Watercolour Wednesday - Christmas Lights

Christmas Lights and Brightest Glow 

Today's card is a watercolour tree that sort of floats over the card! I start by stamping the Christmas tree from the Christmas Lights stamp set onto watercolour paper and then spritzing the paper with water all over. I used Stazon Ink Pad for the stamping as it's a pigment based ink and not water based as the classic ink pads are. Using my usual form of taking ink to the water colour paper, I stamped a block onto the classic ink pad. I used the gorgeous, rich green of Shaded Spruce and then added some drops of water to the ink on the block. Using a large water painter brush, I added lots of ink in several layers all over the tree and drying it with a piece of kitchen roll in between the layers of ink. Once I had got the strength of colour that I wanted, I left it to dry for a while. I then prepared my card base by adding a piece of the In Colour glimmer card in the beautiful shade of Orchid Oasis. I had prepared it by die-cutting the tree from the centre of the card mat and also die-cutting a silver tree to add to the inside of the aperture. The purple mat was added using Dimensionals and the silver tree straight through the centre of the hole. I had poked a small hole through the star at the top of both trees and added a piece of Dimensional below the top one. Then I placed a small white brad between the 2 trees and secured them both in place. This then enables the green tree to float and wobble above the card. 

Technique Tuesday - Christmas Lights

 Happy Tuesday everyone. Today's card is similar to one that I have made before. This time I used the Christmas Lights, mainly the 2 strings of lights across the card mat in yellow and soft purple then I chopped the panel into 3 and reconstructed it by adding another colour, the gorgeous green of Shaded Spruce behind it. Each of the panels was added to the lower one using Dimensionals to add height. I cut the tree twice, once in the green and the other, just the whole tree in yellow and popped it directly behind it to accentuate the 'lights' on the tree. Looking at it now, I think it needs a yellow gem on the top of the tree to complete it, so I will be adding that very shortly. Once again, I used the Brightest Glow stamps for the sentiments. It is a very simple card to replicate and use for all sorts of occasion.

 

Make It Simple Monday - Christmas Lights

 Hello and a big welcome back. It's great to have you visit again. OK. So Cary got straight back into making cards on our return from the amazing trip to Vienna. I can promise you that this will be my last week of Christmas cards as the next time we will be saying thank you to everyone and Happy New Year. Which I think is the apt thing to do. This week I am playing with the gorgeous Christmas Lights stamp set and the coordinating set of sentiments called Brightest Glow. These each come as a Bundle or altogether with papers, gems, dies and ribbon!

For today's simplestamping card, I have used a piece of soft blue card and stamped the tree on it in a rich green. All that I did from there was coloured across the whole tree and over the sides to make it look like shading. Simple blue on the tree and yellow across the star at the top. A few simple sentiments and the card is done. Very quick and very easy. What do you think?

Fun fold Friday kindest Gnomes

 Wow where had the week gone??? It's  fun fold Friday today but it feels more like make it simple Monday to me 🤣 so what project am I sharing for today's final project using the gorgeous Kindest gnomes bundle and the ohh so cute  Storybook Gnomes pattern papers.

As it had been a busy week a simple fun fold was called for. A gatefold is a great starting point for simple fun folds. I'm calling this version a layered gatefold.

It starts put a piece of cardstock measuring 14.85cm x 29.7cm.  I then scored it at 9.9cm in from each end. With the piece layed out in the landscape orientation I then measured 10cm up from the bottom left-hand side and cut up to the score line. I then cut from that point to the top edge of the card along the 9.9cm score line. Now I measured up 6cm from the bottom right-hand side and cut across to the score line. I then cut up the score line to the top of the card. The diagram below should help make sense of the instructions 😜

Once the pieces are cut away fold the left-hand side in then the right-hand side over top. This creates the layered gatefold.

I decorated the card with layers of the gorgeous pattern paper . For the inside of the left-hand panel I created a pocket that will fit a gift card or act as a money wallet. 

I stamped, coloured and die cut the toadstool and gnomes. I also die cut some of the grass and mini toadstools from various coloured cardstock scraps. I then used a dauber and the same colour ink to add a little shading to them all. I used a white gel pen to add highlights to all the pieces.

 

The card still fits into a standard C6 envelope but could equally be wrapped in wrapping paper to become the gift.

Well that's  all for this week . I do hope that you've enjoyed my posts sharing my creations using this fun and adorable set.

Next week Gill will be sharing her creations with us so please stop by and take a look.

Have a great weekend and hopefully find some time to have a little fun.

