Badger Birthday card

Today I have a different sort of card to share with you. Usually I make cards from scratch and they almost always heavily feature rubber stamping. However last week I was in a bookshop when I came across a colouring book with a difference - it's full of cards and envelopes ready to be coloured in and sent. The artist, Rebecca Jones, has designed 24 different cards with matching envelopes, all with a cute nature theme. The book is published by the National Trust and is excellent quality so I felt that it was well worth the £7.99 that I paid for it. 

 

Yesterday was my daughter's birthday, so I chose the card which had three badgers in their set, as she is very fond of them. Much of this has to do with the Hufflepuff house from the Harry Potter books - hence my golden yellow background! I coloured the card using Caran D'Ache Supracolor pencils, then stamped the Waffle Flower sentiment (from the "In Every Way" stamp set) using Versafine Onyx Black ink.

 

 The inside of the card was also illustrated with a single badger and a floral frame. I took the liberty of adding a stamped pizza box and a customised slice of pizza from Lawn Fawn's "Pizza My Heart" stamp set. This was apt as my daughter Jessica used to have a part time job making pizzas whilst she was studying for her degree. The "Perfect Day" sentiment was also from the same Waffle flower stamp set.

 

The cards are approximately 5.25 inches square, so there was still plenty of room inside to write a message.

 

 Below is a close-up of that hungry badger, about to enjoy his slice of pizza! I am reliably informed that he had ordered Jess' favourite cheesecake for dessert too!

 

 The back of the card had some more artwork, with a space to sign, so I didn't need my personalised stamp this time. I also decided to save the co-ordinating envelope for another occasion.

 I'm really happy with how this turned out and I think that the book is excellent value for money, especially as it works out at less than 34p per card, with it's own matching envelope and sticker seal.

Thanks for looking,
Lynn.

Awesome card with vellum.

Hello there! I am currently taking part in a Clear and Sheer Online Card Class, where the focus is on cards made using vellum and acetate in a number of ways. I am learning lots and there are some gorgeous card examples from all the teachers and guest tutors. If you haven't taken one of these classes before I can highly recommend it as you can access the content at any time and the quality and content is superb.

The first guest tutor is the very talented Yana Smakula, who showed us eleven different ways to attach vellum to cards, without the adhesive showing through. I have chosen to try out the first method, attaching my embossed vellum panel with glue dots and hiding them behind small embellishments.

 

My card background is some pretty floral paper from the "Hello Gorgeous" collection by My Mind's Eye. The sentiment is by Hero Arts and was stamped onto a panel of Bazzill 40 lb vellum using Versamark ink and heat embossed using Ultra Fine Antique Gold embossing powder from Simon Says Stamp. The tiny enamel shapes are also from the same My Mind's Eye collection and I placed mini glue dots behind these embellishments to stick the vellum panel to the card front. 

This was a really quick and easy card to make and will help to expand my card stash (which is sadly depleted at the moment). Thanks for looking.

Lynn

Altenew Beautiful Lady cards

Good morning! I'm back to share some more cards that I've made using Altenew's Beautiful Lady stamps and matching die. I found myself needing a lot of cards in March and April - and I didn't have a lot of time to make them all. So I came up with a basic design and made sixteen different cards by varying the colours, backgrounds and sentiments. All of the flowers were coloured with Copic Ciao markers. This post is rather photo heavy, but I wanted to show you all sixteen cards as they all have variations in spite of using the same set of stamps and die.

The first three cards were made in the same colourway, but I used different patterned papers for the background. The first had a stamped sentiment (all sentiments are from the same Altenew stamp set) on a Waltzingmouse stitched rectangle die. The next two had diecut sentiments by Spellbinders and the flowers were raised on foam tape.

My fourth card was a slightly different shade had an embossed hearts background and a stamped sentiment on a My Favourite Things stitched fishtail flag die.

My next card used the same hearts embossing folder for the background, but this time in a jade colour. The sentiment was stamped onto a Lil' inker stitched sentiment flag diecut. I love this little die and use it loads!

 

Next we have four similar pink cards, all using a Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Texture fades embossed background with various sentiments.

 

I also made four cards in a golden yellow and green colour combination. The backgrounds are made from a lovely green vellum with a gold sheen and were done using another Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Texture fades embossing folder. Two of the cards have Spellbinders diecut sentiments and two have stamped sentiments.

Finally I made three blue cards, this time using the Burlap Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Texture fades embossing folder for the backgrounds. Again Spellbinders dies were used for the sentiments. I found that the addition of some "Stick-It" to the back of the card before I cut the sentiments made it so much easier to adhere them to the card fronts - it's wonderful stuff!

I have to say that I am in love with Altenew's gorgeous stamps and dies, so you can expect to see a lot more made with their supplies here on my blog in future.

