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 16 November 2018

Christmas Rose

November is flying by at a frightening speed.  How are you doing with getting your Christmas cards done?  I'm here to remind you to get a card made for CAS Watercolour that will be perfect for the season:


My card includes both florals and greenery, and it uses a really old (but still much loved by me) stamp:


One reason I love it so much is because I have various Hellebores (commonly called Lenten roses) growing in my garden, one of which is the Christmas rose, more officially and properly known as Helleborus niger.  Botanical names and common plant names get so incredibly complicated - the older brain reels from trying to keep them straight!  The Christmas rose is supposed to bloom at Christmas but mine doesn't usually do much till mid-January, but every year I hope to see it at Christmas.

I stamped in Versafine Onyx Black on watercolour paper, and watercoloured the image.

When dry I trimmed it down with a Spellbinders rectangle die and left it in the die while I carefully sponged around the image with Distress Antique Linen.  When I took it out of the die, I was left with a nice narrow white border.  I attached it to red cs so that I'd have a narrow red border as well.

And finally popped it up on fun foam on a green cardbase.

There's more inspiration over at CAS Watercolour from the rest of the Design Team and this month's wonderful Guest Designer, Maura (see her SCS Gallery here).  You have until November 24th to link up your card.  Please remember to keep it clean and simple with quite a bit of "white space" (on my card the white space is dark green - that's okay because we're talking about "empty space", not literally "white".  Also please note that we're looking for florals and / or greenery, but not Christmas trees.

Hope to see you in our gallery!





Supplies:
Stamps - SU Christmas Rose (from the SU Christmas Cardinal set)
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Antique Linen
Paper - watercolour paper, red and dark green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Spellbinders rectangle die, fun foam



10 comments:

  1. I love the helleborous. There are some in the flower bed going into our library. They bloom in the spring and are so pretty. It would be a real treat to have them bloom at Christmas! Your card is so pretty and perfectly colored! It's hard to do white flowers, but you have done it beautifully!

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  2. This is a beautiful image Susan. Wonderfully watercoloured and framed. A very elegant card for someone special! xx

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  3. So pretty Susan, I love the Christmas rose it'such a beautiful flower. Gorgeous watercolouring of such a pretty flower :)

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  4. I can see why this is a favorite stamp Susan...it's gorgeous!! Your water coloring is just lovely and I really like how you did your background too by leaving it in the die so that you ended up with the white border...have to remember that trick!! Maybe this will be the year you see your Christmas Rose at Christmas...miracles still happen every day!! :0)

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  5. Great water colouring of that stunning floral stamp. You have captured the Christmas rose splendidly and yes mine don't come out either to well into January. Love the white frame with the dusting of the ink.....thank you for reminding me about this tecnique as I had completely forgot about it and it looks wonderful. Beautiful card Susan X

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  6. Gorgeous and beautifully watercolored Christmas Rose arrangement, Susan. I love your soft colors and your beautiful framing too. TFS Hugs.Nancy

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  7. I am so clueless when it comes to botanicals. Thanks for the quick lesson... although I’ll probably forget everything. 😂 Your card and watercolouring is beautiful. Lovely soft colours, xx

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  8. love this mf...so elegant and beautiful.
    xx Karen

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  9. You do know a lot about gardening, Susan! I'm so bad that I failed to keep my cactus (not once)...but I'm great at letting weeds grow. ;-P
    Your watercoloring makes this pretty flower image prettier and I love the soft Antique Linen background!
    Hideko xx

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  10. Gorgeous card Susan, love those roses as a change for Christmas florals

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