GLOBAL DESIGN PROJECT #041

A colour challenge is this week them on the Global Design Project and as always there are some lovely examples using the colours below.  What a great combination.

I decided to use the smaller rose and the leaves from the Rose Garden Thinlits as a stencil and sponged Sweet Sugarplum onto Whisper White cardstock.  I die cut a set of leaves in Whisper White and another in vellum which always adds that  soft floating feeling to a card.  Congratulations is stamped on a hand cut piece of Whisper White and comes from the Balloon Celebration stamp set.

Whisper White always looks stunning and a dark mat and Night of Navy fits the bill perfectly and it helps to tone down the pinkness of the Sweet Sugarplum card base.  Night of Navy splatters and  copper sequins add the final elements. 

I really liked the sponging effect left on the die cut leaves after I had used them as a stencil so decided to make another variation.  Sadly the rose stencil didn't survive the process quite so well and ended up in the bin.

USEFUL RUBBISH

These thin little trimmings were so pretty I just couldn't thrown them in the bin especially when I had an idea brewing for how to use them.

The Balloon Bouquet punch and Hello You Thinlits were the perfect combination and to complete my card a little bit of sparkle.

SHHSH OOH OOH, SHHSH AAHHH!

Now I have that Pushbike song going around in my head!


I christened the Pedal Pusher stamp set today.  Pedal Pusher by Stampin' Up was a freebie that I earned during their Sale-A-Bration promotion and it's a really cute set.

Time to play and see how things were stamping.  I tried creating a background which wasn't too successful but I've taken a photo of it anyway.  I was having trouble with the ink and find this is the case with some photopolymer stamps or solid image stamps.  I've tried rubbing and scrubbing the stamp and various inks but sometimes you just don't get the image stamp off you want.  I also need to remember to compare the stamped image to the image on the storage case as sometimes I'm not happy with my stamped image but then realise that's how it's supposed to be anyway.  Silly me.

There is no point wasting a good piece of cardstock when you can flip it over and play on the other side.  If all else fails just bin it and move on to a new piece.  See the background I created on the flipside at the end of this post.

Paula Dobson does some lovely sponging techniques on her cards and the card below is the CASE she did another of her own cards.  She has used 3 of the new colours being Sweet Sugarplum, Peekaboo Peach and Dapper Denim.  I love this combination.  If you want to see more of Paula's work just Google her or go to the Global Design Project website and follow the links. 

After seeing Paula's card, I started pinteresting and youtubing sponging techniques and came across a card that used a balloon stencil with sponging so decided to give that a go.  Products from a different company were used so I just re-created the card with my Stampin' Up supplies and was pleased with how it turned out.  That card actually combined a couple of techniques and one in particular that is really hot right now is layering your die cut words. I made a stencil  with  my Balloon Bouquet punch and used the small balloon sealed with sticky tape to plug the gap. 

 Create a design on your card and then include a portion of the design in the die cut.  More examples of this can be seen in the latest challenge on the Global Design Project website http://www.global-design-project.com/2016/05/global-design-project-036-case-designer.html

Lovely colours remained on my scratch paper where I had dabbed excess ink off when sponging my balloon which gave me the inspiration for the Crazy About You card background below.  Yep, this is the flipside.  You can just seek that Wink of Stella on the bike seat and frame. 

I love how bright that background turned out and I kept the offcuts to create another card.

GLOBAL DESIGN PROJECT #GDPO36

This week we get to CASE design team member Paula Dobson and what a lovely card Paula has created.  In fact all the design team members are very creative and deliver beautiful examples every week for our inspiration.

I decided to use Helping Me Grow and as lavender is one of my favourite flowers and scents.   I just knew I had to have this stamp set when I saw it in the Occasions Catalogue as it attracted me straight away.

I stamped the flower in black Stazon ink on watercolour paper and then created my background.  I really enjoyed painting the flowers as I find this technique very relaxing and very forgiving. I added some embellishment with parchment, silver thread and splatters.

I also gave the flower heads a subtle sparkle and this time I tried using my embroidery light to catch that elusive Wink of Stella. 

I think I still need to work on my photography skills though.