Birthday Brunch

I needed to give my hands a break from all the snipping that's involved in finishing a raggy quilt so thought I make a card for an upcoming birthday.

To start with I mixed a white and a red watercolour paint to make various shades of pink. After applying paint to a panel of watercolour card, that had been moistened with water, I added some splashes in the stronger pinks. Once the panel was dry I added the "happy" die cut sentiment that was made up of three layers and the gold embossed sentiment panel.



Stamps & die (Hero Arts) - Happy Stamp & Cut and It's Your Day

Then to finish I added a sprinkling of sequins and gems in various shades of pink. I don't eat much ice cream but every time I look at this card it reminds me of one ice cream that I do like, a brunch, and now I'd fancy having one! Because of the splashes of paint and the sparkle of the sequins and gems I thought the card would fit into the showers part of Simon Says Stamp's April Showers and\or Spring Flowers Challenge.

Scrappy Snowflake Tags

The other day when I was making this card my first attempt at a watercolour background looked really hideous. When this happens I usually set the piece aside and see if I can come up with another use for it. Often the not so nice pieces are die cut into butterflies or flowers but in this case I die cut some snowflakes to make gift tags for Christmas. Sorry for the gloomy photos but it's a really dull day here today.

Dies - Simon Says Stamp (Eliza and Kate snowflake dies) & Spellbinders (Picot Edge Circles)

I used the inlaid die cutting technique, and between using the scrapped watercolour panel and scraps of white card left over from other projects, I was happy with the amount of scraps I used up.

To finish the tags I added some gems and baker's twine.

I'm not quite ready to wrap my Christmas pressies yet (in fact I haven't even bought one Christmas present yet!) but just wanted to see how the tags would work on a present simply wrapped with tissue paper and baker's twine.

I'm submitting these tags in Simon Says Stamp's Watercolour Challenge over on Flickr.

Joyful Flurry

I wanted to join in again on the Simon Says Stamp Watercolouring Challenge over on Flickr, so last night I got out some purple and blue watercolour paints to make a background. I much prefer the colour of the card in real life compared to how it appears in the photo. In real life it's more purple than blue, but for some reason my camera seems to be picking up the blues more than the purples no matter how many photos I've taken in different lights! Anyway you'll just have to imagine this card as being purple:)

Dies - Simon Says Stamp (Eliza & Kate snowflakes), Die-mamics (By the Letters), Memory Box (Bristol Snowflake)

To make the background I applied water to watercolour paper and then added the paint. Then I sprinkled some salt on parts of the panel. I wasn't quite sure how that would work out but I like the look it gave to the panel.

Then it was just a matter of scattering snowflakes on the panel. I used Simon Says Stamp's Eliza and Kate snowflake dies, a snowflake punch and some pretty snowflakes my friend Linda had sent me. For some sparkle I added sequins and gems. I die cut the sentiment a number of times from silver card, layered the letters and added silver glitter to the top layer.

Hope you're enjoying the weekend. Tomorrow is a bank holiday for us so we're looking forward to the extra long weekend and mid-term break from school.

Snowflake Christmas Ornament

Every year I seem to have a mad dash in the lead up to Christmas as I try to make a lot of Christmas cards to send to family and friends. So shortly after last Christmas when I was talking to my friend Linda we thought it would be a great idea to make two Christmas cards each month throughout the year to save the flurry of cardmaking before Christmas. Well Linda is all up to date (and maybe even a little ahead) in her cardmaking, but let's just say I'm not!

So I decided to pull out some supplies again this morning to make another Christmas card.



Dies (Simon Says Stamp) - Eliza Snowflake & Kate Snowflake
Stamp (Lawn Fawn) - Trim the Tree

Over at the Simon Says Stamp group on Flickr Barb has a fun challenge going on which is watercolouring. So I thought I'd make a watercolour background for a snowflake Christmas ornament. I used three watercolour paints (two blue & one white) to make the background. I think there are layers and layers of paint on the panel at this stage as I'd be just about happy with it when I'd add something and mess it up! Anyway when I had an okay background I decided to call a halt and just added a few more splashes of paint.

Next it was time to make the ornament. When Simon Says Stamp released a whole range of pretty snowflake dies last year I fell completely in love with them. For this card I die cut two different snowflakes and applied star dust stickles to them.



After the snowflakes had dried, I layered them together using foam pads and added some string to suspend the ornament from the panel. The sentiment was embossed in silver and to finish off the card I added a sprinkling of gems.

I'm so happy to have my quota of Christmas cards made for this month, now I just have to catch up on the rest of the cards I was supposed to make throughout the year!