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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Wednesday 4 October 2017

NBUS Robin and Holly

Here's my third and final card for Darnell's NBUS challenge.


Darnell limits us to three entries - a good thing or she'd be swamped with entries.  I'm sure I could make a dozen cards using different NBUS things on each one - shame on me for having so much stuff I haven't used.  And for my three entries, I only thought about stamps - never got around to dies, stencils, embossing folders, sprays, inks.......

For this card, I used two Sheena Douglass stamps that came in the same set.


I stamped the holly first and then carefully positioned the robin so that he's perched on it.  I heat embossed both (and the sentiment) so that I could do wet-on-wet watercolour painting and have the embossed edges act as dams.

After watercolouring the robin and holly, I debated adding a sky or a wash around the image and decided I wanted to leave it completely plain - not even a bit of splatter.  What do you think?  Add a wash?  Add some splatter? 





Supplies:
Stamps - Sheena Douglass bird and holly, Paper Smooches sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - red pre-made card base, mixed media cs
Size - 4.5" square
Accessories - clear embossing powder, Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Nesties square die cut, fun foam



9 comments:

  1. Hold the splatter....Such a lovely image, beautifully coloured. Perfect font on the sentiment too. Fabulous x

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  2. Your artwork on this is wonderful, Susan! No background needed. Let your work shine! Love the way you positioned your robin on the holly- so perfectly done! This is such a great card.

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  3. I like it the way it is, Susan. There's lots of colour with the bird and holly. The red framing looks great. xx

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  4. love the depth of colour with the Robin, and great use of both stamps. Love the CAS layout :)

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  5. just such a sweet card...
    xx Karen

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  6. What a lovely design for your Christmas card Susan- your sweet bird is so nicely colored and he looks so cute standing on the holly! xx

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  7. I think your white background and red frame really make your pretty robin and Christmas design pop! TFS Susan. Hugs

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  8. I'm a leave-it-white kind of girl, Susan, but mostly that's because I'm not used to the washes and splatters yet, lol! This granny has to evolve slowly, you know, so you should prolly rely on someone younger and hipper for that. I love it just the way it is so that all my eye sees is that pretty little robin perched on her Christmas holly! Your painting is lovely and I like that sediment, too! Thank you so much for playing three times in my NBUS Challenge #12! Hugs, Darnell

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  9. This bird is so pretty, Susan! And so is the holly! Great job of watercoloring!

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