Lynn x

Seven Hills Crafts April 2016 Colour Challenge

Hello again! Today I am taking part in the Seven Hills Crafts monthly craft challenge - you can find all the details here. The April challenge is a colour one, with three inspiration photos to choose from, all including blue.

                                
    
  I opted to go for the third photo and chose the two shades of blue and the green for my three colours.

Here is my take on the challenge. I used a Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations Texture Fades embossing folder for the background and layered it onto a darker blue card blank. The flower focal image is from Altenew's Beautiful Lady stamp set (available here), coloured with Copic Ciao markers and I used the co-ordinating die (available here) to cut it out . The sentiment is from the same stamp set and was popped up on some foam tape to add a bit more dimension. 

I'm really happy with how this turned out! Thanks for looking.

Lynn

Altered box with Altenew stamps

Back in February a group of my crafting friends and I decided to have a secret gift swap for Valentines day. We were each assigned a recipient to make something for, to show them that they were loved and appreciated. We christened it our "Palentines" swap!  We have only just done the reveal, so I'm now able to show you the little altered box that I made. 

Here is the finished box, which I filled with a bag of heart shaped chocolates. Yes, I know that I should have taken them out of the bag, but this way it stopped me from eating them all before I posted it off to my friend!

 

 I started out with a small wooden box (about 8cm square) and some pretty co-ordinating papers from the Dress Shoppe NitWit collection from Lili of the Valley. I carefully removed all the hardware and the thin acetate covering the inside of the lid, to make it easier to cover.

 Next I applied some Victorian Velvet Distress Stain to all of the edges. I also used the matching Distress marker pen to colour the joins inside the box, so that there would be no bare wood showing when I covered it with paper.

 I used the ditsy floral print paper to cover all the outsides of the box and the dress paper for the insides. Just before I covered the inside of the lid I replaced the acetate with some that was a bit thicker (taken from some die packaging), then added the paper to cover it so that the edges of the acetate didn't show. I added a couple of die cut stitched heart borders (from Wplus9 design studio) to the bottom edges of the box, then I replaced the hinges and clasp. My, those tiny screws were fiddly and I dropped them on the floor several times before I succeeded in fastening everything back on!

 Now came the fun part - decorating the lid with some pretty stamped flowers. I used the gorgeous "Beautiful Day" stamp set by Altenew and Antique Linen distress ink, so that I could do the no line watercolour technique. I chose colours that matched the paper I'd used and scribbled ink from the Distress markers onto an acrylic block, before picking up the colour with a wet paintbrush and painting the flowers, berries and leaves. After they had dried I went back in with the markers and added extra detail, then I fussy cut everything out (fiddly but so worth it)!

 I used clear foam tape and glue dots to adhere the flowers, leaves and berries around the heart shaped aperture on the lid, which gave them more dimension.

 Below you can see the finished box (without the chocolates).

I really enjoyed making this and have since bought another box, so that I can do it all again!

Thanks for looking!

Watercolour Pears

Hello, I am back for my second post of the day to share another watercoloured card which I have painted as part of one of the lessons in the Online Watercolour for Cardmakers - Intermediate Techniques Course.

I used Bockingford 140lb Cold Pressed watercolour paper to make a 5" x 7" card blank and painted my pears using Quinacridone Gold, Permanent Sap Green, Alizarin Crimson and Olive Green paints from Winsor & Newton's Professional Watercolour range.

 

The teacher, Dawn Woleslagle, used the inside of a Wplus9 die to draw her rows of pears. However I don't own those dies, so I made a stencil by stamping an image of a pear onto thickish card and cutting out the centre. A wet on wet technique was used to paint the pears, enabling the colours to merge together in a variety of ways. The stems and leaves were painted in freehand.

Again I decided not to add a sentiment to my card - but I can always add one at a later date if needed. I am really pleased with how this turned out. The colours are a little more delicate than they were for my previous apple card and I love the subtle look that this gives.

Thanks for looking,

Lynn

Watercolor Apples

Hello, today I am sharing a watercoloured card which I have painted as part of one of the lessons in the Online Watercolour for Cardmakers - Intermediate Techniques Course.

I used Bockingford 140lb Cold Pressed watercolour paper to make a 5" x 7" card blank and painted my apples using Quinacridone Gold, Permanent Sap Green and Alizarin Crimson paints from Winsor & Newton's Professional Watercolour range.

The teacher, Dawn Woleslagle, used the inside of a Wplus9 die to draw her rows of fruit (she painted pears). However I don't own those dies, so I made a stencil by stamping an apple image onto thickish card and cutting out the centre. A wet on wet technique was used to paint the apples, enabling the colours to merge together in a variety of ways. The stems and leaves were painted in freehand.