Take care 

Have fun

Cary xxx

This or That Thursday Kindest Gnomes

 Yesterday I picked my grandson up from school and took him home. We spent the afternoon playing games. He only started school in September but is loving learning learning to read. One of the games we played involved choosing and that reminded me that I needed to write today's  post! This or That Thursday is all about making a  choice . For us crafters today's choice is whether we like project A or B. Both are made with the fun Kindest Gnomes stamps and the fabulous pattern paper that coordinates with them.  Called Storybook Gnomes they are just delightful 😀 

I had an idea to do a mini card with a coordinating hand made envelope using the pretty paper. My first idea was to create a rectangular card.

I used a stitched rectangle die to cut throught a folded piece of basic white cardstock.  This gave me a cute 8cm x 9cm card base. I chose to decorate  it simply with  a gnome , sentiment and a few Fine sparkle adhesive backed gems. 

The card was cute but hardly revolutionary.  So I decided to create a circular version! 

I used  the largest circle die I had and placed the die so that it went slightly over the folded edge. This ensured my card had a hinge. I then die cut another circle the same size and adhered it to the front so that it covered the folded edge.

I then decorated it in the same manner as my first mini card.

Now it was time to create custom sized envelopes for my luttle cuties. I started with  a piece of pattern paper measuring 18cm x 14.5cm. 

I then scored it at 4.5cm and 17cm landscape.  Along the portrait edge I scored at 2cm and 10.5cm. Then remove the 4 corner panels. Then fold the 2 sides over and adhere them to create a sleeve. The 2 cm edge folds over and is secured to become the bottom of the envelope. The 4cm panel becomes the envelope flap.

They worked out just right for the mini cards .

So which do I like the best 🤔 I'm  not sure what about you? Rectangle or circle?

Watercolour Wednesday Kindest Gnomes

 Every Monday at 4pm GMT I do a Facebook live over on our Facebook page here Why am I telling you this wellllll... On Monday's live I showed how to create with the baby wipe technique.  During the live I created a few background pieces. And it's one of these pieces that became the key part for today's card using the Kindest Gnomes bundle.

Here's the video of how I made the backgrounds

I loved the way the panel on the wet paper turned out. I thought it had a real tie-dye feel this combined with the cute gnomes would make a great card. Here is a screenshot of the background piece. I got so caught up in creating that I forgot to take a proper photo 🤪

I'm calling this a watercolour technique as I used wet white cardstock and reinkers 😉

So now I had the groovy paper and the gnome stamps and dies what to do.... well the gnome dies are not just out line dies! They also have dies that cut out the bits to make your own gnome!!!

So I started by using the hat die and die cut out 4 hats from the tie-dye watercolour piece. Then I cut out the noses and boots. I used a sponge dauber to add a little shading to the edge's. 

I also die cut 4 beards out of white cardstock.  I  then took out the white from the Pearlized enamel effects and added a few dots of it onto the beards. Next take  a damp water painter and smooth the enamel effects all over. This will give the beards a gorgeous pearlescent look.

I have always enjoy creating punch art and these dies are just as fun to play/ create with.  I love the way that the set also includes the grass and toadstools 🍄

So here it is...

Aren't they just the cutest groovy gnomes???

I liked them so much I  had to pop one on the inside too...

Do you like the ho ho ho? It's  from a fun alphabet stamp set called Alphabest. The sentiment is from the kindest gnomes stamp set. 

I'm  really pleased with how this card turned out. 

Tips tricks and techniques Kindest Gnomes

Well the weather out side is frightful so I'm inside crafting  which is delightful!! And as it's  getting closer to that special time of the year when we all send a lot more cards today's card will be a Christmas one.  But as today is tips, tricks and technique  Tuesday  I'm sharing a fun technique using the oh so cute Kindest Gnomes bundle .  The technique is called partial die cutting. It is a fun technique that I thought would work well with the dies that coordinate with the gnomes stamps.

First I stamped the toadstool house onto a piece of basic white cardstock.  I then lined up the outline die over it. Now for the fun part I created the sandwich for my cut and emboss machine but only lined the top cutting plate over part of the die.

I drew an imaginary line vertically down the image and placed the edge of the cutting plate upto it. As it goes through the machine it will only cut the part of the die that has been sandwiched between all the layers.

Once die cut I took a ruler and a scoring tool and scored along the line to create a hinge. Next I dry embossed the piece with a fun embossing folder called Whimsical woodland

I then stamped , coloured  and die cut out another seperate toadstool.  I then adhered the coloured toadstool to the one on the cardstock mat and scored along the hinge line.

Now it was time to stampj colour and die xut out my gnomes. I kept the colours pastel and non traditional just for fun. 

I cut a piece of pretty paper and matted it onto a card base . Then I popped the toadstool mat up on 3d foam and placed a panel of white glimmer paper behind it. I adhered this onto the card base.

