Watercolour Wednesday - Everlasting Beauty

 Hello on this watercolour Wednesday. Today I stamped the floral image which I could just see in the orange of Calypso Coral. Using the stamp from Everlasting Beauty, I coloured little bits of the outer leaves from the flower in the same colour. Using Lost Lagoon ink pad again this week, I washed the rest of the images carefully in the Lost Lagoon. To blend it all together, I made a very weak colour wash of Fresh Freesia and using a small brush I just gently brushed the lilac over it. 

I used some of the Calypso Coral Braided Linen Trim and laid 3 strips across the white mat which I had embossed with the Layered Florals embossing folder. A few sentiments from the stamp set onto the circles completed this card.

Technique Tuesday - Everlasting Beauty

 Today was a bit of a challenge but easier after I thought about it. Using the stamp set Everlasting Beauty, I stamped and coloured many, many of the images of this flower. It really wasn't working out as I had hoped until my son and his daughter came home. They fell in love with the colours on this flower here. I started with a simple mat that I stamped the flowers in the gorgeous soft grey of Smoky Slate. Starting in the centre, I stamped the flower randomly over the mat and then using a blending brush, I added some layers of the beautiful soft baby pink of Bubble Bath. It was the green that I had problems with as I hadn,t completely worked it out in my head which colour was correct. After several tries, I fell in love with the gorgeous bluish-green of Lost Lagoon. That was it! That was the one that I needed. I knew instantly I saw it that it was the correct one.

Make It Simple Monday - Everlasting Beauty

 Hello, that week went by so quickly but as always Cary made some beautiful cards to share and hopefully inspire you.  This week I will be using the lovely set called Everlasting Beauty. I've had the stamps et for quite a while but never used it until today. I've made a very simple card with one of the flowers simply stamped across the white mat of the card which was edged with a dark blue ink and it was also stamped in the same ink colour.

Fun fold Friday Year to Celebrate

 I know , I know it's  not Friday but I did want to share my final gift card holder of the week with you all. So here it is....

 

This gift card holder is a tri fold card . It is super easy to make and only needs a piece of cardstock measuring 20.5cm x 27.5cm. You then score it at 8cm and 18cm along the long side. Then rotate the cardstock and score at 5.5.5cm along the short side. 

Now with the short panel on the left-hand side and the 5 5cm scoreline running horizontal on the bottom remove the bottom left corner. Then cut either side of the 18cm scoreline up to the 5.5cm scoreline. 

Now mark in 3.5cm from the left-hand side top and bottom . Also mark the center point of the left hand panel. You will then cut diagonally from the center mark to the 3.5cm marks. This will leave a triangular shaped panel luke an envelope back.

The drawing below should explain it a little easier than  my words 😉😅.

Then I cut patterned paper panels to cover the 2 inside panels before folding the bottom 5.5cm panels up and adhering them to create 2 pockets.

For the decoration of this project I have used an upcoming pattern paper that will exclusively be available as a free with qualified purchase! Yes I said Free! The papers are gorgeous and a re part of the annual Sale-A-Bration offering from Stampin' Up!. Starting on January 5th 2024 for every qualifying order you can chose Free exclusively products. There are stamps, pattern papers, embellishments, dies and embossing folder to chose from . Keep an eye out for more detail's  nearer the time 😉

I have paired the papers with the fun Year to celebrate stamps. I just love the sentiment font especially. 

The papers are from a pack called Softly Stippled . One of the papers is a beautiful rose print that I just had to fusssy cut out. Not wanting to waste any of the beautiful paper I used the edge pieces to go along the edges on the inside of the card.

The nice thing with this card is that you have 2 pockets to use.

Well that's it from me for this week. Please join me here next week as Gill will be sharing her inspiration. 

