Embossed Christmas Tree

I have just seen the challenge at The Sisterhood of Crafters and have the perfect card ready, so I thought I should waste no time and get a quick post done.

The theme is embossing, wet or dry so here is my card:

This embossing folder was free with a recent edition of Simply Cards and Papercraft. I used a brayer to ink the folder before running it through my machine. I think I did it more than once to get good coverage. Some of the ornaments are on the embossing folder and some are little tiny dies that came with it. I coloured them with a purple sparkle pen.

I enjoyed making this, I hope you like it.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

 Hilary x

x

Hand Painted Cards

Hello, 

Today I am sharing 3 more of my hand painted cards.

I have been trying to get more confident with using water colours and these cards are some of the results.

They are painted with my Gansai Tambi water colour paints using just 2 colours. One for the branches and one for the leaves. I started by doing a watercolour wash with the same green to form my base. The berries are enamel dots and I added a tiny Christmas bauble with glitter paste through a stencil.  The panel was cut with a plain die and the sentiment was stamped and heat embossed.

Here is another along the same lines:

I am sharing the first card at TicTacToe 088. I have used the middle line of wreath, any colour and any shape die.

My third card is the same idea but this time I was a bit braver and added some flowers. The thanks sentiment is stamped in a similar colour using Catherine Pooler ink.

I am sharing this one at Dragonfly Journeys #140 - thanks. I sent it to a very special friend who is always there for me and is also a very talented 'proper' artist.

 Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

 Hilary 

xx

October CCC Reveal

Today is the second of November so time for the big reveal over at The Card Chain Challenge. This month my card went to Jutta in Canada, I hope she liked it.

Here is my card:

I used the colours, the layout and the friendship theme for my card

I started with a piece of Bristol Board and blended it with fired brick and spiced marmalade Distress Oxides. Once I was happy with the blend I splashed it with water to get the splatters, then I cut out the lotus flower, which is a die by Pretty Quick that came from Craftstash. The die was cut a second time from plain white card and the pieces were coloured with a chocolate brown alcohol marker and inserted into the spaces, after I had used a stitched frame die on the panel. The bottom of the lotus flower was sliced off and the die cut sentiment added to the coloured base card. I finished with a few sequins.

I was lucky enough to receive this amazing card from the lovely Mia at craftartista. 

Isn't it fantastic? She also enclosed that wonderful Dreamweaver stencil with the card, I feel very honoured, she is so generous with her gifts.

If you haven't ever taken part in the Card Chain Challenge I would encourage you to have a go, it is great to make a physical connection by sending and receiving a card.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

 Hilary 

xx

November CAS Mix Up

Don't the months go by quickly? It is 1st November so time for another CAS Mix Up Challenge. This month it is a watercolour challenge out host is Bonnie and she has chosen off the edge as the theme.

Don't forget to check out our guest designer this month who is the wonderful  Michele from I card everyone. She makes the most amazing CAS cards, please go and pay her a visit, you won't be disappointed.

This card has the honour of being the first Christmas card I made this year. I have done a few more now but I do struggle to think Christmas before September. Anyway, this is a watercolour challenge so I got out my Brushos and created the panel. Once it was dry I spritzed with cosmic shimmer and use the off the edge snowflake die, which I think came from The Works.

I mounted it, with foam tape to give it a lift, onto a pale grey coated card base and then heat embossed the snow flakes and the sentiment which is by Uniko.

I have included the above picture with the hope that you can see a bit of the shine.

I do hope you find time to join us over at CAS Mix Up this month. Don't forget to use watercolour on your card and keep it CAS. I shall look forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

Hilary 

xx

Featured Designer

Today is a very special day as I am the very first featured designer on the new We Love Chocolate Baroque challenge blog. The theme this month is Christmas so I looked through my Chocolate Baroque stamps and managed to come up with 2 cards.

This is the card featured on the design team post:

The stamp is from English Cottages stamp set, I stamped it in a very pale waterproof ink and then water coloured it with my Zig clean colour real brush pens. I did also stamp some trees behind the house but then realised that I was making a Christmas card and the trees were in full leaf. As the ink was so pale I managed to paint in the trees without it showing through. I used a frame die from Crafters Companion to cut out the house and the gold frame. I finished the image with some distress ink sponged around the edge. 

The pink on the cottage is a traditional colour in these parts, I think it is even called Suffolk pink. I painted the windows bright yellow in order to give a feel of being warm and cosy inside.

I used a stencil from Uniko for the front panel. White pigment ink was sponged through onto a deep red panel. The sentiment is heat embossed in white.

My second card is along the same lines as the card that won the challenge, you can find it here if you are interested. I used a clear stamp called Peony, I thought I could make it look Chistmassy.

This time I stamped and masked the Peony, first stamping in black and then heat embossing with clear embossing powder. With the Peonies masked, I used stencils to create the background, 3 different ones. The top layer uses the same Uniko stencil as on my first card, I inked it with Catherine Pooler Eucalyptus ink and then used a gloss transparent texture paste over the inking. This has given it a nice shine, but I am afraid you can't see it in the picture. The panel was mounted on some red mirror card and then onto a dark red card base.

I hope you like my cards and that I may have inspired you to take part in this months challenge. you don't have to use Chocolate Baroque stamps to enter.

 Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

 Hilary 

xx