Double Trouble 124 plus Colour Dare 520 - Slothy Christmas

 Welcome to Double Trouble Challenge 124! 

It's a "something, anything, everything" week at Double Trouble. The small graphic is below - please visit the Double Trouble challenge blog for detailed information. 

I am also linking this card with Colour Dare Challenge 520 as I am on that design team. I used every colour except Harbour. 

I inked a piece of white cardstock with Bundled Sage Distress Oxide ink and lightly splattered it with a mixture of Perfect Pearls and water to add some shine. The red and gold papers were adhered on the left side. The image was stamped, coloured and die cut. I used a much darker green ink to add some highlights around the sloth image. The sentiment was embossed in black at the bottom and some gold gems were placed around the image to finish off the card. 

Come and join us at Double Trouble and Colour Dare and show us how you interpret these challenges. 

The Double Trouble challenge ends next Sunday evening and the Colour Dare challenge ends on Friday evening. 

We can't wait to see what you create! 

Enjoy,

Alyson

Striped Holly Jolly Card

 This is such a clean and simple card with a neat effect - I saw it on the Catherine Pooler Facebook page and wanted to replicate it. 

The words with shadows were die cut from a white card front. I cut several pieces of coloured cardstock into thin strips and layered them onto the card base so enough pieces would cover the open sentiment spots. The detailed sentiment pieces were then placed on top of the coloured cardstock and I adhered the card front with foam tape. Easy! 

Enjoy,

Alyson

Stash and Dash Christmas Card

 I recently participated in a live Facebook event run by a friend of mine (Life is Art with Monica Hayward). It is a 30 minute (!!!) card making challenge, based on four parameters that are determined by the roll of a die. 

I don't think I have EVER made a card in 30 minutes... but the timer is flexible and we often chat as a group long after the timer goes off while still finishing our cards. I managed to complete this one in 35 minutes.

The parameters were as follows:

    - accordion card

    - red and green

    - metal or metallics

    - stamping 

I made a triple panel accordion card - it fits into a standard A2 envelope. I used some red and green holiday papers plus gold foil for a mat layer. The flowers and greenery were die cut and added to circles on the front panel and I added a gold gem in the centre of each flower. I stamped the sentiment on the last piece in two colours and ink splattered that piece as well. There is a small place to write a message. 

Wow - it was a challenge to work so quickly but I will definitely do this again!

If you are interested in joining this event, look up Life is Art with Monica Hayward on FB and you will see posts about this event every Tuesday evening. 

Enjoy,

Alyson

Mini Slimline Stencilled Cards - Traditional and Non-Traditional

 These cute cards were created using a set of triple slim layering stencils. Three card fronts are created from one stencilling session. 

I made two sets - one in red and green and the other in shades of blue. The images are the same. I used red gel on top of the last layer of the traditional cards and clear gel on top of the last layer for the blue cards. It added such nice shine to the finished cards. I added foiled sentiments to each along with some metallic thread. 

Enjoy,

Alyson

Krafty Chicks Week 4 - Triple Flowers Card

This is my last week as a guest designer for the Krafty Chicks challenge. It has been a lot of fun! 

The fourth challenge in the month is an all occasion challenge. I chose to create a card with a happy message. 

The flowers and leaves were stencilled and die cut. I based the colours on the patterned paper that I used for the corners. The corner pieces were cut and adhered along with a strip of very light pink shimmer trim and a thin strip of cardstock. The flowers were arranged in the centre and the sentiment was placed at the bottom. I coloured some white enamel dots and added then around the flowers. I brushed the centres of the flowers and the lines in the petals with a clear shimmer brush to finish off my card.

Come and join us at Krafty Chicks and show us your all occasion cards.

You have until 2pm ET next Wednesday to link up your project. 

We can't wait to see what you create! 

Enjoy,

Alyson

Beautiful Peaceful Trees

 The inspiration for this card came from Chris Stokes - she is a master of the clean and simple approach. 

I use a dark blue-grey background for my card and die cut a circle and the word Peace from the white card front. Several trees were die cut and stacked, as was the sentiment. I white embossed the stars before adding the trees at the bottom of the circle. The sentiment was placed slightly offset from the original cut and the white card front was adhered with foam tape.

