Hi there! This card was a bit of an experiment in adding texture and dimension (for me anyway). I started off by painting a simple background on watercolour paper using Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. I then stamped one of the cute sheep from Lawn Fawn's Baah Humbug set on watercolour paper and used Distress Inks to paint her in. I also die cut two grassy borders using Lawn Fawn's Grassy Borders Die and coloured them in using a foam blending tool and two colours of Distress Ink: Mowed Lawn and Peeled Paint (for depth and shadow).
Next, I white heat embossed a birthday sentiment from Avery Elle's Cake & Candles stamp set on the shorter of the two grassy borders. I also die cut several balloon shapes from patterned paper. (Oh, how I love the heart-shaped balloon!) To put the card together, I adhered the two grassy borders using tape runner, and tucked the ewe in between the two layers. I arranged the balloons above the ewe and adhered them using foam tape. Instead of drawing in the balloon strings, which would have looked odd since the ewe was not mounted with foam tape, I used Lawn Fawn's sky cord. I cut lengths of the cord and used Ranger's Multi Medium Matte to glue the them down to give the appearance that the ewe is holding the strings. I really like the texture this gave the card. I finished the card off with a scattering of sequins.
Hi everyone! I was late on the WPlus9 Fresh Cut Florals bandwagon, so when I first realized that this glorious stamp set existed, it was sold out. Of course. So I waited, and waited, and finally got my hands on it. And More Fresh Cuts. And Fresh Cut Containers. I may be obsessed.
To make this birthday card, I started off by die cutting some of the floral and foliage shapes from Fresh Cut Florals and More Fresh Cuts. I used a variety of dye inks (colours listed below) to stamp out the flower, berry and leaf layers. I chose to limit the number of colours for a more cohesive design. Next, I die cut the largest postage stamp shape from the Spellbinders Nestabilities Postage Stamps die set and gold heat embossed the "happy birthday" sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Big Scripty Greetings stamp set. I arranged the flowers, leaves and berries around the sentiment and interspersed a few sequins among the flowers. Finally, I adhered the panel to a coordinating piece of lavender paper and to a square card base.
Supplies
WPlus9 Stamp Sets: Fresh Cut Florals, More Fresh Cuts
Dye Inks (berries and blue flower): Hero Arts Soft Pool, Hero Arts Navy, Hero Arts Cup O'Joe, Memento New Sprout, Hero Arts Green Hills
Dye Inks (purple flowers): Lawn Fawn Fresh Lavender, Simon Says Stamp Hot Mamma, Memento Elderberry, Memento New Sprout, Hero Arts Green Hills
Dye Inks (yellow flowers): Memento Dandelion, Hero Arts Butter Bar, Hero Arts Orange Soda, Hero Arts Cup O'Joe, Memento Pear Tart, Simon Says Stamp Green Leaf
Spellbinders Nestabilities Postage Stamps Dies
Simon Says Stamp Big Scripty Greetings
Card Stock: Bazzill Basics, Neenah Solar White
Ranger Liquid Platinum Embossing Powder
Pretty Pink Posh Sparkling Clear Sequins (4mm and 6mm)
Hi there! Today's card is one that I hope will delight a friend whose birthday passed a little while ago. A group of us is planning to surprise her with it at an upcoming (non-birthday) party.
To make this sherbet-y card, I first created the watercolour background on a piece of watercolour cardstock, which I taped down to a clipboard to prevent warping (I can't say this did the job very well). I smooshed several Distress Ink pads on a slick surface, picked up the pigment with a wet paintbrush and painted the background in alternating and somewhat blended strokes. As it dried, I set to work on my critters, which I stamped out from several Lawn Fawn sets, including Gleeful Gardens (the snails), Year Four (the hippo and little birdie), and Love You Tons (the pink elephant). I watercoloured them using couple of watercolour mediums listed below.
Once the watercolour panel was dry, I white heat embossed a sentiment from Avery Elle's Cake & Candles stamp set, which is full of fun and classic birthday sentiments. It didn't stand out to my liking, so I went over the area with another layer of Distress Ink to darken the background. Next, I die cut some balloons from card stock in complimentary colours, and used a mini ink blending tool to rub some Distress Ink along the edges to give the balloons dimension. Once everything was dry, I adhered the elements to the background using foam tape, and used a sparkly gel pen to draw in the balloon strings. A little Wink of Stella on the balloons finished this card off!
Hi again! Today, I'm showcasing a Valentine for my Valentine!