I decided not to add a sentiment to my card just yet - but I can always add one at a later date when I need a card in a rush. I am really pleased with how this turned out for my first attempt at this technique!

Thanks for visiting. I'll be back shortly with another similar card to show you.

Colour Mixing Wheel

Welcome back to my third post today! Here I am sharing the results of a colour mixing exercise which I've done as part of the current Watercolour Online Card Class.

I transferred the colour wheel chart onto Bockingford 140lb Cold Pressed watercolour paper using pencil and black Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens. The India ink in these pens is waterproof and is therefore perfect for painting without the ink bleeding. Once again I chose to use Winsor and Newton Professional grade watercolour paints in three Primary colours - Rose Madder, Aureolin and Cobalt Blue (see the largest circles on the chart below). These colours were then mixed in pairs,  in equal proportions, to obtain the secondary colours (indicated by the medium sized circles on the chart below). Further mixing of the primary and secondary colours yielded the six tertiary colours (as shown in the smallest circles below).The central brown colour is a combination of all three primary colours.

Finally I tried mixing complimentary colours together (opposite each other on the colour wheel) to achieve neutral tones of browns and greys. Again it was fascinating to see how my own paints reacted and the wide range of colours that were achievable.

Thanks for looking and I hope that I've inspired you to get out your paints and try this yourself.

Watercolour Glazing Chart

Hello! This is my second post today regarding Watercolour painting exercises for the current Online Card Class.

This post focuses on the (new to me) technique of paint glazing. I chose to use Winsor and Newton Professional grade watercolour paints for this exercise, due to their translucent nature. I started by transferring the glazing chart supplied onto Bockingford 140 lb Cold Pressed watercolour paper using pencil and black Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens. The India ink in these pens is waterproof and therefore ideal for painting without the ink bleeding. The entire chart was painted using only three Primary colours - Rose Madder, Aureolin and Cobalt Blue. I started by painting two vertical columns red, two yellow and two blue. When these were fully dry I over painted the second column of each colour with one of the other primary colours as indicated. This produced three secondary colours as shown below.

I made sure that the paint was all thoroughly dry before proceeding to paint the horizontal stripes in the same manner. You can see the finished glazing chart below. All the variations in colour were achieved by layering just the three primary colours in different combinations. I found this a really interesting exercise to see what a wide range of colours could be made from using only red, yellow and blue. Of course, different shades of these three colours, together with various ratios of paint to water, would yield infinite combinations of colours - I can't wait to experiment some more!

Thanks for looking,

Lynn

Watercolour Paint Swatches

Hello and a very belated Happy New Year to you all! Sorry for my lack of blogging recently - I have actually made several cards but haven't had time to show them on my blog yet.

I am currently participating in a fabulous Online Card Class, Watercolour for card makers - Intermediate Techniques.This was part of my Christmas gift from my lovely husband, who also bought me a beautiful set of 36 Japanese Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, a colouring book and some die storage drawers - I'm so lucky!

The teacher, Dawn Woleslage (of Wplus9 fame), set a series of Pre-Class exercises to help us to familiarise ourselves with the properties of our own particular paints. First of all we were advised to make paint swatches of all of our watercolour paints, to enable us to better assess their individual qualities. I painstakingly transferred the swatch charts onto Bockingford 140lb Cold Press watercolour paper using pencil and Black Faber Castel Pitt artist pens (waterproof India Ink). The thick black line within each rectangle is used to establish whether the colours are Transparent, Semi - Transparent or Opaque. One coat of each colour paint was applied to the whole area, then a second coat was added only to the right side of each rectangle to show how the colours become deeper with a second layer of paint.



My first swatch chart shows my new Japanese Gansai Tambi paints from Kuretake. They are deeply pigmented and I love the vibrant colours! As an added bonus there are three metallic paints included too.

 
My second swatch chart was painted using my set of 24 Winsor and Newton Cotman pan paints - also a gift from my husband several years ago. This is my trusty set, which I used to paint landscapes etc when I attended evening classes a couple of years ago. The Cotman range are student grade watercolours which tend to be not so translucent, due to the quantity of binders used during production.

Out of curiosity I purchased a few tubes of Winsor and Newton's Professional watercolour paints to see how they compared to my student grade Cotman set. My third swatch chart below shows these, although I only have 14 colours at the moment. I deliberately left spaces on my chart to include future purchases when I can add to my collection (although there are actually 96 colours in the range, so this may take a while)! The difference in quality was immediately noticeable, with the paints having a more delicate feel to them due to their translucent properties. This makes them much more suitable for techniques such as glazing, where paint is layered. I am looking forward to becoming more familiar with these paints, which I think will be ideal for botanical type paintings.

Thank you for reading this far and I shall be back soon with some completed colour mixing exercises.

Lynn