Watercolour Wednesday - Joyful Flurry

I have had fun with today's card. I took a pot and added 3 drops ink refill of Gorgeous Grape a really rich purple, then added about a spoonful of water to it. While the ink was mixing, I took a piece of watercolour paper and using Versamark Ink Pad, I stamped several of the different snowflakes all over the piece. I poured Clear Heat Embossing Powder over it all and then heat set it. It was quite shiny. Then using a wide water brush, I dipped it into the inky water and washed the colour all over the piece. I stopped occasionally to wipe some of the ink off of the embossed images but didn't really need to as it doesn't stick to it. I continued to do this a few times until I was happy with the colour.

I then dry embossed a small mat using the Wintry embossing folder, die cut one of the snowflakes partially on one end and added a sentiment and piece of ribbon. When it came to a card base I tried several different colours including Rich Razzleberry and Basic Gray but the Gorgeous Grape won. 

 Gorgeous Grape card base  

    Rich Razzleberry card base  

Basic Gray card base

 

Technique Tuesday - Joyful Flurry

Today's card is a card that I cased from Donna Gray in Australia. She is soooo very clever and inspired me to make a card very similar to the one she made using the Joyful Flurry stamp set. I used a piece of white and stamped the snowflakes onto one side only. I then used pale blue of Balmy Blue, the light grey of Smoky Slate and the lovely in colour blue of Starry Sky. Once stamped, I embossed just the left hand side and tied a piece of the in colour ribbon in Starry Sky off centre to the left. All that was left was the sentiments on the front and inside. I added some more snowflakes on the inside too but I didn't heat emboss the images at all which Donna did. 

  

Make It SImple Monday - Joyful Flurry

It's almost that time of year again where crafter are busy making Christmas cards and gifts. It's my turn now so I am afraid it's Christmas on the cards for me from now and until further notice. I'm sorry if  you're not ready for this yet but many of us are. This week I am playing with Joyful Flurry stamp set. It's a very simple one with some lovely sentiments. 

My first card is a very simple pale blue ink on a white card. I did however add a little more card onto it which I had stamped the snowflakes in the softest blue of Balmy Blue.

Fun fold Friday Sweet Candy Canes

 For my final card this week I thought I'd share with you some of the gorgeous pattern paper that coordinates with the stamps and dies I've been highlighting this week. Called Sweetest Christmas   it's  a great mix of stripes, candy canes and mini diamond prints.

The colours are your more traditional reds and greens with the odd pop of pink and light turquoise to keep it fresh. 

I chose to make a simple fun fold that has also git a gift card or money pocket in it so that it's  a 2 in 1 card. 

You start with a piece of cardstock that measures 10.5cm x 24.7cm. You then score it at 14.85cm.  Now take another piece of cardstock measuring 21cm x 8cm and score at 10.5cm.

Take the larger piece and with the score line on the right hand side fold the shorter side toward the middle. This makes a right hand opening. You are then going to decorate bothe side's of the shorter piece and the larger panel.

Once deorated take the long narrow piece and fold it on the score lines. With the fold on the left hand side decorate the front and both left and right hand insides. I popped a pocket on the inside left side for my gift card.

Now it's time to place the 2 pieces together.  I opened the smaller card and placed the right hand panel of the larger part inside. Next I center the card befor adhering it the the larger card panel. This created a card on a card effect.

I really like when a card can show off lots of pretty paper and this fun fold  is a cracker for that!

The pocket on the inside is just right for a gift card or money. The card makes it just a little more of a special gift than just popped inside an envelope. 

I decorated the mistletoe with small red and white dabs of Pearlised enamel effects . The white turned a gentle green hue as it was died by the stamped image beneath it. I really like the effect. 

I also used the decoration on the front right of the closed card to act as an anchor to keep it all closed by raising the center sprig of mistletoe up on 3d foam

Well that's all from me for this week. Please join me here next week when Gill will be sharing her inspiration with us all.

Have a weekend filled with laughter  and hopefully crafting. 

