Water Colour Fun

Hey there!

I’ve been dabbling in water colours lately and it’s been super fun.  Seems it’s one of those activities that you can lose yourself in and forget about time passing.  Great for the soul – not so great for my kids when they’re waiting for me to make them lunch, lol!

I went to a Close To My Heart workshop/meeting a few weeks ago and during the creative session, we made three cards using the new CTMH water colour paint set.  These are fun and easy techniques anyone can do so if you want to give it a go you might want to try one of these…

On this first card, we used a doily as a stencil and dabbed different colours of paint through the holes in the doily onto water colour paper, letting the paint colours mix and mingle. Once it was dry, we stamped the ‘Hello’ and added a few black paint splatters.Here, I used an acrylic stamp block to create the pink rectangles on this card. Just paint and press. If you try this technique, make sure you use quite a bit of water to get good coverage.On this card, we used a lot of water to blend and run the colours of the rainbow together. The ‘hey’ was heat embossed first before any colour was added so it would resist the paint. I outlined it with a black marker to make it stand out and then stamped the ‘thanks’.

There are so many tools you can use to create water colour artwork.  I’ve been busy watching some amazing artists on YouTube for inspiration and techniques. Wow, they make it look so easy!  So much so that I couldn’t resist trying a scene of my own using a farm stamp set I had as the starting point. I don’t consider myself much of a sketch artist so this worked great.I used water based markers to colour the stamps instead of using an ink pad.  Once the images were stamped (horses, tree and barn), I went in with a paint brush and a bit of water to smudge the ink and get that water colour look. This particular stamp set is great because the images contain the outline and the shading marks. It really made it easy to add shadows and colour with paints.  When my main images were dry, I filled in the sky, meadow and flowers with paint.  For this scene, I used a combination of water based markers, water colour paint pens, paint brushes and a water colour cake palette to paint the picture. Not bad for a first try. I will definitely do this again – so much fun!

The last card I have to show you today is one I made for a close friend of mine.  Her birthday is coming up in April so I have to get this in the mail. I masked the top and bottom of the water colour paper and then did a wash of colours for the background.  Once that dried, I stamped the flowers with Momento Tuxedo Black ink and then painted the flowers with water colours.

Doesn’t the last one make you long for spring? We are getting quite a bit of rain here and I’m anxious to see the last of the snow get washed away. Won’t be long before the flowers start pushing through the dirt.  Yay spring!

Hope you’re inspired to try a little water colour of your own. Until next time.

~Tracy

 

Show Some Love

Hi there!  I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season. I can hardly believe it’s over for another year. What a whirlwind! Now it’s already mid-January and that means switching gears from Santa Claus and Christmas trees to cupids and hearts! My daughter and I have been busy cutting, colouring and gluing Valentine cards for her classmates and that inspired me to create a few of my own starting with this one…

This card features the Close To My Heart January Stamp of the Month “Beloved Bouquet”. The pretty patterned paper is from the Charlotte paper pack.  Here’s another card I crafted with the same stuff…

So happy to be back at it. I don’t realize how much I miss paper crafting until I sit back down at my desk and create something. Creativity is such a beautiful thing. There’s a New Year’s resolution – make more stuff this year!  What a great idea 🙂 and on that note I have one last card to share…

 

Looks like water colours in the paper crafting world are back in style.  I dusted off my water colour pencils and tried my hand at these flowers.  I’m a bit rusty at it but it was fun none-the-less. A great excuse to have another go at it again soon! 🙂

~Tracy

Christmas Joy Cards

Hello there,

With the exception of maybe us papercrafters, it seems the act of sending Christmas cards is becoming a thing of days gone by. I don’t know about you but every year, I receive fewer Christmas cards than the year before. How sad is that? Maybe it’s the cost of postage or the simple fact that people are too busy to sit down and hand write a card to a friend or family member, but it really is nice to receive something in the mail other than a bill or junk mail don’t you think? I’m bound and determined to get mine made and sent out this year. Here is my first stab at this year’s pile of handmade Christmas cards.

I was really interested in trying out the Cricut Craft Room and melding a few images together to create a focal point for my card. I decided to keep it simple and opted for the word joy with a Christmas ornament substituted in for the letter ‘o’.

What is better than a touch of silver or gold (or both) on a Christmas card?  I added the foil tape and heat embossed the snowflake on the ornament to make it pop.  The word joy is popped up with foam tape.

On this last card, I changed up the font and added pearl paint and glitter while the paint was still wet. This is not for the faint of heart.  I had glitter everywhere and was picking it off my face for two days afterwards!

My apologies for the not-so-great photos.  I took these with my cell phone with no real light source. Gotta work on that!

Stay tuned for some easy and fun Christmas cards using the Close To My Heart October Stamp of the Month – Twinkle.