Have a wonderful weekend and remember 

Have fun

Cary xx

This or That Thursday Year to Celebrate

 Can you believe it's Thursday already? Or that the year is running out so fast? Time just flies so much faster as you get older I've decided 😜 . With time at such a premium I wanted to create a super quick gift card holder for today. I have used the fun Year to Celebrate stamps. I have also used one of my favourite papers of the year called Merry Bold & Bright.  Sadly it is nolonger available as it sold out! Which I'm not surprised by because it's fantastic! 

It doesn't matter what pattern paper you use just use any from your stash that works for you. It all starts with a piece of pattern paper measuring 23.5cm x 18.5cm (9 1/4" x 3 1/2"). The score it at 8cm and 18.5cm (3 1/8" and 7 1/4")

Then fold th 2 outer panels over the center with the shorter one ontop. This creates a simple envelope . Adhere the bottom panel to the middle just along the outside edges to create a pocket. I then used my Basic Borders dies along the edge of the other panel.

My first sample is made using one of the spotty papers. . .

My second was with bold stripes. . .

I used a simple ribbon tied around to secure the envelope and added a sentiment onto a white tag. I like the font on this sentiment. The Year to Celebrate stamp set has some great fonts as well as images.

For the gift card I cut 2 pieces of cardstock.  The coloured one measuring 6.5cm x 9.5cm (2 5/8" x 3 3/4") and the white 6cm x 9cm (2 3/8" x 3 9/16") I added a little tab of ribbon betwen the 2 layers.

I stamped on the white panels just for fun. The gift card would be attatched with a small glue dot so that it's easy to remove. This panel would also give you somewhere to write your message to the recipient.

I love both of these gift card holders but cant decide if I like the spots or the strips more 🤔 What about you? Are you team spots? Or team stripes? Comment below.

Here's  a short video of how the gift card holder comes together. 

Watercolour Wednesday Yeae to Celebrate

 Today I'm sharing a card inspired by bubbles! Don't you just love their ethereal beauty ✨️ I love the way they change colour and shimmer in the air. And I think they have a great party vibe! So I took the Year to Celebrate stamps and the circle pattern embossing folder from the Cheery Patterns duo pack and created a fun gift card holder. 

So what did I do with these goodies? Well it started with a piece of white cardstock that I embossed with the circles. I then took my waterpainter and inks and added simple colour washes inside the embossed circles. I chose a light and airy colour palette of pink, blue and yellow.  Once Iddone a single layer of colour I let it dry before going back on to add more colour.

I then took my clear wink of stella to add a delicate shimmer to the bubbles. Now my photos really don't do them justice.  The shimmer in real life is sooo pretty  ✨️. If you have any tips on how to capture the shimmer in a photo please let me know below .

I decorated the front of the card by stamping and fussy cutting a party blower. I then die cut a diamond shape from a piece of vellum and adhered the party blower and sentiment to it. The vellum layer helps diffuse the background so that the blower and sentiment stand out as they are stamped using the same colours  

As it's a gift card holder I added a simple strip of card along the bottom of the inside of the card. I stamped on the inside of thevcard before adhering the stip. This way the card still looks like a card when the gift card is removed.

I created a simple insert for the gift card to be adhered to using a simple glue dot.

I hope you're enjoying this little series of gift card holders.

Tips tricks and techniques Tuesday Year to Celebrate

 Just a quick post today as I'm of to my 4 year old niece's school Nativity 💖 She's a camel and Aunty Barry, as she calls me 🤣, made her costume ! Anyway back to today's inspiration.  I have of course used the super Year to Celebrate and Throughout the Year stamp sets but I've also used the beautiful Winter Meadow pattern paper. 

This is of course a gift card holder. It all starts with a piece of cardstock measuring 14.85cm x 29cm scored at 10.5cm, 21cm and 25cm. The narrowest panel on the right hand side is folded over and just secured along the 2 short edges with narrow tape. You then mark 2.5cm in from each edge along the fold and cut a slit between these marks. This becomes the place to slip your gift card in to.

Now I went to town decorating this gift card the papers are just so beautiful 😍!