Christmas wreaths

 Since I got my stamping platforms I have been somewhat addicted to making cards with wreaths - I could never do this before, and lived in total admiration of those who could do it just marking points with a pencil!
Once I discovered how to do it with the platform there has been no stopping me - I found the best way was to start in one corner, do all four corners, then fill in the gaps.

Both of these used the same small stamps from Robin the Spruce and sentiments from Robin the spruce on the first card and from lets get Festive on the second card (both from Chocolate Baroque).





I coloured the stamps using distress markers before stamping, and the sentiments were gold embossed. Edges of the card were also gold embossed beforee mounting onto white card blanks.

I am entering these into challenge 398 , anything goes
http://craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge.blogspot.com/
and this one, , merry Christmas challenge ,also anything goes

trees

I loved working with these tree stamps from Chocolate Barqoue, very versatile sets that can be used in many ways, and not just the 'normal' that you see here!

My first card uses images from tall trees, fantasy woodland in the the foreground, with the grass and hills created using torn paper as a mask and distress inks sponged on. The small trees in the distance are from teeny weeny meadow, a very useful old set that I think was mostly designed for use in journalling and atc's

A simple mat of black card and a sentiment from lets get festive to finish.









The image from tall trees was stamped in black versafine ink, and the rocks stamped onto acetate which was then then pressed onto the card below the stamped image to give the reflection. Distress oxide inks sponged over to create the evening sky, and a mixture of distress inks to create the grasses and the reflection. Cut down to a panel to fit an 8" sqaure card, and the words from tall trees stamped at the side.











The last card has the image from fantasy landscape stamped in black , with a background from sponged distress inks. Image was die cut and added to the card blank with a sentiment from amazing Mackintosh words

Apologies for the poor quality of the scans, I seem to have managed to change the settings without noticing at the time! (Needless to say, I couldn't have done it deliberately if I had tried to!)

New England and deer

 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, the nearest she could get to colours she found on a paper napkin.
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.