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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Sunday, 31 July 2022

Stencilled and Die Cut Snowflakes

Very last minute for a challenge at Christmas Crafts All Year Round "Snowflakes":

I went over a beautiful snowflake mask with light blue Distress inks to create the background.  Then I die cut a circular opening out of cream shimmer cs and die cut some tiny snowflakes out of the leftover circle piece.  I glued part of my stencilled piece behind the circular opening and glued the small snowflakes randomly on the stencilled piece.  I then die cut the word snow out of the cream layer and placed it on a dark blue shimmer cardbase.

Look at the gorgeous inspiration photo of a cake that Christmas Cards All Year Round used for their challenge:











Supplies:
Ink - light blue Distress inks
Paper - white cs, cream shimmer and dark blue shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - SSS snow die, Spellbinders circle die, Cherry Lynn small snowflakes dies, Rebecca Baer Snow Flurries mask

Saturday, 16 July 2022

Rustic Background for a Tree

Peace on Earth has a great mood board for their new challenge.  I chose the image on the bottom left to inspire me.  I didn't have any gingham or plaid dp but created something using the red and black for my background.


Using a stencil, I sponged Black Soot ink over it, leaving a lighter area at the bottom for my sentiment.  I really like the irregular edges on the other three sides.  The sentiment is heat embossed in a darker black.

I die cut the tree three times and glued them together for dimension.  The top one is cut from mixed media cs and smooshed in various green Distress inks.  Finished off with red gemstones to match the red baubles on the tree in the mood board image.

We'd love to have you join us at Peace on Earth.  It's an "anything Christmas goes" challenge but here's the mood board if you need some inspiration.  Check out what it inspired the rest of the Design Team to create!

 









Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Distress Black Soot, Iced Spruce, Pine Needles, Evergreen Bough;  Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - red, white, and mixed media cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Memory Box Textured Mesh stencil, black embossing powder, Impression Obsession tree die

Saturday, 9 July 2022

White Trees, Gold Stars

The Christmas Craft Creations challenge "Trees" is ending soon and I want to get a card in for it.  And two challenges are calling for stars - Jingle Belles and Sparkles Christmas Challenge.

For the background, I used a leftover piece of black cs that had some gold spray on it. I added gold stars with gold embossing paste through a stencil. Then die cut the line of trees - they were just the right size for my scrap of background. Popped it up on fun foam and left it without a sentiment. In this case I prefer to just have a sentiment inside, rather than cluttering up my design.

Christmas Craft Creations




Jingle Belles "Stars or Stripes"

jingle belles

Sparkles Christmas Challenge "Stars"

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Supplies:
Paper - black and white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - star stencil, gold embossing paste, gold spray, tree line die, fun foam

Thursday, 7 July 2022

M is for Music / Hollyhocks

The ABC Christmas Challenge is asking for either L is for Little or M is for Music - I'm going with M is for Music.


I made a very quick Christmas card with both a musical background and a musical instrument.  I heat embossed image and sentiment, and layered over an embossed musical score.

And a second card for today, this time for The Paper Players' "Green Thumb" challenge.  I love a lot of the old fashioned flowers and one of my favourites is hollyhocks.  I finally I have a good patch of them in my garden after letting them self sow each year.


I stamped them and painted them with the muted colours of my Cosmic Shimmer Botanical Stains. Added a sentiment on vellum and bordered it with black.

ABC Christmas Challenge

 

 The Paper Players

 







Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Deep Red angel, unknown sentiment
Ink - ColorBox gold
Paper - ivory cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold embossing powder, musical score embossing folder

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - The Stampin' Place hollyhocks, Impression Obsession sentiment
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne
Paper - watercolour paper, PTI Vintage Cream cs, black cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Cosmic Shimmer Botanical Stains, fun foam

Sunday, 3 July 2022

Santa and Greenery

Time for a new CAS Christmas challenge - this time hosted by Barb and she's asking for cards featuring Santa.  It seemed the perfect opportunity to ink up a never before used stamp:

A simple card, stamped, watercoloured, splattered a bit, and bordered with black.

Please come and join us with your cards featuring Santa.  There is lots more inspiration from our wonderful Design Team over at CAS Christmas.  Sadly no Guest Designer this month because yours truly got out of sync after CAS Christmas's recent hiatus, but hopefully we'll have two Guest Designers next month to make up for it!

CAS Christmas
 

 







Supplies:
Stamps - Tim Holtz
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, black and cream cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints

Saturday, 2 July 2022

Blue Bells for Christmas

My goodness, the weeks roll around quickly!  Time for a new Peace on Earth challenge - anything goes as long as it's Christmas but you can choose to be inspired by the mood board.  I chose the bottom right image (see the mood board below) and made this card:

No stamping on this card - just lots of die cutting.  The branch and sentiment are cut from green shimmer cs, the stitched die cut panel and card base are white shimmer cs, and the bells are blue glitter cs.  I also cut the bells from a scrap of white cs and glued them together to give the bells more substance.  They are hung from the branch with gold cord and popped up a bit with dimensional tape.

Here's the Peace on Earth mood board:

I'm also entering it in the Snippets challenge as I used scraps of shimmer and glitter cs for the die cutting.








Supplies:
Paper - white and green shimmer cs, blue glitter cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Lil Inker bells and stitched rectangle dies, Impression Obsession pine branch die, Essentials by Ellen sentiment dies, foam tape, gold cord