Feeling Thankful...

Hello crafty friends :)

Thanksgiving weekend is coming up, here in Canada, and I was able to celebrate the joy of creating with the Recreation Therapy department again, at the rehabilitation centre where I work.

We held a "thankful" card workshop on Tuesday evening.

I usually work up three demo cards, and pre-cut all the materials, so the participants can stamp, ink and glue to their hearts' content. I love it when they take my ideas and run, making a creation all their own. 

So here are the samples, which will be sent out to my family tomorrow! Hopefully Canada Post cooperates...

One great big Hero Arts maple leaf stamp, inked with Distress inks and spritzed, then stamped onto small white card-stock squares. No two alike!

Started with a piece of white watercolor paper, smooshed on distress inks in three colours, then stamped the leaf images in black. The leaves are from Newton's Nook Designs. The sentiment stamp is Close to My Heart.

 

Falling leaves punched from one more distress inked panel. The sentiment is the same Newton's Nook Design. The side-stitched rectangles are from Lil Inker Designs.

To all my Canadian pals, enjoy the long weekend. To my American friends, see you in November!

Make some cards for the Caring Hearts Card Drive!

Happy crafting,       

Caroline

P.S. A few more examples, but BAD photos...

Crazy for Christmas

 

Yup, I'm crazy. 

Our first 20+ C. day here in Ottawa, and I'm talking about Christmas cards!

I'm following Justine Hovey's Christmas Card Tutorial 2015.

She provides a video lesson and PDF with a new technique theme each week.

This is my CASE of the first week's tutorial.

Then I had fun playing with the techniques a little more:

And my favorite:

I'm getting lots of inspiration from the cards the other class participants send in, too.

Never too early to start on Christmas cards, especially as I intend to contribute to the Caring Hearts Card Drive again this year (so I hope Vera Wirianta Yates hosts it again!).

Check out Justine's blog and the Christmas Card Tutorial 2015. She's offering a monthly prize, too.

Birthday Cards

I've been following the newest Online Card Class: Stretch Your Dies.

Lots of great ideas! They inspired me to get caught up on my family birthday card stash. Don't worry, the intended recipients do not read my blog!

Here's the first:

Beautiful Bokeh background with Distress Inks and white pigment ink, plus home-made circle stencil. Then, those lucious-looking letters! These were inspired by Jennifer McGuire. The letters were white card-stock, cut with Avery Elle alpha dies, coloured with Distress Markers and inks to match the card, glossed with Wink of Stella, then covered with Liquid Glass for that shimmery, shiny effect.

Next up, one for my niece. This card is a shameless CASE of Laura Bassen. I used my rubber embossing mats to make the Polaroid impression with a Lil' Inker's die.  I masked off the edge, and stamped a photo-bomb scene, using Paper Smooches Chubby Chum Pals. Those were coloured with Copic Markers.

For the sentiment, I blended two Copic colours from the scene above, then die-cut the letters from Paper Smooches Sassy Script.

I tried a couple different colour combos before deciding on the blue and brown. Lining the dies up with washi tape helped keep them straight, even when using the magnetic platform.

One more view:

I am linking these up to:

And the Online Card Classes' gallery.

Have a crafty week!

Caroline

Seize the Birthday {and make a wish!}

Hey crafty peeps. Long time, no blog!

Still adjusting to the empty nest, learning to love my DH all over again, and CLEARING OUT THE MESS left behind by those fledglings...

But! September is a birthday heavy-month for our family, so here's the first of several BD cards.

I'm sending this one in to:

Seize the Birthday's "anything goes" . The actual challenge this week is to use black & white--may try one of those later.

Anyway, today's card uses the awesome technique of water-coloring with embossing folders.

Ink up the embossing folder, spritz with pearlized water, then place your watercolor paper or card-stock inside the folder, and press.  I used Distress ink minis for this one, and Paper Wishes' wonderful dandelion embossing folder.

Inked up the edges with some sponged Tumbled Glass and Crushed Olive ink.

The sentiment is a new die set from the Stamps of Life.  The set includes the words as well as a shadow die.  I used vellum for the shadow, to make the sentiment distinct from the background, but without hiding all that watercolor goodness.

Here's a close-up:

I created perfectly matching letters by inking white card-stock with the Crushed Olive ink.

Final look:

Inside of the card says "make a wish."

Happy weekend!

Caroline

Supplies:

Watercolor paper & vellum--Michael's

Card-stock in Twilight and White Daisy, CTMH

Distress inks in Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey, Crushed Olive, Forest Moss and Tumbled Glass.

Ranger Perfect Pearls powder; mister
foam tape 
Corner-rounder

Liquid Glass

Wink of Stella glitter pen

Watercoloring with embossing folders

I saw this totally beautiful technique on Heather Telford's blog. She includes links to examples by other crafters as well as the original YouTube tutorial. Check them out!

Anyway, the idea is to smear ink onto the raised part of an embossing folder, spray with water or glimmer mist to make the ink very runny, then slap some paper on, close the folder and simply press...

I used up quite a bit of watercolor paper experimenting. Each panel was unique and made a beautiful card, even if I didn't QUITE follow the instructions right the first time.

First up:  What happens if you run it through your die-cutting machine/embosser. Pretty, but you don't get the full effect of the white design.

Next: version #2 using some grey Smooch Spray as the mister. Pretty but puddle-y!

Version #3: Best of this color-way.

Tried some different color combinations and different embossing folders:

And my favorite:

I used a mini-mister filled with Perfect Pearls powder and water to spray these, and they have a lovely sheen in real life. I used Distress Inks which blend well with water. Final tip: the wetter, the better.

Give this technique a try; it's addictive!

Happy crafting,

Caroline