Cardmaking: with Crowned Bunnies

Hi hi hi.

As I mentioned yesterday [well, it was yesterday originally but somehow the post reverted to 'Draft' overnight and I've had to set it free for the second time now!] anyway ... as I mentioned yesterday [before I was rudely re-drafted] I'm squeezing this post in between sharing the cards I made using the gifts from Christmas crackers.

Now, would it be a pun too far to introduce today's cards as 'little crackers' too? It would, wouldn't it? OK then ... I won't ...   

The cards are my 3DJean Design Team blog contribution this month using another set from the new Alice Palace designed stamp range.

This set's called 'Crowned Bunnies' and, as usual, I stamped the images direct to patterned paper to avoid that 'oh-no-that's-a-very-blank-white-background' scenario which fills me with fear when stamping:

Sometimes it takes a bit of trial and error, a bit of hovering and shuffling around to get the right kind of pattern in the right place on the finished image.

Ideally you want the base design to compliment the finished result and not hide or distract from what the image is meant to be. I think the swirls and light text print [from a pad of Prima 6x6] worked well with these stamps. I also knew I wanted a soft and delicate feel across the cards, so stamped in grey which is much less harsh than black ink: 

Once they were stamped I added some shading and depth of colour using pale peachy and beige toned Promarkers.

If you're not confident with colouring-in stamped images from scratch then stamping on patterned paper is the way to go!

This way most of the colour work has been done for you and you only need to experiment with the 'little extras' like the cheeks / ears etc.

The bunnies/hares? were the perfect size to sit on top the frames from American Crafts '5th & Frolic' range. It's a whole sheet of lovely, watercolour, Polaroid-ish frames which I seem to be using on everything at the moment!

This kind of card is one of my favourite and most frequently made. All they consist of is:

•  a strip of kraft card [which I bought as a pack of offcuts] folded in half ...
• a rummage through all the latest sheets of paper I've recently cut up for other projects, searching for leftover scraps and strips ...
• some washi tape ...
• a few embellishments ...
• a focal image ... 
• and ... repeat to fade ...  

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Do you have a 'go to' favourite style of card? A 'fail-safe' way of cardmaking? Styles of project which you return to again and again?

Maybe we should call it something sophisticated ... like our 'signature style' rather than the term which first came to mind: 'brainlesss-but-it-works'.  Either / or!

Julie :-)

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Supplies used:
Stamp: 'Crowned Bunnies' by Crafty Individuals / Alice Palace
Papers: some American Crafts '5th & Frolic'; some Prima, Kaisercraft and Studio Calico + scraps
Ballerina charm: The Ribbon Girl
Glittery gems: Papermania