The Fusion Card Challenge - Musical Butterfly

The Challenge this fortnight is Musical Butterfly.  As always, we have the option of using the sketch, the photo or combining the two of them to get a Fusion of some sort.  I chose the image as my inspiration. While I don't have quite the rainbow of color as in the image, it was still a good place to start.

Using a Hero Arts Music Background stamp, I stamped in Versafine Onyx Black Ink on Arches Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper and heat embossed it using Simon Says Stamp Clear Embossing Powder. I chose this particular paper because I wasn't sure how much color I was going to use, but it would stand up to the water I might want to add.  In the end, I added a bit of Broken China Distress Oxide Ink to the center of the panel, misted it with Iridescent Gold Shimmer Mist and set it aside to dry without adding any more color to it.  I was pretty happy with how it looked even though I know you can't see the shimmer here. You can definitely see it in real life!

I die cut this swallowtail butterfly (I'm sorry I don't know who the manufacturer is.  The solid butterfly is a scrap of pink cardstock and the top layer is cut from Clear Sparkle Shimmer Spritz and then I put a little crystal on the pink solid butterfly in the exact spot where the tiny little circles are on the outline butterfly. There are 8 of those little circles on each wing so there are 16 Aurora Borealis Swarovski Crystals on that butterfly.  That is how I pulled in the rainbow color for the butterfly.  It doesn't photograph particularly well, but again, in real life you can see it!  

I'm not going to draw this post out with a lot of unnecessary details as I am fighting computer issues this weekend.  We have a wedding next weekend and I won't be able to be online at all, so I'm trying to get some work done before hubby continues his diagnostics on my desktop.  I can't even imagine trying to write a blog post by tapping in one letter at a time on my iPad but I may have to do that yet.  So, I have a few more posts to write.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Be sure to check in over at The Fusion Challenge to see all the projects.

50th Celebration at Inspired by....

This week's challenge over at Inspired By All The Little Things is for their 50th Challenge. Lesley is the creator of several challenges in the card making world and this is one of them that I frequently play in.  She also created some of the others you've seen me play in, including Fusion, Always Playing With Paper and The Card Concept to name just a few.  I really enjoy Lesley's Challenge Blogs so you can imagine how excited I was when she asked me to join the Design Team at The Card Concept this week. That challenge begins next Wednesday, so I have plenty of time to participate in this challenge today.  I love the soft peach color and especially the twinkling lights of the inspiration image.

I started by stamping the Altenew Garden Treasure floral and leaf images in Versamark and heat setting them using Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  I water colored them using Kuretake Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers in Light Carmine and Deep Green - easy stuff here.  Once those were dry, I die cut them with the Garden Treasure Coordinating Dies.  The stamps and the bundle sold out on the first day, so be sure you sign up for notifications at whichever place (or both places) that you wish to purchase them.  Altenew does have the dies still in stock, but everything else is sold out.

Next, I made a top folding cardbase from Berry Sorbet Cardstock.  I die cut a Fresh Snow Linen Cardstock panel using the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die and then a smaller rectangle from the Noted: Scalloped A2 Vertical Dies.  This uses the largest stitched rectangle from that particular set set. I stamped the "Just a Note" sentiment from Botanical Blocks and heat set it, then laid it in that same rectangle die to cut off the ends so they would be stitched like the rest of the card.

I finished the card by adding some 6 mm Gold and some 4, 8, and 10mm Sparkling Clear Sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.  That way, you get a touch of the twinkle like in the background lights in the inspiration image!  The fresh snow panel was also spritzed with Tsukineko Sheer Sparkle Shimmer Mist and the flowers and leaves got a coat of Wink of Stella on the top. Happy 50th Challenge to Inspired By All The Little Things and may we see many more!

Thanks for stopping by today! I'll be back soon with a new card.

Hoping Your Holidays Sparkle

Today's project is for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge #60, and the Muse Challenge #195. The theme at Simon Says Stamp this week is Ice Inspiration and Muse provided us with this lovely card to inspire our projects.

For my card I started with a 4.25 x 5.5 inch panel of Canson Bristol Watercolor Paper.  I love to use this for most of my card front panels because of how well it works for so many techniques such as the one I used here, Ink Blending.  The blend is far superior to anything I could do on cardstock, no matter how high the quality is. The Bristol Paper is smoother and takes color very well in addition to being able to stand up to the shimmer mist.  I started by using the Simon Says Stamp Snowflake Border Die to impress or emboss the design into my card stock.  You can do this by using an Embossing Sandwich in your die cutting machine.  It will emboss rather than cut. I also die cut three of the borders from Stamper's Select White Cardstock so that I could I put those together, stacking one on top of the other using a bit of spray adhesive between each layer. I keep a shallow box in my studio for just this purpose so I don't spray adhesive all over. This makes for a nice thick embellishment. Once I had that done, I gave it another coat of spray adhesive and sprinkled Nuvo Pure Sheen Glitter in the color Diamond all over it and set it aside to dry while I continued on my project.

Taking my embossed front panel, I did ink blending using Cracked Pistachio and Mermaid Lagoon Distress Inks all along the embossed area, letting it blend out very softly. Next, I die cut the panel with the largest Avery Elle Postage Stamp Die which gave it the decorative edge, but I kept the paper in the die while I took it to my desk and adhered the center panel to the frame using a bit of Micro-pore tape. You can use Washi Tape, Scotch Tape or whatever.  Micro-pore is what I had handy.  I just wanted to keep the center rectangle with the frame for this card. Next I used the Simon Says Stamp Snowflake Border Die on an extra rectangle to cut the top wavy piece so that I could pop it up on foam tape for added dimension.  I'm going to have to think of a better way to explain this.  I guess I should have taken some pictures along the way. It's just an extra interior rectangle piece from another project and I used it for the underneath piece so that I could pop up the top layer that had the ink blending on it. Clear as mud I'm guessing.  I'm planning to use this technique again soon on another project and I will try to take pictures along the way so you can see what I mean.  I wasn't sure it would work while I was making this card, but in real life, it is just gorgeous. You may be able to see it better in this image.

