Watercolour paints? I'm scared!!!

Welcome to our team blog hop for November - someone (i.e. NOT me) decided it would be a good idea to feature the Watercolour Paints this month. So that meant I had to get them out and use them. I'm amazed you all didn't hear me being dragged kicking and screaming towards this one. But, guess what? They're way easier to use than I thought they would be. Nothing to be scared of at all. I mean, if I can use them, then so can you!

Anyway, if you have come here from Helen's blog, Helen's Heart n Craft, then you're on the right track. The blog is a big circle, so if you do get lost just come back here and you can get on track again.

I didn't know what I should use the Watercolour Paints for - I have seen some gorgeous page layouts with them (check out Cindy's page later in the blog hop, it is amazing!), and we did get to make some cards with them at our recent convention (which I'm not sharing just yet, as they feature brand new products coming in January), so I was struggling. Then I had a brainwave! (Well, an idea anyway.) My daughter is having a high tea birthday party, and we haven't made her invitations yet, and they really should already be out by now. So, guess what I made?

I started with choosing a card from our Cricut Artiste cartridge. I wanted something cute, small, and that looked special for an almost-seven-year-old. I found this cute card with a heart front, and a matching heart belly band to hold it together.

I used some no-longer-available paper, because my daughter insisted on pink, and I had a lot of this on hand.

Once I had made the card, I looked through our other cartridges to find something tea-party related, and hit the jackpot with a cute teapot and teacup in the Artistry Cricut cartridge. This is our newest cartridge and has so many awesome things on it!

I cut out the teapot and teacup, and laid them out on newspaper to colour them with the Watercolour Paints....I can't colour within the lines, so figured I wouldn't be able to paint within the lines either :).

I then got my Paintbrush Set out, and went to town. The paints come in this cool case, and you can use the lid to mix colours to get different shades etc. - see in the picture where I've mixed a colour in the middle of the lid.

So basically, you dip your brush in water and start painting. What I've learned about watercolours (and I could just be doing this all wrong, so who knows!), is that the shade of paint on your paper depends on how much water you are using. So the effect is different shades, streaks, etc. depending on how consistent and careful you are, and what you're trying to achieve.

I painted away....you can see the different shades in the picture below.

I then assembled my card - by the way, these dry really quickly - by the time I had painted all ten teacups with the pink, they were dry enough to handle and paint the dots.

I attached some White Daisy Cardstock to the inside, and attached a teapot and teacup to that. I used the Black ShinHan Marker to make the border, and added some bling, in the form of Bitty Sparkles.

I then repeated the border and bling technique on the front of the card, and it's ready to go (well, once I write the invitation details in of course!)

So there you go - the Watercolour Paints. So much easier than they sound. :)

Thanks so much for stopping by, now head over to Wendy's blog, Paper Ink Bling and see what she has done.

New Idea Book Team Blog Hop

Oh my gosh, I am so, so, SO excited. We have a brand new Annual Inspirations Ideas Book (and mini Holiday Expressions Ideas Book), with tons and tons and tons of lovely new things for everyone to play with. In honour of the new book, our team has put together a blog hop showcasing our favourite new products.

If you have come here from Kerry's blog, Kerry's Creative Collection, then you're on the right track. The blog is a big circle, so if you do get lost just come back here and you can get on track again.

So, what's my favourite new product? Well, I am absolutely in love with our brand new My Creations Calendar. I can make my own personalised calendar to hang on my wall, and I can also make some for gifts as well. The calendar is spiral bound and features a pre-printed grid, and a 12x12 white page to decorate for each month. The months aren't named, so you can start with whatever month you like.

Today I'm going to share with you the page I have done for September 2016. I had such fun putting this page together with some of the other new products we have, so you get to see some of those in action too!

Firstly, this layout came from our Make It From Your Heart Volume 2 "how-to" book (page 10). I used our brand new Kaleidoscope range - the Paper, the Complements, and the Assortment. Our brand new Complements are such great value, they include stickers, chipboard diecuts, and translucent stickers. Have a look at the cluster I put together in the bottom left hand corner to see a mix from both the Complements and Assortment pack.

It's very difficult to see in the photos, but the cool striped paper on the left hand side of the page is sparkly!!! To highlight the sparkles I cut some Chevron Borders in the purple paper and backed the cut outs with our White Shimmer Trim. I love the way it sparkles during the day and catches the light at night.

As one last little touch I used our 3-D Foam Tape to raise the title on the top left hand corner. This title came from the Complements pack.

Now, onto the calendar page.

I have used my Cricut machine and the brand new Artistry cartridge's funky font to cut out the title. Moving on from there I used the Stripe Embossing Folder to add some texture to the letters. Honestly, if I had the Chevron Embossing Folder I would have used that instead, but I think the stripes look pretty cool anyway.

In the bottom right hand corner of the grid I have added a sticker from our new Base and Bling Lovely Blooms Style Sheet. The new square shapes of the Style Sheets mean they are perfect for adding into the calendar. I am also excited to use the Jolly Holiday one in December.

For those of you who are observant, you will notice there are no numbers on my grid. That's because I've managed to misplace my Mini Calendar stamp. I felt the numbers on my alphabet stamp sets were too big to allow me to also write in the squares, but I think the numbers in the mini calendar will be just perfect.

If you want more ideas, you can always use Studio J, our digital scrapbooking program, to make your layouts (make once, print out 3 times, your Christmas shopping is done!) An amazing consultant at the US Convention earlier this year also used Studio J to do the month headings (10.5" x 3") and used the remaining 1.5" width to add in 1.5" x 1.5" photos to put in the grid. Isn't that amazing!

Those photos were taken at the US convention, and unfortunately I don't know who to give credit to. If I find out who designed these I will update here so she is recognised.

So there you go - our new My Creations Calendar. My current favourite new product. You can order this, or anything else you like, from my website, or by shooting me an email. And you can look at an online version of both of the new Ideas Books right now!

Thanks so much for stopping by, now head over to Wendy's blog, Paper Ink Bling and see what she likes!