Christmas Card - Textured Background

Christmas Card - Textured Background with Cats

I recieved an awesome background stamp with berries and leaves on it from a friend. It's got a lot of intricate detail so I thought it'd look lovely as a subtle background using clear heat embossing. That's how this card came about.

I'LL INSERT YOUTUBE VIDEO HERE IN NEAR FUTURE.

I stamped the berries and leaves background stamp using clear embossing ink onto red cardstock then covered it in clear embossing powder and heat set it.

I cut a circle out of 'faux linen' textured cardbase then used doubled sided tape to adhere the red background into the circle window.

I had a couple of diecut cats and presents leftover in my stash from Mama elephant's Oh Kitty tree stamp set that I wanted to use up. I also wanted to use the geometric tree and star from Simon Says Stamp clean line christmas stamp set. The 'Season's Greetings' sentiment is from the same stamp set.

I stamped the cat, present and tree images using Gina K Design Jet black ink because I wanted to colour them using alcohol markers. I did some basic colouring then stuck them to the front of the card using double-sided tape.

For the sentiment, I used clear embossing ink to stamp it onto black cardstock and heat set it using silver embossing powder. Then I trimmed the cardstock around the sentiment to get a single black banner that would fit across the width of the card. Then I used double-side tape to adhere the sentiment strip to the front of the card.

And it's done!

Happy Crafting

Mel Crafting.

Christmas Card - CAS Watercolor Monochromatic

Christmas Card - CAS Watercolor Monochromatic

This card is a simple card designed to enter CAS Watercolor November card challenge - Monochromatic. Click here to find the card challenge.

I chose to use blue as my monochromatic color and the coloring medium I used was watercolor markers used like watercolor paints. The water color markers I used are STA Aquarelle Brush Double Tone Markers which I bought off AliExpress. You can find my review of these markers here.

Finally, a year later, I managed to piece together the process video. Click here or below to check it out.

To make this card I firstly marked a rectangle in the centre of a water color paper notecard by tracing around a rectangle die with a pencil. I then used washi tape to mask around this rectangle then stamped snowflakes using a stamp set I bought off AliExpress using clear embossing ink inside the rectangle.

I then heat embossed the snowflakes using white embossing powder. I removed the washi tape mask, used an eraser to remove the pencil lines then re-masked the rectangle.

Using the dual tone watercolor brushmarkers, I scribbled a little of the dark and light blues onto a plastic lid. I applied water to the inside of the rectangle then to the inks on the lid and painted a fade from dark to light blue inside the rectangle.

I dried it using a heat tool, removed the masking tape then stamped 'merry christmas' (from the same stamp set the snowflakes came from) using Gina K Designs amalgam ink in jet black.

I wanted the watercolor panel to have more definition so I used my tsukineko clear emboss pen and a ruler to trace around the edge of the rectangular panel, then applied black embossing powder and heat set it with my heat tool.

To finish off I mounted the notecard using double-sided tape onto a blue card base.

All done!

Happy Crafting.

Mel Crafting

Seashells on the Beach - Thanks Card

Seashells on the beach - thanks cards

I found a seashells stamp set in my stash as I was rummaging through. I haven't used it much and remember buying it off trademe second hand as part of a bulk bunch of stamp sets so thought I'd make a couple of cards from it. Also came across the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - the challenge asks for cards in celebration of thanksgiving so I thought, why not create a 'Thanks' card.

You can find a link to the challenge by clicking here

And here is my card process video for this creation:

Firstly, I used Ranger Archival jet black ink to stamp seashell outlines onto 300 gsm white cardstock.

Seashells Stamp Set

Once the ink dried, (you could use a heat tool here to heat set to speed up drying time), I watercolor the shells using distress inks (tumbled glass and crushed olive). By water coloring, I mean I smooshed the pads onto plastic or non-stick paper, added a bit of water using a brush and applied 'paint' to the seashells then fussy cut them out as I didn't seem to have to the coordinating die cut.

Coloured stamped images and distress inks used

For the sentiment, I used  Simon Says Stamp! Thanks 3x4 clear stamp set (SSS101347). This also came in the bulk pack of stamps off trademe. I stamped it onto black paper (shaped like a banner) using a Tsukineko embossing stamp pad then white heat embossed the sentiment using Ranger white embossing powder.

Simon Says Stamp Thanks Stamp Set SSS101347

Note that I use a 'normal' heat gun I found in the garage - it's a Bosch PHG 500-2, it does the trick and melts the embossing powder well enough. I am very careful not to burn the paper by being careful how close the heat gun is to the paper. I probably should by a craft one before the other half finds out I've stashed it with my crafty stuff...!

