Mix It Up Monday: Summer Silhouettes

It’s Mix It Up Monday and time for another colour combination from my In Color charts.  

Today I’ve stuck entirely within the 2015-17 In Color range, with Watermelon Wonder, Mint Macaron and Tip Top Taupe, all held together with some Very Vanilla. 

This stamp set, Summer Silhouettes, is a timeless classic, which I hardly dare hope will survive the new catalogue overhaul that’s coming our way in a few months. I began by stamping Hardwood in Tip Top Taupe onto Very Vanilla - I deliberately kept this “rough and ready”, allowing the stamp to miss the cardstock in places. The flowers and leaves are then stamped on top, and it’s all finished off with some strands of Burlap Ribbon and a tiny greeting. Hope you like it!

Summer Silhouettes Clear Stamp Set [126447] £18.00	Hardwood Clear-Mount Stamp Set [133035] £13.00	One Big Meaning Clear-Mount Stamp Set [139420] £17.00	Window Word Punch [119857] £14.50
Watermelon Wonder Classic Stampin' Pad [138323] £6.00	Mint Macaron Classic Stampin' Pad [138326] £6.00	Tip Top Taupe Classic Stampin' Pad [138325] £6.00	Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock [106550] £7.25
Watermelon Wonder A4 Cardstock [138341] £6.50	Tip Top Taupe A4 Cardstock [138343] £6.50	Tip Top Taupe 1" Dotted Lace Trim [138422] £5.50	1-1/4" Burlap Ribbon [132140] £7.25

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Mixed Media By the Tide scene

If you had to name your favourite animal, it probably wouldn’t be a lobster, would it? But a US friend of mine is a huge fan of these particular crustaceans so, when I made this project, I knew I just had to send it to her. 

And now, at last this card has reached its destination on the other side of The Pond, so I can post it on my blog.  To be fair, the US Postal Service isn’t entirely to blame for the delay; I’ve been meaning to post it to my lobster-loving friend for weeks but kept forgetting.  

It’s a mixed media project, as you can see, and this time I was heavily inspired by Italian crafter Barbarayaya. I loved her underwater scene and couldn’t resist recreating her gorgeous project using SU supplies. 

Here’s what I did:

1. I stamped Gorgeous Grunge splodges quite liberally over a piece of Whisper White cardstock in Versamark and embossed with clear powder. 
2. I sponged the background over the top with green and blue inks. The ink simply wiped away from the embossed areas.
3. I stamped the weeds in Cajun Craze.
4. For the border, I stuck some Typeset DSP to some Whisper White cardstock (to give it more strength) and cut it out using the Square Framelits Dies. 
5. Next I sponged it with various brown inks.
6. I pressed the whole border into my Versamark pad so that it was completely covered, then dipped it into clear embossing powder and heat set. This is raised up onto the background using dimensionals.
7. The sea creatures are created in the same way. I stamped and sponged them to colour them; no worrying about going over the lines because I then cut them out. 
8. Again I pressed them into my Versamark pad and embossed them with clear embossing powder. 
9. The finishing touches are some cut-out words (from a SAB set) and some Bermuda Bay sequins. 
10. It’s mounted onto a square Crumb Cake card base. 

So, out of interest... what IS your favourite animal? I will be very surprised to hear of any other lobster fans! 

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Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

AW39 - Around the World Challenge mixed media project

It’s Around the World Challenge time again! And this month I was asked create a project inspired by this image:

I decided to take my inspiration from the colours of the flowers and foliage, so began with a watercolour-style background. This one uses a fun salt technique which was shown to me by Karina Goodman at Studio 61 here in Derbyshire. 

TIP: If you want to play around with this kind of project, make a few backgrounds at a time, so you can get started quicker next time. 

So, how did this card happen? I really should start writing these posts immediately after creating this sort of project, as it’s hard to remember all the many steps that go into them, but here goes… and please bear in mind that I am still learning this technique so some of the steps are purely experimental.

1. Take a piece of watercolour paper and wet it, with a brush, aquapainter or with a spray bottle
2. With a paintbrush or aquapainter, drop or swish some ink so that the colours blend
3. While the ink is still wet (this is important) sprinkle some coarse seasalt on top. I did this on the red section only.
4. Allow to dry completely before brushing away the salt. You’ll see that it has absorbed the ink and leaves paler spots behind; it’s a little unpredictable but you can get some amazing patterns this way. 
5. Now you can begin adding some fun elements to the project. I began by cutting and tearing strips of Typeset DSP and laying them across the left hand side of the project. This was inspired by the March page from this lady’s smash book.  
6. With the brayer inked up, tap just the edge of it onto the project, to create vertical lines - you can make flower stems, grass or patterns this way
7. Stamp around the top using Gorgeous Grunge and red and black inks
8. Using the brayer, colour a piece of Typeset DSP in red… and another in purple. Alternatively, if your ink pad isn’t too wet, you can simply press the paper into it. Don’t worry about perfection; it’s over-rated. 
9. Using the bird punch, punch out six wings from each of the coloured pieces of DSP. Trim the purple ones down so they’re slightly smaller, then arrange both sets in a flower pattern. 
10. Now you can decorate the petals as you wish, by outlining them in black pen, white pen (or both) and adding dots and lines. I also hand-drew the stems and a leaf, doodling dots along the stem and colouring the leaf white with the Chalk Marker. 
11. I created a third flower with the Itty Bitty Accents Punch pack flower, but cut out the petals individually (you may need to punch two or more flowers), again arranging them in a flower pattern and inlining them in black pen. 
12. All three flowers are topped with a circle of gold glimmer paper.
13. Next I added some white splodges of various sizes, simply freehanding them with the chalk marker. I outlined them in black pen. This was inspired by this lady’s project. 
14. I found words from two different stamp sets, stamped them in black and cut them out roughly. Once stuck down, I outlined them in black pen. 
15. Individual sequins were added with Glue Dots. I haven’t found anything else which will stick them down successfully.
16. Finally, I spritzed the whole project with Vanilla Smoosh Spritz for a gentle shimmer.

Now it’s your turn to create a project inspired by the photo. It doesn’t have to be as complicated as this one - take a look at what the rest of the team made for some more ideas.

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