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".

Thursday, 27 June 2019

Reindeer and Christmas Leaves

I've been entertaining two of my sisters who came to visit this month from back east so not much time for creating or blogging.  But finally a chance to catch up with some challenges.

Sparkles Christmas Challenge is "Include a Reindeer".


I inked up the trees with brown Distress ink and the shadows on the ground with grey, inking up and stamping in my MISTI until I got a good impression. I then cleaned the stamp (while it was still in the MISTI), reinked it with Versamark, stamped over the coloured stamping, and heat embossed in clear. That way I had a resist for my background sponging. I used various yellow and blue Distress inks to sponge the sky.

I added a die cut reindeer and sentiment.


Christmas Cards All Year Round wants to see "Christmas garlands, leaves, or flowers".


I stamped and heat embossed in silver, added a small part of a longer sentiment, mounted on a silver card base, and embellished the berries with silver gemstones.  A perfect CAS card for making multiples if one was so inclined!






Supplies for the 1st card:
Stamps - Penny Black woods
Ink - Versamark, various Distress inks
Paper - brown, cream, and mixed media cs
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - Dee's Distinctively reindeer, Tattered Lace sentiment die, clear embossing powder

Supplies for the 2nd card:
Stamps - Penny Black A Berry Branch, part of a SU sentimen
Ink - ColorBox silver
Paper - white and silver cs
Size - A2
Accessories - silver embossing powder, silver gemstones




Wednesday, 19 June 2019

Little Cardinals

Combining two challenges with today's card:  the CAS Mix Up "Ombre" challenge and the ABC Christmas "L is for Little" challenge.   I have a blue ombre background and some very little cardinals on my card.


I masked off a rectangle on my watercolour paper and used various blue watercolour paints to make an ombre background.

I am in the midst of reorganizing my craft room and couldn't find my brown cs for die cutting the branches so watercoloured a scrap of w/c paper in brown (and also in red) and die cut the branches and birds. I die cut the birds twice and glued them together to raise them up off the branches more.

I trimmed the panel and popped it up on fun foam on a kraft card base.


The requirements of CAS Mix Up are:


My sentiment is stamped, I have the ombre background, and for my choice, I have die cutting and watercolouring.







Supplies:
Stamps - Rubber Soul sentiment
Ink - Recollections Chestnut
Paper - watercolour paper, kraft cs
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Memory Box branch and tiny cardinals dies, clear embossing powder, fun foam



Monday, 17 June 2019

The Snowbaby's Gift

Reminder time for CAS Christmas!  And the theme this month is "Gifts".


I went with a sweet little snowman - more like a snowbaby, with too big a toque for its little head, sitting in the snow, wondering what the package is!


Stamped, watercoloured, trimmed into a square, bordered with an offset red square to balance with the red gift.  I used gold watercolour paint for the gift's ribbon and went over it with Wink of Stella for more sparkle.  And added Stickles to the snowy ground and Fun Flock to the pompom and brim of the toque.

Please head over to CAS Christmas to check out more cards featuring gifts - by the Design Team and this month's talented Guest designer, Leslie (Running with Scissors).  You have until June 24th to link up.  Please keep your cards clean and simple, and be sure to include the theme of gifts.





Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - watercolour paper, cream and red cs
Size - 5" square
Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Wink of Stella, Stickles, Fun Flock



Sunday, 16 June 2019

Blue Forget-Me-Nots

Time to remind you that you only have until June 24th to enter a card in the CAS Watercolour "Something Blue" challenge!


Every spring / early summer, my garden is full of blue Forget-Me-Nots.  I'm always sad when they are finished and I have to pull out the dying plants - but as you pull them out, they drop their seeds everywhere, ready for next year.


I stamped the image on hot press watercolour paper with archival ink and watercoloured with my Gansai Tambi paints, using quite an intense blue for the flowers, a very pale bit of green for the leaves, a bit of very pale blue on the postmark, and adding an even paler blue wash around the flowers (so pale it doesn't show in the photo!).

I used a linen cardstock for the card base and for the stitched frame.  The frame is popped up on foam tape over the image.

I added a tiny drop of cream from a Viva Pearl Pen to the centre of each flower.  Here's a close-up:



Please head over to CAS Watercolour and check out the rest of the Design Team and June's wonderful Guest Designer, TaeEun (rainbow in november).





Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Archival Jet Black
Paper - hot press watercolour paper, linen cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, cream Viva Pearl Pen, Lil Inker stitched rectangle die, foam tape