Heat Embossing Tools

I found a "thanks" die-cut in my stash, which I'm not sure if it is a coordinating die-cut but it does seem to match nicely with it!. I used this die cut to cut thanks out of white cardstock twice and coloured one with my purple marker to act as a shadow.

"thanks" die cut and die cuts

For the background, I blended using distress inks from bottom to top: scattered straw, tumbled glass and shaded lilac onto water colour paper notecard. I drew some clouds on a white piece of paper and cut it out so I had a faux cloud/waves stencil. I then used my sponge dauber with white pigment ink (Stampin' Up kraft in Whisper White) to blend outlines of waves on top of the background.

Tools used to make blended background

To assemble the card, I glued the white thanks on top of purple thanks with a slight offset so the purple thanks looks like a shadow, then glued this to the top of the background. Using double-sided tape, I stuck down the black banner with heat embossed sentiment below the die-cut "thanks." Then I stuck down three of the coloured seashells where the 'sand' meets the 'sea' on the background.

After that, I stuck the notecard to the front of a silver card base, cut down any excess and the card is finished.

Seashells on the Beach - Thanks Card

Check back into this blog post in a few days and I'll have a  you tube video at the top of this blog post showing how I made another 'seashells on the beach' card with similar materials and vellum for the sentiment.

Hope you found this post useful - feel free to ask questions or leave a comment I'd love to hear what you think as I grow and learn more about this new cardmaking hobby of mine.

Happy crafting!

Mel Crafting.

Christmas Card - Warm Christmas Wishes

Warm Summer Wishes Christmas Card

Living in the southern hemisphere means a warm summer's day on Christmas. When I came across Simon Says Stamp's Warm Christmas Wishes for sale 2nd hand on Trademe, I had to get it and make some summery Christmas cards. Combined with a couple of other summer themed stamp sets, this will be the first of many Christmas cards I make with a summer flair to them.

(I will link to a YouTube process video for this card here in the near future, I'm just having a few teething issues with editing the footage but I'll get there and put it up as soon as it's ready!)

I wanted to use the large landscape image from Simon Says Stamp's Surf's Up stamp set so I decided to make a square card and cut out a piece of 300 GSM white cardstock 15cm x 15cm. A few friends have been asking how I store my stamp (and die) sets so I'll post another blog post in the near future on how I do that using black envelopes as you can see in the following photos.

Simon Says Stamp - Surf's Up Stamp Set

Simon Says Stamp - Warm Christmas Wishes Stamp Set

Simon Say Stamp - Warm Christmas Wishes - Coordinating Die Set

I stamped that large circular landscape image onto my square card using clear embossing ink and heat embossed it with silver embossing powder. I also stamped the image onto plain white scrap paper using black ink and fussy cut it out - this will be used as a mask as when I use my daubers to ink blend the background.

Using Altenew mini ink pads and sponge daubers, I carefully masked the landscape image and ink blended an ocean scene with an island in the middle using the following colours: Caramel Toffee, , Desert Night, Dusk, Ocean Waves and Sea Glass.

Altenew Inks and Sponge Daubers Used of Ink Blended Background

Onto white 300 GSM cardstock  I stamped many of the smaller images from both Surf's up and Warm summer wishes' stamp sets using Gina K jet black amalgam ink. As I intended to color them using alcohol markers.

Using Touchfive alcohol markers I colored the images then either fussy cut around them or they were die cut using a coordinating die if the image was from the Warm Summer Wishes stamp set.

Warm Christmas Wishes & Surf's Up Images - Stamped and Colored

Next I arranged the images onto the card front to see where it would be best to place a sentiment. I decided to use the 'Warm Christmas Wishes' sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp's Warm Christmas Wishes Stamp Set. Once I was happy with the arrangement, I stuck the images down into place using double sided tape and stamped the sentiment using clear smbossing ink onto black card stock. I then heat embossed the sentiment with white embossing powder, cut the card into a banner and stuck it to the card using double-sided tape.

I cut down the card front a little and mounted it to a 15.5cm x 16.5cm black card base. This is the first square card I've made so it a bit of an odd sized card, which is why I also had to make an envelope that is 16.5cm x 16.5cm. I used some scrapbooking paper with silver/black baubles to make a christmas themed envelope for this card.

Warm Christmas Wishes Christmas Card with Silver Baubles Envelope

All done!

Happy crafting!

Mel Crafting.

