Joy of Sets #007 - Letter W

Good Day Crafty Friends,

Hope you are having a fabulous day and have managed to squeeze in some crafting time for yourself.  It's challenge time over at Joy Of Sets. This weeks challenge letter is "W".

Not familiar with JOS blog challenges?  Fiona Whitehead runs a fabulous Facebook group page called Joy Of Sets. It's an inspiring group where Stampin' Up! Demonstrators and non Demonstrators share their creations using both retired and current Stampin' Up! Products.  You can also enter the monthly colour challenge just by submitting a picture of a card you have created using that's months chosen colour, directly to the FB group page - no blog needed.

Alongside the FB group page, Fiona has started a fortnightly blog challenge - Joy of Sets Challenge Blog. Each fortnight a different letter is chosen and participants are required to enter a card, which has the challenge letter in the stamp sets title eg this fortnight we are working with W - I chose to use Watercolour Wings. 

To a Thick Whisper White 5"x5" card base, I added a strip of Merry Little Christmas DSP. Then to a Whisper White card front that had been embossed with the Softly Falling Embossing Folder, a strip of black card was added behind the card front before attaching to the base.

Two layers of Whisper White card were used as the base for layered butterfly cluster - the top layer has splatters of Powder Pink ink, created using the gorgeous grunge stamp set. Bakers twine was wrapped around the top before adhering to the card front with dimensionals.

 

Using the Watercolour Wings stamp set, the butterfly was inked in Powder Pink and Momento black. Old Olive card was used to cut the leaves using the Botanicals Builder Thinlits. The frames behind the butterfly were created using the squares from the Stitched Shapes Framelits.

A few banners of card were tucked behind the butterfly cluster and sentiment, to tie the cards overall colour combination together. The sentiment from Floral Phrases was stamped in Old Olive to coordinate with the ribbon tucked under the sentiment. A few rhinestones were added to finish it off.

 

Hope you are inspired to play along. Pull out a current or retired stamp set that has the letter "w" in its title and share with us here. Thanks for stopping by today.

 

Until next time, stay awesome

Sponging, Stamping & Heat Embossing Backgrounds

As my crafting budget is not a lavish one,  I tend to make a lot of my own backgrounds instead of using DSP. They are unique and can be adapted to any ink colours that blend well. 

I start by sponging 2-3 colours on Shimmery White Cardstock. Then using the same ink colours I stamp randomly with sentiments, objects eg cakes, butterflies, shapes etc. Let dry and then heat emboss another set of stamps.

 

This card I have only used two ink colours for the sponging and stamping. Flirty Flamingo and Daffodil Delight. I have stamped off and also stamped the opposite colours onto the sponged areas - just change it up and make it random. The Gorgeous Grunge, Work of Art and Timeless Texture are great sets for this random pattern look. Then, all I've done, is heat embossed in gold one of the flowers from Flower Shop. Sentiment is heat embossed in gold again on vellum and adhered using tombow and a sponge to ensure the glue doesn't show through the vellum.

 

 

The Just for you sentiment is from Watercolour Words and is heat embossed in gold on vellum and cut out using the Layering Ovals Framelits. This card used Flirty Flamingo, Sweet SugarPlum, Wisteria Wonder inks and stamps from Blooms & Wishes, Paisley and Posies, Gorgeous Grunge and the dies were from Botanical Builder Framelits.

 

  

 

My favourite colour combinations for this technique are Flirty Flamingo and Daffodil Delight with gold embossing. I can show these cards as they have already been posted and received by the birthday girls. There was quite a few of us in January, including myself. It was such a joy to receive cards for days around my birthday, plus we all have such different styles and use different Stampin' Up! products, its great to see the items used that you don't own.  

 

Many colour combo's are possible, just blend on scrap first to ensure your two chosen colours don't make an unwanted brown. Below is another favie combo of mine  for this technique - Tempting Turquoise and Daffodil Delight.

The next one I did something a little different. Instead of stamping in the coordinating inks I sponged the background with, this time I used black archival and white craft inks.

 

Crumb Cake and Tempting Turquoise looks lovely when backed with Crumb cake cardstock and gold heat embossed stamps from Paisley and Posies. 

 

This one I used a stencil to create the background, sponging with Flirty Flamingo and Daffodil Delight to achieve a kind of ombre look. Then the smaller panel was cut down and backed with whisper white before adhering to diagonal striped background.
 

The possibilities are limitless. I have made over 40 of these backgrounds, all different and unique as I am using them for a special group of ladies birthday cards. My upline the amazing Sarah Klass, has a fairly sizeable group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators, and we send each other birthday cards. I wanted mine to be different and to use stamps and inks opposed to just dies and embossing folders.

Hope my cards inspire you to have a go at this cool technique. If you would like to purchase any of the items used to create my cards then CLICK HERE to visit my shop 24/7

Happy Crafting xx