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".
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Sunday 12 July 2015

Early for Christmas, Late for a Birthday!

I love making Christmas cards so much that sometimes I get distracted and miss a friend's birthday.  So today I've got my latest Christmas card, and a belated birthday card to share.

The Christmas card is for the Mixed Media challenge "Blue".  I had to take part in that challenge as those of you who know me well, will know that I passionately love blue!


I was playing with my Inka Golds and made a few sheets of background by putting small blobs of different colours of Inka Gold (in this case blue and silver) onto my craft sheet, spritzing with water, and pressing my cardstock into it.  In some spots it comes out thick, in others thin so there is some nice texture to the card.  Here's a close-up showing the texture:


I then stamped some random bits of text on the piece (with some of the ink wiped off of the stamp before stamping).  Because it did not dry flat, I used a trick I saw Bonnie use recently where she made a frame to put around a piece to keep it flatter.

Out of slightly glittered cs, I die cut some small snowflakes and the "winter wishes", making three layers of each and sticking them together for dimension.  I lost the little die cut dot for over the "i" in "winter" so substituted a little embellishment.

Now on to the belated birthday card:


I missed a friend's birthday and so had to make a belated card for her.  I wanted to take part in the Tag You're It Challenge as I really liked their inspiration tag with a flower, some script, a border, and a blue background.
And I wanted to CASE this gorgeous card I saw on SCS.  I love Maura's poppies against the blue stencilled background.  My blue is lighter, almost aqua blue, and I used a different stencil and poppy die, and of course my focal image is a tag.

The background is Tumbled Glass ink sponged through a stencil, then a bit of script stamp in grey.  The poppies are die cut twice - the stems on one set sponged green, and the flowers cut off the other set, sponged with two shade of orange, and then stuck on top of the other die cut. 

I then die cut using a tag die, and die cut a tag the next larger tag die, and sponged the edges of it with the Tumbled Glass to match the colour.  Added a grey ribbon and a grey sentiment.

Thanks for taking a look!



Supplies:

Christmas card:

Stamps: Inkadinkado text stamp
Paper: white and silver glitter cs
Paper Size: A2
Ink: Ranger Archival black
Accessories: blue and silver Inka Gold, L'il Inker stiched rectangle die, Cheery Lynn snowflakes die, Penny Black winter wishes die

Birthday card:
Stamps: Old Island Stamp Co. script, Rubber Stamp Farm sentiment
Paper: PTI white cs
Paper Size: A2
Ink: Vivid Cobblestone; Distress Tumbled Glass, Bundled Sage, Wild Honey, and Spiced Marmalade
Accessories: grey ribbon, dimensionals, Memory Box Poppy die and Texture stencil, Die-namics tag dies


9 comments:

  1. Wow! All that blue and white goodness! A gorgeous Christmas card, Susan! I think these frames are going to come in really handy! Pretty birthday card too! Being late extends the birthday....

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  2. Love them both but thse poppy's are great. Thanks for joining us over at Tag You're It.

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  3. LOVE that Christmas card with your Inka Gold background. So very beautiful Susan. And your sweet belated birthday card is fun and bright ... love the aqua and orange together. xx

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  4. I'm sure you'll be forgiven for being late, when this beautiful birthday card is received! Love the Christmas beauty too! Thank you for joining the fun at Tag You're It!

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  5. Hooooo-leeee goodness your blue card took my breath away! I totally pinned it so I can admire it again for a long time to come! And I'm sure your friend just LOVED that textured tag card. You have got some serious talent and I can't wait to see what you cook up in the future because I'm your newest blog follower! Thanks for joining in over at the Mixed Media Card Challenge!
    Becca
    Damsel of Distressed Cards

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  6. Two lovely creations! Your Christmas card is beautiful with your Inka Gold background and the text stamping - thanks so much for joining us in the Mixed Media Card Challenge! Julia xx

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  7. Beautiful card! Love the textures you have created - looks amazing!
    Thanks for playing with us at MMCC. Hoping to see you with us again in August! ♥

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  8. Two totally adorable cards. The first one had me drooling over the shine of the silver, very clever idea of including a 3stack frame. The second card the tag is just so beautiful in all its layers. I found the colour combo v pleasing to d eye. Thanks for sharing these with MMCC this month.

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  9. that card is fabulous! loove the background. and the tag is beautiful! that little bit of red makes it pop!!! thanks for playing along with us at MMCC :)

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