actually shades of blue/green and purple. Next, I stamped the ornate tree with gilding glue and applied some silver holographic glitter. I used the same stamp to create a border around the white card. I stamped the sentiment (from the same set) with gilding glue and again applied glitter. 

I love these pretty birds and made two colour variations for the show using the Winter Birds set. This one in shades of pink and brown was fairly quick to make. I watercoloured the image and die cut with a spellbinders die before dusting with distress ink (Picked Raspberry and Tea Dye) and added some frantage embossing powder. The sentiment is from Let's Get Festive, I stamped with versamark and carefully embossed with gold embossing powder, carefully missing the word Hearts which I coloured with pink EP. Again this was die cut and distressed before layering up on a shaped easel card made using the same die. 

My last card for today features the same stamp but in more traditional Christmas shades of Red and Green.

I watercoloured the image, adding some glitter for a snowy sparkle and splattering some paint here and there for the background. I stamped the holly border using the little silhouette stamps from the Winter Birds set. I stamped them in green and added red berries using a fineliner pen. I added some dots of white glue and dusted with some glitter. 

I hope we're giving you lots of inspiration for your Christmas cards, this year is whizzing by and it will be here before we know it. Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx

Christmas Old and New (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I am sharing some Christmas projects with you today that were featured on last month's TV shows on Hochanda. Some of these were old projects that I made a few years ago, but I hope that you do not mind seeing them again.

I will start with a new project, where I created a background, using soft blues and pinks to represent a Winter sky. I added some deeper blue hills using torn paper masks, and stamped the tree from the Frosty Trees stamp set and the sentiment from the Let's Get Festive stamp set, using dark blue ink. Ensuring that the background was completely dry, I added some snowflakes using white embossing powder, and then used some flat-backed gems for added sparkle.

Using another tree from the same stamp set, I created an icy background using metallic paints, and on a smaller scrap of card, I stamped and embossed the tree panel using Versafine Onyx Black Ink and clear embossing powder, for a crisp image. I matted the layers onto black card, and added some small black gems. The sentiment comes from the Let's Get Festive stamp set once again.

 I wanted to create a piece of home decor especially for Christmas using my favourite sentiment from the new stamp set. I painted a chipboard heart in soft blue, adding some crackle medium here and there, and then added a vintage white paint over the top. I then stamped the sentiment in a bold red before adding the fabulous pine cones from the New England Winter stamp set around the edges. I used water based markers to colour the stamps, allowing me to add colour exactly where I wanted. A red ribbon completes the project.

This next card is an adaptation of an old card that I first made several years ago, using the Winter Birds stamp set, but I have made it in a different size. These days, I like to make 8" x 8" cards, and so the card does look slightly different from the original. I have added one of the new sentiments this time around as well.

Finally two golden oldies for you, I remade the first one, which was originally given as a Birthday card to someone. It just goes to show that these beautiful stamps can be used at other times of the year, not just at Christmas, with a change of colour. I have used the large image from the Reindeer Landscape stamp set, embossed with copper embossing powder, and coloured with Distress Inks and a water brush. The background was also created with Distress Inks, and I have then stamped leaves from the Sunny Sunflowers stamp set, and coloured them with pencils. The sentiment comes from the Nature's Peace stamp set.

Finally a luminary, also using the large image from the Reindeer Landscape stamp set. I die cut an aperture from four large printed tags. The images were stamped and embossed onto parchment using white embossing powder, and coloured from behind. I used metal tape to join the tags, which I embossed, and aged with a little bit of black paint.

I hope that my projects have given you some ideas using these fabulous stamps. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx

Christmas Cards (By Marga)

Hello all, yes it's time again to slowly make some Christmas cards and today I would like to show you some.

Here I stamped the image on kraft paper and coloured it with pencils. I cut it out and put it on brown paper.

Here I used Distress Ink to stamp the image and with a water brush I coloured the image.

Here I also stamped the image with Distress Ink. I used different colours and with a water brush I went over the colours to create a watercolour scene.

Stamps I used are: Reindeer Landscape, Winter Birds, New England Winter and Lets get Festive

Hugs 

Marga

A few Christmas makes ... (posted by Claire)

Good morning, I really love making Christmas projects so I had lots of fun making samples for Lesley's recent shows on Hochanda. This morning I'm sharing 3 Christmas cards. The first features New England Winter, this is one of my all time favourite sets!

I began by stamping the image onto watercolour paper and painting with masking fluid. I gave it a good coat of the fluid as I was planning on a very messy background lol. Once the masking fluid was dry spritzed the card with plenty of water and set to with my watercolour paints to create a 'galaxy sky' effect. I used shades of blue, green, purple and pink - mixed with plenty of water and added black around the edges. While the paint was wet I sprinkled over some rock salt and then added some drops of rubbing alcohol. I wasn't sure how the alcohol would react with the water but it was on my desk so i had a go. The salt created the feathery effect in the background (I think I added a bit too much lol) and the alcohol created the circles. I left the background to dry and and then splattered everything with watered down white gesso and again left it to dry before adding some even white stars with a white posca pen. Once the background was completely dry I removed the masking fluid and watercoloured the image. I added glossy accents to the tree lights and white pva glue generously sprinkled with glitter to create the snow in the foreground. The sentiment is from Let's Get Festive.

Card number two was made using the beautiful Reindeer Landscape, another favourite (but aren't they all lol) I stamped the focal image with Black Versafine ink and used a black pitt pen to extend the landscape to each side.

I added shadows to the hills with very dilute watercolour paint in shades of blue, purple and pink. I used slightly more intense shades of the same colours to create the sky, masking a little moon. I added some snow with splatters of white gesso and a white posca pen before stamping the sentiment which comes from the lovely new set Let's Get Festive,

For card number 3 I used one of the lovely stamps from New England Winter. This was a bit of an experiment but I'm pleased with the finished card and it was very quick to make.

I stamped the pine bough with white gesso, heat set it and then roughly masked the area with a post it note before stamping the image again a little lower. Once the gesso was thoroughly dry I added some colour with watercolour paints and enhanced the details with coloured pencils. I added a wash of very dilute white gesso around the image, dried it and again splattered with more gesso. The sentiment is another from Let's Get Festive, this time embossed with white EP.

I hope you're feeling festive and are enjoying all the beautiful makes from my teamies

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx