Finally back in my little house again after being away for the last month, but not for long, so taking the opportunity to have a play with this silhouette grass tree by Ultimate Crafts to make a few simple cards.
Bright pink would not be the obvious colour choice for a grass tree, but I like to do things differently sometimes. I sprayed the background paper with yellow, orange and pink Dylusion ink sprays first, before running the bottom half (which would be the tree trunk) through a Fiskars hand held corrugater. I then Magic Mounted the black card over the ink sprayed one, before assembling the remaining card layers.
This ‘Kookaburra on a Branch’ die (by Paper Rose) is my latest acquisition, though personally I feel his beak is not long enough. I have matched it with their “Gumleaves #2” die. The purple/blue background is from my reject box, a shaving cream experiment gone wrong. I never throw anything away, even if it’s ugly, as it could be just what I’m looking for one day.
2 x Gumleaves cut out 
Seedless Preserves sponged over any white leaves. Liquid Pearls added to gumnuts. 
Kookaburra & branch coloured in. Blue Liquid Pearl splotches highlight wing. 
White circle sponged with gold, then spritzed with Perfect Pearl spray. 
I chopped the leaves up a bit to position around
I couldn’t put my koala die away until I had at least attempted a Christmas card with it!
(Note: I have finally worked out how to post my cards at a larger size once again, hooray!)
Firstly cut out whole koala die in dark brown card, then cut out koala only in lighter grey card. I sponged around the koala body with Coffee Archival ink then Magic Mounted him over darker counterpart.
I stamped Santa Hat onto white card, coloured it in, then cut it out. Attach to top of koala’s head.
Run a pigment ink pad around edge of circle, then emboss with gold embossing powder.
Fold backing card of dark moss green. Attach white square card onto front.
Cut a circle of white card slightly larger than koala circle. Sponge this with Shabby Shutters Distress ink. Glue into middle of card front.
Stamp Santa & kangaroos in black ink across top third of circle, masking off where needed in order to elongate design. I used a T-grid to help me line them up.
Stamp Christmas wording in black ink at bottom right. 
Glue koala circle over green one – and your card is finished!
die: Koala in Tree by Paper Rose
stamps: Kangaroo Sleigh, Christmas Hat and wording – all by Stamp-it
To colour or not to colour ? Hmm, that is the question…
die: Koala in Tree by Paper Rose
stamp: Gumnut Flower 4851E by Stamp-it
‘Koala in Tree’ 17730 by Paper Rose
I loved having a play with this new koala die I bought at the craft fair last week! The koala is actually just a solid shape, ostensibly his back view, but I drew some features on him to make it look like he was facing forwards.
To colour – I mixed some black & white acrylic paints together and applied to koala body with a stipple (flat ended) brush to create that mottled look. When dry I added some features with a black pencil, 2 dots of Black Accent for his eyes and used a white Sharpie pen for lines over ears. The remainder of die I coloured with watercolours, sponging sepia ink around edges of everything when finished.
I love snowflakes, but with the heat waves we’re normally enduring during that period here in the southern hemisphere, they are hardly appropriate decor for our Christmas cards. But with a little imagination I have schemed some ways to incorporate them. Cool huh?! (pardon the pun).
I stamped out the wording in Coffee Archival ink onto kraft card, before running it through a snowflake embossing folder, then rubbed a white ink pad over the raised areas to highlight pattern.
I cut the sizzix 657838 Vintage Fan out in silver foilboard (cutting out paddles twice). The base and surround I coloured with brown alcohol inks then pushed a silver brad through fan paddles to secure them together onto kraft card. I added some extra snowflakes punched from white card and glued in position.
I sponged the edges with sepia ink, layering onto darker brown card which I deckle edged before attaching to white folded backing card.
The card below is one I made previously using a 12×12 glitter card as background:
Below are a few more Aussie themed Christmas cards I found in my box of projects to finish off. I used dark green Ultrafine Flowersoft on the grass trees (at right) to add texture.
