Sunday, August 25, 2019

NC Demos August 2019 Blog Hop


Can you believe it is the end of August already? Where has the summer gone? Labor Day is fast approaching. Our host for the North Carolina Stampin' Up! Demos, Tracie Evans Langley, has issued this challenge for today's blog:

"For our August theme find a flower picture or two that you love and use it as your inspiration. It can be a picture from your own yard or garden, from a holiday trip, a painting, a piece of china or other decor piece. ANYTHING that features a flower, plant or tree.Your project can be anything! You can use flower or other nature stamps, but don't be limited. You can use your flower picture or pictures for color or layout inspiration."

Our yard has been spectacular this year and definitely inspiring! Here are a few pictures:
 My husband built these planters out of recycled brick he salvaged. We have 6 planters with benches in between.
Close ups of amazing flowers this year! 
I decided that my card had to have a floral design and some leaf design in the background.

To do this, I used one of the Tasteful Background Dies, cut it out of retired card stock and created my own stencil.
With Bermuda Bay ink pad and a Stampin' Sponge I ink blended a soft background onto a  piece of Whisper White card stock. I ran this through the Big Shot with one of the Stitched Nested Labels Dies. Next I ran this same piece through my Big Shot with the Subtle 3D Embossing Folder for a linen type look. 
The focal image was stamped with Black Stazon Ink using the Believe You Can stamp set ($13.00 but only available with Stampin' Rewards as a host or an order of $150) onto Fluid 100 watercolor paper. I knew I would be coloring with Pigment Sprinkles and Stazon will not bleed. I did use my Stamparatus for the stamping because it generally takes several good tries to get a good image onto thick watercolor paper. The flowers came out rich and vibrant colors with the Pigment Sprinkles, just like my yard! 

Since we have many butterflies in our garden, I wanted to add a couple to the card. The small butterflies are from the Butterfly Gala stamp set. They were stamped with Versamark Ink onto Fluid 100 paper, sprinkled with Black Shimmer Embossing Powder and heat set. Gives them a nice twinkle! They were also colored with Pigment Sprinkles and punched out with the Butterfly Duet Punch.
To finish, I used a Black Stamp 'n Write marker and re-outlined all the images. The stamped lines got a little lost with all the watercoloring.

The focal point image was then nestled into the negative space of the front panel and adhered with Tombow Liquid Adhesive. I kept the inside of the card  blank, except for another small butterfly adhered in the corner. I often like to do that, so the card is more flexible for any occasion and can be finished when needed.

I hope you enjoyed my time among the flowers and here is the list of hoppers participating. Can't wait to see what they create!

Anita Trippi - You are here!
Patricia Todd
Toni Campana
Jo Anne Hewins
Tina Lesson
Frances Wagner
Tracie Evans Langley



To purchase any Stampin' Up! items from my online store, just click on a link below. Thanks for joining us today! 
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Saturday, August 24, 2019

Colour INKspiration Challenges #61

 
Hi friends! I am back this week with a card (actually 2 cards) for Colour Inkspiration Challenge #61:
Four beautiful & classic Stampin' Up! colors are for the challenge:  Gray Granite, Soft Suede, Whisper White and Mint Macaron. I immediately thought of the Wildly Happy Stamp Set with the beautiful animal mother-child images.
2 cards? Not a big surprise. Can't seem to make just one card at a time. Here is the second card:
The elephant was stamped with Gray Granite and colored with Stampin' Blends. I masked the image using a general masking paper. Next, I used Mint Macaron with a Stampin' Sponge and softly blended the color over the new Polka Dot Stencil on Whisper White card bases. I wanted the colors to fade out to the edges.
The bunnies were colored with Soft Suede Stampin' Blends and fussy cut. I adhered the bunnies to a Stitched Labels Die cut from Whisper White with Tombow Liquid Adhesive. I used Nature's Twine and Pearl Basic Jewels with the bunnies and Linen Twine and Holiday Basic Jewels with the elephant.
More pictures of the bunny cards:


More images of the elephant card:

I am ready now should I need a baby card! The good thing about these colors is that they are a neutral and could be for a boy or girl.
I hope you enjoyed these cards and here is the links to purchase Stampon' Up! products from my online store. Just a note: Any item from the Holiday Catalog will be available for customer purchase Sept. 4, 2019. Thanks for sticking to the end!
Product List