Are you guys into the "flair" trend? Flair used to just refer to ovr-sized buttons or pins, but Technique Tuesday has a large selections of flair stamps that are punchable with your small circle punches! They then become easy-to-use accessories for any layout or card.... However..... I did something a little different. Today I made a couple of pretty Christmas cards with Joy Flair by Ali Edwards.




I transferred the stamps from the packing sheet onto my clear block pretty much like they were and made a custom background. Here's the process:

1. Scribble Watercolor crayons over watercolor paper and smear with baby wipe.
2. Dry with a heat tool.
3. Stamp with versamark ink and cover with white embossing powder.
4. Heat with heat tool.
5. Ink edges with ranger distress ink and ink tool

Visit the Technique Tuesday blog to see more Flair sets featured!

1. I started out by laying down some colour. I had a few different hues of blue and green, but the “shading” wasn’t dramatic at all.

I have had a request for some more “traditional” cards for all occasions and I thought this fit the bill perfectly. When I go traditional I like to tone down the colour palette (not my usual flashy colours) but I still like to have patterns, so this is a good compromise, I think.
Stop by the Technique Tuesday blog to see what everyone else did with this lovely set!

Today I set out to use my newly acquired watercolour crayons from Technique Tuesday. They have been around in the cardmaking world for quite some time, but I never got into them. I started making cards a few months before Copics entered our world, and you all know how that turned out for me…. Since learning to colour with Copics though, I have found that the skills I’ve learned – particularly about shading/shadows and colour theory – transfer to other colouring mediums. It’s kind of like learning to play the piano; it’s easy to pick up any other instrument after mastering the piano because piano gives you all-around musical knowledge. I’m not saying I’m GREAT at all colouring mediums, or GREAT at every instrument, but I can get by alright.  

Here’s today’s card using a new-to-me stamp called Belle on a Bike and watercolour crayons:

I added some tufts of clouds in the background – just experimenting – and played around with the greys for the ground.. The skirt is a little uneven and I know what I did wrong (I went back with the waterbrush and pushed the colour away when I was trying to even the colour out) and I will do things a little differently next time. Here’s a closer look:

When you’re watercolouring I learned that you have to start with light colours and layer darker colour on top, and each time you add a layer you should draw the colour across the whole area to avoid splotches like the one above. Lesson learned!! haha..

Have a great day!