Stamping Shanni: March 2016

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Totally Techniques Blog Hop - Watercolour Technique

I am feeling really excited about this month’s hop with the Totally Techniques design team – the reason being that I know how incredibly talented they are at water colouring. . .

You have possibly just come by from Heather Wright-Porto's blog. Wasn’t Heather's card incredible?

Here is mine and I have to admit to being a bit of an amateur at water colouring and I wanted to use only Stampin’ Up! products so of course am using the Classic Ink Stamp Pads as my colour medium:

Surprise, surprise a square card lol!

The base card is Rich Razzleberry, since Blackberry Bliss was released two years ago, I don’t use this colour as frequently as I once did but I thought it was perfect for this card. The square mount on top of the base card is Old Olive. I tend to lean towards square cards because I can fit more stamping and textures on them and I notice that the people I give them to seem to keep them on show a little longer. I am sure that they end up in the bin ultimately but if I can extend the shelf life that’s what I am all about lol.

I have been having trouble with the quality of my Stampin’ Up! water colour card so I opted to use the Coaster Board as my stamping base. Because I wanted a stamped image to be the main focus I heat embossed in white the flowers from the Helping Me Grow set. I like to unclip the lid of the ink pad and squeeze the lid and the base together so that you are left with a big squelch of ink in the base that is easy to pick up you are water colouring.

I dampened the embossed flowers with water – it’s really simple to do this with a clean aqua painter and it helps the colour to be taken up. I then water coloured the flowers using an aqua painter and Classic Ink Stamp Pads I used Rich Razzleberry as my main colour and then blended in the tips of the petals with Blushing Bride – I wanted two colours that contrasted as well as complementing each other. I allowed the images to dry a little then came back in with Rich Razzleberry in the centres to have a more dramatic contrast.

The stem is coloured in Old Olive and Mossy Meadow. I used Old Olive and the fern stamp from Butterfly Basics in the background but didn’t stamp that aspect until I had done the background.

Whimsical backgrounds can be created with ink pads as well and that was my goal with this card. I spritzed the background with water being careful to avoid the coloured flowers so that they wouldn’t bleed into the background. I came back in between the individual flowers with a clean aqua painter to dampen the areas which I was trying to avoid bleeding into (this meant that the blue background would still spread on the background between these images as well).

In order to get a fair bit of ink on the background without looking like it was dabbed on I squeezed the lids and base of the Classic Ink Stamp pads until there was a large amount of ink residue in the base. I then spritzed the base of the stamp pad with water (it makes a colourful puddle), mixed the colour and the water through and applied it to the still damp background with an aqua painter. I squeezed the aqua painter as I went to ensure even more water flowed through the nib. The colours I used on the background were Pool Party and Old Olive for the background.

Next I generation stamped the ferns from Butterfly Basics across the bottom left hand corner to blend the stamped images a little more. I also stamped the fly poo dots from Gorgeous Grunge in Pool Party ink to add to the randomness of the background.

On a separate piece of Whisper White cardstock I stamped the border from the Rose Wonder set in Rich Razzleberry and the ‘happy birthday” sentiment in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink. I fussy cut the shape out to avoid the white edge on the boarder.

I wanted to tie in the base card colour and the images on the front of the card so I punched three Rich Razzleberry flowers using the 4 petal flower out of the Itty Bitty Punch Set. These are mounted with glue dots and I couldn’t resist adding some pearls for the centres. To have a contrast to the flowers and the flatness of this card I used Linen Thread for texture and criss-crossed it across the card three times.

I hope that you have found some inspiration in my card, feel free to leave a comment - I love to hear what you think. And don't leave - stick around and check out the next blogger Nadine Weiner!

Happy water colouring!

Cheers

Shanni xx

Totally Techniques Design Team Roll Call

Sandi MacIver

Patrice Halliday-Larsen

Shannean Moncrieff (that's me)

Nadine Weiner

Alison Solven

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Fancy Folds Design Team Blog Hop - Gate Fold Card

Wow! So delighted to be invited to be part of this very talented group of global Stampin' Up! demonstrators. . . chances are you have just visited Frenchie's blog - isn't she amazing?

This month we are creating different Gate Fold cards and here is my creation:

You will have followed the very simple instructions for how to make a Gate Fold card. I think that this style of card is so versatile and fun because you can build pockets inside for gift cards and cash and you can add a little more panache to the decoration on the outside.

I love square cards - they feel so much more substantial and extravagant than smaller cards but be conscious that you can adjust this design to any size preference. My base card is Whisper White Thick Cardstock (12" x 6"). I have scored and folded it to the Gate Fold template. It is mounted on a square of Watermelon Wonder Cardstock to "frame the whole creation and tie in the colours of the stamped project.

I have lined both the inside of the card and mounted the designer series paper on the front with Old Olive Cardstock. The inside is then mounted with another piece of Whisper White Cardstock. On the outside I mounted a square of floating leaves design paper from the English Garden DSP (primary colours Mossy Meadow and Old Olive). I couldn't resist layering a piece of the Watermelon Wonder 1" Stitched Ribbon over one edge of the DSP - I was wanting some extra texture and interest and a splash of solid colour to balance the images.

Using the Oval Framelits I cut a piece of Whisper White using the largest plain oval. I then traced the outside edge of that framelit on Old Olive Cardstock and cut out a mounting piece just marginally bigger that the white. I stamped the filigree stamp from First Sight stamp set in stamped off Old Olive ink. I heat embossed the flowers from Birthday Blooms in black on a separate piece of Whisper White Cardstock (two of the large flower and three of the smaller poppy image).

I water-coloured the heat embossed images using Watermelon Wonder, Blushing Bride, Mossy Meadow and Old Olive inks and an aqua painter. I then fussy cut the images out and played with the arrangements until I was happy with the balance. Don't be afraid to cut into stamped images like these to change the configuration depending upon your project. Imagine these blossoms cascading down the side of a scrapping page!

The fussy cut flowers are mounted on dimensionals whilst the pink poppies are adhered flat on the background. The stringed pearls are from the Love Blossoms Embellishment Kit. I adhered them with glue dots that I rolled into narrow sticky spots to hide under the pearls.

I hope you can see the differences in the layering. The oval is mounted using dimensionals on the left hand opening of the card and there is a fair bit of weight in that side of the card which holds it firmly together. The sentiment "dear friend" from the Birthday Blooms set is stamped in Mossy Meadow on Whisper White and punched out using the Large Oval Punch. It is adhered directly onto the DSP background.