Hi Everyone!
I hope everyone is enjoying (or about to enjoy) a break from the hustle and bustle as the holidays are here. I have a couple of days off work to relax and while prepping for Christmas I decided this weekend to play around with the Spellbinders Small Die of the month (December). This is a cute little set with a selection of round sentiments, circle dies, and some leaves and a floral for embellishing. I’ve linked in the supplies below to the various die subscriptions that Spellbinders offers – I love the Kit & Caboodle, it’s great value for money.
I decided to make three cards with similar supplies, changing up as I went. This month I’m focusing on watercoloring with Distress Inks – I’m using the same three colors for all of my cards: Tattered Rose, Tumbled Glass and Milled Lavender. They are gorgeous together – very soft and pretty. I’ve created a video showing you how I made each card, stepping up from easy to harder, which you can see here or over on my YouTube channel.
My first card uses Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock – I taped it down to a craft mat and using water and a large brush, painted stripes of Distress Inks across the panel, blending gently into each subsequent color. I let it dry and then repeated to build up a little more depth of color.
I die cut one of the phrases from the die set from white card stock and used it as a stencil over the top of the panel – spritzing Heidi Swapp Gold Color Shine over the top – this left a slight outline of the words on the panel itself.
When dry, I removed the tape, which left a white border. I die cut the sentiment again and adhered it directly to card panel, slightly off centre to enable a shadow to emphasise the sentiment. I adhered the entire panel to a white notecard, and adhered Studio Katia Iridescent Bubbles to finish.
My second card steps things up a little bit – this time I die cut lots of the small branches and leaves from Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock. I also cut a few from silver glitter cardstock and vellum. I smushed each of the Distress Inks onto a craft mat, spritzed with water, and then painted the branches in each of the colors, roughly, and left them to dry naturally.
I then die cut another sentiment from the set, and the circle from white watercolor cardstock. I dipped the plain circle in some of the left over smushed inks and when dry, adhered the two together with liquid adhesive. I cut an A2 panel from Altenew Spicy Yoghurt (possibly my all time favorite speciality cardstock), and then proceeded to arrange all of my die cuts.
First I adhered the die cut to the centre with foam tape – focusing the foam tape in the centre, leaving lots of room for tucking die cuts. I then adhered all of the diecuts, arranging each color so there weren’t many of the same color next to each other. I used liquid adhesive, just at the top end of the vine and tucked it behind the sentiment.
You can then add dimension by fluffing the pieces at the end. I added the small leaves with a pop of foam squares. As a finishing touch I added splatters of gold shine spray again, and a few Studio Katia Iridescent Bubbles.
My final card is a shaker – these sentiments are perfect for creating shaker cards!! To create my card, I smushed each of the inks onto a craft mat several times, and spritzed with water. I then dunked a panel of Tim Holtz Watercolor cardstock into the ink, dried it with my heat tool, and then dunked it again.
When I had the look I wanted, I trimmed it down to 4 1/8″ x 5 3/8″. I die cut directly from the centre one of the sentiments from the set. I adhered acetate directly behind the window and a double layer of foam tape, bent around the circle window leaving no gaps. I added an iridescent purple sequin mix (Lucy’s Little Things) into the back and then backed it with a white panel of cardstock.
On the front of the card, I adhered the sentiment we’d just die cut over the top of the acetate window. I also die cut two of the vines – one from silver glitter cardstock and one from matte silver cardstock. I die cut the floral and the scalloped border from white cardstock and adhered all to the front of the card. as a finishing touch I added a dot of Nuvo Crystal Drops in the centre of the flower. I popped the entire panel onto a white notecard.
I hope you enjoyed these cards – I wanted to try and show you the different looks you can get using very similar supplies – and hopefully help your crafty mojo in the process!
All of my supplies where available are listed below!
Have a wonderful day everyone!
Jenny x
Supplies Used
Affiliate links used in some instances
