Winter Cardinal

 

Cardinals are the heralds of the Christmas season.

Hi everyone and welcome!  Monica of HeartcraftPaper and this season I'm sharing with you a wonderful watercolor card with you.  Most usually I use stamps for my watercoloring, but today I decided to use an embossing folder to create the image that I would be using to color in.  During the Dies R Us European sale, I found a beautiful embossing folder of a lovely bird on a branch and that just so happens to be what it's called too.  

Supplies

Bird On Branch Embossing Folder
Snow Embossing Folder
​Never Ending Oval Dies
Watercolors
White Gelly Roll Pen
White Cardstock
​Red Glitter Cardstock

Canson Watercolor paper
Black Ribbon
Holly Leave and Berry Pick
Liquid Glue
Foam Tape
1/8" Double Sided tape
​A2 Card base

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To begin, die cut the red glitter paper using the oval die that will fit on an A2 card size.  Use the second nesting die down to cut out an oval out of Canson watercolor paper.  Using the Bird On Branch embossing folder, pass the watercolor paper through your die cutting machine.  You will see that with watercolor paper the embossing to me seems more pronounced. 

Using any watercolors you may have, add color to the back ground first. Next you will work the branches and then the bird.  Remember to allow for drying time between applications of color so that the color does not spread and bleed.  Once you have finished painting in your image and it's all dry, use a white Gelly pen to add some snow to the branches and specks floating around in the air. 

Trim down a piece of white cardstock to 4.25" x 5.5" and using the snow embossing folder, pass this through your die cutting machine.  Add a stretch of ribbon to the left side of the card adhering it down with double sided tape.  Then using another piece of ribbon tie a simple not on the front upper left side.  **Tip**  Using this method will allow you to slide the bow up or down to adjust to your image piece.   Adhere this piece down onto the front of the A2 card base. 

With the card base ready, prepare the image by layering it on top of the red glitter paper with liquid glue.  Then adhere the hole thing down onto the card base.  If you need to you can slide the not up a little to make space for the image. 

The final touch is this beautiful holly and berry piece.  I used a piece of foam tape to secure this embellishment to the bottom lower right corner of the card.  and now your done.  

Now your done!  this is what the final piece will look like.   This was  fairly simple card to make with only a few steps to for such a beautiful card.  There truly is beauty in simplicity.

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Thank you all for stopping by to see another HeartcraftPaper creation.  I do hope that you take the time to sign up for email notifications of new blog posts as well as visiting my YouTube channel.  

XOXO - HeartcraftPaper

Don't forget to come join in the fun at the Dies R Us Challenge Blog. There's a new challenge theme offered on the 1st and 15th of each month and one lucky randomly drawn winner will receive a gift voucher prize to the Dies R Us Store.   

 

 

 

 For your convenience, all the important Dies R Us links are provided below. 

 

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Dreams Soar Slim Line Card

Hello Crafty Friends - I am here with a watercolor slimline card featuring

AALL + Create Stamp called Octolady.

I fell in love with is Octolady. She is just so interesting.

 I wanted an underwater scene without a lot of extra items distracting for the Octolady.

I stamped the image onto some Strathmoore Bristol Smooth cardstock with 

Tsukineko VersaFine Clair Ink: Nocturne I then used some 

Ranger Embossing Powder: Super Fine Clear. I heat set the image.

Next, I used my Arteza Real Brush Watercolor Markers to apply a base coat to the 

AALL + Create Stamp: Octolady.  Then, I used my Artist Loft: Metallic Watercolor paints and applied a topcoat. Next, I filled in the background of the panel with blue watercolor paint. I did a few splatters with the metallic paint and Imagine Crafts: Sheer Shimmer Spritz: Frost.

 

Then, I trimmed the panel down and matted it with a piece of medium blue cardstock followed by another mat of cardstock in purple. I adhered the panels to the slimline card base. I stamped the sentiment onto some of the purple cardstock and adhered it to the top right-hand corner. For a finishing touch, I adhered some sequins in opalescent under the sentiment and the bottom left-hand corner.

