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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Saturday, 31 December 2022

Candy Canes on Red and White Stripes

This week the Peace on Earth challenge has a mood board full of red and white and some greenery.  It inspired me to make this card:

A stamped and watercoloured image, popped up on fun foam on red and white striped dp, and finished off with some glossy accents on the gold ornaments.

Here's the Peace on Earth mood board if you want to be inspired by it.  If not, feel free to join us anyway with an "anything Christmas goes" card. 










Supplies:
Stamps - Stampendous candy canes, SSS sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, striped dp, off white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Glossy Accents, fun foam

Monday, 26 December 2022

Red and White, and Poinsettias

It's Boxing Day and I've got more Christmas cards for you as we should all still be feeling festive!

Double D wants "Red and White".  Here's what I made:


This was very hard to photograph because of the red mirror cs that I used for the embossing folder!  A very quick card with some layering and the "joy" sentiment die on top.

Then Once Upon a Time challenge asked us to be inspired by a book called The Legend of the Poinsettia.

I did two variations with the same stamp:



In both cases, I watercoloured the poinsettia postcard image, using the pale gold paint included in my Gansai Tambi paints for the background and flourishes for the first one (the gold is more shimmery IRL than it looks in the photo) a pale blue wash for the background for the second one. I fussy cut them and added them to the card bases that I'd dry embossed to frame the image. I added gold gemstones to the centre of the poinsettia and clear ones to the centres of the snowflakes.

Double D "Red and White"

 

Once Upon a Time challenge

 

 







Supplies for card 1:
Paper - red and white cs, red mirror cs
Size - A2
Accessories - PaperTrey Ink joy die, unknown embossing folder

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Viva Decor poinsettia postcard
Ink - Archival Jet black
Paper - watercolour paper, white cs for the first card base and cream shimmer cs for the second
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - watercolour paints, gold and clear gems, fun foam, unknown embossing folder

Friday, 23 December 2022

White on White / Waiting for Santa

A couple of Christmas cards for challenges.

For Colorful Options "Winter White", the Double Trouble challenge that Colorful Options is partnering with this month, and the Snippets challenge :


I die cut the Merry Christmas frame twice from leftover bits of white cs and glued them together and added them to the card base. I die cut the mistletoe once from a scrap of white shimmer cs and once from a scrap of white glitter cs, and glued them inside the frame. Finished off with clear gemstones on the mistletoe berries.

And for Christmas Cards All Year Round "Waiting for Santa":


I sponged a background with a few blue Distress inks, then stamped the TH trees on it.  I made sure that was all dry as I was heat embossing the sleigh and sentiment and didn't want stray embossing powder sticking to the background.  Finished off with a few die cut gold stars.

Challenges:

Colorful Options "Winter White"

 

Double Trouble Challenge - I have Thing 1 "Some Thing, Anything" and Thing 3 "an all white card" 

 

Snippets Challenge 

Player's Badge 

Christmas Cards All Year Round "Waiting for Santa"









Supplies for card 1:
Paper - white shimmer, white glitter, and white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - SSS Holiday Frame, unknown mistletoe die, clear gemstones

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - SU Santa and sleigh, TH trees, Technique Junkies (?) sentiment
Ink - Distress Chipped Sapphire and Stormy Sky, Archival Library Green, Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white cs, scrap of gold cs
Size - A2
Accessories - clear embossing powder, tiny star die

Thursday, 22 December 2022

Embossing Glazed Snowflakes

I buy so many great new products and then they languish on my shelves.  So I'm hoping to challenge myself to use something I rarely use at least once a week.  Here's a card using Embossing Glaze:

I went over the TH snowflake stencil with embossing paste and then, while it was still wet, I added Speckled Egg embossing glaze to give it colour. I heated it with my heat gun which caused some of the glaze to bubble a bit and then subside, adding even more texture to the snowflakes.

I added a very thin black cs border, stamped the sentiment in black on a small scrap and heat embossed it with clear powder, and added a thin black border to that piece as well.

Sneaking in just in time for:

52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Snowflakes"

 

And I don't think aqua-coloured snowflakes are very traditional so it's also going to:

Sparkles Christmas Challenge "Non-traditional Christmas Colours"

Please take a copy of our badge








Supplies:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - white and black cs
Size - 7x3.75"
Accessories - TH snowflakes stencil, embossing paste, TH Speckled Egg embossing glaze, clear embossing powder

Saturday, 17 December 2022

Blue on White Ornament

Those of you who know me, know that I love blue and white!  I was inspired by the lower right image on the Peace on Earth mood board (see below) to make this card:


No stamping on this card, just die cuts.  I cut the background for the ornament twice out of white shimmer cs and glued them together, then cut the top decorative layer out of blue glitter cs and added it to the top, and finished off with a little ornament top cut from silver cs.

I die cut the negative sentiment out of a white shimmer panel, and trimmed the panel down with a hemstitch die.  I layered it over the same blue glitter cs as I used on the ornament so that it shows through the hemstitch openings and through the negative sentiment letters.  Added it to a white shimmer card base, and then topped it with the ornament.

Peace on Earth challenge

Please head over to Peace on Earth for more inspiration from the Design Team and then link up your card, either inspired by our mood board or an "anything Christmas goes" card.








Supplies:
Paper - white and silver shimmer cs, blue glitter cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Memory Box ornament die, TH sentiment die, Spellbinders Hemstitch rectangle die

Friday, 16 December 2022

Winter Trees and Reindeer

For the Four Seasons challenge "winter", I was inspired by the bottom left image on their mood board (see below).


