Two fun watercolouring techniques using Dragonfly Garden

 

Do you like creating your own watercoloured backgrounds for your Stampin' Up!® cards? It's one of my favourite things to do and I have some fall-back techniques I return to, time after time.

I used two of these techniques to make some cards using the Dragonfly Garden stamp set recently.

Dandy Garden Suite: Garden Wishes or Dragonfly Garden - Part Two

 

Part two of my Dandy Garden Day projects features this little box of notecards. This set above shows the box and cards made using the Dragonfly Wishes bundle. 

However, once again I made samples using both the Garden Wishes and Dragonfly Garden bundles, and again guests could use the Designer Series Paper to add their dragonflies or bees, if their stamp set didn't feature the one they wanted. As you can see from the image above, I cut out the bee from Dandy Garden Designer Series Paper, even though there is one featured in the stamp set. 

We used Dandy Garden DSP to cover the box, just applying paper to the top, front and back. 

 

Wet adhesive such as Tombow is best when covering these Mini Paper Pumpkin Boxes as it gives you that all-important “wiggle room”. If you apply the DSP all while the box is flat, the paper will stretch so assemble the box first then apply adhesive to the top only, leaving DSP hanging over the front to cover the flap with about 5mm (3/16”) on each side and the bottom edge. 

 

Only when the top is stuck should you add adhesive to the front and back panels, then carefully smooth the paper around to adhere.

 

The first of our cards to go inside was arguably the most complex, although even this is not too fiddly. We stamped our tallest image on a white panel, popped this up onto the note card, showing a strip of co-ordinating DSP to the right. Then it's finished off with a dragonfly (stamped or cut from the paper), a greeting and a ladybird. 

 

The Ladybug Trinkets are hollow so the best way to stick them down is using Mini Glue Dots. Don’t have any Mini Glue Dots? (Why not, they’re amazing!) You could use a small piece of double-sided tape, but it will be fiddly!

This Designer Series Paper is too beautiful to hide so these cards show it off by making it a feature of both the cards and the envelopes.

Covering the envelope flap is really easy but be warned: 6x6" DSP is only wide enough to cover the flaps of a notecard envelope, not our standard C6. 

 Simply apply adhesive all over the envelope flap then, making sure you have the pattern the right way up (if that matters with your chosen design), stick the full piece of DSP to the flap, butting it up neatly to the fold. Then turn it over and cut it out freehand, using scissors. 

These cards are scaled right back but are no less striking for their simplicity. The card on the left features dandelions stamped onto separate cardstock and cut out with the dies. ‘Hello’ looked a bit lost on its own so I stamped it three times. 

The card on the right has its flowers stamped directly onto the notecard, with a popped up dragonfly cut out from the DSP. 

 

Even simpler are these two note cards, with no colouring, just the image stamped in a colour directly onto the card. In both cases, the inset is cut out from the DSP. Did you know the bee from the Dandy Wishes dies fits the DSP perfectly? So you can stamp and cut or just cut them out of the paper if you prefer.

Similarly, the Dragonflies Punch fits both the stamp set and the DSP. You can punch both the largest and medium dragonflies from the paper although not at the same time. You will need to rough cut them out first to avoid spoiling the surrounding dragonflies. 

Since the ladies shared their projects in our private customer group at the weekend, orders for one or both of these amazing bundles have been flooding in. If you would like to order any of the products you see here, remember the best time to do so is before the end of the month, as orders over £45 will qualify for a free Sale-a-Bration item. You can either contact me and I will place the order for you – if you are local you an even hop on to my order and save shipping costs – or shop via my store. If you use February host code D6PKN76U, I’ll send you a thank you gift in March!

To make it easy for you, please shop using this link 

 

Please do check you are shopping with me at the store, as if you leave and return, it may default to a different demonstrator and/or lose the host code.

 

And if you have any questions about ordering, or would like to know more about maximising the value by purchasing the Starter Kit, please message me using the details on my website.

 

Sneak Peek: 10 cards using the Dandy Garden Suite

 

During December we demonstrators get the privilege of ordering from the new Jun-Jul Mini Catalogue - this is one of my favourite perks! Another perk was if we attended OnStage@Home we could order EVEN EARLIER from a smaller selection of products so I quickly snapped up a whole bunch from the Dandy Garden Suite.

This is a new mega-suite of products and, if you love the natural world as much as I do, you will LOVE it. So as a special end-of-week treat, here are not one but TEN projects using this fabulous Suite!

Indulge me while I wax lyrical about this gorgeous Suite for a moment. There are TWO gorgeous stamp sets – one with a co-ordinating dragonfly punch and one with co-ordinating dies.

There is an absolutely stunning pack of 6"x"6" Designer Series Paper packed with deep, rich colours, bold floral designs as well as delicate detailed monochrome sheets.

There’s a pack of fine laser-cut paper, including detailed dragonflies, intricate seed heads and delicate leaves. There are tiny bronze-effect ladybirds. And remember that beautiful woven linen thread we had before? It's back - but in Mossy Meadow.

I'm so excited about this suite that I'm sharing everything I've made with it so far. Some are adaptations of projects from the Stamp & Share section of OnStage@Home and others are actually completely from my own head (I know, right!).

Take a look at what I’ve been making...

These were some of the most fun to make as I got to use a new tool. We have some new blending brushes which are so pleasing to use and so effective – they give you a much smoother effect than blending with sponges.

I stamped my main images in Mossy Meadow, coloured them with Stampin’ Blends, then blended ink with the new brushes around the edges of the cardstock. Inspired by Stampin' Up!® concept artist Melody Hyde, I then stamped around the images with a greeting stamp, repeatedly and by stamping off onto scrap paper first. I really liked this effect when Melody demonstrated it at OnStage@Home.

I LOVE these dies, they are JUST what I've been craving. And don't they go perfectly with the Dandelions Embossing Folder which I've had for months but – gasp! –hadn’t used until I made this card. 

This Suite is perfect for the monochrome look. There are several sheets of DSP which are monochrome;in Misty Moonlight (as shown here), Blackberry Bliss (yum!), Bumblebee and Calypso Coral. Shall I tell you a secret about this card? It was supposed to have a folding back front, but I used the cutting blade instead of the scorer! Oops.



A splash of Bumble Bee goes so well with Misty Moonlight – this is one of our OnStage@Home Stamp and Share projects which we made during the event. 

This last card was a Northern Lights background which hadn’t gone quite to plan. It wasn’t working for the Christmas card I had planned but I think it looks great behind this Dandy Laser-Cut Paper and combined with some much-maligned Purple Posy.

I hope you love this Suite as much as I do as I will be holding a Big Event with it in February. Watch this space or my website for details. 

And if you can’t wait that long and want to get your hands on these fabulous products NOW, please get in touch about purchasing the Starter Kit. I would love to have you in my team so I can help you get the best value out of your Stampin’ Up!® crafting. Please get in touch via my website here.