Thank You and Notelets - playing with Spectrum Aquas

Hello everyone! Hope you've had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend. I've three cards to share with you that I made using my new Spectrum Aqua markers - my subscription present from Simply Cards and Papercraft.

The first is a Thank You card for my in laws - they bought some beautiful clothes for the little ones and helped keep them occupied when they visited last week, which deserves a card at the very least!

I used three shades of Spectrum Aquas floral set for the outer panel (Blossom, Begonia and Rose Pink), rubbing the pen onto an acrylic block, then adding water and painting it onto my water colour panel. After letting it dry, I splashed water onto it with a brush and dabbed it with some kitchen towel leaving splatters. I love this technique! I then got a bit bokeh and used a star stencil (I got this free with my first ever purchase of Simply Cards and Papercraft!) with some Ranger Glacier White pigment ink and got busy dabbing it all over the panel. I then left it to dry whilst painting up the inner panel with three of the Spectrum Aquas essentials set (Spice, Tan and Peach), leaving it to dry and then splatter painting it too.

Once they were both dry, I made a frame of the outer panel using two of my Lawn Fawn large stitched squares, and a panel of the inner one to fit into the frame. I adhered the inner panel to the middle of a square card blank and then the frame using a lot of foam tape. The sentiment I stamped onto some pink card and heat embossed it with my Wow! bright white embossing powder before cutting out the flag. I added some stick on pearls for a bit of bling.

To the notelets!

The pink notelet was made from the inner panel of the above with another Thank You flag, adhering it with fun foam - two cards for the price of one! I made a 4x4 card blank for that one.

The other notelet was a different technique. Basically I got some water colour card and drew some very basic flowers on it using Marigold, Sunflower and Leaf Green before brushing over it with water and smudging it. I think it looks like old wall paper and I love it. I then cut out four little squares and adhered them with fun foam to another 4x4 card blank. I also made a couple of little envelopes for these with my WRMK Envelope Punch board and some Bazzill basics - they look so sweet!

I love the markers for making backgrounds. They blend well. I'll continue to practice and try different techniques - there are loads of great videos on YouTube.

Thank you for getting this far. Have a great weekend!

My first shaker card!

Hello everyone, hope you're looking forward to the Bank Holiday weekend - those in the UK, at least! 

Tonight I'm bringing you my first ever shaker card. I have tried these before, without much success. Now I'm not saying it's perfect, but it does work and half the sequins aren't on the floor. I think I need a bit more practice, so this is hopefully the first of a few. No doubt a splurge on some nice sequins will be required - #impoverishedhappycrafter :)

  
I've made it using some of the new things I received the other day in my haul. It's a basic 6x6 card blank with a piece of Lawn Fawn Let's Polka as backing. The shaker part is a nice grey from my Papermania capsule collection, die cut with the new Lawn Fawn stitched squares - they cut beautifully - filled with some sequins from Hobbycraft. I need some Pretty Pink Posh! 

I wanted to see the backing paper through the shaker box, so it is backed with acetate to contain the sequins before attaching to the card - did I mention before that usually they end up on the floor? Some time looking at how to make shaker card videos might be well spent over the next couple of days.

The set is Mama Elephant Up and Away, stamped in various Memento dye inks, coloured with Derwent pencils. The balloons are coloured using my metallic Caran D'Ache, with a bit of Wink of Stella and glossy accents. The fox is hanging on with some red baker's twine.

I'm just so happy it worked, I had a lot of fun making it.

Thanks for reading, enjoy your weekend!