Cards for Sad Occasions

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! It's nearly the weekend again, do you have anything exciting planned? I wasn't going to share these cards but I was really pleased with how the Sympathy Card came out and I did my first (I think!) watercolour image for the get well card. I looked on YouTube for some inspiration and to be totally honest I found most of the sympathy cards to be unsuitable - not helped by one person who kept saying "this is a fun card/technique" which seemed a tad inappropriate for sympathy cards, after all it's not like most people would be looking out of boredom or anything I imagine most viewers would be in the same shoes that I was in - looking for some inspiration to make their own sympathy card because someone close had suffered a loss (not exactly a 'fun' occasion!). Others were too fancy or floral for a man so I decided to just work with what I had. I looked through my stash and found some Art Nouveau stamps that came free with Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine in the last couple of months (not sure when exactly as I don't label which issue they come free with - something I'll try and do in future). Even though I was put off by all the floral sympathy cards I saw on YouTube, I was drawn to these stamps especially the one I ended up using.

Thinking of you Sympathy Card (for a man)

Art Nouveau themed card

As strange as it may seem, I think this design would make a great wedding invitation if you added a touch of silver and changed the sentiment. I personally think white, black and silver wedding invites to be very stylish (kind of wish I'd gone for this colour scheme for my own wedding instead of white, silver and summer sky blue) and the Art Nouveau stamped images are very elegant. I think sympathy cards, especially those for men should be quietly understated and I'm sure you'd agree that this certainly is that.

My second card features a Fizzy Moon stamp which I like but I wasn't too thrilled to discover that half the image shown on the front of the stamp set is actually absent from the stamp! It gives the stamped image a real 'sketchy' feel which I personally dislike and I ended up drawing the missing lines in using a black pen (luckily the one I used was waterproof!). I stamped the image onto watercolour paper and filled in the image before colouring it in using Kuretake Gansai Tambi Japanese Watercolour Paints which I am fortunate enough to own. I got mine from Amazon ages ago and this is the first time I've really used them as I'm more likely to use watercolour pencils. I was a bit disappointed that the seller removed the protective plastic cover from the paints prior to posting it as it makes a brilliant palette (I used an acrylic block to mix my colours). I've discovered why my water coloured images don't usually look exactly watercoloured - I don't use enough water! It's amazing what a difference adding plenty of water to your colours makes. 

Watercolour Get Well Card featuring Fizzy Moon

Very pleased with how this came out apart from that pink for the plasters!

 By using more water I was able to layer my colours to add shading and texture, it isn't perfect but I don't think it's bad for my first attempt, I just wish I'd been able to mix a less vile shade of pink for the plasters lol. The background colour was actually done by a wash of plain water then adding Persian Blue Zig Real Color Marker using the wet on wet technique (first time doing that too!). I die cut the shape and layered it onto a black square of card before adding it to the card blank. Again this is another simple card even if it did take a while to make. I really enjoyed experimenting with my Kuretake Gansai Tambi Japanese Watercolour Paints, the pigment in them is really good so you can add lots of water to them (I did that on an acrylic block rather than in the pans so they don't get waterlogged.)  Although there are lots of variations to the colours on this picture I only used a red, black, white and caramel but got different shades by adding more or less of the white and water to each mix. I hardly used any water on the black noses which is why they are so black and shiny (hard to see in the photo but very apparent in real life).

I've been fortunate enough to have got some new goodies online including some Letraset Aqua Markers from Cowling and Wilcox www.cowlingandwilcox.com  who have got a fantastic sale on at the moment! The Aqua Markers are only 50p each!!! And Tria Markers are only 95p each (RRP is £4.75 each!!!!). I got 9 colours and a blender which was also 50p, I'm really looking forward to trying them out. I hope you'll excuse the overuse of exclamation marks but at these prices who can blame me for being astounded - I saved £2.00 per pen on the RRP which is amazing value. 

