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Salted Snow

Have you tried making a salted watercolour card yet for the CAS Watercolour Challenge?

I love using salt for snowy or wintery backgrounds.  Here's a card using blue watercolour paints and Kosher salt as a background for some shimmery snowflakes:

I did quite a wet watercolour wash with a couple of shades of blue watercolour paint and while still wet, sprinkled it with salt (I found kosher salt worked best for me - not too fine and not too coarse). I let it air dry overnight, then brushed off the salt.

I die cut three snowflakes and my sentiment out of silver glitter cs, and bordered the panel with the same. I popped it up on fun foam.

Then I spent more time trying to get a good photograph of it than I spent making the card! It was so hard to capture the sparkle and the dimension of the die cuts! This was the best I could get.

It's also for fellow CAS Watercolour Design Team member, Karen Dunbrook's SCS Technique Lover's Challenge "Add a Pinch of Salt".

Supplies:

Paper - silver glitter and white cs, watercolour paper

Size - A2

Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, salt, Penny Black Let It Snow die, Impression Obsession snowflake dies, fun foam

Paws on the Floor

The latest Merry Christmas Challenge is "Animals".  I went with a dog wearing a lovely Christmas scarf with Christmas trees on it:

I watercoloured the dog to keep it paler so that I could have nice contrast with the bright scarf that I coloured with markers. It's bordered with a scrap of dp.

It's also for this week's SCS CAS challenge "Put Your Paws Up".  My young dog, Tessa,  would love the title of this challenge as she's always putting her paws up - up on the kitchen counter to investigate the good smells when I'm cooking, jumping up on people to greet them, etc.! So I gave my card the title "Paws on the Floor" as I'm always telling her to keep her paws on the floor. The pup on my card has its paws nicely on the floor!

For those of you who saw last year's photos of Tessa when she was a young puppy might like to see her now that she's a year old.  Here she is when she's not putting her paws up on things, but sitting very regally on the footstool:

Believe me, she's not often this still - she is full of energy and loves to play and go for long walks!

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper - white cs, unknown dp

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - watercolour paints, markers

Gold Poinsettias and a Pierced Frame

The latest Less is More challenge is Piercing.

I used a pierced frame die to set off my gold and green Christmas image:

I smooshed a piece of acetate with various shades of green alcohol inks, using alcohol blending solution to help prevent them from drying too quickly.  Then I crumpled up a piece of tissue paper and glued it down to the inked side to give it backing and a more textured look.

On the clean side of the acetate, I carefully stamped and heat embossed the poinsettia image in gold.  I framed it with dark gold cs, using a pierced square frame die, and added my die cut sentiment.  Both the frame and sentiment were die cut twice and glued together for more substance.

Since I have stamping, alcohol inks, heat embossing, tissue paper, and die cuts, I'm also linking the card up with August's CAS Mix Up challenge to use alcohol inks.

And it's entered in SCS Dare to Get Dirty challenge posted by Nancy Littrell.
Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:

Stamps - Tim Holtz poinsettia

Ink - various green alcohol inks, ColorBox Gold

Paper - cream and dark gold cs, tissue paper

Size - 5" square

Accessories - gold embossing powder, acetate, Tim Holtz noel die, MFT Pierced Square Frame die

Frosty Window

I hate to be thinking that it is the beginning of August and we are halfway through a beautiful summer, so the last think you'd think I'd want to do is think about frosty windows!  But this month's CAS Watercolour challenge is "salt":

The salt technique lends itself so well to winter / snow / Christmas types of cards.

I love frost, and I love the patterns it makes on windows.  Here's my card:

I took piece of watercolour paper and spritzed it with water, then did a very wet wash with some liquid silver watercolour paint given to me by Loll Thompson.  I sprinkled on quite a bit of kosher salt and let it dry overnight.  When I brushed the salt off the next morning, I had a lovely frosty look.

I die cut the window three times to get dimension, glued them together, then taped a piece of scrap acetate to the back, and then taped the salty piece to the back of that.

The sentiment is stamped and heat embossed in silver, and then its panel is die cut with a stitched rectangle and popped up on the cardbase on fun foam.  I realized when it was all put together that the stitched rectangle is a different shade of white cardstock but could not bear the thought of pulling it all apart and changing it, so decided I like the contrast it gives.

The above photo does not do the silver paint / salt piece justice.  Here's a close-up that hopefully shows the frosty shimmer it has:

I originally made the card with a piece done with blue watercolour paint and salt, but after putting it together, just looked at it and thought "frosty windows are not bright blue" so started again to make the one above.  But I do like my blue paint / salt piece and will either sell it or send it to someone, so here's a peek at that card:

I like it because I love blue and white, but really like the monotone one as it really does make me think of waking up on a winter morning when I was a child in Ontario and our old single pane windows would be all silvery with frost.

Be sure to come and join in with something you've made using a salt and watercolour technique.  There is lots of inspiration from the rest of the CAS Watercolour Design Team and our August Guest Designer, Ros (of Mikey'sMom blog), and from the videos linked up at the challenge.  Please be sure that your card is clean and simple, and link up by August 24th!

Supplies:

Stamps - Impression Obsession sentiment

Ink - ColorBox Silver

Paper - white cs, watercolour cs

Size - A2

Accessories - Memory Box window die, silver liquid watercolour paint, kosher salt, silver embossing powder, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle, acetate, fun foam

Alcoholic Delphiniums

It's August 1st so time for the new CAS Mix Up challenge.

I'm a very keen gardener and one of my favourite flowers is the delphinium.  I love the beautiful shades of blue, mauve, purple, and pink that they come in.  When I came across the Memory Box Delphinium Circle die, I had to buy it.   Here's my card:

I chose all the delphinium-like colours amongst my alcohol inks and smooshed them on a piece of Yupo.  See Loll Thompson's video tutorial for information on the technique.

I die cut a large circle out of my piece and then die cut the Delphinium Circle from the centre of that.  Then I die cut an even larger stitched circle out of white cs.

I also die cut the Delphinium Circle out of a scrap of cs to use as a mask over the white circle so that I could figure out the placement of my stamping.  I have the discontinued Ranger Big and Juicy Hydrangea ink pad - a wonderful mix of the same blues and mauves, so used that for my stamping. The flowers are the closest thing I have to delphiniums that would fit with the die.  They are stamped in a mix of first and second generation inking.

Three little co-ordinating gemstones give a bit of sparkle and the whole panel is popped up on fun foam.

This is the second card I've made with the Delphinium Circle die - I'll post the first one after the recipient receives it!

Nancy of Scandinancy Creates is the host for this challenge and Trina of My Crafting Closet is this month's Guest Designer after winning the June challenge with her beautiful sailboat card seen here.  There's also great inspiration from the rest of the Design Team and some links to video tutorials using alcohol inks.  So head on over to CAS Mix Up and be sure to link up your card by August 24th.  Please remember to keep it clean and simple, and include some stamping as well as alcohol inks and one other option from our list on the right side of the blog.

Supplies:

Stamps - Lavinia flower, unknown sentiment

Ink - Ranger Big and Juicy Hydrangea; various blue, pink, and mauve alcohol inks

Paper - white cs, Yupo

Size - 4.75" square

Accessories - Memory Box Delphinium Circle die, Lil Inker stitched circle die, fun foam, blue and mauve gemstones