Until next time

Have fun

Cary xx

This or That Thursday Sweet Candy Canes

 Today marks the first in our new Thursday inspiration... This or That? You get to chose what you like better. Mostly because we can't decide 🙈🙉🙊🤣🤣🤣 . So for my first This or That I couldn't decide which colour way I preferred.  I created a card using the gorgeous Sweet Candy Canes bundle.

The design is one I've had floating around in my head since the set arrived. Straight away I grabbed the gorgeous turquoise called costal cabana ink as I love using shades of blue for Christmas cards.

I also knew I wanted to use some of the fabulous Snowflake vellum.  This vellum is just gorgeous it has both white flocked and iridescent foiling on it that is just devine! 

The picture doesn't do it justice!!!

Any way with all these  goodies at hand I made my card and here it is....

I added extra sparkle with some of the oh so sparkley Sparkle and shine sequins . 

The ribbon is custome made using and alcohol marker and some Pool party sheer ribbon. I used the light bermuda bay  Stampin' blend, which is an alcohol marker, to make the sheer ribbon a dhade darker so that it coordinates with the card better.

I was really happy with how myvcard turned out but I then started to think what would this design look like in a very different colour 🤔....

And this is what happened!

I love the classic elgance of this card! The soft neutral called crumb cake works soooo well with the white of the vellum!

I recreated the card exactly as for the costal cabana version but I had to use a different ribbon.

This time I took my dark crumb cake Stampin' blend to a piece of Gold satin edged sheer ribbon to ensure it blended beautifully with my card.

 I used the same sequines as before.  Because they are iridescent they pick up the colours around them there by working with any colour!! So useful 😉

So there you have my dilemma turquoise or kraft? I  can't decide!! So please let me know is it card A or card B?

Sweet Candy Canes

 For today's card I created a simple 3 colour watercolour wash and used the small sprig stamp in the Sweet Candy Canes stamp set. 

I wanted to create a contemporary Christmas card. So I kept my colour palette fresh with shades of pink, turquoise and lilac. 

I used a wide waterpainer and added water to drops of reinker. I then just swished the brush across a piece of white cardstock. 

Once I  was happy I left it to dry. Once dry I used versamark ink and stamped the sprig stamp all ove the panel and heat embossed using white embossing powder. 

When cool I cut the panel into 3 seperate panels. I then mounted them onto a piece of white cardstock. 

I like the way the 3 panels look seperate but have an overall cohesiveness about them.

The sentiment was kept simple and just stamped in black ink. The sentiment comest from the set and is just perfect for non Christmas cards too.

I am please with the way this card turned out. It is fresh and clean and would work well as a birthday card. What do you think?

Tips tricks and techniques Tuesday Sweet Candy Canes

 Today's inspiration is using not just the stamps but also the dies in the Sweet Candy Canes bundle. The dies include a fab background die that can work in so many different ways.

The large stripy die can be used as is. You can also use the die cut as a mask. You could use vellum or cardstock to die cut out then use brushes to add ink through or even try it with texture paste for added wow to a background. 

Or you could do what I've done . What I've done is die cut out of 2 pieces of the same colour cardstock.  I  then layered the 2 pieces so that they created a grid design.

I love the effect the two layered die cuts give. Whilst I've used just one colour cardstock I do think it would look amazing if you used 2 colours.

The candy canes were stamped using one of my favourite tools the Stamparatus.  This stamp positioning tool allows you to stamp the same image twice in the same place. I used this to create a custom coloured heat embossed finish.

First I stamped in a pretty turquoise colour called costal cabana.  Then I stamped again but with versamark.  Versamark ink is a sticky ink that will adhere the clear embossing powder to it. Now set the clear  powder with a heat tool and the end result is a custom coloured enamel finished candy cane.

I used some of the left over pieces from the die cutting to added a little something something to the inside of the card because as we all know crafters don't waste anything 😉

I love how this elegant but fun card came out. It is always fun to be inspired as you go along and I certainly was by using these  dies.