#984 – Diwali 2021 cards

PE: Watercooler Rocker!! Yay!!

Hello and welcome! My usual late post of Diwali cards is finally up!! 😀

I made a set of three cards to give to my family. I had a lot of ideas that I thought of somehow incorporating, but I couldn’t come up with a design to include all of them in a single card 😀 so I had to give up on quite a few of them. However, I am happy with the cards I finally made, so no loss! 😀

The focal point if the colorful lantern which is hanging against the starry night sky. Of course, since I had to include sparkle and shine in a Diwali card, I used plenty of foil and other metallic elements in this card as well.

Since there are too many elements, I will just list out the products I used instead of writing paragraphs together explaining the process. Here’s what I used –

The inside of the card contains:
– Watercolored night sky using Hndmd watercolor paper and Gansai Tambi watercolors. I added tiny star sequins to embellish the sky.
– The die cut on top is using Spellbinders Persian Accents die. I used both foil paper and metallic paper in shades of light silver, dark silver and pale gold for the die cuts.
– The lantern is made of cardstock, on which I first watercolored bright shades of distress inks, then misted it with water mixed with Perfect Pearls. I drew two pieces of each lantern, so I can cover the front and back with them. Once the pieces dried, I cut them out and I used Altenew 2-in-1 glue pen to add foil. I added stripes of color paper on the bottom and gold thread on top between the two pieces before adhering the them together.

The outside of the card contains:
– A window die cut on the card base using Simon Says Stamp Stitched Circles, a coordinating window die cut on the top layer using We R Memory Keepers circle die.
– The top layer has a decorative stamped layer, using Simon Says Stamp Emma stamp using Altenew Antique Gold pigment ink.
– The sentiment is two fold – Mama Elephant Calli letters stamped in red and die cuts using Altenew Simple Alpha dies and starry gold foil.

And those were the Diwali cards I had made for 2021. I am joining these challenges with my cards –

CrafTangles January challenge: Dream/Inspirational

Addicted to Stamps and More challenge #421: Make Your Mark

Watercooler Wednesday challenge #333: Dawn’s challenge: All About Occasions

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#980 – New Year Wishes

Hello and welcome! As is tradition, I made New Year’s cards for my family this time as well. I wanted to make an interactive/shadow box kinda card for quite some time now, and thought this would be an opportune time for it. The technique is better described by Jennifer McGuire in this video, where I learned it from.

Anyhow, these are the cards I made –

I used a combination of stamps from different companies which worked well together. I shall list them below as well. However, the sentiment on the top of the cards are all the same, from Winnie & Walter Wishing You stamp set. I used Faber Castell Oil pastels to color all the images, and mineral oil to blend them.

For this card, I used My Favorite Things Scene Builder except for the little butterfly, which I hand drew. I used Concord & 9th Retro Petals Turnabout stencils for the background. I added the dots and lines using a grey fineliner pen and Sakura clear glitter pen.

For the inside, I used My Favorite Things Piggy Pebbles, My Favorite Things Scene Builder and Purple Onion Designs Blossoming Perch stamps.

For my second card, I used Purple Onion Designs Blooms 2, the butterfly from Waffle Flower Happy Day and the background Simon Says Stamp Botanical Split. I went over the flowers with a red pencil from Faber Castell Polychromos pencils, then highlighted some areas with a grey fineliner pen, then the flower centers with the glitter pen.

Within the card, I used My Favorite Things Friendly Foxes, Purple Onion Designs Blooms 2 and Birch Tree Background, butterflies from Waffle Flower Happy Day.

For the last card, I used stamps from My Favorite Things Gill Friends and Waffle Flower Mermaid Mail stamps, pairing it with bubbles from Simon Says Stamp Be a Mermaid. I had to add another stamp for the bubbles since they weren’t big enough, and then I drew over them with the fineliner along with the reflected light and the little fishes.

