Sketchy Watercolour

I love all of my Stampin' Up goodies, and I'm always on the look out for bits and pieces to enhance what I can make out of them - so when I came across some Watercolour paper which was made out of recycled cotton rags and had pressed stems and flowers running through them I just had to have it.  You can see one of the petals on the right hand side of the card below. 

How beautiful is the hostess set 'Simply Sketched'? It's a really pretty stamp even when you don't add any colour so you can make some beautiful but fast cards with it - and I thought it was the perfect stamp set to try with my new watercolour paper. 

I stamped in black Staz On using all three of the main stamps from the set.  I then built up the colours - Pink Pirhouette, Blushing Bride and Rose Red for the flowers, and Pistachio Pudding and Always Artichoke for the leaves and stems.  I find I do this MUCH better when I'm not concentrating on it so well and giving it a little time to dry between layers so I took on this task while watching 'Life of Pi'.  I wasn't convinced I wanted to watch it but it's a beautiful movie - well worth a view!

I backed my Watercoloured Simply Sketched onto Rose Red Cardstock, and then in turn onto Pink Pirhouette - which I had run the Very Vintage Wheel over - also in Pink Pirhouette.

I really like the overall effect - I'll be saving this to give to someone special!

Leigh-Anne
x

Garden Box Card

Gold embossing glows beautifully in warm light :)

Over the past couple of weeks or so it seems that EVERYBODY  is making this box! It's making it's way around the Inspirin' Inkees (Amanda Fowler's Team), and the Dazzling Dreamers (Liz Shannon's Team) teams.  This is a real 'WOW' card which goes from conveniently folding flat into a regular size envelope, to being an all singing all dancing box card and it's just incredibly versatile.  You can find a video with instructions on Very Victoria's Crafts on Youtube here and there are plenty of examples of other designs if you have a peruse online.

This is the watercolour paper and gold embossed butterfly in natural light

For a quick reference once you've looked at Victoria's video for the technique, the dimensions are A5 size cardstock, scored at 7.3cm along the short edge (i.e ~half way), and at 2,4,6 and 8 inches along the long side.  Don't forget to NOT fold down the back panel!

I based mine on a garden theme and guess what made another appearance...brushed gold cardstock and embossed gold powder, along with my favourite retired stamp set at the moment, elements of style.  I have used the very vintage wheel in crumb cake on the brushed gold cardstock to add a bit of texture.  The other card colour bases I used were pink pirhouette (also then with very vintage rolled onto it in blushing bride) and always artichoke for the leaves and grass - made out of little leaves sizzlits and a lot of snipping!

I gold embossed the apothecary art and the elements of style stamps onto watercolour paper, and I then watercoloured using blushing bride, strawberry slush, crisp canteloupe, pistachio pudding and always artichoke.

I've put it all together and added the finishing touches of Papillon Potpourri butterflies gold embossed onto velum, and coloured using blender pens and the same colour palette. I used a little flower wire for the larger butterfly to get is standing prouder.

I've left my greeting blank for now so that I can use it for a number of occasions......

I hope you like!x

Clean vintage

It's a real shame that brushed gold card doesn't look as amazing in the pics as it does in person. It's a really subtle effect and if you haven't got any I highly recommend buying it! I embossed in gold onto velum and then coloured the flowers and leaves with blushing bride, a little strawberry slush, crisp canteloupe, pistachio pudding and always artichoke. I then backed it with very vanilla and put it on a background of brushed gold with the vintage wheel in crumb cake and a little gold ink with gorgeous grunge stamps. 

Vintage vintage!

A return to my daubing/sponging addiction!:) I LOVED making this card and the way it folds is a bit random probably because I was a bit haphazard in its creation. The colour palette is pool party and soft suede on very vanilla. I used the lattice and designer frames embossing folders, and the stamp sets 'Everything Eleanor', 'Creative Elements' and 'Very Vintage' wheel. The ribbon is Crochet Trim :)