Happy card making!

~Tracy

Triple the Fun

Hello friends!  For this week’s challenge over at Heart2Heart, they want entries using 3 of something on your project – three stamps, three embellishments, or whatever you can come up with.  Here is a card utilizing the same focal image 3 times.The flower image was stamped using the CTMH Hurray Bouquet stamp set.  For the centre of each flower, I used a tiny floral punch and some Teal Shimmer Trim to help jazz these flowers up a bit, and create dimension!  The paper is from the Balloon Ride paper pack.

Here are a couple of other cards that I intended to enter into some February challenges, but wasn’t able to post in time.This one was created for the ‘Shabby Chic’ challenge last week.  It showcases the Hello Tweety stamp set and some of the beautiful Frosted B&T papers.

And a Valentine card that didn’t quite make the ‘Hearts Galore’ challenge.

Hope you’re having a great week.  Thanks for stopping by and see you next time!

~Tracy

Card Smorgasbord

Hello and welcome!  I had a really low key, crafty weekend, and it was terrific!  Sometimes you just gotta go with the flow, and if the flow is taking you on a wave of creativity, don’t fight it!  I have four cards to share and they are all very different.  First up is a card that uses the new CTMH Ariana paper pack, and the February Stamp of the Month – Wild About Love.This paper pack has a good mix of feminine and masculine patterns.  Perfect for a Valentine card!

The next card was made in the wee hours of the morning, when I was having trouble sleeping.  I kept it simple and used the CTMH Cloud Nine card making kit.  LOVE that teal shimmer tape!My third card was inspired by a scrapbooking sketch  I found on Pinterest.  I liked the layout and decided to turn it into a card.The CTMH Jubilee papers work perfectly to give this card a summery, country feel.  I paired it with the Take Note stamp set, which comes in the Artbooking Cricut Bundle.  Makes me long for a summer picnic or a trip to the fairgrounds!

And for my last card, I give you the Unicorn….I bought this stamp set for my daughter.  She loves animals and mythological creatures, and when she saw this stamp set, she immediately fell in love.  This one’s for you Lauryn!

I hope you have a terrific week and find some crafty inspiration along the way.  See you soon!

~Tracy

You Lift Me Up

 

Hi there.  Thanks for checking in.  I have 3 cards to share today, and the first one will be entered into the Heart2Heart challenge for their Two Faced challenge.  The requirement is to use both sides of a patterned paper.The hot air balloon, from the new CTMH Give a Lift stamp set, was paper pieced using patterned paper from the Balloon Ride paper pack.  The flowers were coloured with Copics.  Those took me a few delicate moments to cut out, but it was well worth the effort!  I added a scalloped border to the blue background, and the shimmer tape to finish it off.

The next card was made with a stamp set that I really like, but have never found occasion to use.  It’s such a shame when that happens!The chicken wire background was stamped directly onto the card surface.  I then stamped, coloured and cut out the apple tree branches and fiddled with them until I liked the placement.

And last but not least…

I saw this style of card in an old paper crafting magazine and thought I’d give it a go.  I played up the country theme of the Jubilee patterned paper with the horse image from the Country Born stamp set.  The lovely little gift tag sentiment is from the Made From Scratch stamp set.

So that’s it from my little basement studio this week.  I will be back soon with more paper crafting fun.  Have a great week!

~Tracy

 

Give Me A C-T-M-H!

Hello everyone!  I hope you are enjoying your weekend, and finding some time to craft.  I have made it my mission to get up Saturday mornings and do nothing but drink tea and make stuff.  What a lovely, relaxing way to start a weekend!

Today I made a card for the Heart2Heart Challenge blog.  The theme is to create a project using the letters “C“, “T“, “M“, and “H” in some way. The letters themselves can be used, or a product or technique using the letters.  So here we go…

This fairly simple card was created using the CTMH Huntington paper pack.  The sentiment ‘miss you’ was stamped down the side in Whisper ink, and one time in Barn Red to make it stand out.  The main focal image was stamped on kraft card stock, and embellished with a rose and leaves cut out using the Artbooking Cricut Cartridge.  A scalloped border and some Harvest Bakers Twine add the finishing touches.

Earlier this week, I was also able to sit down and make a card, which I will share with you here.  This one uses the CTMH ‘A Tree’ stamped image.  I coloured it in using Copic markers, and stamped the sentiment in black ink.  I added some stitching and a framed button embellishment.The inspiration came from a card by Betsy Veldman, I came across in an old Paper Crafters magazine.  She is definitely one of my favourite paper crafters, and if I can come close to making something as amazing as her stuff, then I consider it to be a good day!!  So I guess it helps to use one of her creations as inspiration!