For the inside, I paired the stamps from My Favorite Things Gill Friends and Waffle Flower Mermaid Mail stamps. For the giant sea weeds and those waves in the background, I didn’t have any stamps, so I hand drew them.

I must say, the finishing isn’t the best in all these cards, I had a hard time getting the right measurements for the supports, and then adhering them properly so that they stood up when the card was opened. It definitely wasn’t a total failure, but I felt I could do better with practice. I kept the coloring at relatively low levels, so I could concentrate on the rest of the card, so I wouldn’t feel exhausted, and I must say that was a good decision I made! 😀

But I am really happy to have tried them. They came out well and I have a good idea on how to make further cards if I want to.

I’m joining the following challenges with my cards –

Wishing every one a wonderful new year! Hope this year brings in plenty of new and happy for everyone!

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#978 – Another Set of Christmas Cards

Hello and welcome! Here’s my third and final set of Christmas cards for this year!! Whew!! I did have a fun time making them, but also found it a bit tiring since I’ve never made so many cards at once! But it was definitely a wonderful experience, and I’ll definitely continue making some for the coming years too! 🙂

This set of cards is actually my favorite of the lot. The one thing that I thought was totally awesome was the background – I used panels of silver grey metallic cardstock and heat-embossed silver embossing powder on them, after stamping various images… and the effect is totally wow!! I do have other metallic cardstocks, but this is the only one I could get a beautiful metallic tone-on-tone look with! And I absolutely adore it!

Well, like the other set I made, they use a central these…as is very obvious. One thing – I used Zig brush markers to color the images, along with the blender pen they offer, to minimalize and spread the colors. That gives the ‘barely colored’ look that I was aiming for! And down below are the other details about the various stamps I used on these too –

For the card on the left, I used Simon Says Stamp Lots of Snowflakes for the background, and added dots using a Versamark pen for heat embossing. The cute kitty and pup surrounding the Christmas tree are from Winnie & Walter Sweet Holiday stamp set and the sentiment is from Simon Says.

The card on the right would have been a one stamp set card, had it not been for the sentiment, I used Lil’ Inker Designs Rustic Christmas stamp set for the background’s heat embossing as well the trees and the bear. The sentiment, though, comes from Neat & Tangled Scandinavian Christmas stamp set.

Just look at the shine on these things – subtle, but still very much there! Love it!!

For the card on the left, I used Clearly Besotted Warm Wishes for the heat embossing, while the gifts carrying kitty comes from Simon Says Stamp Gifts of Love stamp set. The sentiment is from CrafTangles Happy Holidays stamp set. For the card on the right, I used a combination of a few stamp sets for the background – Neat & Tangled Berry Merry, CrafTangles Christmas Ornaments & Happy Holidays stamp sets. The adorable owls are from Winnie & Walter Happy Owlidays and the sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp Gifts of Love.

And that’s my last set of Christmas cards! And I’m joining the following challenges with it –

Timeout challenge #203: Inspirational

Global Design Project #323: Celebration

Watercooler Wednesday challenge #331: Anything Goes

Wishing everyone a very wonderful Christmas and a happy holiday season! Wishing you peace and happy crafting times for the next year too!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

#977 – Fairly White Christmas

Hello and welcome!! I did mention in one of my earlier posts that I finally managed to make time to create some Christmas cards to send out this year! It was seriously fun to think about and make them all. Well, here’s the second set of cards I made (the first set is here) –

Once again, they have a common design. I used a base embossed panel, which I made using two embossing folders – American Crafts Shimelle Woodgrain and Craft Concepts Grunge Stripes. The next layer is the starry background -which I did not use for one of the cards – I used the stars from the Neat & Tangled Beary Merry stamp set to stamp a large piece of cardstock with Kraft ink, and then die cut them using Simon Says Stamp Stitched Circles.