I created the background using the faux mother-of-pearl technique with various blue Distress inks and silver paint through a stencil.  The reindeer are die cut from silver matte cs and the sentiment is heat embossed in silver.

Four Seasons Challenge "winter"

Stencil Fun Challenge "Holiday"

LOVE to have you SHARE our BADGE

 







Supplies:
Stamps - Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - various blue Distress inks, ColorBox silver
Paper - white and silver cs
Size - A2
Accessories - homemade tree stencil, silver paint, silver embossing powder, SU label punch

Monday, 12 December 2022

A Partridge and Some Polar Bears

Festive Friday is asking us to celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas.  We had to include at least three items from their list (see at the bottom of this post).  I have the partridge and the pear, there is gold in my background paper, and it's a Christmas card.

The image is watercoloured, trimmed with a stitched die, and popped up on fun foam on some dp.

Next up is a card for the Tic Tac Toe Challenge.  I chose the diagonal line that says Snow / Arctic Animal / Slimline.

The snowy background was created with a snowflake embossing folder and vellum.  I took a piece of navy blue cs and die cut "winter wishes" along the bottom.  I taped the vellum above that and folded it over the top edge and secured the top of it on the wrong side.  I die cut the polar bears and layered that over the bottom edge of the vellum (thus hiding the tape behind the vellum).  It's all added to a mini slimline card base.

Festive Friday


NBUS (Never Before Used Stuff) challenge - I've never used that stamp before.

Grab our badge to display on your blog. 

Tic Tac Toe Challenge


 







Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Inky Doodles
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, K&Co dp, cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Paper - white and navy cs, vellum
Size - 6.25x3.25"
Accessories - snowflake embossing folder, polar bear die, TH winter wishes die


Saturday, 10 December 2022

More Metallic Colours on Black

Here's another of my final results of painting with metallic watercolours on black watercolour paper.


Like the earlier one, the image and sentiment are heat embossed in gold on black watercolour paper and then painted with Twinkling H2Os.  I splattered with watered down gold and white acrylic paint, bordered in gold shimmer cs, and mounted on a white card base.

Linking up with:

The Flower Challenge "Christmas"


Penny Black Saturday Challenge "Christmas"







Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black poinsettia / holly stamp, Paper Smooches sentiment
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - white cs, gold shimmer cs, black watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - Twinkling H2Os, white and gold acrylic paints

Thursday, 8 December 2022

Christmas Colours on Black

At a recent crafty zoom get together, we used metallic watercolours to paint images on black watercolour paper.  I loved it and have since continued to use the technique. 


I used the colours of the newest Color Throwdown - red, black, green, and gold.

I heat embossed the image with gold embossing powder on black watercolour paper, then coloured with my Twinkling H2Os.    I added some gold splatter but decided it also needed a some white splatter to lighten it up a bit.  I trimmed the panel, popped it up on fun foam on a gold card base, and added a Tim Holtz stick-on sentiment.

Color Throwdown

Jingle Belles - Anything Christmas

Winter Wonderland - End of Year Anything Christmas Goes

Sweet Stamping - Christmas Creations








Supplies:
Stamps - Serendipity holly
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - black watercolour paper, gold shimmer cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Twinkling H2Os, white and gold acrylic paint, TH stick on sentiment, Spellbinders square die, fun foam

Tuesday, 6 December 2022

Embossed and Stencilled Snow

I live in Vancouver, Canada and we normally have mild rainy winters but we've already had two periods of extra cold snowy weather.  So this card is perfect for what I see when I look out my windows.


The background for the focal panel was done with blue acrylic paint and a dotted stencil on a gelli plate. I die cut the house / trees and stuck a small piece of gold cs behind the windows of the house, then stamped and heat embossed my sentiment on it, and bordered it with the same gold cs. I ran the card base through a dotted embossing folder.

Tic Tac Toe Challenge - I chose the top horizontal row of snow, stencil, tree.

Time Out Challenge - winter / holiday

 

 






Supplies:
Stamps - PB sentiment
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - white and gold cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold embossing powder, Cuttlebug dotted embossing folder, blue acrylic paint, dotted stencil, house / tree die

Monday, 5 December 2022

A Notecard for National Letter Writing Day

Slipping in under the wire for a challenge at Festive Friday to celebrate National Letter Writing Day.


I've got three of the required elements for the challenge - script, postmark, and embossing folder.

I pulled out a bit of blue background (created by sprinkling Brushos on mixed media cs and spritzing with water) from my unused backgrounds box and stamped and heat embossed the postcard collage image. Trimmed it and bordered it with black. I used a postcard collage embossing folder on the card base. 









Supplies:
Stamps - bird / postcard collage stamp
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white, black, and mixed media cs
Size - A2
Accessories - clear embossing powder, Sizzix embossing folder, blue brushos

Saturday, 3 December 2022

Robin and a Plant Pot

I love it when I see a mood board or an inspiration challenge that immediately makes me think of a stamp I have!  That's what happened with this card for the new Peace on Earth Challenge.


Stamped and watercoloured, bordered with copper shimmer cs, and embellished with a Quickie glue pen and glitter on the snowy bits.

Here's the mood board for Peace on Earth.  You'll immediately know which image inspired me!

Please come and join us at Peace on Earth.  You can be inspired by the mood board or you can enter an "anything Christmas goes" card.  There's lots of inspiration from the rest of the Design Team.








Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, cream cs, copper shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, glitter