Once I had that done, I heat embossed my sentiment from the Sparkle & Shine: Holiday Additions Mini Stamp Set with Ranger Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder and assembled the card onto a top folding card base made from Simon Says Stamp Audrey Blue Cardstock. This is one of my absolute favorite colors. The front of the card got all all over spritzing with Tsukineko Sheer Shimmer Spritz and then I was able to set the glittered die cut snowflakes right into the impression that I had previously made using the embossing sandwich.  If I would have kept it one layer, it would have fit down inside and been flush but it pops up because I had the extra layers for thickness.  I finished it off with a few turquoise sequins!

Thank you for stopping by to see my project today and especially if you take time to comment on my post.  I have a very busy few weeks ahead with the holidays and family, but it's my goal to still have at least 3 new posts per week until I leave for CHA in January.  It's just a month away now and I am getting super excited.

AAA Cards Challenge - Ink Blending

Recently I made a card during Papertrey Ink's Stamp-A-Faire 2016 that was inspired by Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night".  I've made a couple of night sky cards before but I've mailed both of them which means I don't have any more to send out until I make some.  Night skies are a fantastic way to practice and play with ink blending techniques to find out what you like and what works best for you. It is also a really good way to find out how the inks you are using behave when they come in contact with water. Distress Inks are formulated specifically to react whenever they come in contact with water.  Most inks are designed not to react once you've let them dry or you heat set them.

While I have done a bit of playing previously, I really wanted to sit and play with different types of watercolor paper, different types of ink and lots of water vs. very little water and everything in between.  The challenge this week over at AAA Cards was just the thing I needed to entice me to take extra time out to do this today.  I actually made four of these cards but the two I feature first are my favorites although I'm happy with all of them.

For the background panels I made, I used a combination of Distress Inks, Simon Says Stamp Inks, and Papertrey Inks and for the silhouette of the trees and hills I used Hero Arts Black Ink.  I was realizing today how intense their black ink is but when I went to get a refill, I couldn't find one.  The Hero Hues Black Ink provided superior coverage on my watercolor paper.  I was using the Direct to Paper (DTP) method with a corner of the ink pad for the hills, and I stamped the trees in the same ink with the Altenew Pine Trees Stamp.  I got it specifically to use on this type of card.  I also have the small Winter Cottage Stamp Set which I think was a gift with purchase last year around Christmas & New Year's and I plan to try that on this same type of card in the future.

This first card used Simon Says Stamp Island Blue Ink which is the closest color I've found to SU!'s Pacific Point. I combined it with Ocean Tides, Hibiscus Burst, Seedless Preserves, and Chipped Sapphire around the perimeter. The card base is made from Bazzill Whirlypop Cardstock.

The second card uses Wilted Violet, Seedless Preserves, Ocean Tides, Hibiscus Burst, and Royal Velvet.  I have a friend who is a photographer in North Pole, Alaska and she has hundreds of images of the Northern Lights.  This is so like what she captures that I am going to send this card to her.  All of these cards feature the Inspired: Faith Stamps and Dies from Papertrey Ink.  The card bases are made from Papertrey Ink's Royal Velvet Cardstock.

The last two cards used the same color combinations as the first two with one difference; I used Pine Feather instead of Ocean Tides.

I used Canson Bristol, Fabriano, Arches Hot Pressed and Arches Cold Pressed Watercolor Paper, applying ink with a Mini Round Ink Blending Tool.  I used both circular motions and back and forth "scrubbing" type of motions.  The paper is not as heavy or as thick as the other 3 but also doesn't hold as much water. The Canson Bristol paper would pill much easier than the others but since I knew this going in, I didn't over work it.  And really, since you are going to spray water on the whole thing to let the colors move and blend, it doesn't really matter how smoothly the ink is blended initially.  Especially in the case of Distress Inks, the inks blend effortlessly.  The hard part is waiting for that to dry once you've misted it.

That said, I really liked how much easier it was to get this depth of color on the Canson Bristol which is a 96# paper. In other words, it took less ink to get the same results as the 140# papers. I could spray the 140# papers with more water, but it also took more time to dry. I liked the Hot Pressed and Bristol papers the most but this was not a surprise to me. I most often use the Canson Bristol in the other things I make and if I need a paper to hold more water, my preference is for the Arches Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper.  It is incredibly smooth for watercolor paper. This is totally personal preference.  Don't let any one opinion decide what is the right thing for you.  You really just need to experiment to find what works for you and what you like.

Once I had all of my background panels made, I spritzed the paper with Tsukineko Sheer Sparkle Shimmer Spritz and set it aside to dry one last time before assembling my cards.  I attached the background using my ATG Adhesive.  The "Faith" words were die cut from Stamper's Select White Cardstock and the sentiments were all heat embossed using Versamark Ink and WOW! Opaque Bright White Super Fine Embossing Powder.  I adhered a few Darice Tiny Silver Star Sequins with Multi Medium Matte to finish off my cards.

I'll also be entering the second card at Stampin' Royalty for their "Anything Goes" challenge.

Thank you so much for stopping by to check out my blog.  I really appreciate it when you take the time to leave such nice and encouraging comments.  I hope you'll be inspired to sit and experiment with your own inks and some watercolor paper.