A quick card to make - stamped, watercoloured, trimmed with a stitched rectangle, and bordered with red and green to match the bears' scarves.
A blog devoted to the cards I make in my tiny upstairs space. When my sister stays there, she calls it an "artist's garret". I'm not an artist, but am an enthusiastic cardmaker - hence the title "Cardmaker's Garret".
Thursday, 20 September 2018
Is Tobogganing a Sport?
The new Paper Players challenge is "Sports".
Since I need to make lots of Christmas cards, I went with a winter sport - tobogganing. Got my card made, and then found myself wondering if tobogganing is actually a sport - too late now if it's not, the card is made and here to be posted.
A quick card to make - stamped, watercoloured, trimmed with a stitched rectangle, and bordered with red and green to match the bears' scarves.
A quick card to make - stamped, watercoloured, trimmed with a stitched rectangle, and bordered with red and green to match the bears' scarves.
Wednesday, 19 September 2018
Blue and Gold
The Sparkles Christmas Challenge for this month is "Blue and Gold",
I played around with making a gold encrusted jewel star for my focal point. I really enjoy this technique. I die cut the star from thin chipboard, then placed it on a warm grill on top of a layer of non-stick craft mat then parchment paper. I sprinkled it with gold embossing powders. Once they had melted, I added multi-coloured chunky glitter pieces on top. The melted embossing powders holds the glitter in place. To finish it off, I melted UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) on top. I then die cut the star from fun foam and attached it immediately to the encrusted jewel star to give it a bit more body so that it wouldn't bend and crack. Here's a close-up of the star:
The background was done with Distress inks and the smooshing technique, with waterdroplets flicked over to. The sentiment is heat embossed in gold, and, to get matching gold strips for the top and bottom, I inked up some scrap cs and then heat embossed it with the same gold embossing powder as I used on the sentiment.
The sentiment is actually longer - the rest of it is on the inside and it says "... and that star will warm you all Christmas long."
If you haven't tried the encrusted jewels technique, I highly recommend it. A great way to use up your stash of embossing powder and glitter!
I played around with making a gold encrusted jewel star for my focal point. I really enjoy this technique. I die cut the star from thin chipboard, then placed it on a warm grill on top of a layer of non-stick craft mat then parchment paper. I sprinkled it with gold embossing powders. Once they had melted, I added multi-coloured chunky glitter pieces on top. The melted embossing powders holds the glitter in place. To finish it off, I melted UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) on top. I then die cut the star from fun foam and attached it immediately to the encrusted jewel star to give it a bit more body so that it wouldn't bend and crack. Here's a close-up of the star:
The background was done with Distress inks and the smooshing technique, with waterdroplets flicked over to. The sentiment is heat embossed in gold, and, to get matching gold strips for the top and bottom, I inked up some scrap cs and then heat embossed it with the same gold embossing powder as I used on the sentiment.
The sentiment is actually longer - the rest of it is on the inside and it says "... and that star will warm you all Christmas long."
If you haven't tried the encrusted jewels technique, I highly recommend it. A great way to use up your stash of embossing powder and glitter!
Tuesday, 18 September 2018
An Iris for the Flower Challenge
I die cut the iris out of watercolour paper and painted it with my Gansai Tambi paints.
I pulled a pale background out of my UFO box (a very late pull of a shaving foam background on coated cs). I glued the bottom of the iris stems down and popped the iris flower and bud up with foam tape.
I die cut the frame and put it on top using foam tape all the way around it. Added lots of sequins for embellishment.
Here's a closer look showing the dimension of the iris and the frame created by the foam tape behind them:
Thanks for dropping by today!
Monday, 17 September 2018
Wreath on a Brick Wall
Time to remind you to get your CAS Christmas Challenge "Wreath" cards made!
I went with one of my all-time favourite wreath techniques. I make a few of these every year as they always sell well at my Christmas card sale!
I used the Martha Stewart Pine Branch punch to punch out all the branches for the wreath - I love this technique so much that I actually bought myself a second punch in case the first one I bought many years ago decides to pack it in! Crazy, eh?
For the little branches, I used a variety of green decorative / patterned papers. They are usually photos of grass or leaves that people would use for scrapbooking. If you want to see what I mean, look at this example and this one on the scrapbook.com website. I pick them up when patterned paper is on sale at Michaels or JoAnns. Using them gives me nice colour variation in the branches and makes it look more realistic and even as if some of it is speckled with snow.
I cut a very thin circle base using two sizes of Spellbinders circle dies and then glued down the punched branches, overlapping each one.
For this card, I decided to leave the wreath with just a red bow. Sometimes I add red or white gemstones for berries. But I like the CAS look of it this one without embellishment.
The background is a Tim Holtz brick stencil and Ranger Texture Paste just covering an area slightly bigger than the wreath. It left me with a perfect little spot to stamp my sentiment. I trimmed the panel and popped it up on fun foam.
Here's a close-up to see the paste embossed bricks and the patterning and colour variation in the little branches:
We'd love to have you join us at CAS Christmas. Your card needs to be clean and simple, and must follow the theme. You have until September 24th to link up. There's lots of inspiration from my fellow Design Team members and our wonderful Guest Designer, Birgit (Rapport fran ett skrivbord).
I used the Martha Stewart Pine Branch punch to punch out all the branches for the wreath - I love this technique so much that I actually bought myself a second punch in case the first one I bought many years ago decides to pack it in! Crazy, eh?
For the little branches, I used a variety of green decorative / patterned papers. They are usually photos of grass or leaves that people would use for scrapbooking. If you want to see what I mean, look at this example and this one on the scrapbook.com website. I pick them up when patterned paper is on sale at Michaels or JoAnns. Using them gives me nice colour variation in the branches and makes it look more realistic and even as if some of it is speckled with snow.
I cut a very thin circle base using two sizes of Spellbinders circle dies and then glued down the punched branches, overlapping each one.
For this card, I decided to leave the wreath with just a red bow. Sometimes I add red or white gemstones for berries. But I like the CAS look of it this one without embellishment.
The background is a Tim Holtz brick stencil and Ranger Texture Paste just covering an area slightly bigger than the wreath. It left me with a perfect little spot to stamp my sentiment. I trimmed the panel and popped it up on fun foam.
Here's a close-up to see the paste embossed bricks and the patterning and colour variation in the little branches:
We'd love to have you join us at CAS Christmas. Your card needs to be clean and simple, and must follow the theme. You have until September 24th to link up. There's lots of inspiration from my fellow Design Team members and our wonderful Guest Designer, Birgit (Rapport fran ett skrivbord).
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