Tips, Tricks and Techniques Tuesday - Botanical Beauty and Botanical Layers

 Hello and thank you for stopping by. Today's card is one that I had in my mind last week when it wasn't my turn for the blog but here it is. Another very easy card if you don't mind some fussy cutting! As many of you know...I LOVE it! I started by stamping the Botanical Beauty onto a white mat in lovely shed of green called Shaded Spruce. Then using my trimmer I gutted the centre out of the card and kept it to the side. I left 2cm all around the outer edge and then mounted the paper onto a piece of the gorgeous blueish green of Lost Lagoon which I had first embossed using the lovely Fern embossing folder. 

I stamped the Botanical Layers onto another piece of white card and fussy cut them out. Sadly there are no dies! They were added onto the Lost Lagoon mat over the stamped border. I then adhered all of them to the Shaded Spruce card base. 

This or That Thursday - Everlasting Beauty

 Do you like to save money? We do. Today only Stampin' Up! are giving FREE SHIPPING on any order placed! Go on, spoil yourself!

 Hello. Using the lilac flower from the Everlasting Beauty stamp set, today's 2 cards are both very similar. I stamped 2 of the flowers and coloured them in using my blends alcohol marker pens. 3 simple colours and they were, Fresh Freesia, light and dark, Highland Heather light and dark, Shaded Spruce light and dark. I started just adding little marks with the darker pens and then added the lighter shades afterwards. 

Yes, I did fussy cut them out as always and layered them differently on the 2 card bases.

THIS

The first card is on a White card base and I made a Fresh Freesia mat which I scored at 0.5cm and 1cm al around the edges. The frame is a die cut from the Brilliant Backgrounds dies which I thinks makes a really lovely change to the card.

 

 

THAT

My second card or THAT card I have made on 1 of the Brushed Gold Card's and Envelope. These cards are stunning. The front and back of the cards and the envelope flap have a gorgeous gold pattern on. This card I die cut a mount from the Christmas Classics dies in a piece of gold card. I added simple sentiments onto both cards to complete them. I used Go To Greetings stamp set for the card sentiments on the front.

 

Please let me know which do you prefer?

 

Watercolour Wednesday - Decorative Borders

 Hello again, Today's card is another green one I'm afraid! Sorry if you don't like green but just imagine what it would look like in lots of other colours! I took a white mat and covered most of it with Low Tack tape except the 2 rectangles. I took Pool Party ink from the ink pad and stamped it onto the block. Adding a little water and mixed up all of the ink and washed it across the rectangle on the mat. I repeated the same process using Coastal Cabana ink and washed the ink over the top rectangle. It had to be left for quite a while to dry as it was very wet with all of the ink and water on. Once it was dry, using the Decorative Borders stamp set.

 I stamped 1 single flower on the left hand side only using the stronger green of Shaded Spruce. I decided that I would emboss the whole mat using the Twigs and Sprigs embossing folder before stamping a sentiment onto a punched piece. The mat was then mounted onto a piece of Shaded Spruce card stock and mounted onto the card base using Dimensionals. Another sentiment and one image which was stamped 3 times to use up all of the ink. 

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. 

Throwback Thursday - Whale Done

 My Throwback Thursday card this week is one that I like to often do. I started with a plain basic white mat and started with stamping the plants from Whale Done across the lower part before I die cut the oval from the centre. I added another mat of the same size beneath the card and embossed the 2 at the same time using the lovely Seashells embossing folder. Using some plain paper, I stamped several more of the plants in different colours and then fussy cut them out. I did the same with the whale, jelly fish and turtle. I adhered the plants and used Dimensionals between the 2 layers and for the creatures too. Although there seems to be lots on the card, it was a very quick card to make. Surprisingly!

 

Technique Tuesday - - Whale Done

 For technique Tuesday today my card is a simple technique that I like to call a spy hole. I'm sure there is a proper name for it but I like mine! Using Whale Done today I started by taking a C6 mat of Basic White card 10cm by 14.4cm and started stamping the plants, fish etc all over it. Then the fun began! I taped the 2 pieces together so that neither would move. Then taking one of the Layering Circle dies, approximately 5cm or 2" in diameter, I cut out the circle through both mats. I peeled the tape off and placed another slightly larger die over the aperture of  only the top, stamped mat and cut it once again. This was then fixed to the card base  and lined up the holes nicely for a good border. 

I then proceded to stamp the turtle and a few more fish so that they would show through at different angles. A few simple sentiments and the card is 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 😍😍😍

Watercolour Wednesday - Christmas

For my 3rd day of Christmas cards I have used the beautiful set of Poinsettia Petals stamp set. They first came out in last year's catalogue and they are as lovely today as they were then. Today's card is what Cary calls a Book bind fold I believe. It's a very simple fold in that using a piece of card, I used Cherry Cobbler for mine, 14.85cm high by the long length of a piece of A4 which in the UK is 29.7cm long. It's then folded in haf, at 14.85cm and then another score line is made 2cm from that fold from top to bottom on the front of the card. I added some of the gorgeous papers from Whimsy and Wonder papers. The main front of the card and a narrower strip on the 'book fold' on the card. 

I added a strip of white crinkled seam binding ribbon to the book edge and on a separate piece of white card once I had embossed it with the Snowflakes folder from the Wintry embossing folders set. I then stamped onto a scrap of white using Shaded Spruce ink and the little berry fronds several times. Then using the poinsettia flowers, I stamped them several times in Smoky Slate ink and started to water-colour them lightly using a very little ink and lots of water droplets from a block in very light Melon Mambo. Once they were dry, I went over the stems of the flowers in Melon Mambo, water-colour pencil to give more definition.

 

 

 

I then fussy cut them all out! Yes, even the berries! I used Multipurpose glue (Tombow) for the stems and Dimensionals to separate the flowers. After the whole lot was dry, I added a few drops of the Shimmery Crystal Effects in a few places.  simple Merry Christmas on the front and another flower inside along with the sentiment, to complete this card.

 

Watercolour Wednesday - Classic Cloche

White or Washed?

 I can't believe it's Wednesday already! It's amazing how quick time flies isn't it? For my Watercolour Wednesday card today, I started by washing the pale blue of Balmy Blue Ink across the card mat. After I let the mat dry, I used the gorgeous rich green of Shaded Spruce and stamped the small leaves to the mat and adhered it to the Silver Foiled Card.

On a separate piece of white card, I stamped the cloche and the birds into the middle of it. Using the stamp for the leaves, I used the Shaded Spruce for the leaves once again and coloured in the birds using a little pinkie/orange of Calypso Coral and the soft beige colour of Sahara Sand with a little of the soft yellow of So Saffron. I fussy cut the cloche out and then glued that to a piece of the Silver Foiled card and again, fussy cut that too. The sentiment was stamped onto white card and I punched it out using the Elegant Tag punch. I placed the punched piece back into the punch and tool a little more off the label to make it smaller. I punched another shape in the Silver Foiled card and glued the white to the silver. 

Stampin' Up! punches are so versatile as you can add them back into the punches and change the whole dimension of it. To complete the card, I stamped several of the birds again and coloured them in too. Yes, I fussy cut them out as usual and they were added randomly across and inside the card too.

 Before I had completed the card, I had made another cloche image. This one however, was with a watercolour wash across the cloche just like the main mat on the card. Below is a picture of the original piece which in the end, I chose to go with the white one.

 I think I chose right but what do you think? Which do you prefer...White or Washed?