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Valley Oak Paper

I’m Cecilia Huster and I design greeting cards.

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Christmas Boutique

When I got this die set I felt kind of meh about it. But now that I’ve created a card with it, I think it’s super cute! It was fun to put together, too.

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A Yeti Christmas

I’m now designing for Spellbinders. If you’ve followed me on Instagram or here on the blog, you know I love their products. So it’s a great fit for me! Super happy!

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Felt Owl Friend

Felt on cards seems to be having a moment. I wanted to use it on an upcoming project, so this is a practice card. For detailed instructions on how to put together this owl, see my post Wise Vintage Owl. This post is mostly about what I learned about using felt in cardmaking.

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Sepia Cauldron

I started by creating the shaker. For this I used the two cauldron dies in the Kat Scrappiness Witches Brew Die Set. The background I cut from the lightest color in Kat Scrappiness Coffee Faux Glitter 6x6 Paper Pad and the foreground from the darkest color. I also used the background die to cut my acetate and the foreground die to cut two layers of Kraft cardstock. I sandwiched the acetate between the two Kraft layers and then added the dark cauldron frame die cut to the front. Then I placed a double layer of foam tape on the back.

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Green Craftmas

I created three cards for a recycling-themed Instagram challenge. First I used my Pinkfresh Solid Hot Foil Plate with all the cool-toned leftover foil to make my own foiled cardstock. This time I foiled on cardstock colors that matches the foil.

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A Monster Study in Teal

I’m still trying to reclaim Halloween tropes from the overdone, traditionally-discordant colors. Halloween cards can be tasteful, really! This time I picked cardstock in teal tones from my scraps. Once you’ve figured out which dies from the Scream & Sugar Die Set belong to Frankenstein’s Monster, it’s pretty straightforward to put together.

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Blue Halloween

Today’s card is a watercolored Halloween card with a witchy little quokka. I’m starting by mixing the paint I need. Today I’m going to use my artist-grade watercolors. I’ve written down the paints I’m going to mix on this little palette and I mostly followed my plans. 

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Dainty Ghost

I glued the first vellum piece to the back of the pattern paper slightly offset, so it looks fuller. Then I added a layer of Accent Opaque to the back for stability. Next I glued the second vellum piece offset in the other direction to the back. I finished up with the second Accent Opaque layer. The two layers of Accent Opaque provide some separation between the vellum layers. They also make the ghost super sturdy, which is important when you use an action wobbler.

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Hello Pumpkin!

The scene I was visualizing needed a frame of some sort. After browsing through my Spellbinders bin, I selected a die set called Essential Arches. From this I used the 5th largest arch to cut out a piece of watercolor paper and a piece of Accent Opaque.

To give the scene some context, I used the Kat Scrappiness Scene Builder Stencil and my Distress Watercolor Pencils. I drew with the pencils along the lines, removed the stencil and added more shading.

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Reindeer Games

At that point the only dark green color on the card was the present that the bottom reindeer is holding. So I added smaller elements with some dark green to other parts of the card to spread it around a bit more.

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Bountiful Quokkas

These two little critters are the Kat Scrappiness Dress-Up Quokkas. The markers I’m using for them are Ohuhu BR3, BR2 and BR1. Check out the marker codes I used for each item in the table below.

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A Stitch in Time

I’m not normally one for vertical writing, but I love the stitched texture of this die. It’s also great for stitching on the go. So I have a small collection of already-stitched die cuts in a drawer. The monthly Procraftinator Instagram Hop was an opportunity to turn them into cards.

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Candy Cane Shaker

This weekend I shot a video for an Instagram hop next weekend. The theme is Candy Cane Chronicles. After I was done, I had lots of leftover strips of red, pink and white glitter cardstock. I didn’t want to just recycle it, so I made a shaker card with Kat Scrappiness products.

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