As always if you have any questions or comments then please leave them in the usual places. I have a couple of cards to make this weekend so hopefully I'll have something new to share on Monday, if not sooner. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx

Passion for ProMarkers Blog Challenge week 279 - Teddy Bears

Hello crafty peeps - welcome to my crafty nook! I can't believe it's nearly the weekend again - where has this week gone? I hope you've all had a good week and have lots of crafty plans for the weekend. My "crudy" still leaves a lot to be desired but one good thing has come from all this chaos - I've finally found the star dies that the craft gremlins had stolen inside a Amazon cardboard wrapper of all places (I save them in case I can think of a way to re-use them!), fingers crossed they'll put the water colour pencils in a place I'm going to look very soon too lol. Please excuse any typos that I may miss, my fur baby Jinx is being 'challenging' and keeps standing on the keyboard, in front of the screen or on my head! Not sure how he quite manages the last one as he is quite a big cat - I can only conclude that I have a giant head!!!

Anyway back to the main reason for this blog post - this week's challenge is Teddy Bears and one that I again found challenging (but not as challenging as Jinx!) not because I don't have the right supplies but because I have too many (what a lovely complaint to have, right?) and it was extremely difficult to chose which bear stamp to use. In the end I chose a Fizzy Moon stamp called Wedding Bells which I bought at the beginning of last year from my local craft shop. TBH I usually rigorously follow the coloured image on the packaging which is fine when it's something like "Tatty Teddy" or the "Forever Friends" bear where the images are well known but I think a little experimentation is good for images that don't have that brand recognition (saying that I haven't been in a card shop for about 10 years so I've no idea if Fizzy Moon is as popular as the two brands already mentioned - people may be horrified with the way I've coloured the two bears!) One of the reasons I've started to take part in the challenges on Passion for ProMarkers is to push myself out of my crafting comfort zone and not following the packaging of this stamp really did do that (babysteps still) saying that though the colouring isn't that different to the original. I've also tried a new way of colouring fur (new to me anyway) and instead of using pens in the same colour wave (yellows with yellows etc) I've actually blended mustard yellow with either caramel (Bride) or cinnamon (Groom) AND if that wasn't Avant Garde enough I scribbled the brown colours all over the images (obviously keeping inside the lines - I'm not that much of a rebel!) before going over it with the mustard! - Yes you did read that right, I SCRIBBLED!!! lol As usual my camera lets me down so you can't see how much texture this method gives the bears, they look all nubbly and worn in real life, just like the ted does that I've had since I was born. My husband and I married relatively late in life (we'll probably be pensioners when we celebrate our silver wedding anniversary) so I find the thought of middle aged bears getting married oddly comforting and I think other late bloomers would like it on their wedding card too.

Fizzy Moon Wedding Bells 8" x 8" card

I stamped the card blank all over using a heart stamp from the Clearly Besotted range called "Love Chemistry" (I think) * I've checked and the Clearly Besotted Stamp set used is actually called "Scientifically Speaking", sorry about any confusion caused, the hearts are meant to bubble out of a test tube or beaker but I thought they'd be perfect to reduce the starkness of the white card blank. I layered the main image on red card, black card and then holographic paper from Paper Cellar. I originally made red paper roses to stick on the top right and bottom left corners of the card but couldn't bring myself to clutter the card up (now that would truly be a hard challenge for me - use lots of embellishments!) so I made a couple of red felt coiled roses which I still couldn't face using lol. Instead I off centred the stamped image and added two lengths of suede cord tied in a knot in the centre which I added to the left hand side of the card. I've just realised I've forgotten to add a sentiment - please pretend it's there.

Here are some close ups.

I couldn't resist adding some clear Wink of Stella to the roses, hearts and belly buttons on the bears.

I hope you like my new card, as always if you have any questions or comments please leave them below or in the comments form in the side bar if you want to say something not for public viewing.

A Few Sites You Might Like To Visit

promarkerchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/week-279teddy-bears.html

click to enter teddy bear challenge

everycraftsapound.co.uk

Every Crafts A Pound has got some FABULOUS new stock in including Papermania's Chronology metal embellishments and stamps - very steampunk and similar to Tim Holtz clock faces, cogs and spinners but only £1!!!!

Please let me know if you like having sites to visit on my blog and if you do I'll continue to link sites as appropriate on my posts. Until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxx