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 17 September 2019

Christmas Cocoa

Reminder time for the CAS Christmas "Holiday Treats" challenge!


It's been a lovely warm week of summer weather here in Vancouver, so it's hard to think about drinking cocoa right now, but I do love this image:


Forgive the poor image - I find shimmer card stock very hard to photograph.

I stamped the image in archival ink on mixed media cs.  I started by watercolouring with my Gansai Tambi paints - they include a shimmery gold paint that I used on the background.  I did not get a very deep red on the cup and saucer so went over it with a red Intense watercolour pencil and got a much richer colour.

I decided to make the cup look more festive so I die cut some tiny holly leaves and berries out of shimmer paper and created a patterned band around the middle of the cup.  I went over the berries with Glossy Accents to make them more shiny.

I trimmed the image to have a narrow border of the mixed media cs, then added it to a piece of red shimmer cs, and popped that up on fun foam on a cream (very pale gold) shimmer card base.  It really matches the pale gold watercolour wash on the background of the image.

Looking forward to seeing what holiday treats you come up with between now and September 24th.  There's some more inspiration over at CAS Christmas from the rest of the Design Team and September's Guest Designer, Birgit (Rapport fran ett skrivbord).

I'm also linking my card up at Christmas Cards All Year Round where they want Christmas or winter food or drink.
 






Supplies:
Stamps - Stamplorations
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - mixed media cs, green and red shimmer paper, pale gold cream shimmer and red shimmer cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Intense watercolour pencils, Memory Box tiny holly leaves and berries dies, fun foam



11 comments:

  1. That really is a great stamp, Susan. I agree it's still to warm to want hot chocolate. Love those papers! Outstanding coloring on this too and lovely layers.

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  2. I love the band of holly that decorates your cup, Susan! What a great idea! Hopefully we'll be enjoying hot chocolate very soon.

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  3. I feel your pain with photographing shimmer. I can imagine how gorgeous this is IRL. The holly is a nice festive touch. x

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  4. We have been having more rain and cooler weather on the Oregon coast, so I am thinking your mug of hot mocha sounds really, really yummy right now. Love all your framing, watercoloring and added die cut holly to your cup. Thank you for sharing, my friend. Hugs..Nancy

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  5. What fun to decorate the cup with holly. So cute and that looks yummy. Won't be long and we will be drinking hot cocoa.

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  6. Yummy hot cup of cocoa, Susan! Love the sparkle and shine from your added layers on the cup. xx

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  7. Great stamp Susan, I just love that hot chocolate image for Christmas😀

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  8. The shimmer and stamped image look warming and wonderful x

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  9. The cocoa looks yummy with the whipped cream and the cinnamon stick, Susan! I love your holly band decoration! What a great idea to make the cup look festive and fun! I can see the beautiful shimmer in the photo.
    Hideko xx

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  10. Great cocoa image, Susan! I too love the addition of the holly band on the cup. Definitely a festive image. It's still too hot here to have cocoa as well. Hugs

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  11. Beautiful! Thanks so much for participating in the Christmas Crafts All Year Challenge this time and good luck :)

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