Top Tips from Crafty Ladies..

Hey,

So one of the great things about going to Crop On The Cape, was being able to hang out with my craft buddies and a) use their stuff and b) get all the great tips.

Now this tip might be obvious to everyone.. but it has literally changed my life..

It seems that most of the ladies buy reams of paper and have them cut to size, so that they are the right size for their card blanks. GENIUS (ok, I know I am late to this party).

I love Neenah bright white, but it is cost prohibitive.. So I found an alternative by Hammermill - it has a slight gloss, but not enough to upset me!

Here is a shot showing a stack of the newly pre-cut panels and the Stampendous Laurel Birch tea-cup stamped and ready to colour..

Can you see how crisp it is? Loving the new paper.

The main card is the tea-cup all coloured and ready to go.

I got my panels cut just a bit bigger than my card blanks, then I can die-cut them (as I did on today's card) if I want to.

The new paper is a dream to colour and pretty much everything I have made since March 21st is using this paper.

Having ready to go right size panels is also a dream come true, it cost me $6 to cut the ream, which I think is a totally worthwhile expense. I'll be taking my watercolour paper in next.

Cx

See it...want it...

Hi,

Recently I was having a nose around Amber's blog - Damask Love. I really like her work and she has taught me a lot!

She used these lovely Dahlia dies by SSS

I decided I had to have them and ordered them, they turned up on Saturday morning, so I settled down to play..

I followed Amber's post and made the main photo and these cards.

I love them and working with Gelatos is such fun. The delicate die is a bit fiddly, but worth the effort. I also used my Xyron here, for getting adhesive onto the back of the delicate Dahlia..making them much easier to stick down.

Cx

Watercolours + Sentiment dies..

Hi,

I have been seeing lots of lovely cards around that use watercolours and sentiment dies. I have been playing with watercolours lately with varying results.

So I decided to invest a bit of time this weekend learning some 'how to watercolour' tricks.

I have learnt 3 key things -

1 - it's a good idea to wet your paper before you paint, it helps you put the paint on lighter and more evenly
2 - have multiple pots of water - keep at least one clean for wetting your paper
3 - don't be afraid to practice..if your 'image' comes out weird, use small punches to create little watercoloured items - the card below is an example of this.

Watercolour hearts

My main card is one of 3 using the SSS congrats sentiment die. I tried out 2 different watercoloured backgrounds and I think they look fab. Here are the other 2 cards.

Watercolour Pink Congrats

Watercolour Swirly Congrats

The next set was my attempt to blend colours - varying levels of success, but I am happy with the end results. The hello is also a die by SSS.

Watercolour multi hello

Watercolour multi tones hello

I used an angled watercolour brush, pearlescent paints by Artists Loft (from Michaels for $4.99), Strathmore mixed media paper and all the other papers are by Recollections at Michaels.

Inspiration, techniques and tips came from CMA Tam Hess Jennifer McGuire and Jen Rzasa and Pinterest! Big thanks to Tam and Jen's for making things less scary for me..

These cards are totally CAS. Hubby loved them, which is high praise indeed!!

Cx