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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Friday 18 December 2015

Leftovers, Smooshing, and a Basic Tree

I'm still making Christmas cards! I sold everything I'd made throughout the year at my fundraiser so am now making cards to mail out. Luckily there have been some good challenges this week at Splitcoaststampers to inspire me. First up is for the Free for All challenge "One-Word Wonder" - to have one word, and only one word, on the card. And Monday's Technique Lover's Challenge was "Rags to Riches" - to use up leftovers. And it's also going to the Addicted to CAS challenge - use the code word "Joy".


I'd been playing with gilding flakes earlier in the month so used up some little leftover pieces (made by covering cs in double sided tape, then the gilding flakes rubbed in to the tape) and die cut small ornaments out of them.

I layered them over an embossing folder, using foam tape to pop them up, and pieces of twine to hang them - because the gilding flakes had gold, silver, and copper in them, I used three different colours of twine.

For the Free for All challenge, I added the single word "Joy", heat embossed in copper.

Next up is a card for the Ways to Use It challenge "Bring on the Bling".


I did the background using Loll Thompson's "smooshing" technique with Distress inks, keeping the ink more saturated around the outer edges of the piece of watercolour paper. The poinsettia is stamped in the centre, and painted with a couple of shades of red Distress inks. I flicked some very watered down ink on the panel, and sponged around the edges.

The centre of the poinsettia is filled with a variety of gold gemstones and I added a few in random spots on the background as well. To emphasize the gold of the bling, I bordered with gold shimmer cs before mounting on a cream cardbase.

And lastly, a very simple basic card for the CAS challenge "Trim the Tree".


My tree is stamped, the ornaments coloured with Copics and then gone over with Glossy Accents, and the star was coloured with Copics and then sparkled with a Stardust gel pen.

It's also for the CASology challenge "Tree" and the 'Tis the Season challenge "O Christmas Tree".






Ornaments supplies:
Stamps: Rubber Soul "Joy"
Paper: white cs
Paper Size: A2
Ink: ColorBox Copper
Accessories: mixed gilding flakes, Spellbinders ornament dies, Crafts Too embossing folder, copper embossing powder, foam tape; gold, silver, and copper twine

Poinsettia supplies:
Paper: watercolour paper, gold shimmer and cream cs
Paper Size: A2
Ink: Ranger Archival Black, various Distress Inks
Accessories: various gold gemstones

Tree supplies:
Stamps: Rubbernecker tree, Rubber Soul sentiment
Paper: red, white, and dark green cs
Paper Size: A2
Ink: Ranger Library Green
Accessories: Copics, Glossy Accents, Stardust pen, SU tag punch

1 comment:

  1. Three beautiful cards Susan. You've really done well getting lots of cards made for your own stash. All three are so unique and creative. Especially love the gilding flakes on the ornaments. xx

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