Merry and Bright Bokeh Brushos Card

I had so much fun playing with my Brushos and the Bokeh technique with white pigment ink and circles stencil, I had to make and share one more card with you. (For a link to the technique video, scroll down on this blog.) I created a blue and purple background with my Brusho Crystal Colours on watercolor paper, then after it was dry, added white circles in different sizes with a homemade stencil and white pigment ink. I simply heat embossed Tim Holtz's Merry & Bright and added a Memory Box snowflake and gem to complete the card.

I am entering this card in the Unusual Colored Christmas challenge at Kitty Bee Designs and the Winter challenge at Crafts 4 Eternity.

**Don't forget I have a Blog Candy contest going on through the month of December. All you need to do to qualify for a chance to win is become a FOLLOWER! For more chances and all the prize details, click on the picture on the top left!**

Winter Fun 4 Kids Challenge at Send a Smile 4 Kids!

Happy Holidays from SAS4Kids!! It’s Saturday and time for another fun challenge at Send a Smile 4 Kids! This time our challenge is Winter Fun 4 Kids!  Create and link any winter card for a child and you could win one of our great prizes. 

This is our last challenge for 2014, so you have until January 2^nd at noon CST to enter a winter card for a chance to win one of our prizes. I am giving our awesome design team the rest of December off to enjoy their holidays with family and friends. 

We have three very generous sponsors for this challenge: Dollar Graphics Depot is giving their winner a $15 gift certificate!  Sassy Studios is giving their randomly picked winner 4 digis of their choice!  And A Day for Daisies’ winner gets a $12 gift certificate! TEAM S.A.S will also be choosing their favorite cards for our top three and the winners will receive a blog badge and an opportunity to be a guest design team member on a future challenge.

Isn't Snowball Scott from A Day for Daisies cute? I printed and cut him out, then paper pieced his sweater and hat. I stamped some snowflakes, sponged a sky and glittered some snowbanks on a top folding A2 card. Then I raised the side pieces with mounting tape, and attached Snowball Scott. CAS but cute for one of our kids.

For my second card, I printed and cut out a sweet winter scene and the great sentiment from Dollar Graphics Depot. I created an easel card and popped the sentiment up on pop dots to hold the card open. I added some gems to complete the card.

I am entering these cards in the Christmas challenge at C.R.A.F.T. and the Celebrations challenge at Southern Girls.

Christmas Greetings and Great Deals and Chances to Win!

It's Crackerbox Palace Friday and I am sharing a Christmas card I made with CBP’s great stamps and a Bokeh technique I learned about in this video. In the video, the blogger used watercolor paints to create the background, but I do not have any, so I used my Brusho Crystal Colours in several shades of blue. After that was dry, the Bokeh look is achieved by sponging white pigment ink through a stencil with several sizes of circular holes. I created my stencil with a piece of acetate and some circle punches. After I finished the Bokeh background, I embossed the Santa and Sleigh silhouette and Christmas greeting stamps with black embossing powder.

**As a holiday present to you from Crackerbox Palace, all the stamps on this card will be 20% OFF for one week! What a deal! **

In addition to that great deal, you can also visit my blog here for a chance at some great blog candy. I am celebrating my 5 year blogaversary all this month, and you can win one of 7 prizes just by being a follower of my blog. Crackerbox Palace has generously offered 5 gift certificates worth $15 for 5 lucky winners to shop with at their website! I have two other great prizes too, so sign up as a follower and you might be one of the lucky winners!

I am entering this card in the Anything Goes challenge at Wonderful Wednesday and the Christmas challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

Did you notice the sweet and sassy Crackebox Palace watermark that I am debuting on my card today? Once again, the wonderful Kathryne from StampArt Design by Kathyrne has worked her magic and created a perfect personalized watermark for Crackerbox Palace and me. If you are considering getting your very own personalized watermark, I highly recommend you contact Kathryne as she does a great job!

5 Year Blogaversary Celebration and Blog Candy Giveaway!

Do you believe the end of this month is my 5 year Blogaversary?! For five years I have been sharing my cards and designing with you all here on my blog! I am still having fun (after all these years), and am hoping to be still here designing and blogging for many years to come. I have decided to celebrate all month long and on December 30th I will be giving away not one or two but 7 pieces of delicious blog candy to 7 of my wonderful followers. Here is a peak at what the grand prize is:

Wow- 6 sets of stamps (Paper Nest Dolls, Bella Blvd. and Heartfelt Creations), 2 large embossing folders (Spellbinders 2 in 1 and Couture Creations), 2 washi tapes, one Memory Box die, one Lawn Fawn paper pad and a partridge in a pear tree. Well, maybe not the partridge...

And to help me celebrate, my friends at Repeat Impressions and Crackerbox Palace have donated some blog candy for 6 more followers of my blog! One lucky winner will win a $20 gift certificate to spend at Repeat Impressions website!  And Crackerbox Palace is donating FIVE gift certificates worth $15 for five lucky winners to spend at their website here. 

