No time to colour? No problem!

I've got ya covered! This week I am going to show you THREE NO COLOURING REQUIRED holiday cards that hopefully will get your wheels going.

What do you get when you put two brilliant minds together! Pure GENIOUS! And that is what happened when I paired up Tim Holtz dies with Isabelle's Eclectic Stamps from Stamping Bella.

Not only was NO colouring involved, NO PATTERNED PAPER was used either! NOPE! NO WAY! I started with some inexpensive smooth white coated cardstock. I don't think an uncoated paper, like Papertrey white would work as well here. I pressed two Distress ink pads onto my teflon sheet, a piece of acetate would also work, I think I used Tumbled Glass and Broken China. Making sure I had  enough to account for the size of my paper I spritzed the ink with water, then layed down my paper pressing it into the wet inky watery mix. I did this for both the main background piece, and focal background piece. You CAN do two sheets one after the other, but keep in mind, your second layering of paper will be lighter than the first.

Once dry (hint: use a heatgun!) I stamped Eclectic #8 ticket with Pumice Stone on the larger background piece and Mini Checker with one of the blues (can't remember but I think it was the lighter one!) on the smaller background. Then I sponged with the same blue inks to give more depth of colour and finally sponged some Distress Pumice Stone around the edges.

The snowman is a pure rip off (or should I say CASE) from one of Tim Holtz's 2010 12 Tags of Christmas. Okay, not a total ripoff,  I did cut out WISH in snowman's belly and added an eye and some buttons which Tim didn't do. So I guess it is a legitimate case. The snowman was cut out of grungeboard, painted with white Claudine Helmuth Blank Canvas and when dry I sanded it and sponged on some Pumice Stone. Ya, Tim did that. The hat, arms and nose were also cut out of grunge board scraps and rubbed with some distress ink for colour. They were also sanded and glued on to the main snowman with glossy accents....again, that is what Tim used for glue! So in the end, I took some of his ideas, blended them with mine and came up with something that I really love in the end! That is what inspiration is all about and I hope I have inspired you!

Now for my little give away! OMG...you ladies have come up with some FANTASTIC challenge ideas! Sketches seem to be a common theme so I promise we will have more of those next year but we will also include some new ideas based on what you have said! This is so exciting and I'm looking forward to a new, challenging and inspirational year of challenges in the year 2012! Keep those comments coming, because it ain't over yet! You have until Friday!