Watercolour Wednesday - Inspirational Sketches

 Wednesday already. Wow! Ok, stop panicking girl and get on with it! Well, today I have fun again only this time watercolouring. This stamp set is really beautiful and I've fallen in love with it. So, using the Inspirational Sketches again, today's card is the flowers. I have used the ink pads and my water brush to colour the image which I stamped using a retired, silver, pigment ink pad. I tried with the Stazon but it was too deep and dark for me on this one. I wanted a soft image of the almost black-eyed Susan or Rudbeckias I think they are called. Anyway, I had fun colouring in with the fine water painter brush that I used. I did add a fine line of pencil in some places to accentuate the flowers a little more. 

Adding a few strips of DSP from the Softly Stippled range of papers and a mat inside of Pool Party card for the inside finished my card off. 

 

Fun Fold Friday - Awesome Otters

For my final card this week with the Awesome Otters, I have made a C6 card go into a square card. This time with using all of the otter images, I have stamped and coloured them in using blends, fussy cut some and I added a little heart to the last otter. 

I started by taking a C6 card base and cutting it in half so I was left with a piece of Thick White card 10.5cm by 14.85cm. I then took another piece of white and cut it to 10cm by 15.85cm. This piece, I scored at 1cm, 5.5cm and 11.5cm. I used another piece of Thick White card 6cm by 10cm for the panel on the front of the card. I used a piece of  Pool Party card cut at 10cm by 14.4cm and scored this using the Animal Print Embossing Folder. I then added adhesive to the 1cm strip of the long piece and added that to the Thick White card. I added the embossed Pool Party card fixing it with Tombow multipurpose glue over the 1cm strip that had been glued on previously. I took some of the Simply Marbleous papers and added then to the small panels on the scored card piece. In the centre of the side panels is the reverse of the sheets either side of it. Then I had fun stamping and colouring in the otters. 

I added 2 to the front of the card and stamped a little more of the splashes of water to fill the piece of card out. The other 3 images were fussy cut out and added as you can see. I had used the Give It A Whirl Dies a few days ago and they were still on the table so I die cut a few of the different hearts and added them over the card. 

I used the Love and Happiness stamp set for the this card. This set is another set full of sentiments for couples, partners, friends. Basically all sorts!

This week has come to a close very quickly but now it's time for me to go. Lots to do in preparation for the 2 Big Girls Crafting Annual Retreat in March. As one of our ladies said today, just over 3 weeks to go!!!

Thank you so very much in taking time to pop by this week and see what's going on here. Cary will return on Monday and share with you some of her creations for the week. Until I return, 

TAKE CARE, STAY SAFE and KEEP WELL please but more importantly as I say every week....

😍😍😍 KEEP ON CRAFTING 😍😍😍

Gill xxxxx
 

Tips, Tricks and Techniques Tuesday - Awesome Otters

My tip for Tuesday this week is add some texture. With the Awesome Otters and Special Moments (also a FREE stamp set from Saleabration) I used and embossing folder called Tasteful Textures to emboss the soft green mat of Pool Party card. It seems to add a litle ripple in the water behind the circular mat with the otter on. I'm really pleased that they coordinate really well. I had a previously die cut scalloped circle from the Layering Circle Dies and then stamped the little otter in the water so decided to die cut the image from another circle. I used the Label Me Fancy punch for the sentiment and mats.

A little colouring, this time using my Stampin' Blends pens and its completed.

 

Fun Fold Friday - Bright Baubles - Special Cards

 Hello again on this cool and chilly morning! Ooo! It really is nippy out there today! I'm glad I don't have to go out! For my last class using the Bright Baubles stamp set, today I am showing the 1st card that I made for the all-day class. It is a little fiddly, so it's not for the faint-hearted but it's really well worth it. This is an easel card so a fairly simple one until you see that I have cut out the centres of two panels.

The best way to start this is by folding a piece of A4 in half and burnish the folds really well. The add it to the trimmer and gut the centre at 3 cm all around the 4 edges. This now gives me a folded frame in Pool Party card. Then adding a piece of card 15.85cm by 21cm. I scored 1cm down the full length and using tape, I fixed the 1cm strip under one side of the gutted frame of the card. This is now 3 panels wide so quite a large card base.  Obviously, as I've removed a large part from the centre of the card, I needed to stabilise it a little to give it a bit more strength.  To do this I used some of the Green foiled card.

I cut some pieces of green foiled card 14.4cm by 20.5cm and gutted them both 2.5cm from each edge. I now have 4 separate frames. 2 in Pool Party of the card and 2 in the green foil. I decided to emboss the foiled frames using the Wintry embossing folders. I used the pine tree one from the twin pack. I love the texture it's added to the card.   

 

Onto the decorating now. I stamped a bauble twice using a Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad and coloured the images in identically using my Stampin' Blends before glueing them together using Tombow multipurpose glue, adding a piece of Baker's Twine into the centres first. I die cut a 'JOY' bauble from both sides of the foil. This ensures that you will get a mirror image of the dies. I added some Baker's Twine to the inner parts and glued them together using Tombow again. Once they were both dry and able to be moved, I added them to the centre, top fold and secured them using some tape where the foiled panels are going to go.

 

Now onto the solid panel of card. I added one of my most favourites in the pack of DSP Peaceful Place papers. This simple white and silver design is, in my mind, simply stunning. I stamped a sentiment onto Basic White card in the Shaded Spruce Ink and mounted it onto a piece of green foiled card then placed it about 4 - 5 cm from the front edge of the card using foam shapes (Dimensionals) to enable the front mat to stand up. I had lots of die cut white snowflakes and added them around the card to highlight it.

I haven't done it yet but I will be adding a white panel to the base to write my message on. There's not really much space to add it unless I write all over my favourite paper!

That's it from me for another week. Once again, I am so sorry that I missed Monday's post. 

I hope that you are now nearly ready for the Christmas holidays and ready to spend some quality time with your friends and loved ones. If you can, please remember those of your neighbours who are on their own. Try to pop in and see them and give them some cheer.

Cary will be back next Monday, (I don't think she has any dental appointments)! Until I return on 27th December, I hope that you all have the most wonderful Christmas time and manage to get to spend some time with family and friends. 

Whatever you are going to do please 

xxxxx    STAY SAFE, BE WELL and KEEP ON CRAFTING.    xxxxx

Happy Christmas and have a wonderful New Year 

Gill xxx 😍😍😍