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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Tuesday 1 March 2016

A Fabulous New Challenge!!

For those of you who like to make mostly CAS cards but also want to dabble in mixed media, my good friends Loll Thompson and Bonnie Klass have come up with a great new challenge called CAS Mix Up.  And they've invited me to be their first Featured Designer - I am so honoured!




The March challenge is "stamping + watercolouring + your choice of one other".




On the challenge parameters, there is a great list of the possibilities for the "your choice".  I saw burlap on the list and thought it was a great opportunity to use a piece of cream burlap I bought recently as it keeps the border very CAS.  Here's my card:


My focal image is also very CAS.  I started by doing a watercolour wash for the background.  As it dried, the green bled upwards into the blue, giving a lovely grassy effect.  Perfect for my bird perched on some taller stalks of grass!

I stamped the bird / grass image in green on the watercolour background.  And, because I didn't want the bird to be green, I stamped the image twice in brown on a scrap of watercolour paper.  Working with the two brown images, I cut one of the birds out without colouring it, then watercoloured the other brown bird in shades of brown and cut it out.  And glued the two brown birds on top of the one stamped in green on the background to give it some dimension.

I used my stitched rectangles to die cut the panel.   Watercolour washes often warp the paper so I glued a second rectangle of heavyweight cs to the back of it to flatten it out.  I popped it up with some foam tape.

I'm so excited about this challenge as I think it will help people start to bring in a bit more mixed media to their CAS cards.  The challenge runs until March 24th so there's lots of time to join in!






Supplies:
Stamps - SU Simply Sketched
Ink - Ranger Archival Library Green, Ranger Wendy Vecchi Potting Soil
Paper - PTI Vintage Cream cs, watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, cream burlap, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die, foam tape



16 comments:

  1. Hi Susan. LOVE your watercoloured wash background. So cool how the water moved to create a grassy area for your beautiful bird to perch. :) Love the dimension with layering and fussy-cutting your bird. And the burlap background adds so much gorgeous texture. Thanks so much for being our very first Featured Designer at CAS Mix Up!! xx

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  2. Congrats on being the first guest designer for this fun new challenge Susan! Your light piece of burlap makes a lovely framing for your watercolored panel with the sweet brown bird! a beautiful example of CAS mixed media! Julia xx

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  3. Gorgeous card Susan, love the burlap border and the watercolored panel is a perfect landscape for this bird, Cathy x

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  4. this is beautiful Susan :) love the fiber texture framing for this

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  5. Susan, congrats on your GD spot for Loll and Bonnie's new challenge! I love the burlap background...wonderful texture! Beautiful watercolor washed background for that sweet little bird!

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  6. What a great MM CAS design Susan! Thank you for the explanation! Have a lovely evening! Hazel xx
    My Card Attic

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  7. Congratulations on being a GD on the debut of this fun challenge. Just love the burlap background, which looks wonderful with the soft washed background of this sweet little bird. Just love this pretty card! TFS

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  8. Thank you so much for being our Featured Designer, Susan! Your watercolor background is gorgeous and I love how the color bled into grass! Love the dimension of the sweet bird and the texture of the burlap! I'm so glad to have you sharing this with us!

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  9. Gorgeous how the the water colouring blended and how you've coloured in the delightful bird. Beautiful CAS mixed up with the texture on the burlap ..CAS and MM perfect.

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  10. Agree with everyone's comments about your lovely card. The watercolor background is fabulous and is perfect for that sweet little bird. Love it.

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  11. Congratulations on being the Guest Designer for Lolly and Bonnie, Susan! Your wonderful creation is worthy of framing! I LOVE that burlap behind your sweet watercolored panel!! Hugs, Darnell

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  12. What an amazing carol Susan. Perfect design and the burlap is a great addition.

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  13. Very pretty card, I love your watercolour background. The burlap is a wonderful element.

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  14. Susan, it is so cool how your grassy area was made. The burlap looks great and the card is gorgeous. Congrats on being the first Guest Designer for Loll and Bonnie's new challenge.

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  15. Hi Susan,

    Lovely card - fabulous background. Congrats on being Featured Designer!

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  16. Fabulous card Susan! Love the softly watercolored images and the texture from the burlap. The natural feel of burlap so perfectly matches the nature scene.

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