I made this sweet card using three Lawn Fawn stamp sets: Hedgehugs, Sweater Weather (I love how versatile this stamp set is) and Into the Woods. To start, I die cut the largest of Lawn Fawn's Small Stitched Rectangles out of Neenah Solar White card stock (the best, in my opinion, for stamping with dye ink). I stamped the tree and cluster of leaves from Sweater Weather and then filled out the foliage with some hearts. To make the tree crown bigger, I stamped the individual leaf from Sweater Weather and additional hearts moving out from the original crown. I also added some pink sequins to further fill out the tree and add some dimension.
I then stamped the two clouds from Into the Woods and coated them in two layers of Diamond Stickles. To apply, I smeared the glitter glue on an acrylic block, and used a paintbrush to paint thin layers. Next, I stamped the two hedgehogs from Hedgehugs with the same brown ink I used for the tree trunk onto Neenah Solar White. I coloured the hedgehogs with coloured pencils and blended with odourless mineral spirits. The Neenah card stock is not my paper of choice for coloured pencils, but I wanted the whites of the paper to match. To finish off the card, I added a light green grassy border and adhered the hedgehogs with some foam tape.
Supplies
Lawn Fawn dies: Small Stitched Rectangles, Grassy Border
Lawn Fawn stamp sets: Hedgehugs, Sweater Weather, Into the Woods
Card Stock: Neenah Solar White 80 pound, Brazzill Basics, Recollections
Coloured Pencils: Faber Castell, Derwent
Deserres odourless mineral spirits
Ranger Diamond Stickles
Inks: Hero Arts Shadow Ink in Cup O' Joe, Bubblegum and Soft Pool; Memento dye inks in Angel Pink, Rosebud and New Sprout
Hi there! Lately, I've been in a fall kind of mood, hence today's seemingly out of season card. This time of the year, I'm usually yearning for spring blooms and fresh colours. However, I love fall (especially Halloween) just as much as spring, and last October, due to a number of distractions, I feel like I missed much of the season. So now, in January, I've been drawn to fall stamp sets and all things orange!
I made this card for a dear friend's birthday. For the background, I die cut some cute pattern paper featuring teeny orange anchors using Lawn Fawn's Small Stitched Rectangles dies. I stamped the cute little fox from Into the Woods in Versafine Onyx Black ink, coloured him in with coloured pencils, and blended out the pigment with odourless mineral spirits. I added Glossy Accents to give his nose some shine.
I stamped the log with Memento Rich Cocoa ink and heat embossed the sweet "Smile" speech bubble with Ranger's Platinum embossing powder. Finally, I adhered the background to some dark orange card stock, mounted the stamped elements with foam tape and added a scattering of sequins.
Supplies
Lawn Fawn dies: Large and Small Stitched Rectangles
Hi there! This is the final thank you card share from my fall engagement party.
To create this card, I started off by stamping a cute hedgehog from the Penny Black Party Time stamp set on some Strathmore mixed media paper. I used Distress Inks to watercolour him in, and made sure that the flowers matched the colours of the patterned paper I planned to use for the rolling hill. I used Lawn Fawn's Large Stitched Rectangles and Hillside Border dies to die cut the hill, sky backdrop and the frame. To create a dimensional frame, I die cut 5 of the frames and glued them together. I gold heat embossed the Thank You sentiment on the sky backdrop, which I coloured in with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink using a mini ink bleding tool. To give the little hedgehog more dimension, I adhered him with foam tape.
Supplies
Penny Black Party Time stamp set
Lawn Fawn Violet's ABCs stamp set
Lawn Fawn dies: Hillside Borders, Large Stitched Rectangles
Hi everyone! I made this winter wonderland card for my dad's upcoming birthday. It's at least his idea of a winter wonderland, as he's an avid skier and has several ski trips planned this season.
To put together this card, I first stamped out the moose from Lawn Fawn's Critters in the Arctic (one of my most used sets) and was careful to wipe away some of the ink from around his eyes, so that I could draw in a pair of ski goggles. I also added some skis to his hooves. I coloured him, as well as many (oh so many) pine trees from Lawn Fawn's Yeti Set Go, with coloured pencils and blended them out with odourless mineral spirits. I also added highlights with a white pencil, and love the effect it gave.
For the background, I die cut several hills with Lawn Fawn's Hillside Border dies, and a mountain range with the Snow Capped Mountains die from Mama Elephant. I used Distress Inks to colour in the ski and the mountain range, and die cut the snow caps out of some silver glitter paper. To tie the silver glitter in, I die cut one of the hills from the same paper, and it think it gives it a really cool patchwork effect. I glued everything flat except for the moose, which I covered in a ridiculous amount of foam tape.
