A little life update and two Reindeer cards

Life has been full over the last little while. Between a weekend away, coming down with a horrible head cold, and then flying down to Wellington to spend a few days with my dad, crafting has had to take a bit of a back seat. I came home still coughing, spent a couple of days tucked up in bed, and then eased back into work.

By Tuesday afternoon I was finally feeling a little more human, so I spent a couple of happy hours in the craft room. I had reindeer on my mind after seeing this month’s challenge at Christmas Kickstart, and that was all the inspiration I needed.

For the first card, I started with a digital image from my files: a Bugaboo image called Reindeer Trio. I printed it out, pulled out my alcohol markers, and enjoyed colouring this adorable little trio.

Once the colouring was finished, I die cut the image with a Gina K Master Layout die, using a little partial die cutting to get the panel to the right size. I found a Craft Concepts sentiment stamp in my stash that fitted perfectly in the open space and stamped it to complete the focal panel.

For the background, I used some lovely red music paper and added the coloured panel on an angle for a playful look. I really do think these three reindeer are just adorable.

My second card took a very different direction. I found a sweet reindeer stamp in a Rosie’s Studio set called Hearth + Home and stamped it onto a white panel with Memento Toffee Crunch ink. I added the bow in Catherine Pooler Peppermint Scrub ink for a cheerful touch of colour.

To build the frame around the image, I used an older Hero Arts woodblock stamp, Pine Bough, stamping around the edges with Distress Oxide Evergreen Bough ink. I then blended a little of the same ink around the edges to soften everything and bring the panel together.

The sentiment, from the same Rosie’s Studio stamp set, was stamped in VersaClaire Nocturne ink. I masked the words and deer before splattering white acrylic paint over the panel, then finished the card with a dark green mat on a white card base.

I'm adding this one to the CAS Christmas Challenge -  Woodland Critters 

It felt so good to be back in the craft room, even just for a short time. Sometimes a couple of hours, a few favourite supplies, and a pair of reindeer cards are exactly what is needed.

The secret ingredient is always Love!

 This month's theme at our local swap group was to make a kitchen themed card with a pocket and include a summer recipe. 

My recipient was Carol and I got to hand deliver this one to her on Saturday when Suna and I visited her. 

I don't have any kitchen theme papers so a quick trip on Pinterest and Google, I found this gorgeous image.  I printed it onto some Fabriano 160gms card - it gave a really soft feel to the paper.  I also Googled the sentiment quote.  I printed it and used some Prismacolor pencils to add colour.  

My pocket is on the inside left hand side of the card.... and I included a recipe for Watermelon and Feta Salad.  A nice refreshing salad for summer. 

Was really pleased with how this turned out.   Hybrid digital card making can be such fun.  

Book Gnome.

 It's the last day of our March challenge at Die Cut Divas.   Our sponsor this month is Scrapflower Estudio 

The theme for this month is Anything Goes.

We had some fun images to work with this month.  For this card I've used Nordic Reading Gnome 

I printed the image onto some Franchville 300gms white card and then added the sentiment  typed up in Word onto the card.  I found the quote on the internet.   I then die cut with a Gina K Master Layout die.  I also printed a copy onto copy paper and fussy cut to make a mask to do some ink blending around the image.  I used my Spectrum Noir Tri-blends to colour up the image.   I added a little die cut flower onto her hat.   This was some left overs from an Altenew Zero Waste flower cover sheet cut from some alcohol inks blends.   I added some patterned paper to front of an US A2 card base and added my panel.  

Our challenge finishes at 9.00pm Pacific time so you have a few hours left to join us at Die Cut Divas