The Happiest of Birthdays

Hello, it's Liz here today. My sewing machine has been freed from the back of the crafty cupboard! The minute I coloured up these daisies and placed them on my card base I knew I wanted to have stitching round the edges. And although my sewing is a little wonky I'm really pleased with how this card turned out.

The daisies and leaves, from the Sizzix Wildflower Stems #1 set, have been diecut using watercolour card. I then coloured with my AlteNew paints. I trimmed a couple of the stems shorter to better fit on the card. The sentiment from the Lil'Inker Designs stamp set Hand Drawn Happiness was the perfect size to fit in the space left by the daisies.

Thanks for stopping by today, happy crafting!

Simple masking and watercolouring using Newtons Nook Peony Blooms stamp set.

Hello everyone. 

I'm back today with another card - this time I'm using Newtons Nook Peony Blooms stamp set and Altenew watercolours.  

I've started this project with stamping my florals on to piece of watercolour paper. To achieve the look I wanted, I did simple masking by stamping and cutting out additional flowers from post-it notes. You can also use masking paper or post it tape. When creating scenery, which requires masking technique, remember to plan which images going to be on the front and you got to stamp them first. Cover them with prepared masks and continue stamping. Add more masks if needed as you progress. 

After my stamping was done, I've coloured everything with Altenew watercolours in rainbow order ( Yes - I love rainbows!! ) by simply laying colour down where my shadows supposed to be the darkest and pulling it out with a water brush. I repeated the process until I was happy with the results.

My next step was to create the background, using ink blending technique and distress oxides in lovely pinks. I added texture by splatting clean water and gold paint with a paintbrush.

When all my images were dry ( I like to leave it aside to dry naturally, but you can also heat set it with your heat tool ), I've fussy cut them out and adhered to the background with foam squares to give the whole design much-needed dimension.

I like the look of white gel pen on coloured images - critters and florals - so I've added some here.
 The last step was to stamp a sentiment from the same set with Versafine Onyx Black ink and add few Nuvo drops.

Products used in this tutorial can be found at sevenhillscrafts.co.uk

That's it! Thank you for stopping by! I will be back next Thursday with another card.
See you soon!

 Anna  

Reach For The Stars Watercolour Galaxy Card

Hi everyone, Taheerah here wishing you a happy Friday!

I seem to be on a real watercolour kick lately. It's just one of the best mediums and so, so versatile.

I also love galaxy backgrounds. I usually create them with ink blending - but I felt like creating a watercolour version this time! So I decided to pull out the Altenew Watercolour 36 Pan set and put it to work!

Out of this world, right?! I love how this turned out!

I finally got to play with the awesome Concord & 9th Star Turnabout stamp set. This is one of the best turnabouts - totally up my street I stamped the turnabout 4 times and heat embossed the stars with a mix of white and glittery embossing powders.

Now it was time to play! I used a few of the pans in the Altenew set and painted my watercolour. The heat embossed stars just work so well with a resist technique!

Once my watercolour was dry, I painted over some of the areas with some diluted glimmer mist for some extra sparkle! The sentiment from the WPlus9 Little Dreamers stamp set was the perfect finishing touch!

I'd love to hear what you think of this card. Is there someone you know who'd love to receive it? Thanks for stopping by!

Let Your Light Shine Bright Watercolour Card

Hi everyone, Taheerah here wishing you a happy Thursday!

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for a few years, you can't have missed the watercolour trend that's been one of the dominant trends in papercrafting. Companies are always jostling to bring something new to market in the watercolour space, or putting their own twists on a classic! That's exactly what Altenew did recently with the release of their own watercolour pan set! The Altenew Watercolor 36 Pan Set comes with a set of gorgeous, vibrant shades, which colour match well with their ink line. The sets flew off the shelves when they first arrived at Seven Hills HQ and I was lucky enough to snag one then! Since the restock there are still plenty to go around - though I wouldn't hang about as who knows how long that'll last. *wink*

I couldn't wait to play with the colours and create a simple design that really lets the colours shine!

I love how this turned out - and the sentiment is perfect for the design, don't you think?!

I used just two colours from the watercolours, overlapping and drying them in stages to create a sort of dip-dye effect. This looks even more stunning in real life!

The sentiments from the Concord & 9th Shine On stamp set were perfect for this design! I stamped them with an ombre look, making sure to keep the colours constrasting against the watercolours so it wasn't too much of a blend.

I'd love to hear what you think of this card. Is there someone you know who'd love to receive it? Thanks for stopping by!