Good Morning Fellow Stampers -
Here we are today with an unusual Sunday post. Since my change of blog schedule and the rearrangement of how I post designs and other information, Sunday has been a day off from blog posting. This week, however, is a special situation.
I am so honored today to be a Guest Stamper on Mary Fish's blog. This is a very Special moment for me and I tried to come up with something extra special to share. I hope you will enjoy today's design.
As my regular followers know, I follow other products out there in the world of paper crafting and rubber stamping, and take my inspiration from many sources. I often see something I like made with non-Stampin' Up! products, and I challenge myself, "how can I recreate that with Stampin' Up! products." Today's design is one of just such a challenge. In fact, my inspiration came from a Simon Says Stamp product design, and I knew immediately that I could do this with SU! products. In fact, I think I affirmed through this project, that Stampin' Up! is very "on-trend" and in step with much of what else is going on out there in the paper crafting world.
I will warn you in advance -- this project is not for the faint of heart -- LOL :-)
Doggone Delightful Stampin' Design Tips:
- This card is cut from Very Vanilla Cardstock, 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", scored at 4 1/4" - making the finished front 5 1/2" x 4 1/4". The corners have been rounded (both front and back), and the card front was embossed with the Elegant Dots TIEF. There are no "layers" to this card front.
- English Garden Florals. The Garden In Bloom stamp set is so beautiful and so versatile. It is a 2-step stamp set, but I used one image for this project, and watercolored with AquaPainters. These flowers are stamped on watercolor paper, with Versamark Ink, masking where needed to get a layered effect, and then embossed with white embossing powder. I will tell you that I did this in stages - i.e., I stamped several flowers, embossed them; then masked and stamped several more, embossed them; then masked again, and stamped several more and embossed them. This way I didn't risk ruining versamark or embossing powder that hadn't been set yet while masking.
Technique Tip: Use sticky notes to create your masking shapes; that way you can use the "sticky" to hold your mask in place, but it is removable and reusable, and does no damage to your artwork.
Once the flowers were stamped and embossed the way I liked, I watercolored them with AquaPainters and Rose Red, Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral, and Daffodil Delight inks. I love the way these flowers turned out and the way the inks popped the white embossing. Then I sprayed the whole entire piece with some retired Smooch Spray I have -- love that stuff and will hoard it -- LOL :-)
Technique Tip: I sprayed the piece liberally and this takes some time to dry. Be sure to allow the piece to dry thoroughly as Smooch is a little "sticky" and will stick to your cutting plates when you're ready to run it through the Big Shot.
Once that was complete, I fussy cut out my little "garden" and set about cutting out my "sentiment" from the center. Using the Hello You thinlets, I cut a simple "Hello" from the center of my piece.
Technique Tip: Watercolor paper is thicker than most of our papers we work with. Use a shim when putting your "sandwich" through your Big Shot, and roll back and forth several times to be sure you get a good cut all the way through your paper. Then use your Piercing Tool to pop your image out of the thinlet. It's easy :-)
- Floating Garden. Now comes the tricky part :-) My little "garden" is popped on the card front with dimensionals. The "pieces" that come out of the letters in "Hello" are put back in place on the card front with glue dots. Then I very carefully, using just small pieces of dimensional in very strategic spots, laid the "Hello" back in place trying to create a 3D floating effect with the "garden." Do you think it worked ?? ;-)
I did use one non-Stampin' Up! product on this card -- and that was the sequins that finish it off. These are actually from a package of Verve sequins that I got earlier this year. I love sequins and sparkle and bling. These come in various sizes in the package and are just shimmery. I love them!! You can find Verve products at the Verve website.
I hope you enjoyed today’s card. Would you like to receive it in the mail? Just let me know in your comment. I will randomly select one person from those who leave a comment (between today and Wednesday at Noon) to receive it. It’s just a little something to thank you for being such loyal readers and customers.
Of course, if you ever have any questions about the cards I create or the techniques I use, I am only an email away - [email protected].
Until next time…
