Watercolour Wednesday - Christmas Friends

I really had great fun with today's watercolour card! I started with a piece of Fluid 100 Watercolour Card 12.5 cm by 9cm, I knew it was going to be much smaller than a C6 mat and that was fine. Using Versamark ink, I stamped the reindeer from the Christmas Friends stamp set onto the card using my stamp positioner. I inked it up a few times to make sure that the ink was all over. I then poured white embossing powder and heat set it using my heat tool. Then using a watercolour tray, I added some drops of Reinker in 4 different colours and watered each colour well. Then starting with the blue of Balmy Blue, I brushed the colour several times across the piece of card. Then the pink of Bubble Bath, orange of Calypso Coral and finally yellow of Daffodil Delight. The reindeer looked cool but I wanted him to look more realistic. Using the Calypso Coral, watered down ink, I added some of the ink onto the reindeer and the pink of the bubble bath for his skates. I really just played and enjoyed the crazy result too. 

Once it was dry, I added it to a Calypso Coral mat and then onto Balmy Blue card. Inside the white mat was added to Balmy Blue mat and adhered inside the white card base. I stamped the Owl on the inside of the card and coloured in using my Stampin' Blends pens.

 

 

Thoughtful Expressions - Fun Fold Friday

 Hello for this fun fold Friday card. This is the last one from me for this week and I have been inspired by a Christmas card I had from a lady in my team. Her name is Lynn Beatty and she makes the most beautiful cards as well as gorgeous wreaths, table decorations, gift packaging, bags, boxes, the list goes on. A very clever and lovely lady. Using the Thoughtful Expressions, I stamped several of the large flowers and the small flower too. I started by cutting 2, A6 card bases and then trimmed one of them, in this case a white one down by 0.5cm on the top and the side. The Real Red card is the C6 card and the smaller white one, was adhered to the inside of the card base on the right hand side of the base card. I have just received a pack of the Most Adored DSP which is another SABand has just been added in to the free items. We have another lot of Saleabration items bought in including current stamp sets, Stampin' Write Marker pens, the colour core collection too. Remember for every £45 order from the catalogues you get to chose a free item from the Saleabration catalogue too! What a great deal it is!

 

 

Above is the card from Lynn I had at Christmas and below is a picture of the gorgeous coordination dies that go with the matching stamp set of the same name as the stamp set.

 

 

Below is the Most Adored DSP that I used. 

I used 2 different mats of the DSP which is pink, red or white patterned on one side and gold patterned on the other side.I folded the right hand side of the White card base in half straight down and it was there that I adhered the red die cut mat to.

I used the dies to cut the centre panel out once I had stuck the 2 pieces of DSP on.  I didn't add Tombow to the centre of the DSP's. As you can see, I used the red mat of the card base for the inner fold.

 

 

Once the central mat was on, I started to decorate the rest of the card. I added a few fussy cut flowers from another piece of the DSP to the inside too. I love it!

 

That is it from me again this week, I will return the week after next as Cary will be sharing some of her fabulous creations with you next week. 

As always take care, stay safe and keep well but as always,

😍😍xxx KEEP ON CRAFTING xxx  😍😍

 Gill xx

Tips, Tricks and Techniques Tuesday - Inspirational Sketches

Today's card is made by making a frame once again but this time in a different orientation. Using the Inspirational Sketches stamp set, I stamped the bird diagonally on a piece of White card. I coloured it using my blends pens and then embossed it using the Fern Embossing Folder. It was cut down to as small as it could go and set to the side. I stamped and coloured 2 more birds which were then fussy cut out, each one a little more than the last one. The one with most of the image cut away was layered on top with Dimensionals, (foam 3D shapes). 

I added a piece of DSP from the Countryside Inn papers on top of a Night of Navy card mat which was a very small amount larger. They were adhered together and fixed to the Balmy Blue card base. I added the image on the white diagonal mat to the card base then cut some strips of both Night of Navy and Basic White card 0.5cm wide. One by one, these I added to the edge of the white mat and made the off-set frame. The sentiments were from the Happy Labels sentiments stamp set.

 

Fun Fold Friday - Detailed Dogwood

Hello again and here we are on the 2nd and last day of this week. Once again I am so sorry for the lack of posts this week and I am positive that Cary will be more than efficient than me in making projects for next week, even though it is New Year. My fun fold card for today is again using the Detailed Dogwood and I mixed it this time with the sentiments from the NEW stamp set called Heartfelt Hexagon. Yet another lovely stamp set again!

This one is a triple folded card that I have seen around on different sites by different designers. I started with a piece of Basic white thick card which was 25cm by 10.5cm (9,3/4" by 4,1/4"). Along the long back edge, I scored at 2.5cm, 5cm, 7.5cm and 10cm then using a pencil I scored a line to the first scored line from the left hand edge to 2cm along this first line. 

2cm in from the right hand-edge I scored a short line from the 2nd score line to the 3rd line.  The 3rd score line at 2cm from the right hand edge this time. See the picture below. I then cut a straight line between the pencil mark and the next scored line. I then have 2 short, straight lines that cross the original score lines. Starting at the right hand opening edge this time cut the first straight line as I have done on my card and then diagonally up to the next short straight line. Now cut a straight line then a diagonal line between the final 2 score marks. This will then form the backs for the mats to the fronts of each panel.  Fold the 4 edges in starting with a valley, then mountain, valley and mountain again. Use a bone folder to burnish each of the folds.