I have been so blessed to make so many friends during this blogging adventure, and Vicky and John at Crackerbox Palace and Wendy and Bill at Repeat Impressions are among my favorites!

So what do you have to do to have a chance at winning one of these prizes? #1 YOU MUST BE A FOLLOWER OF THIS BLOG. #2 You must check back between December 30th and January 4th to see if you are a winner, and contact me via the blog contact form on the side if you are one of the lucky winners. You will have until January 4th to claim your prize, or another name will be drawn. Everyone of my followers will be assigned a number and Mr. Random will draw 7 numbers.

It is that simple! Want to earn another chance at winning? Post my blog candy pix with a link to this blogpost on your blog and leave a comment telling me you did that with a link to your blog. OR refer a friend to my blog (who then becomes a new follower and qualifies for a chance at the blog candy), and leave a comment telling me you did that (with your friend's name) and you earn another chance at winning. Refer several friends and you get that many more chances. 

My goal is to reach 500 followers and as of today, I have 407 (between Google and Bloglovin'). If the magic number of 500 is reached before the end of this celebration month, I will add another surprise piece of major blog candy!

Thanks for coming along on this adventure with me! I appreciate all my subscribers and followers and the lovely comments and encouragement this past 5 years. Follow me as I continue to grow and learn and share stamping smiles with you all!

Anything But a Card Challenge at Repeat Impressions

It’s another Designer’s Choice Challenge at The House that Stamps Built, Repeat Impression’s blog. It is Deonna’s turn and she has challenged us to make something other than a card. Why don’t you join us and then enter your project for a chance to win some awesome Repeat Impressions rubber? Please visit the blog for all the details and to see the other Rock Star's projects for this DCC challenge. I have seen them and you do not want to miss them!

I decided to make a wine gift tag for this challenge. I love Repeat Impression’s Snowflake Orb and embossed it with copper sparkly embossing powder to create an ornament. I cut the tag with a die from Elizabeth Craft Designs and punched along the bottom with an ek success punch. I stamped the perfect toast sentiment from Repeat Impressions on rust cardstock and cut and embossed it with a Spellbinders die. I added the top piece of the ornament (Sizzix) and used thin gold washi tape to “hang it”.

I am entering this tag in the Anything Goes challenges at Simon Says Stamp and 613 Avenue Create.

And don’t forget: For a 10% discount on any size order at Repeat Impressions, just make a note of my discount code (rr10kh), click on the blog badge on the side of my blog and go to the website here to shop and save!

Bokeh Dots with Brusho Crystal Colours

Can I just say I love this card?? I found a video here on an easy way to achieve the Bokeh look on our cards and this is what I made after watching it. In the video, she used watercolor paints to wash the background, but I do not have any. I saw another card using dye inks for the background, but I tried that. but it was too light for the dots to show. I tried my Brusho Crystal Colours and this is the beautiful result. Watch the video for great tips on how to achieve this look. But, basically, you wet a piece of watercolor paper, and then apply your colors (I used purple and violet Brusho crystals, then spritzed them again.) After dry, apply white pigment ink through a stencil with different sizes of circles. You can easily create your own stencil with acetate and circle dies or punches. The smaller the dot, the brighter you want your inked circle to be. The key is a very wet inked white pigment pad. Let that dry and decorate as desired. I actually heat embossed the greeting (from Tim Holtz) before doing the bokeh dots and background. I completed the card with an ornament I made with an Elizabeth Craft Designs sticker, very fine glitter and copics.

I am entering this card in the DOTS challenge at Addicted to CAS, and the Clearly Christmas challenge at Curtain Call.

Bisters vs. Brushos

A few weeks ago, before I received my package of Brusho Colours, the idea of using my Bister powders to make a card using the triple time technique came into my head. I decided to use red and yellow Bister powders on the layers of watercolor paper and the first card above is the result. I thought I would love it, but did not. Too many brown undertones in the colors, I thought. I do love the Christmas Words Tree diecut from Die-Versions, and on the first card, I used gold on the star and on my favorite word for this season, and layered it on black to make it stand out more.

So when I got my box of Brusho Colours, I decided to try their red and yellow colors to see if I liked the card more with them. The red Brusho is more pink than red and so for Christmas, is not my favorite color. But I still like how the card turned out- just not in love with it.

I have decided I like them both. If you are trying to decide between the two crystal color options, you have to decide what matters most to you. Bister powders are less expensive and create lovely one of a kind backgrounds. Many of the colors have a brown undertone to them, which can be gorgeous depending on what you are doing with them. They are available here in the U.S.  Brusho Crystal Colours are a little more expensive, but have many more colors to choose from. Most of their colors are more true, but sometimes can be boring if just using one color. Brusho Crystal Colours are available here at Dick Blick.

Sorry I  can't be more definitive. I will be using both and blogging with both as I am fascinated with the unlimited and original color options you can get with both.

I am entering these cards in the All About Christmas at Paper Creator's Crafts and the Get Festive challenge at We Do Doobadoo.