Totally Techniques - Ombre Effect

Hello again blog hoppers! Welcome to another Totally Techniques hop- this month we are highlighting ombre technique and here is my card:

You have probably just hopped across from Marine's beautiful blog, she is such a talented stamper.

Its that time of year when we can't get enough Christmas cards and this is made for a friend of mine in the USA who won't be with family at this crazy time. My card is 6" square heavy Whisper White card stock mounted with a slightly smaller square of Night of Navy card stock. The stamped square is also heavy Whisper White as it is better to water colour directly onto than the lighter card.

I loved Merry Mice as soon as I saw it and was coming up with a heap of ideas to watercolour and emboss it. So here I have embossed in black emboss powder. The sentiment is from Greetings from Santa (also heat embossed in black).

My colouring was not as good as it could be and I was a little impatient which resulted income leeching of colours but you get the effect lol. The mouse is coloured with Smokey Slate and Blushing Bride and the turtle neck is in Real Red. The leaves are Garden Green. The Christmas bauble I have treated as a little light as such and colours in Real Red and I coloured some rhinestones with a red Sharpie pen to make it seem as if it is illuminated. I used an aqua painter.

The background is where my ombre technique comes in - I have tried to watercolour from dark at the top to lighter at the bottom. I used Night of Navy and an aqua painter. I then stencilled some stars from the Hearts & Stars Decorative Masks with Craft Whisper White ink and a dauber. I wanted the subtle reference to the red white and blue of the USA. And the stars marry in perfectly with the little star on the mouse's tail.

Hope you have taken some inspiration and enjoyed our hop this month!

Be sure to stop by our next blogger the inspiring and talented Nadine Weiner

Until next time,
Shanni

Order of Blog

Patrice Halliday-Larsen

Amy Koenders

Marine Wiplier

Shannean Moncrieff (that's me)

Nadine Weiner

Fancy Folds - Secret Message Card

Hope that you are enjoying the Fancy Folds blog hop this month. Secret message cards are all the rage at the moment.  You have probably just popped by from Martha's blog - I am loving all of the creations this month! Here is mine:

I am trying to get in early with the crazy busy card giving time of the year. . .so this is my square card. I followed Frenchie's great tutorial on how to make a secret message card. I simply adjusted the measurements to suit a 6" square card. It meant that the card was scored t 3", 6" and 9" and that the card was cut at 1.5", 3" and 4.5". The base card is real red and the inserts (which are 3' wide and 6" long) are in whisper white and crumb cake. I adhered the white and the crumb cake together so that the front would be crumb cake and the back white.

I also chose to line the inside with small rectangles of Candy Cane Lane designer series paper.

The pattern on the DSP is quite busy but I like how the papers contrast with the different colours in the background. I also mounted rectangles of early espresso and whisper white on the real red base card so that there is a spot too write the Christmas message. I decided to line the inside of the front mount of the card too for some additional space for writing.

When the magic opening is made the sentiments from Candy Cane Christmas appear. They are stamped in early espresso. The white contrasts smartly with real red and marries in nicely with the candy cane and Christmas candy theme of the card.

I wanted the front to look like a decorated Christmas tree. I mounted a square off early espresso with a square of crumb cake and then a square of whisper white. 

I stamped the frond leaves from Christmas Pines in old olive and always artichoke and cut out more leaves with the Pretty Pines Thinlet Dies in old olive and always artichoke card stock. I punched out 3/4" circles of red foil and gold glimmer paper. You will see that I made little loops with the real red metallic thread for the Christmas baubles and attached them with dimensionals. 

I heat embossed the candy cane from Banners for Christmas with the real red glitter stampin' emboss powder and fussy cut it out. Its adhered to look like an ornament with dimensionls. The mini pine cone accents are supposed to look like ornaments too. The sentiment "be joyful" is from Merriest Wishes, stamped in real red.

You can see that there is a lot of layers on the front of the card. I wanted the leaves to look thick lie a real tree. The weight of the layers also contributes to keeping the card closed and sitting flat (this overcomes the need for a belly band).

The rear of the card is bare. The colour scheme fresh. There is a fair bit of depth in the card though - here is a photo of the card lying on its front so that you can see the layers:

 One of the tricky things is how the card unfolds to show the secret messages. 

I like how the card is less busy when the secret message is tucked away.

You can see that the double layering of the insert cards adds a lot of dimesion.

I hope that you find some inspiration in my project for this month's blog hop. It is a surprisingly easy fancy fold to make and comes together very fast. Check out Anne Granger's amazing creation next

Thanks for stopping by!

Shanni xx

Order of Blog Hop this Month

Patrice Halliday-Larsen

Monica Gale

Martha Inchley

Shannean Moncrieff (that's me)

Anne Granger

France Poitras Martin