The inspiration for this card actually came from the current Lawnscaping challenge, Winter Wonderland.
Update: This card was Spotted and Hearted, and an Honourable Gnome on the Lawscaping Blog!
Supplies
Lawn Fawn Stamps: Critters in the Arctic, Yeti Set Go, Happy Everything
Ranger Glossy Accents
Lawn Fawn Hillside Border Dies and Large Stitched Rectangle Dies
Mama Elephant Snow Capped Mountains Dies
Silver glitter paper
Distress Inks: Weathered Wood and Tumbled Glass
Coloured pencils (a variety of brands) and odourless mineral spirits
I made this card to give to a dear friend this winter to thank her for her friendship and support throughout the years.
I stamped the Penguin Pair from Stampendous in Versafine Black Onyx ink and watercoloured the image using Distress Inks. Once dried, I added glossy accents to their little beaks. For the background, I used a snowflake embossing folder and added a wide frame in light blue cardstock. I also added a few snowflakes die cut from glitter paper. My custom white embossed sentiment was created with Lawn Fawn's Violet's ABCs.
This card is entered in Simon Says Stamp's Flickr challenge #35, Wonderful Watercolors (*watercolours*..ehem).
Supplies
Stampendous Penguin Pair woodblock stamp
Ranger Glossy Accents
Lawn Fawn Violet's ABCs stamp set
Cuttlebug embossing folder
Simon Says Stamp snowflake dies: Kinley, Rylynn, and Kate (just the centre)
Distress Inks: Dusty Concord, Stormy Sky, Festive Berries, Fired Brick, Wild Honey, Worn Lipstick and Black Soot
Needless to say, I made a ton of thank you cards for my engagement party back in October (see Part 1 and Part 2). You'll notice that since then, I've slightly improved my card photography style.
For this card, I used the pine tree from Lawn Fawn's Critters in the Forest and the owl from Critters in Costume. I love that I can use this stamp set for non-Halloween cards. I coloured the images in with coloured pencils, and blended them with odourless mineral spirits. To add some interest to the sky, I used Tumbled Glass Distress Ink to watercolour in three layers, allowing each layer to dry before the next application. I finished the card off with some sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh and added a dark green cardstock border to complement the trees.
Supplies
Lawn Fawn Stamps: Critters in the Forest and Critters in Costume
Tumbled Glass Distress Ink
Coloured pencils: A combination of Koh-i-noor, Faber-Castell, Derwent and Prismacolor
Today, I'm sharing the rest of the thank you cards I made for guests of my engagement party (see Part 1 here).
As a novice card maker, here are a few things I learned in the process:
Do use a similar style for all of your thank you cards (e.g. the same type of background, the same coloring medium, etc.). You don’t have to think as hard, especially when your crafty afternoon becomes your crafty midnight.
Don’t do watercolour backgrounds on non-watercolour paper. That one’s a little obvious. I used Strathmore Mixed Media paper for my Distress Ink watercolouring, and my backgrounds warped enough that I had to perform extensive card surgery. After adhering my backgrounds to the card bases with tape runner, I ended up gluing down the copious ripples with liquid glue.
If you have to glue down your non-watercolour paper that you made the mistake of watercolouring on, do use Ranger’s Multi-Medium Matte glue. That stuff was my saviour, for being both strong and matte.
Do have some backgrounds stashed away for emergency use. A couple of the backgrounds for the cards were from my stash, and I ended up using them when I had to trash some of my too-warped watercolour backgrounds.
Supplies
Lawn Fawn Stamps: Hedgehugs, Critters in the Forest, Love You a Latte, Flutter By, and Violet's ABCs (for the Thanks sentiment)
Hi everyone! For my first post on My Crafty Afternoon, I’m sharing a thank you card series I did in October of last year. I gave these thank you cards, along with some cookies, to friends and family who attended an engagement party held for my fiancée and I.
I chose to make individualized cards (rather than replicating a card design) but with a similar feel. For most of my backgrounds, I used a Distress Ink watercolour technique inspired by Nicole of Unify Handmade. I applied three layers of the same ink, waiting for each layer to dry before applying the next, which created a dimensional look. I coloured the Lawn Fawn critters with coloured pencils blended with mineral spirits. Finally, I finished the panel off with a scattering of sequins and pearls, inspired by Nichol.
In my next post, I'll share the rest of the thank you cards, a few "lessons learned."
Supplies
Lawn Fawn stamps: Critters in the Arctic, Flutter By, Joy to the Woods, Critters in the Forest and Violet's ABCs (for the Thanks sentiment)