Well that’s it for today.  Please leave a comment if you care to.  I enjoy hearing from you.  Have a great weekend everyone!

~Tracy

 

 

His & Hers

Hello there!  It’s been so long I can hardly believe it.  I made a New Year’s resolution to get back into my crafting, so here I am.  I’ve missed it immensely.  It really felt good to sit down at the old crafting table and make something.  But it’s been so long, I didn’t even know where to start.

After sifting through some of my stash, I decided to limit myself to one stamp set and ONLY paper scraps.  No full sheets of paper – just bits and pieces.  And let me tell you, I could probably make cards for a year or more without running out of paper scraps!  That really helped to keep me on track.  I decided to make two cards – one feminine and one masculine – and this is what I ended up with.The stamp set is the Close To My Heart January Stamp of the Month:  Cross-stitch Wishes.  It is embellished with a little skirt bottom, some polka dot washi tape, and a bit of ribbon.  A little stitching around the edge ties in nicely with the whole theme.

My attempt at a masculine card turned out like this…

I really love the stitched arrows that are stamped on the base of the card.  A few wood and metal accents were added to help out with the masculine look, but I still managed to sneak in a gem (at least it’s navy blue!).

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peak.  Hopefully I’ll be back soon with something new.  Until then, happy crafting!

~Tracy

Autumn Splendour

Hello all my long lost blog friends!  Welcome, and thanks for stopping in.  Can you believe we are at the end of September?  This is my favourite time of year.  I love everything about it – the colours of the changing landscape, the bounty of the harvest, the still warm, sunny days and crisp, cool nights – a feast for the senses, and so much to be grateful for.  So, in honour of this delightful season I have some autumn cards to share with you.This was my first attempt at the ever so popular chalk board technique.  The Poster Tidings stamp set from Close To My Heart is perfect for this.  I also used the Count Your Blessings stamp set to embellish the card with a few tokens of autumn.This thank you card was inspired by someone who helped me out at work.  When I jokingly offered to send them some chocolate for doing such a great job, they responded that they were trying to eat healthy, and would prefer a bag of apples!Next up is a simple card using CTMH’s Remarkable Wreath, Swirls Around, and Always Grateful stamp sets.  The patterned papers are from the CTMH Huntington paper pack.I finally broke down this summer, and bought a pack of vellum.  I know, I know… what have I been waiting for?  I have seen so many beautiful projects using vellum, but I’ve just never gotten around to buying any.  Here, I kept it simple with a strip down the middle of this country style card (don’t worry, I do plan to get fancier with it down the road!).This card is a mash up of all sorts of things – scraps of paper, die cuts, feathers, buttons, stitching – but it reminds me how lucky I am to have all these things at my disposal when I feel the urge to create.And finally, a card I created for a card party I ran last weekend.  This was really fun, because we used Perfect Pearls to help create a background.  If you look at the top of the card, you can just make out some shimmery writing.  This was stamped on with Versamark ink, and the Perfect Pearls were spread over it with a paint brush.  The PPs stick to the Versamark and create a gorgeous shimmery background.  I learned this technique from the uber-talented Nichole Heady of Papertrey Ink.  It’s my new favourite technique, and I think it will make some beautiful Christmas cards this year.

So, as you can see, I have been busy in the craft cave.  I’ve got a few other creations to share, but I’ll save those for another day.  Have a great week, and happy crafting!

~Tracy

 

Summertime Fun

Hi Everyone!

It’s been a while since I posted last.  The biggest reason being, I started a full-time job about a month and a half ago. Needless to say, that along with two kids keeps me busy, busy, busy!  But we went away to a nice, little cottage on a lake in Quebec this weekend, for one last bit of summertime fun, and I managed to squeeze in some crafting time – yeah!

This is the last of four cards I made, but I will share it first, as it is the one I want to enter into the Out of a Hat Creations Challenge this week.  The challenge theme is bunting/pennants.  I guess the lanterns aren’t really pennants but I thought it was a fun twist on the theme, and it reminds me of summertime and camping.  The stamp set is the Close To My Heart November Stamp of the Month – Illuminate.

The second card is one I made for the owners of the cottage.  A little thank you note to let them know we had a great time swimming, roasting marshmallows over a campfire, and just hanging out.  You can just see the lake in the background.  A lovely view to craft by!Next up is a beach inspired card, made with the CTMH Bright Sunshiny Day stamp set.  What is more summery than a beach, children building sandcastles, and frolicking in the water?

And finally, the cherry on top…. an ice cream sundae card!So, as you can see, it was a fun afternoon yesterday, crafting from my shady spot while watching the kids play in the water.  Moments to cherish!  I hope you all had a fabulous Labour Day weekend, and took some time to relax, and enjoy family and friends.  Have a great week!

~Tracy