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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Thursday, 5 December 2024

Watercoloured Winter, Peaceful Ornament, and Grungy Birthday

Two more Christmas cards and one birthday card today!  

First, for ABC Christmas Challenge "W is for Watercolouring", Stamping Sensations "Winter", and Four Seasons "Winter" (the top left image on their mood board inspired me to pull out an old stamp that has a rustic wooden cabin as part of it).


The image is stamped, watercoloured, and added to a kraft cardbase.  Then I went over the snow lines, the snow on the fences, trees, and roof with a quickie glue pen and added glitter.  I put the sentiment inside as I didn't want to cover up any of the lovely image.

Next up for Addicted to CAS "Ornament":


A friend and I regularly go for tea at a little French bakery / coffee shop and the pastries are served on gold cardboard holders that I carefully clean and recycle to make large ornaments for cards. In this case, I dripped a couple of shades of red alcohol inks on the round part of the pastry holder and spritzed with rubbing alcohol to get it to run and cover the round part. When dry, I added a dove die cut from white glitter cs and a branch cut from green shimmer cs. I embellished with three little stick-on gold glitter circles and some matching gold glitter strips for the ornament's hanger. I let it all take centre stage on a plain white card base with just an added stamped and heat embossed sentiment. 

A male friend has a birthday coming up so I had my usual struggle to make a masculine card.  I'm linking it up with Sweet Stampin' "It's our Birthday" - they are celebrating the 15th year of their challenge.  And also Seize the Birthday "Masculine".

I found the stencilled piece in my unused background box - it was very intensely orange and I didn't like it, so I watered down some gesso and painted over it to lighten it up.  I stamped the Tim Holtz image in black and edged around it with Tea Dye Distress ink.  Then cut a rectangle out of the stencilled piece and layered it over the stamped image as a frame.  Added a birthday sentiment to the top of the frame.

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Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Northwoods
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, kraft cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, quickie glue pen, glitter

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - A Muse sentiment
Ink - ColorBox Gold, red alcohol inks
Paper - white cs, white glitter cs, green shimmer cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Impression Obsession dove die, recycled pastry holder, gold embossing powder, Anita's Glitterations gold strips and dots

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Tim Holtz man, unknown sentiment
Ink - various orange Distress inks, Distress Tea Dye, Versfine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Spellbinders rectangle die, clock stencil, gesso

11 comments:

  1. Susan, Love that you reuse and recycle the cardboard on your first card and I love how shiny red it is like a real Christmas ornament. As for card #2, Lightening up the orange background was such a fabulous idea, and I am filing away that idea for the many card bases I have at home to try and salvage. Great image and great masculine card. Thanks for playing at Seize the Birthday.

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  2. Three lovely cards and your Winter scene is so peaceful, many thanks for sharing at Stamping Sensations challenge (we have the same theme at We Love Stamping).

    B x

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  3. I adore the way that you salvaged the card for a masculine birthday. An idea that I will file away for use, maybe sooner than later. Lol The First card is very peaceful and a wonderful Christmas scene. I think that as crafters we are always looking to reuse things that we see every day. Great remake for the ornament. Thanks for sharing it with us at Seize the Birthday Challenge. Happy Holidays!

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  4. Your shiny red ornament with the dove is just lovely, a beautiful CAS design! Thanks for joining us at Addicted to CAS!

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  5. Susan, your bright red ornament is just gorgeous. I love all the wonderful shimmer and shine. So glad you shared this with us at Addicted to CAS this week
    Jaydee

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  6. Love the beautiful water coloured Wintry image, the stamps and all the sparkle. Thank you for joining us at Stamping Sensations.
    Carol DT x

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  7. What a lovely trio of cards, Susan and the watercolour one is perfect for our challenge. This is such a pretty and peaceful scene, and the added sparkle makes it extra special.

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  8. Awesome array of cards, my friend. LOVE your beautiful winter scene ... with those sweet deers wandering about. Lovely watercolouring and I bet that glitter is so sparkly. LOVE your gorgeous shine, red ornament, using the foiled pastry trivet. Dipping it in the alcohol ink worked perfectly and those glitter strips add lots of sparkle along with your glittery dots. I always love your "dove" cards. And your masculine birthday is a wonderful layered, mixed media card using a beautiful stencil monoprint for the background. Great idea to tone down the colours using a white wash of gesso. All the cards are so creative! xx

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  9. Wonderful selection of cards, your winters scene is so idyllic and your recycled ornament is so pretty in red. Your last card is a stunner, muting down the colour with gesso was the perfect effect ♥

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  10. You've watercolored a beautiful, peaceful scene, Susan! And I'd love an ornament just like this on my Christmas tree! The third card is a great masculine birthday card!

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  11. Three wonderful makes including two very pretty Christmas ones Susan...love the first winter scene, and then the bright red bauble made with a recycled cake holder - a clever idea, and the added lovely white dove, and lastly a brilliant masculine birthday card with a great TH image, and the stencilled background toned down with gesso goes perfectly. x

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