Flower Fair with Blends

Hello again.  Just got back in from picking more blueberries.  At least it's only 72 degrees and semi cloudy today so it wasn't a problem.  There were 2 1/2 pints the other day with at least another 2 1/2 pints today.  And there's many more berries still on the bushes in the process of ripening.  For our two smallish bushes I'm thrilled with the yield.  There's lots of cobbler, coffee cake and muffins in our future in the coming months.  YUM!  Okay, now that you know all about the blueberries it's time to talk about stamping.  Right?

 I've decided to put aside the Framed Violets bundle for a tiny bit and share some other things I've been playing with lately.  Today's card features the single Flowers Fair stamp that nicely covers a card front.  I'm not using the full stamp but just cut off a section about 3 1/2" tall instead to fit my card.  I love the warm look of this card with the different elements that come together to make the whole.  I wish the camera captured the colors better.  Here the card looks much darker than it looks in person.

The whole design started with the Flowers Fair stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black onto a Basic White cardstock piece approximately 5" x 5".  This was colored with Stampin' Blends:

Large flowers - Crisp Cantaloupe Light & Dark, adding touches of Cajun Craze for shading

Small flowers - Hydrangea Hue Light & Dark with Daffodil Delight Dark in the centers

Leaves and stems - Peaceful Pine Light & Dark

After coloring, this was die-cut with the second largest Perennial Postage die.  Then a layer of Cajun Craze was cut to give an accent frame around it.  The Cajun Craze cardstock measures 4 7/8" x 3 5/8".  The two layers are attached with adhesive.  A retired black and white checked ribbon was tied around the layers with a knot to the side.  I thought the checked ribbon gave it more of a relaxed country vibe.

 

The card base used this time is Crisp Cantaloupe. It measures 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" and is folded in half.  The two layers that were just finished were added to the base using Dimensionals.

The sentiment comes from the ready-made sentiments in the Greetings For All Mix & Match Ephemera Pack.  These sentiments come either black-on-white or white-on-black which is what I used here.  The sentiment was attached over the ribbon using Dimensionals.

I really debated whether any embellishments should be added or not.  After much thought and trying just about everything I owned, absolutely nothing was added after all that fussing.  I'm happy with it just as it is.  What do you think?  Does it need something else?  If it does, what would you add to it?

I hope you're playing around with coloring some of your floral stamps with Stampin' Blends.  They work so nicely and can give you such beautiful colors when adding a little extra color for either shading or highlighting with another color.  The flowers looked a little flat before the Cajun Craze was added.  What a difference a little extra shading color can make.

Thanks for stopping in today.  Hope you're inspired to get out those stamps that need a bit of coloring and have yourself a color date.  Doesn't that sound like fun?  Wish I could join you for that!

Happy stamping and creating,

Sharon 

Alcohol Inks on Vellum

 Hey there!  Glad you stopped by.  Have you tried the technique that uses the Stampin'Up! Blends Markers on vellum to make awesome alcohol ink backgrounds?  I was a little leery about trying it, but it was lots of fun.  Kind of messy, but fun anyway!  I have to admit, the first one I tried ended up in the trash.  I spritzed way too much alcohol on the vellum and everything blended into nothingness and the vellum curled up too much to get it flat ever again!  There are wonderful videos out on You Tube that show in detail how it is done.  Not everyone does it the same, so it's interesting to get ideas from several people.  And no matter how you do it, no two finished vellum pieces will ever be identical.  You can look at that as being a creative plus, or it can drive you right up the wall if you want to do multiple cards the same - it just can't happen!

After playing around some, I thought I'd try a background with blues on half and greens on the other half.  So this is it.

I started with a piece of cardstock vellum which is quite thick and SU! sells it.  I used Stampin' Blends in these colors for the greens - Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, and Shaded Spruce.  For the blue colors -  Balmy Blue, Pool Party, Bermuda Bay.  These were all the darker Blends.  

Scribble each of the colors in sections close to each other, but I didn't go over other colors.  I kept them barely separate.  After the colors were scribbled on, spritz with 90% Isopropyl Alcohol.  Don't over saturate like I did the first time!  

I used a Water Painter dipped in more alcohol to dab around in the separate colors to move them and get that awesome alcohol ink look.  I love how the colors moved and changed.  It's just like magic.  Thought it was interesting that the Shaded Spruce in the green area started looking like Bermuda Bay!  

After I liked how it looked, it was set aside to dry a bit.   This is when I realized the Inspiring Canopy dies would work perfectly here.  The trees were die-cut from Early Espresso cardstock and set aside.

When the vellum was dry, I flicked on some marker colors.  I used Pool Party and Bermuda Bay on the sky, and Old Olive and Mossy Meadow on the land areas.   After this I flicked Wink of Stella onto the vellum.  I got very impatient waiting for the Wink of Stella to dry, even used a heat tool to hurry it along.  I stayed sort of sticky.  Hmmm, what about some Gold Leafing???  I played around with that some and found there were some areas that it really stuck on nicely, some areas not so great.  So I've got this lovely designed alcohol vellum background with little speckles and some bigger blobs of brilliant gold - I love it!  What a happy outcome!

The vellum was attached to a Basic White layer using Adhesive Sheets.  This helps to keep the vellum layer nice and flat. The die-cut trees were attached at this time.  The Basic White layer was attached to Bermuda Bay cardstock with adhesive.  Linen Thread was wrapped three times around and then tied in a knot.  Then it was attached to the folded Early Espresso folded cardstock base using Dimensionals.  The last thing to do was cut Basic white cardstock to go inside the card.  I added 1/2" strips of Bermuda Bay cardstock to each side of the white layer inside to give it more color and interest inside the card.

Hope you can see how pretty the alcohol ink looks.  And I just love the bits of  gold leafing on it.  I've got to admit I was kind of scared to try this technique, but I reminded myself - it's only paper!  If you don't like it, pitch it and try again.  I'll have more ideas to share with you soon using more pieces I've already made.  They're much more colorful and I'm trying to figure out what to do with them!  *grins*

If you're planning on placing an order this month, please consider using the Host Code for this month.  Thank you to all you wonderful ladies that are ordering.  I appreciate you so much!

Thanks for stopping and I sure hope you give this technique a try.  It's a real winner and so much fun!

Happy creating!  It's good for the soul.

Many hugs,

Sharon