Watercolour Wednesday - Lovely You

Hello again on this lovely sunny Wednesday.  I hope the weather is as good with you as it is here. Not that it will last very long but I'm enjoying it nonetheless! I'm carrying on with the Lovely You stamp set today and have made a watercolour background with a white band going straight through. I placed some low tack tape across the card and wet it thoroughly. Using the lovely shade of blueish green of Coastal Cabana and a water brush, I brushed an oval all over the centre and to the edges. The corners were coloured too but very lightly. Then, stamping to the tape I added a message into the centre. I chopped it out with a 1.5cm border all around and gave myself 2 frames and another rectangle. All of the pieces were then layered onto some Bermuda Bay card and mounted each level matching the pattern all the way around. #

I have used some strips of ribbon called Playing with Patterns that sadly retired earlier this year. My reasoning is that I bought it and still like it so I used it. I'm sure there are many of you who have a lovely stash of products too will go onto use yours and so you should. However, don't forget the amazing new products that are now available!

 

Fun Fold Friday - Meant To Be

 Here we are at Friday already, where has the week gone? It really has gone by very quickly for me possibly because I had my covid vaccine booked in for this afternoon. Now I'm not a coward for needles at the best of times but I guess with all that's been going on in the kitchen and Theo suddenly walking, it completely slipped my mind until my D.I.L. Jemma reminded me yesterday! Oh well! It's all done now, here's hoping it's not too long for everyone else to have their vaccines too.

For my last card for the week, I have decided to make a Kite shaped card. It's a style of card that I have wanted to do for a very long time but have never got around to it. I have used the gorgeous colours of Bermuda Bay for the card base and Coastal Cabana for the Kite.  I also added a few pieces of paper from the Playing with Patterns papers again. I embossed 2 white mats with the Painted Textures embossing folder. It really does give a brilliant finish to the paper. I placed the kite inside the card and some of the die cut and stamped hearts. The card can actually be reversed too. The kite can go outside and the hearts on the inside. Pretty cool I thought. 

If you would like to know more about the stamp set or other products, please click HERE and it will open a new window to our shop. 

 

That's it from me this week, thank you for stopping by. I hope you've had some ideas about making some cards. Cary will be back on Monday with her creations. Please stop by and see her amazing work.

Until then, please take care, stay safe and KEEP ON CRAFTING.  😍😍😍

 

Make It Simple Monday - Ornate Garden Suite

Hello and welcome back to another week of me hoping to inspire you with some ideas for your cards. Well, I'm sure many of you have made enough Christmas cards for this year so this is now December and we are all about the rest of the year. Cary and I have had a crazy week, we have had so many events this year online that we now have to send out our annual gifts and thank you's. In addition to preparing for the new catalogue which has arrived with us but will arrive with you by the beginning of the New Year. If you would like a catalogue from us, please drop us a line for your complementary copy. Don't forget too that if you live in the UK, and Europe (at the moment) you can shop with Stampin' Up! through us. Follow this link and it will take you to the 2 Big Girls Crafting Catalogues. No, you'll not see the new products there yet but it will be very soon. Please click HERE. The link will want you to open up a new window so that you don't loose your place on here. 

We will have first of all Thank you cards to write, then birthday, weddings, anniversaries, birth and of course sadly, loss of loved ones. I've gone into full thank you mode this week as the children and grandchildren are going to be asking for lots of thank you cards to send to friends and family this year as they'll obviously be unable to thank them face to face. What a year!! It has certainly has been a very unique one that hopefully will never be repeated. 

As I mentioned above in the title I am using the lovely Ornate Garden Suite this week for mainly thank you cards. More information on the suite, please click HERE 

My first card is of course a very simple one. I have stamped the images onto a white mat using the gorgeous bluey-green of Coastal Cabana ink and card base. I have actually made 3 different versions this week to show that with a few extras, you can change your card up very quickly and simply.

 

Here is the very simple card and using a few blends and some Frosted gems added it brightens the card immediately.

This next version I have stamped another flower and fussy cut it out and raised it using the foam shapes and the added gems.

As I said before, just by adding a few little touches I have managed to liven the card a little more. What will tomorrow bring I wonder?

 

Fun Fold Friday - Snowflake Wishes

 My last card this week is one that I made very recently for a class. It may look fiddly or awkward but it really is simpler than it looks. I know, I always say that but I honestly do mean it! I started with a standard C6 card base of 21cm by 14.85cm and scored in half at 10.5cm.  I used Coastal Cabana card for this one. I decorated the front with an embossed, snowflakes, white mat. I then die cut out the snowflake from the centre which just leaves the main card intact. It really gives a lovely finish. I added a scrap of silver foiled card below the die cut shape and fixed it to the card base using Stampin' Dimensionals (foam shapes).I added another few snowflakes and a message to the front too. 

On the inside, I added a mat of Pool Party card, some double sided paper and a white die cut mat. The measurements are all below. I added 2 different ribbons to the back of the card and tied them at the side to keep the card closed in the post. Lots of the snowflakes and die cuts on this one and a simple Happy Christmas inside completes it.

The Pool Party mat is 19.5cm by 13.5cm. Laying the mat landscape as the picture, score through the middle and 9.75cm. You now need to mark a 2.5cm border all around the inside. If you use a pencil and lightly mark it on the reverse you'll find you can't go wrong. The dotted lines represent score lines and the straight continuous line is a cut. There are only 2 cuts on this mat. They are on the 2.5cm on the top left of the picture to the 2.5cm mark on the top right of the picture. This is repeated at the bottom 2.5cm marks at the bottom of the mat. 

All of the products I have used this week are available in our shop, so please follow the link HERE and it will start you off with the stamp set. You can save money too if you buy the stamp set and the dies together! Bonus bargain!

This next piece is double sided paper.  I cut a mat of paper 18.7cm by 13cm and gutted this at 2cm all around the mat. On my card, to enable folding the card easier, I cut the centre fold out by about 1mm each side. It seemed to fit much better that way. These will fold along with the folds on the previous mat.

This final piece is 12cm by 8cm. All I did on this was to die cut out the snowflake frame. I didn't think it needed anything more than that. Obviously, I added lots of snowflakes stamped and die cut all around wherever I could to finish this one off.

Thank you so much for stopping by this week. I hope I have managed to get some inspiration to make yourself some beautiful cards. That's it from me for the week, Cary is back on Monday with some more of her beautiful creations. Please stop by and be inspired with her woderful ideas. 

Until then, Be Safe, Stay Well and Keep On Crafting. Gill ;)) xxx

😍😍😍😍😍