I used some pretty coloured sequines to add a little to the front. I then added my gnome behind the toadstool door I'd created. 

 

For the inside I used a strip of the pretty paper and another of the gnomes.

Partial die cutting is a fun technique that is really rather simple so long as you think it through 🙂 I would suggest  practicing so you get the hang of it before starting your project . It will be worthwhile promise 😉

Any way I had fun creating this pretty card on a dark and dismal day. Don't  you agree that no matter the weather outside crafting makes the world a brighter place 😃

 

Make it simple Monday Kindest Gnomes

 Happy Monday everyone 😃 hopefully you've all had a good weekend. We certainly did! We hosted an all day card class on Saturday creating A5 cards featuring an adorable stamp set called Kindest gnomes.  The stamps have coordinating dies, oh so cute pattern paper and delightful gems but more of those later . I enjoyed creating with the gnomes so much I decided to continue enjoying them by sharing more inspiration with them this week .

Aren't they just the cutest? They are just perfect for #simplestamping and making clean and simple cards. 

I started by stamping the toadstool image in black ink onto a basic qhite card base. I then coloured it in using my trusty Watercolour pencils. 

They work brilliantly as simple colouring pencils. You can layer the colour up by working gently and in small circles with the flat side of the pancil. If you want to create a darker colour use the point and harder pressure.

A simple message and my card was complete. 

I enjoyed creating so much that I just had to make another using one of the gnomes....

Isn't he just adorable? I enjoyed creating these #makeitsimplemonday cards. Especially the simple colouring 😊

Fun Fold Friday - On Stage Vienna Swaps

Cary and I were very lucky to have met so many lovely demonstrators once again at On Stage and neither of us can wait for the next one. Here are some more swaps.

This card is stunning and I'm not just saying that. With 7 different stamped and die-cut pieces in all different colours. Simply beautiful! This card was designed and made by our lovely                          Cary Buckham. Isn't it gorgeous?   

The card on the left was made by Jacqui Lawrence from the UK and the card on the right was made by Sheila Robinson also from the UK. They are really gorgeous aren't they?

 

Every great dream begins with a great dreamer. Isn't that just so true? This card was designed and swapped by Sandra Kleine from Netherlands. Stunning!

 

This gorgeous card and bird on the musically embossed background was made by Brigitte Barthelet, I believe Brigitte is from France. It's beautiful!

 

This gorgeous card/pocket is so lovely and I was so surprised when I opened it up and discovered an ornament inside! How lovely is that? It was designed by the lovely Jasmin Schulze from Germany. 

It is so beautiful!

 

The stunning card above is made from embossed vellum, Stampin Blends and Isopropyl alcohol. It is so beautiful and the work that has gone into it is amazing! It was designed and made by Sue J Designs. 

This card above is simply beautiful. It's a mat of gold embossed paperwith the most stunning beautiful flowers stamped from Happiness Blooms. I have no idea who made this one but it has the piece of paper with information... 1 carte, 1 plume, 1 sourire. It is for Solidarity, and Citizen Initiative. What a fantastic idea!  

 

This card above has the gorgeous Sun Prints Suite including the die cuts. Lots of stamping and die-cutting and placing them all on top of each other. Perfect! This was beautifully designed and swapped by Ann-Marie from Butterfly Crafts.

 

This is another stunning card which has woven strips of DSP with the Christmas tree silhouette and outline on. It really is beautiful! This was designed and swapped by Heike Spath-Binder. I love the sentiment stamped at an angle.

 

 This one puzzled me at first as I have never seen one before but I love it! It has been folded into lots of squares and a few triangles and is so very cute! It really is so very clever.

 

  

It was designed and swapped by the very imaginative Audrey Bilard.  

 

The last cards for this week are from me. I forgot to keep one and forgot to photograph them too, fortunately, Cary very kindly took photos of hers thankfully.

 

I have shown the back so that you can see where the comments can be written. I used the Cottage Greetings stamp set and matching Cottage Rose DSP with Vanilla and Sahara Sand card stock.

The next picture was also from me and this was my team swaps. There were 8 of our team in Vienna and it was fantastic being able to swap with them.

 

I used the Pretty Prints DSP for these ones. I love the soft colours on this.

Well, that's it for me for a week. I could probably spend a few whole weeks sharing the swaps that I received from Vienna but I'm afraid that I might overwhelm you all with too many ideas. It is so wonderful seeing all of the Stampin' Up! demonstrators and the hard working staff. The amount of work that goes into one of these events is incredible.

 

I hope you have also been inspired by some of the designs I have shown you this week?

Cary will be back to share some more creations with you on Monday. 

 

Until I return, please take care, stay safe 

and of course KEEP ON STAMPING!

 

Lots of love, Gill xx