Old School Country and Modern Art-esque

July 08, 2019

Old School Country and Modern Art-esque

Stretching Yourself Pushes Your Creativity!

I told you last time about the "CASEing the Catty Sunday Challenge" that I participated in (and won!). It's a page on Facebook that you also can join if you would like to get involved. Participating in a challenge is a really great way to stretch yourself! I think what I like the best about this challenge (besides the timing, which I'll talk about in a minute) is the variety. It's not always just a sketch, or just a CASE this card on page so and so. The first week I participated we could CASE any card on a page of the Annual Catalog, the second week we created a card that echoed the colors in the Pressed Petals Designer Series Paper.

Pressed Petals DSP Colors: Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight,
Merry Merlot, Mossy Meadow, Night of Navy, Pear Pizzazz,
Rococo Rose, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla

I don't have this DSP, the Stamp Set from this Suite, or really anything except the cool washi tape that makes flowers. But I've discovered that I love a good challenge so I looked over the colors in the DSP and decided to start with Daffodil Delight and just see where it took me! I had seen a cool card on Facebook in a non-Stampin' Up! group that I belong to where the artist used a "fancy-cut" rather than a "fancy-fold" to make her card interesting, so I used that idea as other end of my line, so to speak (shout out to my math nerds who get that!!)

Since the name of the Suite is Pressed Petals, I felt like it was important to used flowers on my card, and I wanted to keep the country-ish feel of the DSP, also. I sort of let my mind wander as I looked through my stamps; I ended up selecting the milk can from the "Country Home" Stamp Set and I knew I could make at least one of the stamps from the "Bloom & Grow" Stamp Set into my floral element!

I got to work with my Fancy Cut idea, Daffodil Delight gingham DSP, stamps, and a vast array of Stampin' Blends and this is what I came up with! I am very happy with it and I love that I used the colors from the Pressed Petals Suite, but I didn't copy the makeup of the colors in the Suite exactly. Looking at my card, though, I think you can tell that it goes with the Suite.

My interpretation of the Pressed Petals Suite

And did I mention that I won AGAIN? They said it was for both my card in general and for my spot-on coloring with my blends! I think the fact that the milk can actually looks like it's round helps!

This week's Challenge is to CASE the card on page 161 of the Annual Catalog that Showcases the "Crafting Forever" Stamp Set.

I think that this week's challenge has been my favorite yet! I literally took the above card and reinterpreted it with new colors, stamps, and elements! I emptied my head of any preconceived notions and started looking through my stamps for a "tall stamp." I had a couple of contenders, but I finally chose the tall crossed tulips stamp from the "Winds of Change" Stamp Set.

This is one of my favorite sets from this Annual Catalog!

This stamp is simple (like the one in the card we're CASEing) and offered plenty of options for colors, since I needed to also color a striped background. I also love the font used in these sentiments, and the sentiments coordinate PERFECTLY with the stamps!

After consideration, I decided on Real Red for the tulips and Mint Macaron for the stems and leaves. That meant two of my stripe colors were set; I decided to wait on the third stripe until after the first two were painted. After I had the red and mint macaron stripes, I knew I needed a dark stripe...Night of Navy?...That's a leap of faith, because if you don't like it there's no painting over a color that dark; you have to cut a whole new piece of watercolor paper and start over! But the Night of Navy was perfect! And actually made me change my mind and use a Night of Navy card base.

I layered it all, cut out the tulips and attached them with dimensionals, and then added the sentiment in Night of Navy. Only one thing left; the card in the catalog has a clip with a bow attached to the top left side of the card. I cut out a paperclip from champagne foil paper with the paperclip die from the "Arts & Crafts" dies. This paperclip is SO cute! It really looks like a paperclip...and will actually go on paper like a real paperclip (you do have to glue it, though LOL). I tied a bow with the Night of Navy/Sahara Sand Baker's Twine and attached it and the paperclip with the same glue dot. What do you think? I think this is my favorite card that I've made for a challenge yet! Maybe I'll win again...three in a row??

CASEing the Catty Sunday Challenge #235

Now - Go join a challenge group, there are lots of them out there. If this one isn't for you, find one that is. They're fun, they're easy, they're challenging, and if your card doesn't work out - no one ever has to know!!

Joyful Stamping,

Elizabeth

P.S. I often forget to talk about this; I think that everyone just instinctively knows or that it's just ingrained in them like it is for me, but let's talk about which type of ink to use with watercoloring and Stampin' Blends.

Watercoloring, obviously, uses water and if you use a waterbased ink, your aqua painter or blender pen will pick up the ink from your stamp along with the ink (or watercolor pigment from your pencil) and smear it around. Usually, we do NOT want this (although sometimes we do!). Therefore, you should not use waterbased ink for watercoloring...in most cases you will use Staz-On ink (it is an alcohol based ink.)

Stampin' Blends markers are alcohol based markers, so if you use an alcohol based ink to stamp with the marker could smear the stamp, and since it's black ink and usually kind of thick, it would look gross! Therefore, for Stampin' Blends markers you should use water-based ink. For black stamping, you should use a Memento Tuxedo Black stamp pad. Many of our Classic Stampin' Ink Pads also work with our Stampin' Blends markers! How fun is that? You can use Sahara Sand Classic ink, ink up your stamp, stamp once on scrap paper and then onto your THICK Whisper White card stock, and when you color with your blends you will get a virtual line-free image! Go to town here and experiment. That's my best advice with Stampin' Blends anyway, experiment and practice (practice, practice).

Hint - I color coded for you ↑↑↑💋

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