                            

Choose the colours of your mats and cut them from back to front at 

10cm by 14.4cm (Back of card) 

12cm by 9cm (inside)

7cm by 10cm (front)

I used Lost Lagoon card and pieces of DSP from the Snowflake Magic 12" x 12" Speciality papers.

The flowers were all from the Detailed Dogwood stamp set and I used Bubble Bath pink, Lost Lagoon. Smoky Slate for the images and Lemon Lolly for the yellow.

 

Overhead view

 

 

That's it for me for this week. Have a truly magical and Happy New Year but as always.....

Take care, Stay safe and obviously 

😍 😍 xx KEEP ON CRAFTING! xx 😍 😍 

Fun Fold Friday - Festive and Fun

 Well, here we are again it's Friday already! For my last card this week using the Festive and Fun stamp set, of course I have made a fun fold card. This is a very simple one again. I know, I keep on saying that but it truly is very easy. I started with a piece of White card 14.85cm high by 29.7cm wide. (The standard height and the full length of A4 piece of card) I made the first score line at 10.5cm (the normal width of the card base) and then 2 sets of 5cm score lines. So 10.5cm , 15.5cm and 20.5cm. The rest was just under the 10cm and I used that as it is. My last cut was across the first fold on the front left which was to cut down the score line to 10cm and then cut the piece off.

I chose paper this time from A Walk In The Forest DSP for today. It goes beautifully with the Beary Cute stamps of course but I think it goes so well with the Festive and Fun too. All I added was a few of the different patterns onto each of the individual panels. That was it. The fun part as always was the colouring in of all of the animals and then the fussy cutting!! I know that many of you don't like to fussy cut around images and for those of you who don't, punch or die cut around the characters and add them to the card on panels instead. I added the front mat of Balmy blue card and embossed it using the Christmas Tidings embossing folders. I love them! Sadly, they have now sold out so are no longer available. :((

My centre panel was a die cut from the Deckled Rectangles dies. For the colouring of my characters I used the Stampin' Blends pens.

Well, as I said at the start, that's it from me for this week. Thank you for stopping by and for those of you who do celebrate this time of year, I hope you are all getting ready to celebrate Christmas in just a few weeks. For those who are not enjoy the time anyway. 

Cary will be back on Monday to share her cards with you. Until I return, take care, stay safe and well

but most of all as always, 

KEEP ON CRAFTING

xx Gill xx

This or That Thursday - Jolly Words

 For this week's this or that, I have made 2 cards very similar. Using the Jolly Words stamp set I made them both using Night of Navy card mats, Very Vanilla card bases and Shimmery White card. It really is a gorgeous combination. My first is the HO HO HO  design. Using the Nested Essentials frame dies, I die cut 2 of the hexagonal frames in the Shimmery White card and stamped the sleigh etc onto one of them. (they look like coffins to me)! I took a Night of Navy mat and stamped it using the It's in The Stars background stamp over 2 pieces. One was the first image from the stamp and the second mat was with the second image from the stamp.

The next one was embossed using the Snowflake Sky embossing folder. I stamped the words and chopped them out, stamped the elves and decorated them and that was that!

THIS

 

 

 

THAT 

 

Technique Tuesday - Jolly Words

 Today, using the Jolly Words once again, I have had some fun. I stamped the image with the JOY in onto a White card mat and had fun colouring it in using my Stampin' Blends pens. Back to the card, I decided that I wanted my traditional colour of Real Red (my favourite). I cut a card base and then some white C6 card mats too. I embossed the front mat using one of the three embossing folders in the 3D basics folders. They are such good value and give really gorgeous images too. I added 2 strips of the white, silver edged ribbon straight down the front and the added the small coloured mat over the top. To change the inside a little, I turned the embossing folder diagonally across the card and got a lovely jaunty angle embossed across the inside. I am rather pleased with it too!

 

This or That Thursday - Children's Cards - Circle Sayings

Have I had fun this week! I really have and today's 2 cards are no exception. Again as always there are 2 cards for the Thursday so please let us know which is your favourite please. Today's cards I have used the lovely Circle Sayings stamp set for decoration and as I said warlier, I've had fun! 

 

 

 THIS... The THIS card is a simple one where I stamped 5 cakes onto a white mat and coloured them in using my Stampin' Blends pens. I added some silver ink from a retired ink pad for this one. I added a piece of Vellum cardstock to the front which I embossed with the circles from the twin folders called Cheery Patterns NEW embossing folders. I added the cakes to a blue piece of card in Tahitian Tide and then punched out using the new circle punch 2,3/8". I stamped onto the punched vellum circle my sentiments and using tombow glue, fixed it to the punched, blue circle. 

 

THAT

My alternative card, THAT is another using the same stamp set but this time I stamped of the cakes onto Basic White card, punched each of them out using one of my old punches in 1,1/2". Once again I had fun colouring them all in and then deciding on how to set them onto the card. I had to use a bigger card base this time because of all of the cupcakes! I used a piece of the Holographic Foil which I embossed with the Splatters from the Stripes and Splatters embossing folders. A further circle stamped and decorated completes this card. I used the Alphabet A La Mode dies for the number 12 in some more of the foil.