For coloring, I used distress inks to watercolor on all the cards. But due to the unique property of this cardstock, the water was sorta repelled, both from the paper and the VersaFine Onyx ink that I stamped the images with, giving it sort of an illustration like look… Totally unexpected, but an added bonus for me!! 😀

For assembling, I adhered the embossed panel directly on the white card base, whereas I die cut some foam using another smaller circle die, and used that in between the starry panel and the card base.

Coming to the card specifics…

The card on the left carries two baubles from CrafTangles Christmas Ornaments stamp set. The bows, which I diecut from some pale gold glitter cardstock which was gifted to me by my dear friend Rahmat, using Paper Smooches Bows die, is adhered on top. I added some shimmer and sparkle using Spectrum Noir clear Sparkle brush pen and then Sakura Gelly Roll clear glitter pen too.

The card on the right carries the lights stamped from CrafTangles Festive Lights. On the watercoloring, I added some shimmer using Spectrum Noir clear Sparkle brush pen and then I added some Glossy Accents on top.

This single critter card… I had originally wanted to add the bear from Neat & Tangled Beary Merry too, but that didn’t make the final cut.. comes from Neat & Tangled Merry Kisses stamp set. I added some sparkle using the Spectrum Noir clear Sparkle brush pen on their scarf.

My last set of cards for this post carries tree die cuts. The one on the left is from Neat & Tangled Scandinavian Prints Christmas dies, and the one on the right is from CrafTangles Reindeer with Christmas Tree dies. I added some glittery stars, die cut using the same glitter cardstock using Mama Elephent Confetti dies on top.

For some extra sparkle, I also added some holographic star shaped sequins on the starry panel or on the trees. They are subtle enough when looking from the top, but add that touch of colorful sparkle when the light falls on them just right! They are from CrafTangles too – what a clever haul that was for me! 😉

The sentiments are all from either Neat & Tangled Winter Wishes or Scandinavian Prints Christmas. I stamped them on stripes of cardstock, then wrapped some gold foil striped washi tape on either side before foam mounting them on the card.

I’m joining the following challenges with these cards –

Addicted to Stamps and More challenge #420: Die cuts and/or Stencils

CrafTangles challenge for December: Red/Green/Snow

Watercooler Wednesday challenge #331: Marsha’s special Anything Goes

And thank you so much for stopping by!

#964 – Happy ‘Sketchy’ New Year!!

Hello and welcome!! Its pretty late in the year for New Year cards, but after forgetting to publish them in the beginning of the year, any time is just fine, I guess! 😉

I was very inspired by these set of cards that were made by Norine Borys. Love how she added her own ‘sketchy’ charm into simple stamped images. I mean, they would look so beautiful by themselves, but by adding the sketching, she added a beautiful charm of her own to them!

I tried applying my sketching skills with the Altenew Watercolor Wonders stamp set. I first stamped the images on the cardstock using distress inks. Of course, I misted the inked stamps before stamping them, so that the colors spread and mixed a bit. These looks absolutely wonderful by themselves, of course. I had half a heart of leaving them alone, afraid of ruining it, but I went ahead with it.

When I was done, I realized that the final result was making me less than happy. They weren’t look great at all! I stared and stared trying to understand why – what was different between what Noris had done and what I had done… and no, I was not thinking about my sketching skills being the problem.. Then I realized it. I had white space between my stamping! I then picked up my brush, and watercolored some green leaves between all the white space, and voila! It started looking a whole lot better! 🙂

Finally happy with the results, I proceeded to add some splatters once everything was dry, and then the frame, and finally the sentiment. That came from Paper Smooches Alphadot stamp set. I stamped the letters skewed, but mostly together. I felt it went with the ‘sketchy’ look of the flowers well. 🙂

And that’s my 2 cards done! I’m joining the following challenges with these cards –

Watercolor Wednesday challenge #323: Cathy’s Challenge: All Things Feminine

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes

Stamploration Summer challenge: Anything Goes

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