Enjoy,

Alyson

TSOT 580 - Yuletide Deer

 Welcome to Try Stampin' on Tuesday Challenge 580. 

The optional theme this week (in addition to the sketch) is flight. 

I worked with only the sketch. Considering the size of the frames I used, I had to go to a 5x7 card as I couldn't fit what I wanted on an A2 size card. 

That deer... it's so pretty but the work involved was nuts! Every piece was die cut but I also inlaid each of those miniscule circles back into the image! That was incredibly time consuming but I just love the effect.  Both frames were die cut and I stamped a sentiment in the oval and then stamped snow flurry images around the outside. I also blended some coordinating ink around the edge. The background was embossed with a cascading dots embossing folder and I added two little banners at the top. I added some teal gems around the card to finish it off. 

Come and join us at TSOT and show us how you interpret the sketch shown above. 

You have two weeks to link up your project. 

We can't wait to see what you create!

Enjoy,

Alyson

Atlantic Hearts 496 and Double Trouble 123 - Give Thanks Wreath

Welcome to Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge 496 and Double Trouble Challenge 123 (week 2). 

The sketch for Atlantic Hearts is below as is the small graphic for Double Trouble. 

Double Trouble is pairing with Atlantic Hearts for this challenge (this is the beginning of week 2) and the challenge is to use a circle and make an autumn or Halloween project. 

I absolutely LOVE this sketch! As I started working on my card, I realized that I wanted to use the sketch exactly as shown. My circle is the wreath across the centre. I used an autumn colour palette and splattered the centre piece of cardstock with three shimmer brushes. That was outlined with bronze glitter paper and I embossed the cardstock behind it with a basket weave folder. The strips across the centre were chosen in autumn colours from light to dark and I used the same cardstock to die cut a bunch of leaves, flowers and bullrushes. The sentiment was stamped, fussy cut and added to the centre. The last step was to add gold gems to the centre of each of the flowers. 

Come and join us at Atlantic Hearts and Double Trouble and show us how you interpret each of these challenges. 

You have until Sunday evening to enter either or both challenges.

We can't wait to see what you create!

Enjoy,

Alyson

Christmas Cards with Oxide Inked Backgrounds

 Every now and then, a little messy work is fun - and these cards are the end result. 

I created three letter size backgrounds and cut them into four card fronts each. I made the backgrounds using Distress Oxide sprays and water. There was a lot of smooshing and drying before I had the backgrounds that made me happy. Once they were entirely dry, I cut them into pieces slightly smaller than a card front as you can see in the photos. 

Die cutting and more die cutting - and still more die cutting... all those little pieces were die cut and arranged into groups for 12 cards. The sentiments were also die cut and these cards have a smaller sentiment piece from a set of sentiment strips. I added some Stickles to the centres of the poinsettias and placed a few clear gems around the images to finish off the cards.

Enjoy,

Alyson

Rainbow Bridge Card

 There are some types of cards that I don't particularly enjoy creating and this is one of them... a wonderful friend of mine recently had to put one of her dogs to sleep. It has to be the most difficult part of owning a pet.

I used a set of rainbow dies to cut the rainbow panels. The sky was inked with Distress Oxide ink and the clouds were stamped and die cut. All of that was arranged to show a rainbow peeking from behind the clouds. I stamped and lightly shaded a dog as her beautiful dog was white and then added a halo on top. The sentiment was stamped along with three hearts. 

I don't tend to make these kinds of cards to keep on hand but I make them (along with other sympathy cards) as I need them. I hope this will brighten her day just a little bit. 

Alyson

CD 519 - Sunflowers

 Welcome to Colour Dare Challenge 519! 

It's a brown week - choose any two colours to go with shades of brown. 

Brown is not a go to colour for me - I chose to use sunflowers since the centre is brown and I could add yellow and green to work with the flowers. 

The images were stamped with brown and green pigment inks and embossed. I coloured everything and then die cut the flowers and leaves. I used a pattern (sort of) from one of the Make It From Your Heart books and used brown patterned papers along with matte gold cardstock to create a V toward the bottom of my card. The sunflowers were arranged at the top and I added a gold pre-foiled sentiment to the right side. A few gold gems finished off my card. 

Come and join us at Colour Dare and show us how you interpret this week's challenge. 

You have two weeks to link up your project. 

We can't wait to see what you create!

