I enjoy using vellum in my card making so when I saw the latest Online Card Class, Sheer and Clear, I signed right up. The first lesson dealt with different ways to attach a vellum piece to your card. This can be quite tricky at times, but Yana Smakula demonstrated 11 different ways to consider in the first video of the class. Some I knew, some I had forgotten, and a few were new to me.

The first card is one I actually made before class begun and gave to my niece and her husband at their wedding. I attached the vellum piece with a thin line of matte adhesive under the silver thread and then added a dot or two under a few of the rhinestones.

This card uses a new die I purchased recently from a new-to-me company called Concord and 9th. There are several other pieces to the die set as well as an accompanying sentiment set which I didn’t use. The striped vellum is from Papertrey Ink as is the Tropical Teal cardstock. The die-cut sentiment is from Simon Says, and the silver thread is from a spool that’s been in my stash for years.

Next up is the first card I made for class. I needed a couple thank you notes, so it was a good opportunity to try some new things. 

I embossed the beautiful flower from Clearly Besotted’s “Fresh Flowers,” and then colored them in with some white Prismacolor pencil, and added some Wink of Stella. I’ve never tried this technique, but Jennifer McGuire demonstrated it in a Day 1 video, and I like the extra oomph it gives the card. 

This time, I attached the vellum piece behind the Simple Stories, “Life in Color” tag, and underneath the sequins from Simon Says.

Last is a card I made last night after seeing a video by Dawn Woleslagle. Her cards almost always blow me away, and the card she presented in class was truly elegant. My first attempt leaves a LOT to be desired, but I’m posting it in hopes that a later attempt will show some improvement. For this technique, you trace a stamp’s outline in white on the back of a piece of vellum and then dry emboss it. It creates a raised white line on the front of the piece. Dawn recommended using parchment paper, which I don’t have, so maybe one part of the problem is that I used vellum. Then the design was colored with Copic markers from the backside. The stamp I traced is one from Penny Black’s “Blooming Garden.”

In looking for some spray adhesive to attach this piece, I found a can of vellum spray adhesive I’d totally forgotten about. It would have saved me a lot of frustration with the wedding card if only I’d known I had it. (I’ve started a new purge of my workspace, and this would be one reason why I need to do a good clean-out every year or so!) I scored three lines on the Raspberry Fizz card, and die cut the vellum piece with Simon Says “Stitched Rectangles.” The die-cut sentiment is from Papertrey Ink’s Mini-Market kit, “Still Life: Summer.” Finally I added a few Rainstones from Papertrey to finish it off. Not a fave, but I can live with it.

One last post with some cards for the current Online Card Class. This one has been very interesting, and I spent quite awhile yesterday playing with different kinds of watercolor mediums and different techniques. A few ended up on cards, and more than a few ended up in the wastepaper basket, but that’s to be expected. I learned quite a bit in the process, and enjoyed it, regardless of the outcome.

The first card ended up being one of my favorites despite the fact that about half-way in to watercoloring the heart, it was simply awful. Instead of tossing it, I started dropping in more color and it ended up totally different (and much better) than what I expected. This came from the Day 1 lessons using watercolor markers. I played around with Akashiya Sai Watercolor Brush pens which I received as a Christmas gift last year. Because I owned those, I was reluctant to order any Zig Clean Color markers, but I’m glad I did as I find them much easier to use. Both were ultimately used on the card below.

I white-embossed the heart from the new Simon Says card kit stamps, ” Here’s Looking at You,” and then watercolored it. The sentiment is from Papertrey’s “Round and Round” set embossed in Liquid Platinum. Since none of my metallic cardstocks matched, I used a technique Jennifer McGuire showed in a Day 1 video—edging a piece of cardstock with Versamark ink and then sprinkling on the embossing powder. Voila! A perfect match.

The next card uses the traditional watercolors in pans or palettes (Day 2.) This time I used the Kuretake Gansai set which I love for it’s bright colors. The card itself was inspired by one that Debbie Hughes created for this month’s Simon Says card kit.

The stamp is from a free set sent to me by Simon Says called “Your Birthday,” and the die cut is from Papertrey’s “Swoosh” set. I carefully (learning from earlier in the week), dropped on some Heidi Swapp gold spray and added a few sequins.

There are actually two cards (just different embellishments) for the Day 3 technique of using watercolor pencils. Most of them were Inktense pencils, but a few are from a set I bought years ago by Staedtler. It was a bit of a challenge to find the kind of image I wanted, but I found this old wooden stamp by Stampington which worked out perfectly.

The sentiment is from Simon Says (another favorite card kit set) called “What’s Brewing?” The die cut (also Simon Says) was cut from a failed watercolor background. (Actually there are no failures with that technique. I save them all for exactly this purpose!)

I started the last card first, and abandoned it, but finally decided I could “save” it. The only change from the first card is that I die cut some banners (Papertrey’s “Sketched Shapes”) from some DCWV vellum I picked up at Michaels. I adhered a MME enamel dot on top.

Now I need to get back to Project Life, and our trip!

When I first saw this inspiration piece ten days ago, I was determined to participate in the blog hop this month. It’s been quite a few months since I’ve been able to.

Nicole challenged us to try Betsy Veldman’s chalkboard technique, and that’s one I’ve never tried. It took awhile to find appropriate stamps and to get the design the way I wanted it, but after that it went pretty quickly. I used stamps from the “Wee Folks” Mini Market kit, “Modern Wood Mats”, and “Natural Beauties.” It’s definitely not my CAS style, but I’m pretty happy with the end result.

To keep with the fall color scheme, I mounted it on a Canyon Clay card, and added three small leaves punched from scraps. A wooden button from MME holds them together.

While I had my supplies out, I decided to try a much more traditional card, using one of the techniques from the Online Card Class on watercoloring. I tried a couple of things, but finally inked the image, then spritzed it with water before stamping it on the watercolor paper. The wreath didn’t really bleed that much, but the berries did enough to give them a sense of dimension. 

This card is very much CAS, and definitely my style. I added a bit of Clear Star gelly roll pen to the berries which give them a nice shimmer.

This card uses one of my favorite sets:  “A Wreath for All Seasons”, and “Think Big Favorites #16.”

I also spent quite a bit of time trying to create a card with this week’s Make It Monday technique. I finally gave up for today, but may be back if I can find a sentiment that will work better than I one I wanted to use.