STA Aquarelle Brush Double Tone Watercolor Brush Markers Review

This is a review of the STA Aquarelle Brush Double Tone Watercolor Brush Markers I bought off AliExpress for US $12.69.

STA Aquarelle Brush Double Tone -Watercolor Brush Markers Review

Firstly, this came in a pack of 14 and they are dual tips with dual tones so you actually get 28 colors. The pack came slightly damaged but the markers themselves seemed unaffected.

Click here to view above review video in you tube.

Quick test swatching of the markers found them all very nice and 'juicy.' The brush tip works well and I found them to suit my style, ie. not too flimsy or too hard. Using them with water, I found they blended out well to a fade and are a nice pen to watercolor with. Although I would prefer to use watercolor paints over these because when I tried to apply more color to make it more vibrant. I can't say it  blended in nicely. I think water coloring with these suits quick coloring techniques or making random watercolor backgrounds - which are always fun to do!

Quick Test Swatching

If your looking for examples of these in action, check out the following where I put these markers to the test on some of my projects:

- water coloring on my 'oh kitty tree' Christmas cards (https://melcrafting.blogspot.com/2019/11/christmas-cards-using-oh-kitty-tree.html)

-Direct coloring on the background of one of my 'Mama' cards (to be posted in near future!)

-Water coloring on my 'CAS Monocromatic Christmas card'
(https://melcrafting.blogspot.com/2019/11/christmas-card-cas-watercolor.html)

If you're looking for a basic entry level set of watercolor brush markers then this is a fantastic inexpensive option especially since they're dual tone. A bit of a downer that the packaging turned up damaged and once applied it's hard to add more color without it looking a bit wack-a-doodle.

Overall, these are great and I would consider buying them again.

Happy crafting!

Mel Crafting.

Christmas Cards - using Oh Kitty Tree Stamp Set

Oh Kitty Tree Card

I was given this stamp set as a gift when I first ventured into the world of papercrafting and cardmaking. Today I figured I should make use of it. I'm pretty sure it's Mama Elephant's "Oh Kitty Tree" which I recently saw in Jennifer McGuire's video (https://youtu.be/Vcc95_cmslE). I've made a few cards and even stamped the images on watercolor paper then let my toddler have a  go at water coloring so you'll have to excuse some of the random color choices!

I started off by stamping the main stamp of the tree made of cats onto 300 gsm watercolour paper using Jet black archival ink, this is a waterproof ink so perfect for watercolouring. I've used a cheap watercolour paper as I knew my toddler would be helping colour the images and well sometimes he manages to make holes in the paper! I also stamped a few of the individual cats and coloured them in too.

"Oh Kitty Tree" Stamp set and Other Tools Used

By watercoloring, I mean I used a brush and water with watercolor markers I purchased off Aliexpress. A review of the STA watercolor markers can be found here or click on the video below.

I apply a few streaks of color onto a plastic lid or non-stick paper - just whatever I can find  - and add a bit of water to get the colour flowing.

I carefully and painstakingly paint each individual kitty cat; in this case I admire the joy and spontaneity of my son as he just goes with the flow without a worry about lines or color matching.

My Son Watercoloring Away

My Son's Finished Masterpiece!

Once they were all coloured, I fussy cut them out and arranged them onto notecards and stuck them to card bases. As you can see I made various arrangements using the images my son had painted. I stamped "Season's Greetings" and "Wishing you a Merry Christmas" onto vellum using clear embossing ink and heat enmbossed. I also stamped "Happy Christmas" and silver heat embossed straight onto the cardstock.

I stamped in black the sentiment "Have a Meowy Christmas" that is included in the oh Kitty tree stamp set onto the thumbnail card. For the others, I used sentiments from the following pictured stamp sets. I don't know what the stamp set with the tree setting is called; I ordered it off aliexpress but the other set I used sentiments from is manufactured by My Favourtie Things and is called "Hand Lettered Holiday" I used a little set of stars stamp from this set too.

Mystery Stamp Set Bought off AliExpress!

My Favourite Things "Hand Lettered Holiday" Stamp Set

Oh Kitty Tree Cards - Merry Christmas!

Quite inexpensive cardstock was used for the card bases which is regrettable as I got quite a bit of warping. It was nice to make my son's artwork into cards and I know he'll enjoy giving them away to his friends and family as we all do.

I'm quite new to the cardmaking world so if there is anything you want to correct me on, have any advice to offer, or just have something to say please feel free to leave a comment I'd to know what you think.

Happy Crafting,

Mel Crafting