Enjoy,

Alyson

Krafty Chicks Week 3 - Feel Beautiful Today

This is my third week as the "Guest Chick" at Krafty Chicks Challenge. The theme this week is CAS - clean and simple. 

I have a lot of alcohol ink backgrounds to use up - and this was a good opportunity to do just that. This alcohol ink background was created using various shades of teal and turquoise ink and adhered to the card front. The stitched panel was die cut and the sentiment was stamped in the lower right corner. I die cut a circle from the card front and also die cut a white leaf design. The leaves were adhered on the left side, overlapping both the open circle and the left edge. I aded craft foam to the back of the stitched piece and foam tape to the leaves that sit inside the circle. No extra embellishments were added. 

Come and join us at Krafty Chicks and show us your clean and simple (CAS) projects. 

You have until Wed at 2pm ET to link up your project. 

We can’t wait to see what you create! 

Enjoy,

Alyson

MTC 66 - Peace Stencilled Background Card

 Welcome to this week's challenge at Make the Cards! 

We have a sketch for you this week - the image is below. 

The sketch itself is pretty basic so I decided to add some things to it. I started by stencilling a background using teal glitter gel. Once that was dry, I cut the background just small enough that I could add a thin teal border behind it. I die cut the sentiment and added it to a lightly inked shape. The poinsettias and greenery images were die cut using both light and dark teal colours and added to each side of the sentiment piece. A silver gem was placed in the centre of each poinsettia. 

After creating the first card, I decided to teach it in my Facebook group and I ended up making two more of the same design but in different colours! 

Here are the others. 

Come and join us at Make the Cards and show us how you interpret this week's challenge. 

You have two weeks to link up your project. 

We can't wait to see what you create! 

Enjoy,

Alyson

Crop and Create - Sunday Classes

 This is part 3 of the Crop and Create Card Making Event - these cards are from the Sunday classes. 

Each set of cards was taught by instructors associated with the specific companies. 

The cards are presented in the same order as the list.

• Concord and 9th
• Spellbinders
• Hero Arts
• Pink and Main

Enjoy,

Alyson

DT 123 and AH 495 - With Gratitude

 Welcome to Double Trouble Challenge 123 and Atlantic Hearts Challenge 495!

At Double Trouble this week, we want you to create either an autumn card or a Halloween card and also include a circle on your project. So, autumn with a circle it is! 

The small graphic is below - please visit the Double Trouble website for detailed information. We are partnering with Atlantic Hearts for this challenge and I am on that design team. Their sketch is also below. 

This was a hard sketch for me - it's very basic sketch and I didn't want to add a lot of extras. I chose a detailed background paper and worked around that. The wreath was stamped and coloured I used the same shades as the images on the paper. I stamped a greeting and coloured the letters to give an ombre appearance. The layers were cut to match in size (the outline and the circle). I added a few gold gems to finish off the card. 

Come and join us at Double Trouble and Atlantic Hearts and show us your projects. 

You have two weeks to link up with Double Trouble and one week for Atlantic Hearts (a second sketch is coming next Monday for week 2 of Double Trouble). 

We can't wait to see what you create! 

Enjoy,

Alyson

Crop and Create Event - Saturday Classes

 This is part 2 of the Crop and Create Card Making Event - these cards are from the Saturday classes. 

Each set of cards was taught by instructors associated with the specific companies. 

The cards are presented in the same order as the list.

• Gina K. Designs 
• Mama Elephant
• Taylored Expressions
• Lawn Fawn
• Angie Blom Digital Designs 

Enjoy,

Alyson

Crop and Create - Friday Cards

 I recently participated in the Scrapbook and Cards Today Crop and Create Card Making Event #4! That event is remarkable - everything is so carefully organized and it is the busiest weekend ever. 

These are the cards created from the Friday classes. When I do the classes, I don't vary the cards but make them as the instructions indicate. I figure that now I have the products and I can play with them and create my own designs. 

The companies represented for the Friday classes are as follows: 

• Crafter's Companion
• Close To My Heart
• Elle's Studio
• Brutus Monroe
• Honey Bee Stamps
• Your Next Stamp
• scrapbook.com
• Simon Hurley
• Vicki Boutin 

The cards are presented in that same order. 

Enjoy, 

Alyson