I’d like to share with you once again one of my favourite techniques, as it is so simple yet effective, quick, easy and colourful! And I have chosen this ‘Boab Tree’ image (by Stamp-it) as it’s nice to add a little Aussie flavour to our Christmas cards, especially if they’re being sent overseas.
Stamp out chosen image in black Archival (water-proof) ink onto watercolour paper. Use small Distress pads in your preferred colours, to ink up a small acrylic block. Lightly spritz the block with water, then lay block ink-side down over stamped image. Press block down with fingertips to push inks into paper, then lift off.
You can now spritz image with more water to help blend inks together or use a wet paint brush/waterbrush to pull inks into desired areas. Once you are happy with the results, dry with a heatgun before adding further embellishments.
This Waratah design is from Stampin’Up’s discontinued “Bloom Away” set.
Sometimes I feel uncomfortable with empty spaces looking at me and get the urge to fill them. That’s what happened with this card, I just kept adding things to it, hard to know when to stop.
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The Waratah stamp used on the 2 cards below is from KaiserCraft set ‘Road Trip’.
The butterfly stamp is from Magenta and the wording from Stamp-it.
This next one has turned out to be one of my favourites I think.
I inked up an acrylic block with pink down the middle and yellow around the outside. Spritz with water then stamp out. The colours will bleed together a bit creating an orange/red tone. Dry.
Colour in waratah with colour pencils, adding smears of Buttercup Liquid Pearls to flower head. When dry, cut out flower head as one, and all leaves individually. Magic Mount flower head to corner of inked rectangle, gluing leaves into place separately.
I found the background in my infamous ‘box’ of pre-done ones. The colours matched (would have been Distress Stain Sprays) so just stamped Penny Black ‘Classic Border’ 2005J down side and attached layers to complete card. Friendship stamp is from Hero Arts set ‘Hand Drawn Captions’ LL020.
This is the Banksia design from Stampin’Up’s ‘Bloom Away’ set. I experimented a bit more with the colours and presentation of this one. Hope you like them:)
For the card above, I first stamped the Banksia image onto white card with clear pigment pad and embossed with clear powder, before running ‘Picked Raspberry’ and ‘Fired Brick’ Distress Stains over the top.
After stamping the image onto ivory card with a black Versamark pad and colouring with watercolour pencils, I added smears of ‘Rouge’ and ‘Pumpkin’ Liquid Pearls to flower head.
I stamped the Banksia image multiple times with gold Delicata pad onto black card. I then stamped and embossed it in gold on a separate piece of black card. This one I coloured in with Forever Red and Forever Green Perfect Pearl Powders, which I mixed with water to make a metallic paint. Cut it out and Magic Mounted over image on main card.
I coloured this Banksia pink with watercolour pencils, then added ‘Buttercup’ Liquid Pearl smears over the top of the flower head. That’s the great thing about flowers – they come in a variety of colours.
Moving onto florals now, but haven’t strayed far from the Australiana theme with my new acquisition of an old Stampin’ Up set “Bloom Away”. There are 3 designs in the set, Gum Blossoms, Banksia and Waratah. I couldn’t decide which background to use with my Gum Blossom image, so just stamped out some more. I coloured them all the same, using watercolour pencils, then adding Glossy Accents to the nut areas and dots of Buttercup Liquid Pearls to the flower skirts.
To recreate this card, first colour a piece of watercolour paper with Antique Linen and Weathered Wood Distress Stain Sprays.
Next, tear the corner section from a piece of speckled Unryushi paper that is slightly larger than the watercolour card and glue to left hand side, wrinkling up as you go to make it fit and creating dimension and interest to your background. I used a clear matt glue to glue my paper and also to seal it.
I cut out ‘Fillipa Corner’ #99146 by Memory Box in ivory card and coloured it roughly with Weathered Wood ink. I then decorated it with ‘Disco Ball’ Beadazzles before attaching it to top corner of card.
The dragonfly is a stamp from unknown origins. I stamped it onto vellum in white ink and cut it out. I stamped out the body only in dark brown ink onto grey card, cut it out and laid over vellum image. I bent the dragonfly wings up and glued down the body area only onto card.
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