Materials Used:

AALL + Create Stamp: Octolady

Tsukineko VersaFine Clair Ink: Nocturne

Imagine Crafts: Sheer Shimmer Spritz: Frost

Ranger Embossing Powder: Super Fine Clear

Imagine Crafts: On Point Glue

US ART QUEST-Goodbye Static Pad

Strathmore Bristol Smooth cardstock

Arteza Real Brush Watercolor Markers

Artist Loft: Metallic Watercolor paints

Recollection Brand 110lb Cardstock: White

Recollections Brand 65lb Cardstock: Medium Blue and Purple

Paper Studios Brand: Paper Trimmer

Paper Studios Brand: Heat Tool

Tim Holtz Stamping Platform

Thank you for stopping by the blog today. I hope you found some inspiration!

Before I write the list of the supplies I used, I wanted to share some exciting news with you. Dies R Us now has a sister store called Didi Crafts, which has warehouses located in the USA and Canada. Didi Crafts carries some of the same products as Dies R Us, but most are different and you will be able to purchase a huge variety of crafty supplies for a variety of crafts. Having this sister store means that our Canadian crafting friends won't have to worry about huge taxes or shipping fees. Isn't that great?! Go take a peek and be pleasantly surprised!

Don't forget to come and join in the fun at the Dies R Us Challenge Blog. There's a new challenge theme offered on the 1st and 15th of each month and one lucky randomly drawn winner will receive a gift voucher prize to the Dies R Us Store. For your convenience, all the important Dies R Us links are provided below.

click below for:

STORE

CHALLENGE BLOG

FACEBOOK

INSPIRATION BLOG

FRIENDS OF DIES R US PINTEREST PAGE

Choose to Shine

Happy Wednesday!  Kristina Hein with you today to share some rainbow fun!  Let me show you the first card!

I was able to take advantage of one of the special orders Dies R Us did for Paper Smooches for one of the recent releases.  I highly recommend you sign up for the email list.  This is the fastest way to learn about special orders and sales!  

Anywho,  I am using the Paper Smooches Sunnyville stamps and Cuppa Sunshine dies for my projects today.  I really had intended to make one card but I had so much fun I ended up with three.  

Did you know that Dies R Us has started carrying Brusho powders in the store??  I was SO excited to hear that and grabbed up a few colors.  Don't know what they are?  YouTube has tons of videos.  They are so darn cool.  Sorry, I'm fangirling over Brusho. 

Let me walk you through the process and then I'll share the other two cards.  Gotta leave some carrots for the end ya know!

I started by cutting out the Cuppa Sunshine die three times out of watercolor paper.  I then spritzed them lightly with water.  Then I added the Brusho powders and spritzed more water until the powder blended how I wanted.  I suggest you start with a little powder and add more as needed.  It doesn't really take that much.  I also worked on a piece of wax paper.  This helps a lot with quick clean up.

The colors used are Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Cobalt Blue and Purple.  The Brusho does not come in the bottles you see in the picture.  I changed them up to a dispenser bottle that was more convenient for me.  I let them air dry.

Here's a closer look so you can see the awesome texture and color these create.

Then I removed all of the pieces from the cup frame.  I made sure to keep all of the pieces.

Next I cut the Cuppa Sunshine die three more times out of watercolor paper.  I wanted the outlines to be white so I could fit all of the colored pieces inside.  I also cut the solid cup die out three times from regular cardstock.  I added Stick-It adhesive to the TOP of the cardstock before cutting out the cup.  This way there is already glue in place to hold the little pieces as I go.

Here are all of the cups put back together along with several other pieces I am using on the cards.  The rainbow paper strips are from two different Lawn Fawn paper pads.  The colored cardstock is from my stash and I used a striped embossing folder to give them added texture.

So,  here is the completed yellow version.

And the purple version.

And all three together for comparison.

Do you have a favorite?  Oh, I almost forgot.  The sentiment is from the Sunnyville stamp set.  I inked it up with Versamark and added black embossing powder.  Then I just cut it at an angle and layered it up.

One more picture before I let you go.  Another shot of that lovely Brusho texture.

Supplies used:

Yellow Brusho Shop at: Dies R Us	Yellow Ochre Brusho Shop at: Dies R Us	Cobalt Blue Brusho Shop at: Dies R Us	Purple Brusho Shop at: Dies R Us
Tombow Mono Multi Liquid glue Shop at: SBC | EH	VersaMark Watermark ink pad Shop at: SBC | EH	Stick It Adhesive sheets Shop at: SBC | EH	Canson Watercolor paper Shop at: EH

I also wanted to direct your to the Dies R Us design team call.  Head HERE for all the details.

Don't forget to come on over and check out all of our great links!

Click below for: STORE CHALLENGE BLOG FACEBOOK INSPIRATION BLOG FRIENDS OF DIES R US PINTEREST PAGE

See you soon!

~Kristina H.

Let's Flamingo

Hello my friends!  Kristina Hein here today to share a tropical themed card.  Summer is fast approaching and I'm dreaming of tropical vacations so I channeled those vibes into a card.

So let's chat about how I made this card.  First thing I did was to cut all of the flamingo pieces out of watercolor paper using the Flamingos dies from Elizabeth Craft Designs.  Then I got out my Zig Clean Color markers and added color.  I fashioned my flamingo after some that I found with a Google search.  They are called James's Flamingos.  They are so cool looking!

Here is my inspiration photo.

These guys are just the coolest!  They have some really striking coloring and I did my best to capture it in my coloring.

I set my flamingo aside and went to work on the card panels.  I cut another piece of watercolor cardstock using one of the Dotted Scallop Ovals dies from Elizabeth Craft Designs.  This set is one of the staples in my collection.  I wanted to use a stencil to create a tropical background but I didn't have an appropriate stencil.  So I created my own using some other dies in my collection with a piece of transparency film.  I sponged three differnt colors until I was happy with the look.  I did mask off the bottom quarter.  This way I could go in with a dark blue ink to create the look of water.  I spritzed the whole piece with water and blotted it off.

I cut out the other pieces I needed using another oval from the dotted scallop ovals as well as the stitched ovals dies.  I also cut a piece of patterned paper to cover the front of an A2 sized card.

I attached the printed piece to a white, top fold A2 sized card.  Then I used a liquid glue to adhere the wavy yellow-green oval.  I applied foam tape to the back of the navy piece before placing it on the card panel.  Next came the stenciled watercolor piece.

Before adhering the flamingo to the card I wanted to add in my sentiment.  I cut a piece of yellow-green cardstock with the Long Speech Bubbles dies from Frantic Stamper.  Then I used stamps from two different Lawn Fawn sets to create a custom sentiment.  I used the "Let's" from the Party Animals set and "Flamin-go" from Flamingo Together.  I stamped them with navy ink.  I adhered it to the card panel and then glued the flamingo on top.  

Supplies used:

Frantic Stamper Long Speech Bubbles Shop at: Dies R Us	Neenah Solar White Shop at: SBC | EH	Tombow Mono Multi Liquid glue Shop at: SBC | EH	Flamingos - Elizabeth Craft Designs Shop at: Dies R Us
Stitched Ovals - Elizabeth Craft Designs Shop at: Dies R Us	Dotted Scallop Ovals - Elizabeth Craft Designs Shop at: Dies R Us	Party Animal - Lawn Fawn Shop at: Dies R Us	Flamingo Together - Lawn Fawn Shop at: Dies R Us
Sunshine & Blue Skies - Simple Stories Shop at: SBC

Come on over and check out all of our great links!

Click below for: STORE CHALLENGE BLOG FACEBOOK INSPIRATION BLOG FRIENDS OF DIES R US PINTEREST PAGE

See you soon!

~Kristina H.