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 2 November 2018

Christmas Greenery

I'm hosting the CAS Watercolour challenge for November and, since it's coming up to the time when we need to mail our Christmas cards, I thought I'd challenge you to get some of those cards made!


You can use any kind of watercolour technique you like.  For my card, I chose a new way of using Brushos (or any other powdered ink).  Loll Thompson, Christine Alexander, and I tried this out at our last crafting get together.


With the stamp in my MISTI, I inked it up with Versamark.  Then shook out a bit of my Brushos colours onto a palette, slightly moistened a paintbrush, picked up some colour and painted it over the Versamark.  When I'd painted the whole stamp, I lightly spritzed with water and stamped.

I ended up with some areas that were not very well covered in colour.  I could have moved the colour around with a wet brush but decided to leave them as it looked like snow on the leaves.

Some of the berries were too "blobby" with no definition between them so I added a bit of definition with a red coloured pencil.

I stamped my sentiment and splattered a little bit of black ink, trimmed the panel, bordered it with a very narrow black border, and added it to a cream card base.

With a glue pen, I carefully went over the parts of the leaves and berries that weren't well covered in colour and added white glitter.  Here's a close-up:


We'd love to have you join us between now and November 24th.  Please be sure your card is clean and simple, uses some kind of watercolouring, and has Christmas florals or greenery as its theme.

There is lots more inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and our wonderful Guest Designer, Maura (see her SCS Gallery here), over at CAS Watercolour!





Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black branches, Serendipity sentiment
Ink - Versamark, Archival Jet Black
Paper - cream and black cs, watercolour paper
Size - 5.75" square
Accessories - green, brown, and red brushos, red coloured pencil, glue pen, glitter



11 comments:

  1. I wondered how this stamp would do for this technique and I see it works beautifully! Love the "icy" leaves and berries and the colored pencil worked beautifully to add definition to the berries! Great challenge and card, my friend!

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  2. This is so beautiful Susan. I agree that it looks like there are bits of snow on the leaves. So pretty with the added glitter to give it some sparkle. Great work with this fun technique! xx

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  3. Susan, I love the mottled effect of the brushos it definitly gives a snowy effect. Your splatters also add extra interest.BTW love your sentiment, perfect for a square card.

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  4. Beautiful watercoloured Winter image, Susan. It does look like it is covered with a dusting of snow. I tried the new technique you girls worked on recently and that you used on this card. I LOVED it. So far I have only made a tag for Loll's upcoming tag event. I finished a card tonight for your challenge and love how it turned out. Thank you for the inspiration and wonderful challenge so close to the holidays. You will see mine in a few days:-) Maybe even tomorrow! TFS and hosting my friend. Hugs..Nancy

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  5. This is absolutely GORGEOUS Susan and I am so looking forward to trying out this technique (hopefully this weekend!). I love the stamp you used...how perfect for this technique. Love the sparkle you added too...a beautiful AND festive Christmas card! Thanks for giving us such a fun challenge this month!! :0)

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  6. Fabulous tecnique Susan and love the icy leaves. Great stamp too, to do the tecnique with. Stunning card x

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  7. The way this is done looks exactly like looking at it through a window on an icy day! This is beautiful, Susan! Love how you used glitter to achieve that wonderful effect! I have this stamp so thanks for the inspiration.

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  8. really lovely card mf It has such a wonderful vintage feel to it which I love.
    xx Karen

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  9. Cool technique. Beautifully done. Clever to leave it for a snowy look. The berries look great with the pencil. xx

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  10. Absolutely gorgeous, Susan! I really can't tell which parts are not well covered or penciled but the berries and leaves look fantastic with snow effect. The black spatters and the white glitters are the perfect finishing touch. Thanks for sharing the wonderful technique and your inspiring card, Susan! Thank you also for choosing a timely theme for this challenge! I can't wait to join you soon. :-)
    Hideko xx

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  11. Awesome technique Susan - I need to try this out! love your beautiful berry branch! xx

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